S05.E02: Reorientation

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

Panicked by suddenly leading a much larger team, Richard finds himself managing a number of small conflicts in his efforts to unite his new employees. Dinesh celebrates a new purchase that Gilfoyle looks to spoil. Jian-Yang goes to court. Gavin meets pushback over his signature and what it says about him.

 

[gingerella]

I've been a fan of this show since S1E01, but it sucks now. I gave it another shot tonight because last week was so bad, but it's gotten worse instead of better. The bullshit with Jiang getting executorship over Erlich's estate seemingly without any legal paperwork or representation is cartoon stupid. The ineptitude of Richard has jumped the shark so many times I lost count. The schtick with Gavin is also cartoonish. The whole show is in the shitter now. I don't think I can watch anymore. 

[chocolatine]

This was funnier than the premiere, but it still felt stale. Richard pukes, injures himself, and is socially awkward? Check. Gavin makes ego-driven shenanigans at Hooli? Check. Gilfoyle and Dinesh have a rivalry they take to the extreme? Check.

Animals on this show are always used in an off-putting way, and the dead pig and the office overrun with dogs that send people to the hospital storylines were no different.

At this point I'm essentially watching for Jared and the hope to see more of Big Head and Russ in the future.

[Aulty]

Jiang is annoying as f*ck. I hatet Ehrlich, and I hate Jiang even more. With the 10% stake in PP we won't be rid of him for a long time. Dogs in the office are a big NO for me, and they perfectly illustrated why.

I never thought I'd say that, but please get Richard a girl and let him screw that up for a while instead of making a mess of the company all the time. It would do their group some good to drift apart for a bit in their social life..

[Caseysgirl]

I know the Incubator was a plot device to keep all the characters together but why wouldn’t 4 grown men working in the industry be able to buy or rent some where else to live instead of being so dependent on one landlord. I know real estate is pricy out there but.....and when I have to ask questions like that they’ve kind of lost me..

[kieyra]

The thing that bugged me about the guys being kicked out is that the show has already told us that it's very hard to evict someone in California. (The Jared storyline where his condo was taken over by a squatter.) I don't think there's anywhere in the US you can kick someone out without at least 30 days' notice.

Bright side ... maybe that's the end of that storyline?

I'd much rather have Monica and Laurie than an ongoing, unfunny eulogy to Ehrlich.

I'd also be fine with no more body fluid humor.

[ottoDbusdriver]

14 hours ago, Caseysgirl said:

I know the Incubator was a plot device to keep all the characters together but why wouldn’t 4 grown men working in the industry be able to buy or rent some where else to live instead of being so dependent on one landlord. I know real estate is pricy out there but.....and when I have to ask questions like that they’ve kind of lost me..

Especially grown men that one of them can afford a Tesla.
 

4 hours ago, kieyra said:

I'd also be fine with no more body fluid humor.

I'm getting a little tired of Richard's body fluids too.

Regarding Jian Yang ousting everyone from the house, he has no proof that he owns anything.  WTF ?
 

[nilyank]

The only thing he had was the fake fake death certificate and the badly worded letter that Jian badly forged from Elrich where he left him everything.

The only payoff would be for Jian to payoff alll if Elrich’s debt and just before he is given control of all of Elrich’s assets, Elrich comes back.

I know that Richard had other things on his mind, but he should be very concerned that Jian is going to try to steal 10% of his company.

[chocolatine]

13 hours ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

Regarding Jian Yang ousting everyone from the house, he has no proof that he owns anything.  WTF ?

There's a reason the judge said that Jian Yang could only be the executor if no next-of-kin is found. I have a feeling that just as Jian Yang has paid off all of Erlich's debts, a relative will come forward and claim the rest of Erlich's assets. Maybe he fathered a kid he didn't know about.

17 hours ago, kieyra said:

The thing that bugged me about the guys being kicked out is that the show has already told us that it's very hard to evict someone in California. (The Jared storyline where his condo was taken over by a squatter.) I don't think there's anywhere in the US you can kick someone out without at least 30 days' notice.

Nobody is saying that eviction was lawful. The thing that doesn't make sense is that last season Erlich served Jian Yang an eviction notice and that apparently voided his stake in Jian Yang's app Seefood; Erlich had to agree to let Jian Yang stay rent-free to get back his shares. So that would mean that if Jian Yang evicts Richard, he voids his stake in Pied Piper - why would he do that?

[mojoween]

Watching Jian Yang do a bad job of smoking is annoying.  Everything about him is annoying.

It made me laugh that last week there was a discussion about Guilfoyle being a racist and this week he says “I’m a racist.”

I mean, that’s not a very cool character trait, but I laughed anyways.  Martin Starr is very charming even as an asshole.

[Cthulhudrew]

I'm with everyone who says that this show has lived past its prime. The first season was great; every subsequent season has gotten a little more stale, a lot more of a caricature of itself. Jian Yang was kind of funny as a foil to Erlich; on his own, as an antagonist to the others, he is just unwatchable. Gilfoyle and Dinesh's back and forth is tiresome and the two of them seem to contribute nothing else to the storyline any longer. Richard's constantly repeating the same missteps is old. 

The only thing worth watching at this point is Jared, who still manages to entertain in his earnestness while providing the one bright light in the entire show. I'm beginning to think TJ Miller made the right choice to jump ship; most of these actors are just wasted in these one note characters now. :(

[ElectricBoogaloo]

4 hours ago, mojoween said:

Watching Jian Yang do a bad job of smoking is annoying.

When I was in high school, we did a production of Grease. The girl who played Sandy was very Sandy in real life in that she was not a wild party girl. For the last scene, she was supposed to smoke a cigarette for a few seconds before putting it out. She had never smoked before so during rehearsal, a bunch of the guys took her outside to teach her how to smoke. She was laughing about the absurdity of learning how to fake smoking for a few seconds. My dad was a heavy smoker (which is probably why I was never tempted to try smoking) so I always find it kind of sweet and cute when someone doesn't really know how to smoke in real life.

I didn't notice anything weird about Jian Yang's smoking - but again, I know almost nothing about how to smoke. But in terms of acting, I don't find something like that any worse than when they show actors allegedly playing an instrument and it's clear that they are not playing the violin/guitar/piano. I still remember what a terrible job Glee did of trying to hide the fact that Lea Michele could not dance when they gave her an entire ballet performance(en pointe, no less) during Total Eclipse of the Heart.

[The Solution]

Who knew that Ehrlich was the whole heart of this series?

[kieyra]

On 4/4/2018 at 11:47 AM, The Solution said:

Who knew that Ehrlich was the whole heart of this series?

I'm not sure I agree, but trying to replace him with Jian Yang has been a terrible mistake.

[Ray Adverb]

How will the show function without the incubator house?  Where will Richard, Gilfoyle, and Dinesh go after Richard mismanages his latest venture into the ground?

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Clips:
Jian Yang's plan:

 

The Erlich administration is over