Season 4 Talk

[AnimeMania]

Would Rainbow really buy the kids super sugary cereal or would she buy them something like Grape-Nuts that would knock all their teeth loose. Rainbow's food tendencies always sided towards (hippy) natural rather than processed foods.

[tennisgurl]

I guess they were trying to show how Bows routine has changed since she became a stay at home mom, but the lesson I got was "Bow has become a worse mom ever since we left work, kind of defeating the whole point of leaving work". That being said, I freaking love Rashida Jones and Santa Monica/Maria and her constant half assed attempts at reinvention. And Bow finally admitting that Junior does a crap ton of work for the family. 

I need more information on whatever went down between Ruby and Ving Rhames ASAP. 

I never understand how the Johnson family finances work. One day they need a financier because Dre wont stop spending thousands of dollars on shoes, and the next, they have enough money for Bow to be a stay at home mom and continue to send their kids to college/private school/baby stuff. Because, if they do have tons of money, it totally makes sense for Ruby to give the apartment to Rhonda if she is in such a financial hole. But, since Dre is the biggest drama queen in the history of the universe, I guess he cant realize that until the end. 

[ItCouldBeWorse]

Put the baby in his car seat and drive to the glue-stick store. Put the car seat/baby in the stroller/shopping cart; buy a bunch of glue sticks, put the baby back in the car. Drive home, take the baby and the glue sticks out of the car, give the glue sticks to Diane and bathe the baby.

Babies are portable. You're home with him specifically to spend time with him. Take him on errands.

Also, Jr. just learned to drive. How long has he been doing the family grocery shopping? The Johnsons seem like the kind of family who would use Amazon Fresh, anyway:   https://www.amazon.com/AmazonFresh-Grocery/b?ie=UTF8&node=11825099011

[shura]

10 hours ago, Madding crowd said:

Also annoyed that after briefly showing Diane as being a normal girl who is close to her twin, she now is evil again and clueless about making a simple poster.

I don't think she is unable to make the poster, just absolutely unwilling to do make an effort as long as she can get Bow to do it for her.

What was that about Dre sorting his sneakers into "keep" and "sell" categories? Seemed like it needed to be fleshed out a bit more. Is that a thing, a highly paid executive selling used expensive sneakers? Is that how the Johnsons are solving their financial problems and financing Bow's new stay-at-home lifestyle? Maybe she should start selling her half-finished wine bottles then. too.

10 hours ago, Madding crowd said:

How would these morons be able to run a successful ad agency?

Out of a modern, glass and steel, but at the same time full of mold and asbestos office, evidently. Which, I'm sure, will be forgotten by next week.

[Sile]

1 hour ago, ItCouldBeWorse said:

Put the baby in his car seat and drive to the glue-stick store. Put the car seat/baby in the stroller/shopping cart; buy a bunch of glue sticks, put the baby back in the car. Drive home, take the baby and the glue sticks out of the car, give the glue sticks to Diane and bathe the baby.

Babies are portable. You're home with him specifically to spend time with him. Take him on errands.

Also, Jr. just learned to drive. How long has he been doing the family grocery shopping? The Johnsons seem like the kind of family who would use Amazon Fresh, anyway:   https://www.amazon.com/AmazonFresh-Grocery/b?ie=UTF8&node=11825099011

Even better, tell Ruby to unass the couch, put some shoes on, get in her fancy new car and take Diane down to the dollar store.  She wouldn't even have to get out of the car.

As far as I thought she was rather vacuous and self-absorbed, Zoey probably dropped off and picked up the younger kids quite a bit and maybe made a grocery run here and there.  One of those "you can use the car if you also..." type deals parents make when their kids get their license. 

Unlike my family, where I couldn't get a license until I got a car "because you're not driving ours, so why do you need a license", so I took the bus to my job until I had enough to buy my own car and insurance.  I also walked to school and back.  Uphill.  Both ways.

[AuntiePam]

14 hours ago, joanne3482 said:

I could see why Ruby was leaving it to the daughter. She seems to be struggling financially and Dre has all the monies. From a completely practical standpoint it makes sense, and that's how the daughter and Ruby were looking at it.  Dre was thinking about his memories associated with going with Ruby to pick up the rent. I think what bothered him was that she was going to inherit it and then immediately sell it since they were struggling financially.  As a mostly practical person I can see Ruby and the daughter's point.  

Yeah, this.  Dre kept talking about a "legacy", something that can be handed down through the generations.  He wants the duplex to stay in the family.   It's surprising that Ruby doesn't understand that.  She can leave the duplex to both of them and specify that Rhonda gets to keep the rent for X years, if she wants to help Rhonda financially.  Or hell, she can help her now!

[AnimeMania]

3 hours ago, shura said:

What was that about Dre sorting his sneakers into "keep" and "sell" categories? Seemed like it needed to be fleshed out a bit more.

Maybe when all the spaces are full, he sells the ones he likes the least, so he can get new ones.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

My two favorite moments: (1) Rainbow wearing a rainbow sweater (2) Ruby telling the kids that the thing she missed the most from "in olden times" was quaaludes.

As for the actual plot this week, I am not a fan of inheritance storylines because my feeling is that whoever is making the will gets to decide who gets what. It's their stuff and no matter how you are related to this person, you aren't ever owed anything. My house and my money are MY house and MY money so I get to decide what happens to it. People having hissyfits about what they think they DESERVE when someone else dies just make me roll my eyes.

I do think that parents should at least make a little bit of effort to be fair if they're going to leave stuff to their kids, but Ruby could have prevented a lot of the animosity and resentment from Dre if she had just sat down with him alone and said that he is financially stable and that's why she wants to leave the property to his sister. He might have protested a little bit, but it would have been better than finding out from his sister and then having a temper tantrum. I mean, yes, he has temper tantrums about everything but I think this one was not just about feeling that his mom was favoring his sister. I think it was partially also about his mom making that decision and not telling him herself so he ended up feeling doubly left out. Again, I still think it's Ruby's decision, but knowing what a baby Dre is about everything, she could have handled it better.

Mr. EB's family solved the post-will squabbling. Everyone put in a codicil that says anyone who contests the will loses anything that they were going to get. The end.

[attica]

10 hours ago, ItCouldBeWorse said:

Put the baby in his car seat and drive to the glue-stick store.

Or, give a sawbuck to Diane and let her and Jack go on down to the gas station store to buy it. They love the gas station store!

[Dee]

12 hours ago, ItCouldBeWorse said:

Also, Jr. just learned to drive. How long has he been doing the family grocery shopping?

Junior as the resident Johnson household helper is a retcon. Prior to DeVante's birth, Zoey was the one running all the errands that weren't covered by the adults.

[monakane]

I hate that they're making Bow into a ditz.  In the earlier seasons, she was always competent and level-head.  Now she is sits around drinking wine and puts the child-rearing responsibility onto Junior.   The purpose of her staying home was to be involved with her kids.   WTF?   Free Rainbow!

Charlie, as always, for the win.

[ItCouldBeWorse]

37 minutes ago, monakane said:

I hate that they're making Bow into a ditz.  In the earlier seasons, she was always competent and level-head.  Now she is sits around drinking wine and puts the child-rearing responsibility onto Junior.   The purpose of her staying home was to be involved with her kids.   WTF?   Free Rainbow!

Charlie, as always, for the win.

In addition, if she's still nursing, she should be a little careful with the wine, as it might upset the baby's sleep schedule.

Actually, she should be taking a nap instead of drinking wine, as the baby has been keeping her up at night.

[Red Bridey]

I don't have children, and haven't regretted that decision ever.  But if I HAD five children, gave up a stressful doctoring job to raise the last young'un and had a helpful older child to look after said young'un, you had better believe I would be swigging wine in the kitchen in the afternoon!  Even if it were with my annoying spoiled sister.  Wine makes everything better!  [especially in Sitcom World] 

[paulvdb]

2 hours ago, Dee said:

Junior as the resident Johnson household helper is a retcon. Prior to DeVante's birth, Zoey was the one running all the errands that weren't covered by the adults.

But Zoey is in college now so someone had to take over. And Junior is the most qualified of the kids. Diane is evil and Jack is too dumb so when Junior goes to college Devante will have to learn to take care of himself.

[ItCouldBeWorse]

I didn't understand the part with Dre and Rhonda's potentially dueling lawyers.  What were they going to do?  Fight about an inheritance that didn't yet exist, since Ruby is still alive and could still sell the duplex or give it away, if she wished?  Was Dre going to preemptively declare that Rhonda was unduly influencing Ruby with regard to her will?  I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out that when Ruby dies, she doesn't have a will at all, and that her estate will enter probate, after which Dre and Rhonda will each be entitled to half.  Of course, if Ruby remarries before she dies, that too, would all change without a will.

[Sile]

35 minutes ago, ItCouldBeWorse said:

I didn't understand the part with Dre and Rhonda's potentially dueling lawyers.  What were they going to do?  Fight about an inheritance that didn't yet exist, since Ruby is still alive and could still sell the duplex or give it away, if she wished?  Was Dre going to preemptively declare that Rhonda was unduly influencing Ruby with regard to her will?  I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out that when Ruby dies, she doesn't have a will at all, and that her estate will enter probate, after which Dre and Rhonda will each be entitled to half.  Of course, if Ruby remarries before she dies, that too, would all change without a will.

I put that in the "Dre speaking fluent Vietnamese at the nail salon" file.  Which is right next to the "Rainbow 'I'm a DOCTOR!' Johnson doesn't know that cereal consisting entirely of sugar isn't the best choice for kids" binder.

[jhlipton]

15 hours ago, Sile said:

I also walked to school and back.  Uphill.  Both ways.

In the snow!

[readster]

1 hour ago, Sile said:

I put that in the "Dre speaking fluent Vietnamese at the nail salon" file.  Which is right next to the "Rainbow 'I'm a DOCTOR!' Johnson doesn't know that cereal consisting entirely of sugar isn't the best choice for kids" binder.

Or how about: "Junior, I do things that anyone else would pause and think is stupid to begin with." Followed by Jack: "We should do this Diane..." followed by her even saying: "Do you ever listen to what you say?" That is something I also realized for so long both Junior and Jack were so stupid you just couldn't understand how they knew how to breath. What about Jack's night terrors that only magically pop up when he sleeps in the same room as Junior or Dre. But if it's anywhere else, no problem. Yet who is scared to sleep in the same room with Jack? Dre and Junior. Hence force, why don't they just leave? Also, some days with Ruby, how the hell does she have money and then no money on a episode to episode basis and still cons everyone and yet no one has beaten her to death. 

[topanga]

On 1/11/2018 at 2:39 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I do think that parents should at least make a little bit of effort to be fair if they're going to leave stuff to their kids, but Ruby could have prevented a lot of the animosity and resentment from Dre if she had just sat down with him alone and said that he is financially stable and that's why she wants to leave the property to his sister. He might have protested a little bit, but it would have been better than finding out from his sister and then having a temper tantrum

Ruby tried to have that talk, but Dre couldn’t handle it and left the table. 

On 1/10/2018 at 4:34 PM, Racj82 said:

Really all this episode did was explore how much Junior being the third parent isn't just a joke. What he does is more than that. Bow didn't fully appreciate it until now. Now she has. 

I like that Junior is starting to recognize his value and is standing up to people like Dre and Ruby. 

He does seem like he’s going to be a good dad someday. “That is NOT Devante’s voice.” LOL 

[Dee]

Junior has always been every bit as snarky and petty as the rest of the Johnsons.

[msrachelj]

On 1/10/2018 at 0:03 AM, Sile said:

The Tupac line seemed a little heartless given that Rashida Jones was on this episode, even if she and Ruby weren't in any scenes together.  It doesn't seem worth possibly causing someone pain just for a one-off throwaway joke.

what is their connection? thanks.

[readster]

15 hours ago, Dee said:

Junior has always been every bit as snarky and petty as the rest of the Johnsons.

Yep, like two seasons ago when they were having financial problems and Junior used Zoey's favorite products to play the stock market until Zoey saw what he was doing. Of course, instead of Zoey wanting her cut, she sabotages Junior instead for using her. How about how much Jack wants something to happen from chest bumps to tagging along on things he knows he can't do. He keeps going and going and even looking for ways to get his way. It isn't until it finally happens he goes: "Oh, this isn't that cool." You think everyone else would realize if they just do what Jack wants first, he would learn is isn't great and stop there, but  no DRAG it on as much as possible. 

[peeayebee]

3 hours ago, msrachelj said:

what is their connection? thanks.

I was wondering, too, so I googled. Rashida's sister Kidada was Tupac's girlfriend. She called him the love of his life.

[msrachelj]

45 minutes ago, peeayebee said:

I was wondering, too, so I googled. Rashida's sister Kidada was Tupac's girlfriend. She called him the love of his life.

thanks. 

[Joimiaroxeu]

Quote

I do not doubt that Charlie's inherited treasure map will lead to something awesome.

Me either. I almost wish they'd spin Charlie off onto his own show. I know he's on Grown-ish too but it's not enough for me to keep watching it just to see him.

Quote

Is Diane getting dumber. I seem to recall she was overly-precocious and quite smart early on in the series, but since they've decided to start playing up her "evil tendencies" they've played down her intellect. To the point where the past two episodes have had her unable to even do her own homework without someone's "assistance" (read: doing it for her). I get that the bookworm child is an overly done trope in family sitcoms, but reducing her to near-Jack levels is a bummer.

Yeah, I agree, it's not good what they're doing with her. Or Bow. Hopefully this is just a midseason slump and the writing for them will get better.

Quote

Put the baby in his car seat and drive to the glue-stick store.

The Johnsons most certainly would have an Amazon Prime account. They probably could get a whole box of glue-sticks delivered in a couple of hours.

[jhlipton]

I forgot to mention that it was Junior who was the "fashion icon" in his suit and hat.

[Toothbrush]

On 1/10/2018 at 4:34 PM, AnimeMania said:

Would Rainbow really buy the kids super sugary cereal or would she buy them something like Grape-Nuts that would knock all their teeth loose. Rainbow's food tendencies always sided towards (hippy) natural rather than processed foods.

I am fanwanking that she bought the sugary cereal to prove to Junior how much she needs him. 

On 1/10/2018 at 7:08 PM, tennisgurl said:

I never understand how the Johnson family finances work. One day they need a financier because Dre wont stop spending thousands of dollars on shoes, and the next, they have enough money for Bow to be a stay at home mom and continue to send their kids to college/private school/baby stuff. Because, if they do have tons of money, it totally makes sense for Ruby to give the apartment to Rhonda if she is in such a financial hole. But, since Dre is the biggest drama queen in the history of the universe, I guess he cant realize that until the end. 

Depends on what the plot dictates, silly :-)  I want my family's finances to be driven by plot, and the plot will always call for the Toothbrush family to be richy rich rich! 

On 1/11/2018 at 1:39 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

My two favorite moments: (1) Rainbow wearing a rainbow sweater (2) Ruby telling the kids that the thing she missed the most from "in olden times" was quaaludes.

I squeed out loud when I saw Rainbow's sweater. As a matter of fact, there were several clothing items of Ruby's, Bow's, Santamonica/maria's, and even Diane's that I really liked. But are mom jeans making a comeback? Please God no!

Ruby's list of what she missed from the 'olden days' was hilarious. 

Santamonica/maria changing her name so she had a saint's name was hilarious, since Santamonica literally means St. Monica. So clueless, which of course was the whole point. 

Dre's co-workers, including Charlie, are just over the top ludicrous enough to still be funny. But any more will be overkill, so naturally the writers will go there. <sigh> 

Edited January 15, 2018 by Toothbrush
question answered in the quotes thread

[Dee]

Ruby breaking down why Automatic is the best song of all time had me in tears.

Jenifer Lewis is a gift.

[charmed1]

“How will I troll?” Ha!  And I fully believe Charlie told Stevens he was going to Freaknic. I heart Ruby so much. She hydrates her gentleman caller at 2 am and we share the same musical tastes. Automatic is the third song in my iTunes library, after Adore and Across 110th Street.

[readster]

Bow writing a book, this I could see. I did actually enjoy Bow, who is a doctor and knows about vaccines going against the other online mothers. Because Ruby said it best, 50 people will say one thing and another 50 others will say another and believe it. I loved Junior talking about everyone hating the grilled cheese sandwich picture. I was cracking up at that. 

[attica]

Jigsaw puzzles are very satisfying.

[libgirl2]

11 hours ago, readster said:

Bow writing a book, this I could see. I did actually enjoy Bow, who is a doctor and knows about vaccines going against the other online mothers. Because Ruby said it best, 50 people will say one thing and another 50 others will say another and believe it. I loved Junior talking about everyone hating the grilled cheese sandwich picture. I was cracking up at that. 

I always say (as do others) you will never change anyone's mind on social media. Cute episode. I am going to listen to Automatic. I forgot about that song! 

[Joimiaroxeu]

"Keep it moving, Rainbow." I guess they've decided to let Diane be Ruby Jr., at least wrt Bow.

Quote

Across 110th Street.

Now there's a blast from the past. Bobby Womack had a rare voice and style. ?That's the Way I Feel About Cha?

Quote

Because Ruby said it best, 50 people will say one thing and another 50 others will say another and believe it.

Black-ish was the last place I expected to see the "true facts" vs. "false facts" argument. Hmm.

[Empress1]

"Let's download Tinder!"

"This is my corner."

"BITCH I WILL DRIVE TO NEW JERSEY TO FIGHT YOU AND YOUR UGLY KIDS CAN WATCH!"

Lots of great lines this episode! When Bow was talking about how supportive the mom community was I was like "Welp, this 'bout to go left," because all my mom friends lamented how vicious those online communities were. Vaccines vs. anti-vaxxers, stay-at-home moms vs. working moms, pick them up vs. cry it out, everybody yelling about everything all the time. Ugh.

[AlleC17]

Where can I find a 4,000 piece puzzle of Middle Earth?  I love Junior!  lol

[Madding crowd]

In the Elder Scam episode they indicated Ruby was ignorant about the internet, now she knows more than Bow about it?

I always like it when the kids are getting along and it was nice that they enjoyed something other than electronics. I can share Bow’s frustration with online parents. I belong to an online group of parents of college students and I get furious with the ones who spy on their 20 year kids with software that tracks their every move. 

[Empress1]

55 minutes ago, Madding crowd said:

In the Elder Scam episode they indicated Ruby was ignorant about the internet, now she knows more than Bow about it?

I always like it when the kids are getting along and it was nice that they enjoyed something other than electronics. I can share Bow’s frustration with online parents. I belong to an online group of parents of college students and I get furious with the ones who spy on their 20 year kids with software that tracks their every move. 

... Holy shit.

[Madding crowd]

Yeah, they say they are paying for the phone and college so they are entitled to know everything. They have some kind of app called life 36O where they have a constant GPS  and even how fast the person is drivingand some other app with access to text messages, phone numbers and websites their kid is on. I think it is beyond awful myself.

Edited January 17, 2018 by Madding crowd

[Joimiaroxeu]

Quote

Yeah, they say they are paying for the phone and college so they are entitled to know everything. They have some kind of app called life 36O where they have a constant GPS  and even how fast the person is drivingand some other app with access to text messages, phone numbers and websites their kid is on. I think it is beyond awful myself.

There's a recent Black Mirror episode that addresses quite how awful that could get. I think the Black-ish writers might consider doing an episode on helicopter parenting and violating older kids' psychological boundaries by keeping them under constant electronic surveillance. Bow seems have a lot of free time on her hands...

Edited January 17, 2018 by Joimiaroxeu

[incandescent]

It was better than L&O:SVU's version of "diabetes is serious business and also Anthony Anderson is here," so there's that!

[topanga]

On 12/20/2017 at 6:22 PM, ItCouldBeWorse said:

Only if Bow kept dating Rick Fox after she met Dre and had Zoe, but I suppose.

But whenever Zoey or Dre bring up the possibility of Rick Fox being Zoey’s dad, I don’t remember Bow explicitly denying it. At most, she might say, “Come on, Dre.” That could mean, “Dre, you know I’d never cheat on you,” or it could be that she just doesn’t want to talk about the very real possibility. Or maybe she’s just messing with Dre. 

[docmatt]

Quote

In the Elder Scam episode they indicated Ruby was ignorant about the internet, now she knows more than Bow about it?

I don't know that Ruby knows more about the internet. I take it that she knows more about conflict, when to stoke it and when not to.

[peeayebee]

America hates you.

Ruby: You dealin' drugs? This is my corner.

Bow: We should eliminate screen time for kids.
Diane: But how will I troll?

Jack: What are we supposed to do? Talk? Like animals?

I liked when Josh tried to sit casually on his desk and stuff kept falling off.

In the tag, as the kids are at the table with the puzzles pretending they don't REALLY want to do puzzles, Diane says something about her teacher, and the sound drops out for a second right after she says "teacher." Seems like it's the teacher's name. Did anyone else notice this? 

[In2You]

Watching Bow tackle the mommy message boards was hilarious. Especially when she called the babies ugly.

[tennisgurl]

Oh Bow, trying to convince people online to change their minds about something is like herding an army of cats with a hula hoop. Its just a huge pain that usually leads to nothing but frustration and zero results. I think writing a book would be good for Bow. Lord knows she needs someone to listen to her expertise. 

"Theres a cheese sandwich on Instagram right now thats getting death threats". Then Junior saw the cheese sandwich! "Man, people are really hating on these cheese sandwich!" 

The kids doing a puzzle together was adorable, and I love that they came back together to do more puzzles even after they got their electronics back. I like when the kids are getting along. 

[Dee]

6 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

The kids doing a puzzle together was adorable, and I love that they came back together to do more puzzles even after they got their electronics back. I like when the kids are getting along. 

I love that despite all four of the Johnson siblings need to snark on each other, they really do enjoy each others company.

[Bridget]

On 1/4/2018 at 10:46 AM, Arcadiasw said:

Is it common for twins to be in the same classroom even if it's private school? I always assume twins were separated.  

I've taught middle and high school (public school in SoCal) with lots of twins as students. I am a twin myself, went to school with several sets of twins from K-12 and I was never in the same class as my brother. 99.9% of the educators I know always encourage separation for the twins to help them develop and grow as individuals and have their own friends, especially when the twins are identical. Eventual overlapping of friends is to be expected, but most parents I have met don't want their twins in the same class.

When I taught middle school, we only had two sections of English 8, which meant 8th graders were either in my class or had the other Eng8 teacher. I did have several sets of twins as students, but never at the same time. Ever. Most counselors (who design schedules) always make sure twins have totally different schedules.  It's almost an unspoken priority during scheduling students to keep twins apart for their benefit.

Despite graduating high school when I did, to this very day, I am sometimes still referred to as ________'s sister instead of my own name.

RE: private schools & twins. If the school only offers one class per grade, twins have no choice but to be in the same class. In reality, I would like to think that parents who can afford to send twins to private school in the first place would choose a school with more than one class per grade. A larger campus also allows for twins to continue to have different schedules as they get older, even in an elective class or PE.

As this is the land of TV, I think having Jack & Diane together is at  facet that continues to enhance the hilarity of their dynamic.

Edited January 20, 2018 by Bridget

[Red Bridey]

Can someone recap Ruby's reasons for thinking "Automatic" is the best song ever?

[Dee]

Ruth's amazing alto, the funky guitar line and the synthesizers.

[jhlipton]

On 1/16/2018 at 7:25 PM, charmed1 said:

I heart Ruby so much.

Ruby by herself is awesome.  Ruby with Boiw is terrible.

On 1/17/2018 at 7:03 AM, attica said:

Jigsaw puzzles are very satisfying.

Both Junior ("start with the edges") and Diane ("start by grouping like pieces") are right.  Build the edges because that gives you the shape of the puzzle and where everything goes, then sort the remaining pieces.

On 1/17/2018 at 10:21 AM, AlleC17 said:

Where can I find a 4,000 piece puzzle of Middle Earth?  I love Junior!  lol

No single puzzle, but this [Lord of the Rings] and this [The Hobbit] and this [Game of Thrones, sorry] gives you 4180 pieces. 

Iron Crown Enterprises had 8 puzzles but I can't find a source for them/

On 1/17/2018 at 11:53 AM, Madding crowd said:

They have some kind of app called life 36O where they have a constant GPS

My wife and I use Life 360 to keep track of each other, as well as to know when her sister's bus is arriving when she visits.  It's a nice app, but any app can be misused.