Season 4: All Episodes Discussion

[chocolatine]

I liked this season much better than the last two. Finally an interesting plot with the Israel trip and grandpa Pfefferman reunion. I especially liked how unselfish Maura was through all of this. She would have been more than justified to be angry at Moshe, but she just accepted him for what he was and enjoyed the trip. Also very touching that she made "a deal with God" in 1981 that she would "stop" being trans if Ali made it through the birth complications.

Shelly was acting a lot more bizarre than usual - early symptoms of dementia? Josh is going to have his hands full.

The Ali storyline of a magical farm in the West Bank where the Palestinian LGBTQIA+ community congregates was a bit too precious for my liking, but then again, she is one given to flights of fancy. I always thought Ali was Jill Soloway's alter ego, and indeed Soloway came out as gender non-binary recently.

Sarah is still a selfish asshole. Everything and everyone takes a backseat to her sexual whims. And now she's even more of a caricature of a spoiled LA housewife with her stolen idea for a "parenting" blog, acting like she's the second coming of Benjamin Spock.

Edited September 26, 2017 by chocolatine

[wendyg]

I don't think I agree. For me, this season fell flat. What I found so compelling in previous seasons is watching the characters discover aspects of themselves they didn't know about or had repressed during the secrecy years. This season was much more about telling us things the characters did know about themselves, but that we didn't. The particular bit you mention - Mort telling god he'd abandon Maura if Ali lived - I found especially annoying because a) for me it reeks of retcon, and b) because it seems to me to require a follow-up exploring why Maura now feels free to abandon that promise. Did her religious belief evaporate at some point? Did she come to realize there was no connection? Did she come to see that promise as simply fear?  The show didn't go there.

As much as Jesus Christ Superstar was a thing in its day, I didn't love its use here. The music has always been one of this show's strong points, so that was a particular disappointment.

The whole storyline felt forced to me - like the showrunners said "I know, let's send them to Israel!" and then had to figure out how to get them there, so why not Bryna's and Maura's long-lost father, presumed to be dead? As self-absorbed and shallow as the Pfeffermans can look in LA, in Israel they were the kind of tourists that other Americans abroad avoid. Similarly, the three-way stuff felt like, "What sexuality can we explore now?" and the sex addicts quiz and meeting was just an excuse to get them there. The only part of this season that I thought worked the way prior seasons did was Josh's finally beginning to try to understand the consequences of his relationship with Rita.

I didn't care at all for the Sarah/Len/Lila storyline. Not least because it seems likely it will continue with a Lila pregnancy in season 5.

Also, a small point: Josh isn't living with his mother. His mother is living with *him* - a difference I'd have thought the character would have pointed out. I didn't think Shelly was showing signs of dementia; I thought the idea that an improv class would shake her out of her old habits was reasonable; I think we were meant to laugh at the idea of this small woman taking on the walk and talk of a big, tough Italian guy. I didn't, but I could see why it was liberating for Shelly to shake off her fear. Speaking of which, it's amusing that Shelly proclaims that she's 68, Judith Light's actual (stated, anyway) age. She acts like a woman 15-20 years older, but given her life experience this isn't that unreasonable either.

The goat farm thing made sense to me because for a time there was this sort of reverence for/romance about living on a kibbutz in Israel, and you'd see middle class American kids go off to live on one for a month or two in the summer. As I remember it, they always came back wildly enthusiastic, like this was the only way to live...but nonetheless resumed their American lives.

Finally, can someone from LA explain what the characters mean when they say, of Donald, apparently as a negative quality, "He lives in Northridge"?

[MaryHedwig]

8 hours ago, wendyg said:

Finally, can someone from LA explain what the characters mean when they say, of Donald, apparently as a negative quality, "He lives in Northridge"?

I believe that Josh currently lives in Silver Lake.

The Pfefferman home is in Pacific Palisades.

Maury looked like he was living with Davina in midtown in a transition neighborhood, my guess is near LA High School or MacArthur Park

Northridge is at the northern end of the San Fernando Valley. It could take at least 90 minutes to get there from all three of those places during rush hour, which means during most hours. While there are exclusive parts of Northridge and of the Valley, that area has been traditionally thought of as the place you leave after success takes hold of you.  By the way, Pacific Palisades is definitely a place you move towards once you have arrived. I doubt if you can find a house there for under 2 million, but it is very close to UCLA, so maybe Maura/Mort moved his family there way back when to be near his place of employment.

Some would say that the Valley lacks flair and personality, "there is no there there."  The parts I know are well-maintained, but the houses and condos are repetitive. Maybe the problem with Northridge was that it was too much a match for Donald's personality: solid, but dull and predictable.

These are just the guesses of someone who knows LA pretty well. Please forgive me if I offended anyone, I am looking at you Mayor of Northridge, that certainly was not my intent.

Edited September 27, 2017 by MaryHedwig

[wendyg]

Thanks for the explanation. My guess is that it's at least in part the amount of travel required to get there.

Yes: the Pfeffermans; Pacific Palisades house has been in flashbacks back to 1981. We've seen several different Morts and Mauras getting out of his car in that same parking space and looking up at the house.

[QQQQ]

I did not care for this season. The characters I like the least (Sarah, Ali, and Shelly) seemed to have the most screen time. Sarah is a selfish asshole, Ali is a directionless navelgazer, and Shelly is one big stereotype - oy vey! I actually wanted Josh and Maura to move in with the other Pfeffermans in Israel... They seemed so lovely by comparison.

[ruby24]

So, is Ali not trans then? I always thought they were headed in that direction with her. Plus, they haven't really explored the experience of transitioning from woman to man (unless that's been Ali this whole time, but she hasn't gotten to the point where she knows yet).

I still liked the season, because I'm attached to the family and the characters. I feel like they're running out of ideas for characters like Josh and Sarah though. 

I actually love the flashbacks to Mort/Maura and Shelly as younger people. I assume we might see Shelly in the mental hospitals at some point, now that that's been brought up. It's kind of interesting to me that they went out of their way to show that Maura genuinely was not attracted to men as a young person and always was towards women, but now finds that she is. Is that because of the hormones, maybe? 

I guess they wanted to emphasize the relationship between Josh and Shelly this season because of their experiences of being victims of sexual abuse as children. 

[ZuluQueenOfDwarves]

I hate, hate, HATED that Sarah decided Ali was non-binary and going to use the pronouns they/them. She and Josh hear that their sister is seriously questioning her gender identity, and the first thing they do is turn it into a trendy joke. In front of their transgender mother. Assholes. 

 

Also, didn't Maura say last season that she just wanted to be Mom, not Moppa?

[wendyg]

Maura did, yes.

The Josh/Sarah thing didn't bother me - for me, it called back to season 1, when they teased Ali for the fads she embraced. In the pilot she was off gluten. Then she was with the trainer and went off dairy (but gluten was back on). We've seen all along that Ali keeps picking things up and trying them and then dropping them. So I read them as just speculating what she was going to do next. Also, since Jill Soloway is now using "they" and identifying as nonbinary, I took it as almost meta.

[pasdetrois]

I enjoyed the season, getting out of LA and to Israel. A lot of the script writing was excellent. However Judith Light ruins every scene she's in with her over-the-top hammy acting. And I didn't need to be hit over the head repeatedly about the occupation issue. The weird tenant was too much also.