Season 1 Discussion

[SmithW6079]

6 hours ago, msrachelj said:

Because hopefully they know something we don't and it will be cancelled soon?!

You can cancel it right now all by yourself and just not watch it.

[jewel21]

New episode tomorrow!

S01.E02: Nigerians Don't Do Useless Things

While Bob waits for Abishola to make the next move, her Auntie Olu and Uncle Tunde make it hard for her by stalking him.

Airdate: 09.30.2019

[javajeanelaine]

There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to what shows get a full forum and those that don't.

[Harvey]

59 minutes ago, javajeanelaine said:

There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to what shows get a full forum and those that don't.

Isn't it about interest? Like if the show got lots of comments consistently over time then it would get one.

[SnarkySheep]

Pretty much the same sentiments as everyone here, i.e. ok but not great show, but I never judge solely by a pilot, as many shows need a little to get off the ground.

I do think, though, the title is way too awkward. Even searching for it On demand seemed like too much work.

[biakbiak]

4 hours ago, SnarkySheep said:

Even searching for it On demand seemed like too much work

On mine you only have to type “Bo”and it’s the first thing that comes up and I imagine that’s one of the reason they named the character Bob.

[SoMuchTV]

On 9/28/2019 at 8:30 PM, KLovestoShop said:

I like Billy Gardell and Verne Watson has always been a favorite, but I had a difficult time understanding Abishola’s lines.  And Billy’s mustache reminds me of a 1970’s porn stache 

Maybe they're trying a little too hard to differentiate him from "Mike" ? 

Watching the 2nd episode now, and not totally hating it. I wouldn't go into mourning if it were cancelled, but I'll probably stay with it for now. Although I do have issues with shows with cutesy names.

[jewel21]

Abishola's family is a little nuts, lol. I laughed at them running into the house and Bob knocking on their door two seconds later, heh. I'm still iffy on this show but I'm willing to give it more time. 

[TigerLynx]

I don't like Abishola's married sort of not married situation.  That tells me at some point her husband will return, and it will be love triangle time.  I really hate love triangles.  I didn't used to, but now they are everywhere all the time.

[tennisgurl]

So I am assuming that Abishola's husband will show up as soon as she and Bob finally get together, near the season finale, and it will start all kinds of trouble.

Abishola's aunt and uncle are over the top but also they make me laugh. I giggled when they kept insisting that Bob was the one following them even though Abishola was clearly not buying it. "We are Team Bob." It was also a good call to have Bob back off when Abishola was seemingly not interested, and he only got connected with her again because of the hijinks of her aunt and uncle. 

[CrazyMoon]

Bob is a gentleman...he knows not to push after she made it clear she wasn't interested. The aunt & uncle are hysterical...

Yes, her husband will come back to cause some mischief (and probably threaten to take the son back to Nigeria) to get Abishola to stay with him. But I like her coworkers spin on it. "7 years? He's dead)

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, TigerLynx said:

I don't like Abishola's married sort of not married situation.  That tells me at some point her husband will return, and it will be love triangle time.  I really hate love triangles.  I didn't used to, but now they are everywhere all the time.

Welcome to the dark side, @TigerLynx, heh. I have always hated love triangles.

I am guessing the "husband" will turn out to be married to someone(s) else back in Nigeria. I mean, think about it. 7 years. But, yeah, there will probably be some drama leading up to that reveal. 

I also think they telegraphed in this episode that Abishola's son is going to totally be on Team Bob --which will be a big influence. 

Of course, if the show has even longer legs, eventually her son will assert that he does not want to be a doctor or take over the sock business.

---------

Do the Aunt and Uncle have jobs to pay the rent? 

The following of each other's cars was pretty funny.

Edited October 1, 2019 by shapeshifter

[Harvey]

This was a sweet episode, the aunt & uncle are so funny and entertaining. I hope we will see more of them.

The show seems to take an interesting turn in the upcoming episodes.

Spoiler

“Square Hamburger, Round Buns” – After Abishola calls off things with Bob, her Auntie Olu sets her up with a Nigerian pharmacist, and Bob tries online dating, on BOB

Quote

Edited October 1, 2019 by Harvey

[jewel21]

I enjoyed the interaction between Bob and Abishola's son. I think they could have a fun relationship as her son helps Bob navigate Abishola and her family.

[DoYouLikeMutton]

I am trying very hard to like this show, but it is not doing it for me.  I don't find any of the supporting characters interesting or endearing.  I hope it will get better, but so far, it seems like a dud.  I hope I am wrong and the show will gain some momentum.  For now, the show is just silly and lackluster. 

[Mermaid Under]

I usually don't bother with comedies, but there are no new dramas that have caught me yet, and I won't do NCIS's that are older than dirt.   I wasn't as down on it as most - both main characters seemed real enough to me and not cartoonish, although they are surrounded by cartoonish foils.  I wondered what kind of storylines they could create with this premise,  but if they don't make the numbers, it really doesn't matter.  I was thinking that Bob could open a sock manufacturing plant in Nigeria.

[libgirl2]

I didn't see the whole pilot but tuned in last night. It was okay. Not earth shattering. If its on, I'll tune in but I'm not going out of my way for it. I remember BBT was like that. I rarely watched it and then all of a sudden I was hooked so who knows?

[Wanda]

For those expecting/hoping for a quick cancellation, this is a chuck lorre show on CBS. He could put a guy reading a phone book on and get a full season from them by contract.

[msani19]

The only thing that made me laugh was when Abishola said "Nigerians don't do useless things", from my parents it was always "Go do something constructive", so that's really not that far off. 

[Snow Apple]

I don't like or dislike this show. Since I mostly just watch sitcoms these days, I'll probably keep watching if I remember but won't be disappointed if it gets cancelled.

[ECM1231]

On 9/24/2019 at 12:51 PM, lovett1979 said:

I'd just like to point out that Christine Ebersole is only 16 years older than Billy Gardell. It's not impossible that she's his mother, but geez...

This annoyed me no end! But I'm a stickler for details like this. Best part of the 2nd episode was Christine singing, imo.

[bad things are bad]

I was happy to see this show set in Detroit, (or Detroit-adjacent) but Ep 2 featured stupid cheap jokes that might have been funny or relevant 10 years ago. "Why Detroit? (uproarious laugh track) and the bit about walking her to her home because DANGEROUS.

Facile and stupid--I think I'm out. 

[mammaM]

1 hour ago, ECM1231 said:

This annoyed me no end! But I'm a stickler for details like this. Best part of the 2nd episode was Christine singing, imo

Eh, television. At least she COULD be his mother. Since everyone's comparing this to Mike & Molly, here's something that'll really drive you nuts. Cleo King is 7 years older than Reno Wilson, yet on M&M they're Mike's bff and his grandmother! She wears a wig but still, it's a woman playing grandma to someone who's only 7 years younger!😂

And yes, Christine has a great voice.

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, ECM1231 said:

This annoyed me no end! But I'm a stickler for details like this. Best part of the 2nd episode was Christine singing, imo.

Her singing is worth listening to, but it seemed shoehorned in. 

They should have saved it for some event featured on the show, like a holiday party or a wedding. 

Because with a 20 minute show, I’m assuming she’s not going to sing that often. 

[tominboston]

I guess I'm in a minority on this but I find the two lead characters to be highly likeable and the aunt and uncle are funny in an over-the-top way, so while this won'[t be my favorite show of the season I plan to continue watching it. The only problem I have is that sometimes I miss a line or two because I have a little trouble comprehending the Nigerian accents. Maybe I'll turn on  captioning next week.

[Guest]

I’m still on the fence but I’ll keep watching and see how it goes. Even my favorite sitcoms took about half a season to really click for me. 

My biggest problem is that I would rather be watching a sitcom based around Abishola and her friends. Right now it feels like there are just too many characters. 

Edited October 3, 2019 by Guest

[North of Eden]

I don't get why Bob hearts Abishola so much when she's rude and nasty towards him. This is actually a little sad to see an aging, over weight desperate man so lonely that he would subject himself to such rude behavior in hopes of ending work being his whole life and has no circle outside his family.

All is forgiven though anytime Vernee Watson shows up. I always thought that Vernajean-Freddy Boom Boom Washington's girlfriend and female Sweathog was regretablly phased out of WELCOME BACK KOTTER so early  on. Has it really been 40 years since she was a young hottie?! Time passes.

[shapeshifter]

25 minutes ago, North of Eden said:

I don't get why Bob hearts Abishola so much when she's rude and nasty towards him. This is actually a little sad to see an aging, over weight desperate man so lonely that he would subject himself to such rude behavior in hopes of ending work being his whole life and has no circle outside his family.

I got the impression that he gave it his best shot/sock, and then decided to move on, but then the auntie and uncle followed him home. No?

[Raja]

On 9/25/2019 at 8:23 AM, joanne3482 said:

I had that exact same thought, but then I also thought that not being from the US she may not fully appreciate our worship of sports the way we do. 

I really like Abishola. She's the reason I'll keep coming back. Hers is an interesting story. 

Only Nigerian immigrants are among the most successful American ethnic groups  and know very well want it is going to take to get one of those few Harvard slots. Just as Asian immigrant families found out that a violin playing pianist with high grades was not enough and had to get their kid into a sport, preferably a team sport.

I remember the old MASH rule no laugh track in the OR. It was bad enough as Bob was being wheeled in but when the laugh track was going over the dead body, oh well.

Edited October 2, 2019 by Raja

[SmithW6079]

4 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

I got the impression that he gave it his best shot/sock, and then decided to move on, but then the auntie and uncle followed him home. No?

Yes, that's what he said. The aunt and uncle arranged/pushed Abishola to have coffee with him during her break. 

I laughed several times during the episode. The brother and sister already don't work and should be written off. 

Maybe the focus should be on Abishola, her family and coworkers, and the hospital. Bob could be coming to the cardiac clinic regularly for follow-up and rehab.

[Harvey]

1 hour ago, SmithW6079 said:

Maybe the focus should be on Abishola, her family and coworkers, and the hospital. Bob could be coming to the cardiac clinic regularly for follow-up and rehab.

It seems to be that way actually. Abishola's co-workers already got more screen time than Bob's family.

Edited October 2, 2019 by Harvey

[AnimeMania]

1 hour ago, Harvey said:

It seems to be that way actually. Abishola's co-workers already got more screen time than Bob's family.

The creator and writer for the show, Gina Yashere is playing one of Abishola's hospital co-workers, so they should get plenty of air time.

[topanga]

18 hours ago, tominboston said:

I guess I'm in a minority on this but I find the two lead characters to be highly likeable and the aunt and uncle are funny in an over-the-top way, so while this won'[t be my favorite show of the season I plan to continue watching it.

On 10/1/2019 at 10:18 AM, DoYouLikeMutton said:

I am trying very hard to like this show, but it is not doing it for me.  I don't find any of the supporting characters interesting or endearing.  I hope it will get better, but so far, it seems like a dud.  I hope I am wrong and the show will gain some momentum.  For now, the show is just silly and lackluster. 

And I'm the opposite, DoYouLikeMutton. The premise of this show sounded questionable, and I was prepared to be offended when I watched the Pilot. But I can't help but like Bob and Abishola, and I root for them to get together. 

IMO, the best-written scenes are with Bob and Abishola. Second are the ones with Abishola and her friends. The writing isn't as good for their family members, which is why I enjoyed the 2nd episode a little less than the Pilot.

But I will definitely keep tuning in.

18 hours ago, tominboston said:

The only problem I have is that sometimes I miss a line or two because I have a little trouble comprehending the Nigerian accents. Maybe I'll turn on  captioning next week.

I'm not Nigerian, but I suppose I've been around enough Nigerians and West Africans in general that I understand the accent. I'm not that worldly--it's from getting my hair braided in African braiding shops and watching the Nigerian movies that are constantly playing.

I find that I use closed captioning for most shows and movies these days. The sound quality tends to muffle the dialogue--vs. the music, which is always too loud. And this drives me crazy because we have a fancy sound system with all kids of settings. Funny, I never had problems hearing dialogue when I was growing up and only had a 19-inch TV with stereo sound. 

[AnimeMania]

2 hours ago, topanga said:

I find that I use closed captioning for most shows and movies these days. The sound quality tends to muffle the dialogue--vs. the music, which is always too loud. And this drives me crazy because we have a fancy sound system with all kids of settings. Funny, I never had problems hearing dialogue when I was growing up and only had a 19-inch TV with stereo sound. 

I use closed captioning as well, you can't turn the sound up because then the loud commercials will give you a heart attack.  I watch everything on DVR so I can skip the commercials and gain 15 minutes when watching every hour show.

[shapeshifter]

3 hours ago, topanga said:

I'm not Nigerian, but I suppose I've been around enough Nigerians and West Africans in general that I understand the accent. I'm not that worldly--it's from getting my hair braided in African braiding shops and watching the Nigerian movies that are constantly playing.

I’m familiar with West African accents from being an academic librarian for 20 years. I guess Abishola and her family wanting her son to do well in school is typical of the culture? 

But I always have captions turned on, so I’m not sure why I have no trouble understanding the dialogue, but turning them on is always helpful. 

[Raja]

1 hour ago, shapeshifter said:

I’m familiar with West African accents from being an academic librarian for 20 years. I guess Abishola and her family wanting her son to do well in school is typical of the culture? 

But I always have captions turned on, so I’m not sure why I have no trouble understanding the dialogue, but turning them on is always helpful. 

Nigerians are among the highest achieving national groups in the US. A large and growing percentage of the African Americans in the so called elite universities are the children and grandchildren of African and Caribbean immigrants.

In one family close to us the "failure" child  was the one who didn't make it to USC as a freshman but had to transfer in from a second choice University of California . Meanwhile his two older brothers went to Harvard, and one became a Rhodes Scholar while his sister made it to her first choice University of California campus and was not sent to a lower prestige campus in the system. And the rest of the 30 or so Nigerian families from my home church has similar stories for the children of engineers, registered nurses and pharmacist..

Edited October 3, 2019 by Raja

[Raja]

On 9/30/2019 at 8:02 PM, TigerLynx said:

I don't like Abishola's married sort of not married situation.  That tells me at some point her husband will return, and it will be love triangle time.  I really hate love triangles.  I didn't used to, but now they are everywhere all the time.

I missed that in the pilot but in the second episode she said that she was a widow

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Raja said:

I missed that in the pilot but in the second episode she said that she was a widow

No, he moved back to Nigeria. Her friend just joked that he is technically dead because they haven’t seen each other in 8 years. 

Edited October 3, 2019 by Guest

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, Dani said:

1 hour ago, Raja said:

I missed that in the pilot but in the second episode she said that she was a widow

No, he moved back to Nigeria. Her friend just joked that he his technically dead because they haven’t seen each other in 8 years

Yes. If he now has another family in Nigeria, would Abishola be able to get a long-distance divorce?

[Raja]

14 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

Yes. If he now has another family in Nigeria, would Abishola be able to get a long-distance divorce?

I doubt if Michigan   would even need proof of another family as justification. Now depending upon the brand of Christianity Abishola follows a show can make the reason for a divorce an issue like Major Crimes did with Captain Raydor holding out for a church annulment.

[wendyg]

I think wanting your kids to do well is typical of immigrant families in general, no matter what their original nationality. That's where all those Jewish doctors came from. : )

I liked this episode.

[Door County Cherry]

On 9/30/2019 at 12:07 PM, javajeanelaine said:

There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to what shows get a full forum and those that don't.

On 9/30/2019 at 1:07 PM, Harvey said:

Isn't it about interest? Like if the show got lots of comments consistently over time then it would get one.

The process to create a full forum currently begins with a poster making a request for a full forum in the New Show Forum Requests forum. You can find that here.  There are directions on how to create a forum pinned at the top. 

[Neurochick]

Interesting.

[shapeshifter]

45 minutes ago, Neurochick said:

Interesting.

This^ is not surprising to me. Maybe viewers were supposed to be skeptical of Abishola’s assumptions when watching the scene in which Abishola states that her son is going to be a doctor while the other mother’s child is not, but there’s nothing there.

Looking at Wikipedia, it seems not until episode 4 is 1 African American writer, Gloria Bigelow, included.

Rotten Tomatoes posted: “Groundbreaking, but unfortunately grating, Bob (Hearts) Abishola undermines its own progressive premise with underwhelming humor that relies too heavily on outdated stereotypes.”

Chuck Lorre was pretty short-sighted to not have at least 1 African American producer-writer in the room from the get-go (Gina Yashere is British-Nigerian).

*sigh*

[possibilities]

Does anyone remember "Bridget Loves Bernie"? This show feels to me like a remake, in some ways. It feels like it's trying to be modern, but it's coming across like a throwback, and I'm not surprised there's some controversy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridget_Loves_Bernie

[SmithW6079]

7 hours ago, Neurochick said:

Interesting.

Oh good lord. 😞

[Harvey]

Well, some controversy is always good, it makes things more talked about. It helped Insatiable get good ratings. Also, not even 1500 signatures in 2 weeks? This petition will go nowhere and have no effect.

[piccadilly83]

17 hours ago, Neurochick said:

Interesting.

I'm not surprised by this. I've only seen the first episode, so I can't comment on any trend in the series, but seeing as the show only has aired two episodes I think the people making this complaint are jumping the gun.  After the principal's office scene I decided I would wait for the first season to finish before judging whether that was a message the writers were trying to put forth. I mean, I don't think it's fair to just judge off of one or two episodes.  For all we know later on Abishola's son will befriend some ADOS classmates and she'll either A) change her attitude towards ADOS families, or B) demonstrate that she never had a prejudiced attitude to begin with. I have a hard time drawing a trend from one piece of data. Also, the fact that the show decided to hire an ADOS writer starting the 4th episode has me hoping that someone on staff recognized the problem (if indeed there was one) and took steps to correct it. We'll see.

[Neurochick]

As an ADOS person, I have sensed that many African immigrants see themselves as above ADOS, but I think that's because they don't know the history of what ADOS have been through in America.  My church has many members who are African immigrants (mostly from Benin, Togo and the Congo).  Two years ago the church had a trip to Washington D.C., to visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture.  ADOS and Africans went, the Africans because they wanted to see what ADOS went through in the US.

[AnimeMania]

I didn't see that scene as an African immigrant is better than an ADOS, but more I know how I raised my son and his grades and behavior reflect that. What were your son's grades and behavior like? I think she would have used that same argument regardless of the child involved.