S04.E04: I'm Making Up for Lost Time

[DianeDobbler]

Had Rebecca returned to work since her breakdown? My mind is probably a blank, but I thought she was doing therapy and hadn't gone back, hence my questions about her income. Not to mention health insurance.

 

I don't feel sorry for SMT. I think the failure of the Nathaniel character is partly down to him. I was glad to see him because as I've said many times, I was not a Santino Fontana (sp?) fan and liked SMT better. I know when he was introduced Aileen Brosh McKenna and RB were all but squeeing over him. They seemed to think he was the bees knees, a real score, and ABK said he gave the best audition she'd ever seen.  But then when they played him so heavily it wasn't really earned, and Nathaniel and Rebecca did not have the sexual chemistry the show seemed to believe they had, and SMT didn't project the vulnerability and "broken" layer CEG insisted he had. He delivers almost no subtext, and he's uninteresting in the musical numbers. And he's not funny. His shortcomings just REALLY showed up for me in a sort of mini-way during the "No One Else Is Singing My Song" number. There were RB and Rodriguez III cruising through that number, being expressive and sort of living the song, and SMT was just flat. He was also the weak link last season in "Fit Hot Guys Have Problems Too". The acting of it. The singing was fine.

For me it's interesting that he plays off George the best of all the characters on CEG, as CEG obviously knows. It's not just a one way street, as I just wanted George to go away until he was "paired" with SMT and now I love George.

Edited November 7, 2018 by DianeDobbler

[quangtran]

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I think the failure of the Nathaniel character is partly down to him.

This is don't agree with at all. His singing voice started off very good and has since gotten a lot better (and was the standard of Disney prince in Nothing is Anyone's Fault, where he sounded better than Rachel). I think his comic-timing is very underrated. His always had good chemistry is Reahel (as opposed to Santino who'se had a ton while Vince had none). I don't think there's any need to be sorry for SMF or Nathaniel, since I don't really hear that many compaints about him despite him being featured in every episode since his introduction.

[aradia22]

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Yes, FINALLY Rebecca lays into Nathaniel and spells out the cold hard truth: they are a toxic combination. That was a long time coming.

Man, Tucker is messed up. Even without pretending he is a lot like Rebecca in that sense. But I'm glad they wound up bonding anyway. And he's a good singer! "I Wanna Be A Child Star" was so true it's disturbing.

True, and yet... I feel like they have written Nathaniel so inconsistently/vaguely that you could argue almost anything. Like, when you want to argue that their relationship is toxic and they make each worse, there's a lot of evidence, especially when he's playing a cartoonish rich, privileged villain. And yet there's also been a lot of character growth and sweetness that they ignore when it's inconvenient. It's different from them having good times and bad times like with her other relationships. At least, for example, Greg grows as a character but keeps getting pulled back to Rebecca. That's understandable. But Nathaniel grows as a character and then keeps resetting to this flat stereotype.

That child actor is very talented. And I loved that song. The plotline was unnecessary but the actor kept me entertained and the song was worth the filler episode.

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Tucker felt like a caricature, and it’s unfortunate because they could have sketched out the parallels between Tucker and Rebecca and been much less broad about it. He should have been a fully-realized character, but to me he felt like a Young Rebecca/Trent mashup plot device.

To some extent, everyone on this show indulges in some crazy behavior. Paula's enabling, Valencia joining Rebecca to stalk Josh's new girlfriend, Nathaniel agreeing to help destroy Josh/his family, etc. But the issue with having not just Trent but Tucker (and I think other characters but I'm tired and nothing's jumping to mind) is that they dilute the message of the show. That is, I get that they're diluting the stigma around mental illness and also showing that pretty much everyone can benefit from therapy, a strong support network, etc. as all the characters work through their problems. But having too many characters like Trent and Tucker makes it seem like everyone has Rebecca's issues and she's not the anomaly. It makes the world feel too fantastic, as in fantasy like Pushing Daisies, where we just have to accept that everyone's like this and that these aren't the particular issues of a singular person. I think the show can be universal even as it focuses on Rebecca's problems but this is different, it makes her particular issues seem common. I feel like I'm going in circles. Does this make sense?