S06.E07: Friends with Benefits

[Aulty]

Quote

Kelsey finds herself at odds with Charles. Liza has a flashback to her old life. Diana attends a family christening with Enzo and meets his ex.

Original Air Date:  July 31st, 2019

[Aulty]

Awww Enzo ... I hope there is a long lost twin brother there that they can pair off with Liza because nothing about her current love life is working for me. Diana really deserves this. Every profile shot of her in that befeathered hat was hilarious.

After having Liza, Diana and Kelsey playing on the same level for the past few episodes we are now back at the assistant jokes.

Apparently Liza is craving for living the lie rather then creating her own truth, isn't she? She wants to lead the young woman's life and not the one that comes with the (social) obligations of age.

Charles was alright in this episode, but I doubt that the power dynamic between Kelsey and Zane will ever work in her favour.

[Boofish]

Liza likes her life a lot better as a 26 year old assistant.

[bichonblitz]

Grow up, Liza! If you want Josh, then go for it. Wasn't it so convenient for Charles book to be about a young man having an affair with an older woman?  Pleeeeeez, this show is ridiculous. 

[tennisgurl]

So now that Liza is getting back to her old life, she misses her 20 something assistant life! Also, does Charles have psychic powers that he can have events in his life happen and he writes them down that just so happen to parallel his future girlfriends life? Amazing! 

[Beantown Gal]

A few thoughts / observations from this episode:

I wholeheartedly agree with others who have stated Liza appears to be regressing to her 26 year old assistant self. It's almost as if she's going through a mid-life crisis, now that she's moved up to a position of authority / responsibility. Now that she's with Charles, and Josh has accepted this fact she's pinning for Josh. Make a damn decision Liza, this isn't cute anymore.

I'm not sure who's worse, Liza or Kelsey: Liza for showing Charles' book to Kelsey as a possible pitch, or Kelsey for not honoring Liza's request of not mentioning it to Charles without giving her thoughts to Liza. It wasn't Liza's damn business anyway...

Speaking of Kelsey, I am probably in the minority but I am not buying Kelsey as the publisher, not at all.

And for all that is Holy - HOW does Diana STILL NOT KNOW about Liza's age?!

Speaking of Diana - I am THRILLED for her and Enzo, but she has to let Charles go!

[thesupremediva1]

So, the writing is ham-fisted at best, but the back-to-back scenes of the christening proposal and Josh and Liza by the water is the most alive the show has felt all season.

Nico and Sutton have this beautiful, easy chemistry on screen - they just light up around each other. It reminds me of Jennie Garth and Luke Perry on 90210.

Last season they dropped every anvil on us that Charles and Liza are endgame. This season, they're going out of their way to demonstrate over and over again that Josh and Liza belong together. I know which one I agree with, but I'm getting whiplash. The writers do not know how to do subtlety or go down the middle so the viewer can "choose their own adventure."

[LuvMyShows]

Peter Hermann is a very nice-looking man, so why the hell couldn't they put him in a tux jacket that fits him with a bow tie that is the appropriate size?  He looked ridiculous at that Tuxedo Park event.

And why on earth wasn't Liza mad at Charles when she found out at the Tuxedo event that Charles had obligated her already to another event the very next night but hadn't even bothered to tell her?

In reality, Zane's character would never have had such a childish outburst in front of others, when Kelsey didn't agree about the book proposal.  And I'm torn about whether I think Charles's character would have sat there and defied Kelsey's authority regarding her decision about his book, and whether I think Liza or Diana would have spoken up about it. 

[MissLucas]

Geez, Kelsey - I'm a woman and would like to read a modern version of 'Master and Commander', dammit! And I would pick that up long before any Sparks wanna-be story. Her whole reasoning for shooting down Mercury's slate made no sense. If Millenial's target group are women under 40 why was she so keen on getting the lady who wrote erotic novels for baby boomers? And why not let Mercury cover different grounds?

Last season I wondered if Hillary Duff had pissed of the show's make-up artist, this season I think it's the wardrobe person. That white jumper was ugly AF (and way too tight - in the words of Trinny and Susannah 'size up!')

I agree with @thesupremediva1: Josh and Liza's scenes were great and their chemistry is still there. And obviously now that Josh shows signs of maturing (unlike other folks on this show) it just gets stronger. But within the context of the overall narrative it's frustrating. I think Liza can't make up her mind because the writers can't make up their minds.

Liza's two evening gowns were great although I had to laugh when she was carefully arranging herself on the sofa to read the mystery script in that blue number. As beautiful as it was no woman of sound mind would try to get comfy in that thing. As soon as the door closes behind you it goes back on a hanger and it's time for sweat-pants and t-shirt, especially if you're about to read 76'000 words.

I was so happy for Diana, she's truly become this show's MVP!

As for the promo: *sigh*

Edited August 1, 2019 by MissLucas

[dubbel zout]

Hilary Duff had a baby last December, I believe. It's probably a challenge to dress a postnatal figure.

[MissLucas]

1 minute ago, dubbel zout said:

Hilary Duff had a baby last December, I believe. It's probably a challenge to dress a postnatal figure.

I had that in mind but it's still no excuse for all those necklines that seem to strangle her. 

[gesundheit]

I'm so confused about what season it's supposed to be right now -- half the outdoor scenes people were bundled up in coats and in the other half it looked more like summer. (In fairness, we have had some crazy weather where it goes up or down 30 degrees overnight)

[Sulk]

As I watch a show that I really liked, I watched last night with my mouth open and asked myself, "why"?

While Liza is with Josh, she flirts with Charles.  Now she is with Charles and she is mooning over Josh????  I'm sorry, but I can't deal with this craziness.  Don't get me wrong, I like Josh.  He is a good person.  I like Charles, he is a good person.  I'm not liking Liza, she is all over the place. 

Can she seriously make up her mind.  Charles gave it all up for her, and she is thinking about Josh and I can't understand it.  The whole show has turned upside down and inside out.  The only bright spot in last nights show was Enzo proposing to Diana.  They are like normal people.  They make me smile.  

I always liked Liza, but now she is getting on my nerves.  She can't have it all, and she is trying to.  She needs to make up her mind and put us all out of our misery.  I honestly can't see this show going on for another season after #7.  I just think they are running out of ideas to write about. 

I want Josh, no wait, I want Charles.  No wait, now I'm with Charles, and no wait, I can't stop thinking about Josh. I'm sorry, this is crazy.  and its making me crazy.  

[dubbel zout]

41 minutes ago, Sulk said:

Charles gave it all up for her,

Which Liza never asked him to do. That's all on him.

[chybee23]

47 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

Which Liza never asked him to do. That's all on him.

That’s not the point, though. He was willing to do that because he was that committed to the idea of them. Meanwhile, Liza’s going on motorcycle rides with her ex (yet acted like it was the end of the world when Charles showed up on Quinn’s Instagram) and looks sick whenever faced with the possibility of being all in. Whether or not they ask anything of each other doesn’t change the fact that, emotionally, the level of commitment between them is very lopsided and that was the problem in both relationships. They’re making her flaky as hell and she needs to be single. 
 

Anyway, Charles has done much more and expected much less than Josh when it comes to Liza owing either one of them. 

Edited August 2, 2019 by chybee23

[dubbel zout]

Liza and Charles need to sit down and have a long talk about what they want. That's the main problem they're having, IMO. Neither really knows what the other wants or what their expectations are.

[LuvMyShows]

15 hours ago, Sulk said:

The only bright spot in last nights show was Enzo proposing to Diana.  

And I can't even enjoy that, because of the throw-away line from the previous episode where she admitted that she lies about what Enzo does.

17 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

Hilary Duff had a baby last December, I believe. It's probably a challenge to dress a postnatal figure.

All the more reason to avoid putting her in extreme things that exacerbate the issue.

15 hours ago, Sulk said:

As I watch a show that I really liked, I watched last night with my mouth open and asked myself, "why"?

While Liza is with Josh, she flirts with Charles.  Now she is with Charles and she is mooning over Josh????  I'm sorry, but I can't deal with this craziness.  Don't get me wrong, I like Josh.  He is a good person.  I like Charles, he is a good person.  I'm not liking Liza, she is all over the place. 

And I get the sense that TPTB/Darren Star don't realize that it's not coming across the charming/delightful way they think it is.  There's plenty of people like me who are no longer on Team Charles OR Team Josh.

[Yeah No]

I agree that the writing has become ham-fisted.  It's like Liza and Charles are being made to do things that don't feel logical as coming from them at all.  The writers needed to find a way to keep things interesting, so in absence of any real creativity they did the easy and obvious thing to create trouble between Liza and Charles.  So of course suddenly Liza is showing signs of missing her old carefree life with Josh and they tease us with episode titles to suggest that they start an affair.  Just eye roll already. 🙄 The audience is not buying it, and it insults us to be honest.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I have mixed feelings about the whole Kelsey vs. Charles issue. On the one hand, I do understand her inner conflict. She is where she is now because Charles believed in her and gave her the opportunity to spearhead Millennial way back in S1, so she is grateful to him for fast tracking her career. And the power dynamic that has existed between them for years is that he is the boss so she is used to him having the final say. In addition, she's only been in charge of Empirical for about a minute so I don't think she's had time to fully adjust to the amount of authority she has. For those reasons, I understand why she's had trouble really standing her ground with Charles.

But on the other hand, she is the editor now so she needs to do her job, even if that means disagreeing with Charles and fighting it out. Her job is to make decisions that she thinks are best for the entire company, which includes making sure that books going to Millennial versus Merury are appropriate for the brand (although, to be honest, as a book reader, I don't care what name is on the spine or on the copyright page - as long as it's interesting, I'll read it).

Meanwhile, Charles acted surprised whe Liza told him that Kelsey is still intimidated by him. He chose to have Millennial "buy" Mercury (his $1 price tag barely qualifies as being bought, but still). He chose to let Kelsey remain in charge. He chose to take a position as an editor. That means he needs to respect and accept Kelsey's decisions instead of saying, "I understand what you're saying but this book needs to stay at Mercury."

Zane's hissyfit about how Kelsey can't move books acquired by Mercury over to Millennial just made me roll my eyes. Sorry, Zane, that's EXACTLY what she can do as the editor. Remember how many times Charles took a book that Millennial acquired and had it published under Empirical because it was "best for the company"? As the publisher, he had the authority to do that and he expected Kelsey to accept it every single time he did it, yet somehow he and Zane don't think it's okay for Kelsey to do the same thing now. And what is Charles' excuse? As he pointed out to Liza, since he owns both Millennial and Mercury, he wins no matter which company sells a particular book. So why is he fighting her so hard on these decisions?

To summarize, Kelsey needs to step up and Charles needs to sit down. Maybe Kelsey needs one of Lauren's obnoxious girlboss pep talks.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Dear Charles and Liza,

There's a really easy way to avoid having the same "wait, we're going to this event on that day?" conversation over and over. It's called a calendar. You put events on them so that both of you know when you have to be somewhere. You can be old fashioned and get a paper calendar or you can use this amazing technology that's on your phone. I know you're both over 40 so we're supposed to believe that you don't comprehend that technology like this exists but IT DOES, so use it.

Sincerely,
Everyone

[Mabinogia]

21 minutes ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

(although, to be honest, as a book reader, I don't care what name is on the spine or on the copyright page - as long as it's interesting, I'll read it).

As a book reader, I could not tell you who publishes any of the books I have ever read. I have no clue what publishers my favorite authors use and it has never occurred to me to look or care. I get why the publishing house would care, they get the money, but I wonder how much influence the publishing house has on people reading certain books. Like, if a book that appealed to millennials, had a millennial like title, and art, and was touted as the next big thing for millennials, would actual millennials not read it because it isn't by a "hip" publishing house? (yes, I am old and still use "hip" lol)

[dubbel zout]

34 minutes ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Zane's hissyfit about how Kelsey can't move books acquired by Mercury over to Millennial just made me roll my eyes. Sorry, Zane, that's EXACTLY what she can do as the editor.

IRL, the publisher doesn't poach books from one imprint and give them to another. An editor could never be sure she'd be able to keep a book she acquired. That's no way to keep good editors and run a business.

Back when I was in book publishing in the Jurassic Age, I can remember agents sending us books that we knew didn't work for our imprint, so we'd suggest they send it to someone else. We were sent Ben & Jerry's ice cream book that everyone knew was perfect for Workman, and sure enough, Workman ended up publishing it. We did enjoy the ice cream the agent sent with the proposal, though. LOL.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

10 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

IRL, the publisher doesn't poach books from one imprint and give them to another. An editor could never be sure she'd be able to keep a book she acquired. That's no way to keep good editors and run a business.

Back when I was in book publishing in the Jurassic Age, I can remember agents sending us books that we knew didn't work for our imprint, so we'd suggest they send it to someone else. We were sent Ben & Jerry's ice cream book that everyone knew was perfect for Workman, and sure enough, Workman ended up publishing it. We did enjoy the ice cream the agent sent with the proposal, though. LOL.

Ha, sorry, I was referring to the way that the show has portrayed what the publisher at Empirical does (which is not necessarily a reflection of how anything works in the real world). Charles did it all the time (taking books acquired for Millennial and publishing them under Empirical) so I don't have an issue wit Kelsey taking books that Mercury acquired and publishing them under Millennial, especially since they were books that fit under Millennial's brand/image. The fact that Millennial was originally trying to acquire almost every book that Mercury ended up with further illustrates that these books ARE, in fact appropriate for Millennial.

On top of all that, Millennial has already spent a few years establishing its identity. Mercury is like five days old, so they don't really have an established brand, regardless of what Charles and Zane think it represents. They haven't published a single book yet so they need to spend some more time figuring out how Mercury is distinct from Millennial and the rest of Empirical. The way that Charles and Zane were defining Mercury's brand was so vague: "designed to appeal to men and women" and "agnostic about age." I mean, seriously, doesn't that basically cover almost all books?

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Clip:

Episode bloopers:

The after show (as usual, TV Land won't allow this video to be embedded, so click the link to watch):

[love2lovebadtv]

On 8/5/2019 at 7:11 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Ha, sorry, I was referring to the way that the show has portrayed what the publisher at Empirical does (which is not necessarily a reflection of how anything works in the real world). Charles did it all the time (taking books acquired for Millennial and publishing them under Empirical) so I don't have an issue wit Kelsey taking books that Mercury acquired and publishing them under Millennial, especially since they were books that fit under Millennial's brand/image. The fact that Millennial was originally trying to acquire almost every book that Mercury ended up with further illustrates that these books ARE, in fact appropriate for Millennial.

On top of all that, Millennial has already spent a few years establishing its identity. Mercury is like five days old, so they don't really have an established brand, regardless of what Charles and Zane think it represents. They haven't published a single book yet so they need to spend some more time figuring out how Mercury is distinct from Millennial and the rest of Empirical. The way that Charles and Zane were defining Mercury's brand was so vague: "designed to appeal to men and women" and "agnostic about age." I mean, seriously, doesn't that basically cover almost all books?

Great info. Has Charles or Zane what they want Mercury's brand or niche to be? When it was just empirical and millennial, I could figure out what was what. But how do they decide what's a good fit for the new imprint?