"I never met anyone who committed adultery before..."
This episode sees the fallout from last season’s finale as Elsa confesses her adultery to a furious Doug, who leaves for a while- hence the 2004 flashback, reminding us he hasn’t always had the moral high ground. Elsa tried hard to be a good mother and keep things together but she’s falling apart, and Casey is furious with her. When Doug returns a couple of days later it’s him who bonds with a highly strung Casey- and rather harshly throws a meek Elsa out of the house. This is nothing if not dramatic, and removes Doug’s halo somewhat. Is the rest of the season going to show Doug trying to manage as pretty much a single parent while Elsa is all alone?
There’s a hole in the family, and the metaphor with Sam’s hole in Antarctica is very cleverly handled all the way through until Sam realised what has happened after an upset Casey blurts it out- and actually copes rather well, considering, especially as Paige is away in Maine and their relationship is currently ambiguous after the, ahem, magical experience in the igloo. But he copes well, as Julia says when he naughtily meets her as a one-off for what should really be the last time. Hopefully he will find a decent new counsellor with, er, acceptable eyebrows...
Incidentally, Paige has a “mee-maw” as in Young Sheldon, and Sam goes past a “Denton University”. I Googled this, and apparently they all live in the Dallas area of Texas, which is not what I expected. Wherever they are, this is a strong start.
Showing posts with label Kevin Daniels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kevin Daniels. Show all posts
Sunday, 14 July 2019
Thursday, 27 June 2019
Atypical: Season 1, Episode 4- A Nice Neutral Smell
"She's a girl who wants to touch your peen..."
A surprisingly eventful episode here as we reach the season halfway point. It's played for laughs, but Elsa is racked with guilt for her infidelity, and ends up dumping her lover and committing to her life of Doug being nice and her kids taking her for granted.
But this episode isn't really about Elsa. It's not about Doug, either, and the alienation he feels at the autism group with the constant anal pointing out of his occasional slip into non-"people-inclusive language". Nor, even, is it about Sam, with his incident in the crowd at the athletics track with the ponytail, or that a lot of screen time is spent with him clumsily making his way towards a relationship with the rather cute Paige.
No; this is about Casey, whose record-breaking victory in the 400m isn't witnessed by anyone in her family, and whose proffered athletics scholarship to a posh school is pooh poohed by Elsa because she "needs" to be in the same school as Sam to look after him. Because Sam is the special one, and no one wants it to be about her- so it falls to a brave and lovely outburst by Evan, who insists that it bloody well is about her and it's time people started recognising that. It's a very good bit of writing. And I can't believe we're already halfway through the season.
A surprisingly eventful episode here as we reach the season halfway point. It's played for laughs, but Elsa is racked with guilt for her infidelity, and ends up dumping her lover and committing to her life of Doug being nice and her kids taking her for granted.
But this episode isn't really about Elsa. It's not about Doug, either, and the alienation he feels at the autism group with the constant anal pointing out of his occasional slip into non-"people-inclusive language". Nor, even, is it about Sam, with his incident in the crowd at the athletics track with the ponytail, or that a lot of screen time is spent with him clumsily making his way towards a relationship with the rather cute Paige.
No; this is about Casey, whose record-breaking victory in the 400m isn't witnessed by anyone in her family, and whose proffered athletics scholarship to a posh school is pooh poohed by Elsa because she "needs" to be in the same school as Sam to look after him. Because Sam is the special one, and no one wants it to be about her- so it falls to a brave and lovely outburst by Evan, who insists that it bloody well is about her and it's time people started recognising that. It's a very good bit of writing. And I can't believe we're already halfway through the season.
Friday, 21 June 2019
Atypical: Season 1, Episode 2- A Human Female
“Nobody needs you, Mom!”
On the surface this episode centres around Sam’s crush for Julia and his comical misunderstanding that he has the green light to pursue Julia, something which takes up a lot of screen time and allows him to bond with his dad while doing so, but this is all neatly resolved. Meanwhile, more long term things are happening beneath the surface.
Elsa, for example, is responding very negatively to Doug’s attention and eventually finds an excuse to meet that barman again. It’s clear where this is going, and she isn’t a likeable character, but before we judge too harshly we should remember that she’s spend years with heavy caring response divinities and, decent though Doug is, we live in a culture where women are expected to do this sort of heavy labour.
We also see an intensifying of the relationship between the touchingly inexperienced Casey and Evan. After kissing him for the first time her reaction is utterly, utterly cute. So far this is the nice and fluffy storyline, acting as contrast to the worrying possibility of adultery, and meanwhile Sam is oblivious. This is promisingly well written stuff.
On the surface this episode centres around Sam’s crush for Julia and his comical misunderstanding that he has the green light to pursue Julia, something which takes up a lot of screen time and allows him to bond with his dad while doing so, but this is all neatly resolved. Meanwhile, more long term things are happening beneath the surface.
Elsa, for example, is responding very negatively to Doug’s attention and eventually finds an excuse to meet that barman again. It’s clear where this is going, and she isn’t a likeable character, but before we judge too harshly we should remember that she’s spend years with heavy caring response divinities and, decent though Doug is, we live in a culture where women are expected to do this sort of heavy labour.
We also see an intensifying of the relationship between the touchingly inexperienced Casey and Evan. After kissing him for the first time her reaction is utterly, utterly cute. So far this is the nice and fluffy storyline, acting as contrast to the worrying possibility of adultery, and meanwhile Sam is oblivious. This is promisingly well written stuff.
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