S01.E23: Can't Hide It Anymore

[zoey1996]

Katie has been avoiding the mandatory volunteer hours at her kids' schools all year. But when the other moms pressure her, she hits on a genius excuse after wearing a fake pregnancy "empathy" bump leads everyone to think she is pregnant.

Not the best episode of the season, but I did like the outtakes at the end.  And the dance recital.

Edited May 17, 2017 by zoey1996

[lark37]

I'm glad the show was renewed as it is getting more and more difficult to find sitcoms that are family oriented without using the dreaded "laugh track".  I'm assuming this was the season finale hence the bloopers at the end and dangling the "maybe" about having another baby in the last scene.  I do find Katie a bit too annoying and mean in some of her antics.  This episode, for example, she references Lucy in "I Love Lucy" and her cheese baby but as a life long fan of "I Love Lucy", I remember the episode well.  Lucy was trying to smuggle the cheese out of Europe onto a plane.  She didn't use the fake baby to get out of volunteering, much less allow anyone to go to the expense of throwing her a baby shower.  They really need to rein the Katie character in a bit.  As someone who lives in a upper class suburb but isn't upper class herself, I find the premise of being the "fish out of water" with the other uppity moms true to life.  Why isn't that enough without Katie being over the top mean?  Katie was just starting to fit in a bit, then she pulls something like that.  The fish out of water premise should be enough.  They have also been hammering the "Katie is selfish" idea into our heads, but this one just felt all kinds of wrong IMO.  As I said, though, I enjoy the show--especially the son--that young actor has talent, so I'm going to continue to watch.

[Keywestclubkid]

can someone tell me what happened to Leslie bibb's character she just kinda went away did they pull a Judy Winslow and just had her vanish never to be seen again?

[theatremouse]

I especially enjoyed the blooper where Katy Mixon stopped herself and was all "this is so mean, am I too mean?" Because yeah, the character is mean, but she's trying to straddle a line, so it was a nice moment of the actor giving it pause. Clearly though what we get in the final cut is wherever the director draws the line.

At the end for half a second when Oliver first showed up on stage, I thought to myself "how the hell would the newbie get the solo" and then a second later thought "nevermind, he's probably the only boy in the class", and then the six year old girls came out and the whole thing made perfect sense.

As for Bibb's character, she was always kind of, sometimes there, sometimes not. I'm not sure if they meant to write her out with the previous episode involving her husband or if it's less concrete than that and she might pop up again. Could go either way, to me.

[ItCouldBeWorse]

Why does a surrogate need a shower?  What kind of gifts does she get? Maybe her good friends should chip in to get her a massage or some restaurant gift certificates, but you're not trying to equip her for after the baby comes, so what's the point?

Having a favorite child finally came home to roost.  Not that Katie's mind has changed.  She really doesn't like older children, much like people who love puppies but don't want grown dogs.  Another baby would be ridiculous, unless Greg wants to raise it.

I also don't believe that Oliver would have worn his leotard to school.  To the recital, yes, but not to school.

Finally, Harvard does not have ballet, or any type of merit scholarships.  They give financial aid based on need, so if Oliver could get in (and yes, being a talented male dancer could make him a stronger candidate) and the family could demonstrate financial need (which they certainly have now by Harvard standards), then he would receive a need-based scholarship. However, unless his dancing talent erupts in the next few years, it's not going to be of much help, although he might be able to get a great essay out of his late-start ballet experiences.

Edited May 17, 2017 by ItCouldBeWorse

[Cowgirl]

Okay, I know this is a sitcom and not real life, so I shouldn't care, but I can't help but be bugged by this:  why the hell would you throw a baby shower for a surrogate?  A surrogate is not going to keep the baby -- they don't need gifts! And I'm surprised this group of moms didn't insist on having the vet whose ovaries were blown apart at the shower. Then Katie would have been discovered earlier.

Except for the recital, this episode lacked the warmth of most of the rest of the season. Katie set a really bad example for her kids and Greg didn't try to stop her.  Even the recital was confusing because at first I thought the family and audience were laughing at Oliver and were going to be sarcastic.  It wasn't til the very end that we realize that Katie liked what he was doing. 

I couldn't even watch this whole episode all at once.  I had to watch it in chunks because Katie made me cringe so much. The only time I grinned was when Katie mentions the fake Dinty v. Moore case and Angela, the lawyer, makes a face, then quickly tries not to give her away. 

[iMonrey]

Quote

As for Bibb's character, she was always kind of, sometimes there, sometimes not. 

I have a sneaking suspicion that Viv was originally intended to be a regular foil and/or contrast for Katie and the producers or whoever just decided it wasn't working out. Typical growing pains for a new sitcom trying to find its identity - the earliest episodes still held remnants of the "Fattest Housewife in Westport" concept and Viv was sort of the antithesis of that, someone Katie would always compare herself to. I think as the show found its voice it no longer became necessary to press that button - the friendship Katie has with Angela and Doris is enough of an "outside life" for her and the family itself has gelled nicely. 

I liked the outtakes at the end but the plot point of Greg suggesting maybe they should have another kid irked me. He kept pushing it when she was clearly against it. They've already got three. I'll stop there before going into one of my "people having too many kids" rants.

[Texasmom1970]

I do love her friends severe Mom tactics and how she uses them on Katie's children and they work, makes me giggle

Edited May 18, 2017 by Texasmom1970
spelling error

[butterbody]

This has got to be the most clever concealment of a baby bump in the history of television. Most shows would have her in a giant coat with a huge purse, but saying she's wearing a fake belly and making it part of the story was genius.

[MortysCleaningLady]

I just have to stress how much I adored the ballet recital.   The rest of the episode was meh --  the ballet recital : genius.   You know some Harvard ballet scout was there, right?   :)

[SnarkySheep]

On 5/17/2017 at 3:52 PM, ItCouldBeWorse said:

Why does a surrogate need a shower?  What kind of gifts does she get? Maybe her good friends should chip in to get her a massage or some restaurant gift certificates, but you're not trying to equip her for after the baby comes, so what's the point?

I had the distinct impression that the other moms just wanted an excuse to host a social gathering, not that they really cared about Katie so much...but yeah, gifts are kind of awkward there.

I did love Angela's line about how pregnant women "only drink in private." Heh, so totally her.

On a random side note, how is it even possible to have "mandatory volunteer hours" at a public school? What happens if Katie simply says she doesn't want to? It's not like they can kick her kids out. Typically, parents are only required to volunteer at private schools.

[teapot]

On ‎5‎/‎17‎/‎2017 at 3:53 PM, Cowgirl said:

Okay, I know this is a sitcom and not real life, so I shouldn't care, but I can't help but be bugged by this:  why the hell would you throw a baby shower for a surrogate?  A surrogate is not going to keep the baby -- they don't need gifts!

 

I seem to recall Phoebe Buffay getting things like leather pants and hard liquor at her shower for her surrogate pregnancy when she was carrying a baby for her brother's girlfriend-slash-former-teacher???

[ItCouldBeWorse]

3 hours ago, teapot said:

I seem to recall Phoebe Buffay getting things like leather pants and hard liquor at her shower for her surrogate pregnancy when she was carrying a baby for her brother's girlfriend-slash-former-teacher???

Probably because she was carrying triplets!

[Cowgirl]

On 5/26/2017 at 11:15 AM, teapot said:

I seem to recall Phoebe Buffay getting things like leather pants and hard liquor at her shower for her surrogate pregnancy when she was carrying a baby for her brother's girlfriend-slash-former-teacher???

Heh!  I'd forgotten about that.  At least it was Phoebe's real friends who threw her the shower. 

[Pickles1]

Love this show!

As far as Viv goes, I've been wondering where she went. I did just watch her in a Netflix original called to the bone. People with eating disorders.

[IDreamofJoaquin]

I just finished this season.  I like it but the fat shaming came on very strong during the first few episodes.  Thought it was funny they recast the daughter after the Pilot. I like all the characters and mainly came for Katy Mixon who I loved on Mike and Molly.   I can see why they think the son is a pain in the ass but the older daughter doesn't seem mean or difficult, just doesn't enjoy school very much, but is a sweet person.  Oliver kind of bugs me, they make him too swarmy.  I would like to see the kid laugh or smile at a silly joke with friends and act his age. Sitcoms go over the top with kid personalities sometimes.  The writing was a little inconsistent by insisting that Ann-Kat was just like her mom but in the beginning she seemed to be picking up on her dad's quirks and then when she was acting like her mom they had to spell it out for us. 

[AnnaRose]

5 hours ago, IDreamofJoaquin said:

I like it but the fat shaming came on very strong during the first few episodes.

That's funny, I may be remembering this completely wrong, but I think I hated at least the pilot when I first watched it because of all the skinny-shaming.  IIRC, I thought Katie was very judgemental and nasty about women who exercised and tried to take care of themselves.  (She even gets called out on it later on in the series, which I appreciated.) 

I do like that they went away from most of that stuff eventually.  I didn't like Katie being so hard on herself and calling herself fat either, especially since she is pretty close to the average size of American women these days.  It worked well for her when they were hiding her pregnancies though.

[readster]

57 minutes ago, AnnaRose said:

That's funny, I may be remembering this completely wrong, but I think I hated at least the pilot when I first watched it because of all the skinny-shaming.  IIRC, I thought Katie was very judgemental and nasty about women who exercised and tried to take care of themselves.  (She even gets called out on it later on in the series, which I appreciated.) 

I do like that they went away from most of that stuff eventually.  I didn't like Katie being so hard on herself and calling herself fat either, especially since she is pretty close to the average size of American women these days.  It worked well for her when they were hiding her pregnancies though.

I think the problem in the first season was how Katie did shame people and not only turned out right later on, but did get called on it. It was the ownership of the house, I thought was very stupid. Even when the son was tricked because of Oliver trying to pretend The Ottos were rich. Plus, seeing that Oliver became this sell out when he was into: Harry Potter, sci-fi and even school volunteerism. He and Taylor got into this: "We have to be awesome and be rich and our lives have sucked up until now." When it was completely the opposite. While a lot has changed since then. I think the House Wives have gotten, much, much worst.