I'm not usually moved to write reviews of anything. If you watch any show start to finish, it's fairly typical to have weak episodes here and there - bad dialogue or trite plot lines. But this episode tanks the show for me momentarily. I might need therapy.
There's an afterschool special vibe to the episode story lines - someone took Chekov's gun advice far too literally and the result is several particularly contrived subplots with terrible messages. In no particular order ...
1. Buddy Garrity is worried about Santiago's "thug" friends coming over and hides his valuables, changes his mind and displays them before they come by, and sure enough - stuff gets trashed/stolen. Guess he was right to judge the thug friends! And it only took one day for his suspicions to pan out. Pistol in Act I gets shot in Act III.
2. Tami hesitates to leave Baby Grace at daycare, and the obvious solution is for Tami to leave her job (which she loves) and be a stay at home mom. Tami holds her ground at first and then capitulates, paving the way for Eric to affirm his authority over the family AND save the day by deciding she won't quit after all. Who wears the pants in the family!
3. Smash's white girlfriend invites Smash's family over for dinner, which turns into a parental intervention to end their interracial relationship. The kids are mad and refuse to comply because - good grief, what year is this? But sure enough, despite going out publicly before with no issues, the moment Smash and his lady meet for a clandestine movie date, racist drama ensues, proving parents right!
4. Tim prank calls Lyla on her Jesus radio show, then shows up to the station with flowers to apologize and literally walks in on her kissing her co-host, because we haven't used that trope enough yet on this show. The moral this time though is the Jesus guy wins.
5. Matt Saracen decides he loves the live in nurse exactly as she is packing to return to Guatamala. She brings him to a Quinceanera! ooh. Serious? Then she leaves a day early and doesn't say goodbye.
Primetime TV drama writing 101 fail. Morally questionable afterschool special writing for kids who aren't sure whether they should trust blacks & latinos = pass!
The thing is with this show, it's emotionally rich and sometimes borders on excellent writing, so we forgive it some melodrama since it has potential for real depth, and it tried to warn us in the beginning that it was a soap opera, by casting so many impossibly gorgeous actors.
There's an afterschool special vibe to the episode story lines - someone took Chekov's gun advice far too literally and the result is several particularly contrived subplots with terrible messages. In no particular order ...
1. Buddy Garrity is worried about Santiago's "thug" friends coming over and hides his valuables, changes his mind and displays them before they come by, and sure enough - stuff gets trashed/stolen. Guess he was right to judge the thug friends! And it only took one day for his suspicions to pan out. Pistol in Act I gets shot in Act III.
2. Tami hesitates to leave Baby Grace at daycare, and the obvious solution is for Tami to leave her job (which she loves) and be a stay at home mom. Tami holds her ground at first and then capitulates, paving the way for Eric to affirm his authority over the family AND save the day by deciding she won't quit after all. Who wears the pants in the family!
3. Smash's white girlfriend invites Smash's family over for dinner, which turns into a parental intervention to end their interracial relationship. The kids are mad and refuse to comply because - good grief, what year is this? But sure enough, despite going out publicly before with no issues, the moment Smash and his lady meet for a clandestine movie date, racist drama ensues, proving parents right!
4. Tim prank calls Lyla on her Jesus radio show, then shows up to the station with flowers to apologize and literally walks in on her kissing her co-host, because we haven't used that trope enough yet on this show. The moral this time though is the Jesus guy wins.
5. Matt Saracen decides he loves the live in nurse exactly as she is packing to return to Guatamala. She brings him to a Quinceanera! ooh. Serious? Then she leaves a day early and doesn't say goodbye.
Primetime TV drama writing 101 fail. Morally questionable afterschool special writing for kids who aren't sure whether they should trust blacks & latinos = pass!
The thing is with this show, it's emotionally rich and sometimes borders on excellent writing, so we forgive it some melodrama since it has potential for real depth, and it tried to warn us in the beginning that it was a soap opera, by casting so many impossibly gorgeous actors.