S04.E08: The Vouch

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

Louis gets himself into a sticky situation when he lies to Jessica and tells her that he loves her newly finished horror novel. With news that Kenny Rogers is paying a visit to Cattleman's Ranch, Jessica insists that Louis give him a copy of her book for his agent, making him extremely uncomfortable. Eddie and his friends purchase a 300-disc CD carousel to play all of their music, but Eddie thinks he's the only one in charge and becomes a tyrant.

[Blakeston]

I wasn't crazy about the message of this episode. If your spouse wants to move your family away and spend all your savings on a business venture that you think is completely crazy, you should tell them how you feel. Keeping silent is a recipe for disaster, the vast majority of the time. (And that really, really doesn't sound like something Jessica would do, anyway.)

And while Louis certainly shouldn't have lied, Jessica was ridiculous to insist that he put his employer in that horribly awkward position.

[ClareWalks]

How the hell does someone write an entire mystery novel while having no idea who the killer is? How would she put clues in the book? That was my first clue (of many) that this book was going to be horrible.

[Racj82]

Of course Kenny Rogers loved the book because Jessica is always great and always right at the end of the day.

Fuck outta here. Jessica alone is about to make me stop watching.

And props to Grandma for shutting down the entrance. I know she said she's not a prop but I like to think that she loves that it's her and Eddie's thing. 

[vibeology]

I have a great patience for Jessica because Constance imbues her with so much spirit but this was too much even for me. Her book was bad. Just the little bits we got was enough to be sure that's true. To write a book and not know who the killer is? To have a character die twice? Bad! Bad! So bad! She did not deserve that win.

[ItCouldBeWorse]

Did Kenny call ahead to figure out what size shoes Louis wears?

[tennisgurl]

I actually do kind of want to read Jessica's book. It sounds awful, but hilariously awful. Like The Room of 90s mystery thrillers. Kind of a weird message in this one. 

The boys plot was a lot more fun for me. I kept laughing every time some random new song or story would start playing. I guess this was the 90s equivalent of a Pandora station or IPOD Shuffle? 

[galaxychaser]

Evan is too cute.  That face.  I can't.  

I only liked the CD player portion.  The rest of the episode was bad. 

Yum yum yum was hilarious. 

[fishcakes]

On 11/22/2017 at 9:45 PM, tennisgurl said:

The boys plot was a lot more fun for me. I kept laughing every time some random new song or story would start playing. I guess this was the 90s equivalent of a Pandora station or IPOD Shuffle?

I died when Enya came on. Took me right back to the mid-90s inspirational team meetings at work where Orinoco Flow would play over a PowerPoint presentation.

We always knew Jessica's novel was going to be hot garbage, but Louis reading it was great. "So many commas." "How am I only on page 9?"

[NutMeg]

Also, love how it reminded me of how I grew more careful on what CDs I put in random play, because it was often the songs I cared less for that played first. And love Enya creeping back up all the time, because I remember when her albums were playing everywhere - my favorite restaurant, aww, but also my neighbour's, early noughties.

[mortonsalt]

On 11/22/2017 at 11:45 AM, Blakeston said:

I wasn't crazy about the message of this episode. If your spouse wants to move your family away and spend all your savings on a business venture that you think is completely crazy, you should tell them how you feel. Keeping silent is a recipe for disaster, the vast majority of the time. (And that really, really doesn't sound like something Jessica would do, anyway.)

And while Louis certainly shouldn't have lied, Jessica was ridiculous to insist that he put his employer in that horribly awkward position.

 

On 11/22/2017 at 0:20 PM, Racj82 said:

Of course Kenny Rogers loved the book because Jessica is always great and always right at the end of the day.

Fuck outta here. Jessica alone is about to make me stop watching.

And props to Grandma for shutting down the entrance. I know she said she's not a prop but I like to think that she loves that it's her and Eddie's thing. 

 

On 11/22/2017 at 2:06 PM, vibeology said:

I have a great patience for Jessica because Constance imbues her with so much spirit but this was too much even for me. Her book was bad. Just the little bits we got was enough to be sure that's true. To write a book and not know who the killer is? To have a character die twice? Bad! Bad! So bad! She did not deserve that win.

 

There's not enough "ita" for these posts for me. I like Constance Wu a lot, but lately they've crossed the line with Jessica's character. She used to be funny while being flawed, but now her behavior isn't funny at all, it just makes her look obnoxious and mean spirited most of the time. 

I can't believe that she didn't say anything to Louis when he first wanted to open Cattleman's either. It doesn't seem in character for her all. Plus, I think that there's a way that one could support one's partner's dream while also voicing concerns about it instead of just going along with it because you never want to upset your partner. 

I guess I wouldn't have minded the subplot about the mystery novel except that I thought it was unreasonable for Jessica to expect Louis to give it to his boss, who he just met, but it went from bad to worse when they gave her a win. It wasn't realistic at all, and just reinforces Jessica's bad behavior (not that the writers will stop writing her that way, it seems). Yes, Louis was in the wrong for lying, but I can't blame him because of how irrational Jessica can be. 

Other than that, I liked it for the most part. I thought all the Huang kids came off well in the CD changer subplot. Of course, Marvin and Honey were the best parts of it again for me especially the part about Marvin pointing while he's dancing. 

[smash]

On 11/22/2017 at 8:45 AM, Blakeston said:

I wasn't crazy about the message of this episode. If your spouse wants to move your family away and spend all your savings on a business venture that you think is completely crazy, you should tell them how you feel. Keeping silent is a recipe for disaster, the vast majority of the time. (And that really, really doesn't sound like something Jessica would do, anyway.)

And while Louis certainly shouldn't have lied, Jessica was ridiculous to insist that he put his employer in that horribly awkward position.

Gah, same here, I don't know where the writers were going with this one. Even if the part of the message was "to be honest with each other," they immediately had Jessica lie about liking Louis' earrings, albeit a smaller scale white lie for a quick laugh. 

Usually I try not to expect every episode of a family comedy to have a wholesome moral or resolution, but at least FotB usually would end with a fairly good vibe. Didn't really feel that way after this episode. 

[TheLastKidPicked]

On 11/24/2017 at 7:33 AM, fishcakes said:

I died when Enya came on. Took me right back to the mid-90s inspirational team meetings at work where Orinoco Flow would play over a PowerPoint presentation.

Yes!  And do you remember when "Wind Beneath my Wings" played over EVERY.  SINGLE.  HOMEMADE. VIDEO. 

Edited November 27, 2017 by TheLastKidPicked

[SanDiegoInExile]

On 11/26/2017 at 0:05 PM, mortonsalt said:

....unreasonable for Jessica to expect Louis to give it to his boss, who he just met, but it went from bad to worse when they gave her a win. It wasn't realistic at all...

Kenny Rogers is an equal partner to Louis Huang. He bought the 50% from Michael Bolton, the previous investor.  So it's not really a "boss-employee" dynamic.  The thin persnickety totally-worthless over-acting dweeb who works on-site is a Kenny Rogers (Corp?) employee.  Since the show is in roughly 1997-98, Kenny Rogers Roasters is almost due for its monumental bankruptcy/collapse/closures.  Maybe that's why they couldn't get the real singer to appear in the episode and used a back-of-the-head shot.

Sometimes it is hard to remember that the show is set in the 90s.  The multi-disk player was a great plot, as I recall electronics companies all boasting that you could shuffle your CD collection endlessly. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

The thing I didn't like about those CD changers was that even if you liked a particular CD, the changer would pick the one song on the entire CD you didn't like!

[Camera One]

The CD player random mix was pretty funny.  The whole American founders' message felt like an after-school special, though I did laugh a few times with Evan and Emery's comments.

I didn't like the novel subplot either.  She didn't deserve to be published.