Dean trying to look like James Dean or Marlon Brando with Colette at his side. Credit: ABC
At first, I was going to say that this is probably the most cohesively-written episode yet. At first glance, the characters seem like they know who they are, the dialogue actually has some humor and wit, and there is an actual look at sexual harassment in the workplace à la the 1960s via that creepy old pilot. But there are some problems.
First, let me start with the positive:
- Sam gets some lines! Yes, he’s said stuff in other episodes, but, like Sanjeev, he’s been sidelined hardcore. To be honest, he’s still sidelined, but he got to say major stuff in both the first and second acts, whereas The ‘Jeev gets most of his talking done in the first. However,we still have some problems with Sam, which I’ll get to when I get to the negatives.
- The writing! The writing had some bad things in it, which you’ll read about at length. But I did like the extra-smooth flow through the show’s storylines and the constant references back to other episodes, showing that there is supposed to be continuity. Like I said, at first glance, this was an easy-to-like and easy-to-watch episode. Even my own sister, who doesn’t watch the show, watched this episode and said, “I’m surprised how invested I am in a show I never intended to watch.”
- The ending: To end on a cliffhanger was great! The gun pointing in the camera has been done before, sure, but that’s only because it’s effective.
- Winter break! It seems like the series will pick up some after the small winter hiatus, what with Bridget coming back and trying to steal Dean back, Kate having to flee, and other stuff. Will this mean that the ‘Jeev’s time will finally come and he’ll get some awesome lines? Will Joe return and vie for Laura’s affections whilst fighting off Ted (who is hopefully characterized as prejudiced at this point)? Will Dean get interesting? Questions abound, and hopefully, they get answered.
The so-so:
- Dean’s parents: At first, I liked where the storyline with Dean’s parents was headed. It seemed we were going to get some tension, really address the Bridget thing, and have Colette be awesome either defending herself, slapping Dean and leaving, or actually flying the crop duster (speaking of–why the heck was that freaking duster even brought up if it wasn’t going to be used or ever seen in the show? This is the classic “Show a gun in a room and someone has to use it” scenario). Dean’s dad is a complete jerk, and there was barely pretext for it. Sure, he’s upset about Bridget, but no one would be that rude to a guest right in their face. It was understandable when Dean stayed behind to not-talk to his dad when they first came (Dean really could’ve said something there, though instead of just huffing and shrugging his shoulders), but for the dad to blatantly insult Colette like that? Wow. What an idiot. Dean’s mom was right to be livid and ashamed of her husband. However, now we know where Dean gets his jerkish qualities from.
- Laura/Ted: Seriously, we need to stop this storyline. However, I will say that it was done much better than it has been in the past. But Laura and Ted just don’t make sense to me. Ted is a rich kid who has no idea about how the rest of the world lives. Laura doesn’t really know how the other half lives, either, but she’s naive and honest and sweet who sees the good in people. I guess that’s why she puts up with Ted, but what is Ted? Ted is a character that borders on being the annoying kid you grow to love in spite of yourself and the racist, misogynist jerk that he was in the first episodes. He can be both, but he has to be both consistently, not whenever it’s convenient for the plot. Speaking of “plot,” we see Ashley Greene’s cameo. She was all right; right now, her character’s at the base level of characterization, but there’s nothing wrong with the character. However, for Laura to be jealous of her is ludicrous. Had we not already set up the Joe/Laura thing? Did she decide to make out with a black guy and accept his gift for kicks? Did the writers not want us to think she was in a relationship with Joe? I’m less confused and more extremely irked by this terrible omission of Joe, who got a surprisingly large amount of character development for one episode. I say that the writers need to leave Laura/Ted alone. It’s just not working for me. It’s tired.
Dean’s parents. Credit: ABC
Okay. The negatives:
- What and who is Sam? We, the audience, the people who are supposed to follow these characters willingly, STILL DON’T KNOW WHO THE HECK SAM IS! WHO IS THIS GUY!? Is he Maggie’s brother? Just her bohemian roommate that thinks he’s being edgy by rooming with a girl and being comfortable seeing her in her underthings? Is he her friends-with-benefits? What? WHAT!? This is a basic question that should have been given a basic answer in the FIRST EPISODE. The second one, at the extreme most. We shouldn’t have gone through three episodes before we find out who this guy is, let alone EIGHT.
- Dean: Okay, Dean is beginning to be the Todd of Pan Am for me. If you recall from my Outsourced recaps, I loathe Todd (the character, not the actor who portrays him) with every fiber of my being. Todd’s an idiot who doesn’t understand that he’s a racist; in fact, he thinks he’s being cute in his ignorance. Dean’s no racist, but he does have an “I’m being cute because I’m an ‘ace pilot’” thing going on. And he’s totally misogynist. Why do I say this? Several reasons:
- You don’t manhandle a woman like that when they obviously want to leave. Whatever you have to say needs to be yelled at her back since she will be walking away. If you say something she finds intriguing, then she’ll stop on her own. It’s fine to stop a woman, but it looked like he was actually hurting her wrists. I started getting flashbacks of this scene from my favorite Bollywood film, Dil Chahta Hai (starts around the 5:37 mark).
- You don’t think that by simply kissing a woman that she’ll melt in your arms and forgive you. This is also a fault with the characterization of Colette in this episode–she has every right to be angry at Dean and to NOT kiss him. She should have kicked him in the groin and commandeered his car and drive off to where she could rent a taxi or something. This idea that a kiss solves all problems is really erroneous, and actually shows the worst side of the 1960s movie themes (e.g. when Audrey Hepburn is kissed by Fred Astaire during the bookstore scene in Funny Face. In the ’60s, it was apparently okay to kiss a woman when they didn’t asked to be kissed and then tell her that she looked like she wanted to be kissed by you. That’s not cute–that’s sexual harassment.)
- At the very least, DON’T HAVE SEX WHERE YOUR PARENTS CAN SEE YOU OUT THE WINDOW! There was a vantage point where the parents could see, or at least that’s what I thought. If not, one of the parents could have gone outside to see if Dean and Colette had patched things up and get an eyefull. And speaking of–Why didn’t the parents come outside? Colette left when they were still eating dinner and she and Dean never come back to the table. The parents should start wondering, “What is taking them so long to come back?” If they did come back, then we could have gotten a rewarding scene with the dad apologizing to Colette and explaining how dead-set he was on finally meeting Bridget and Dean could have made up with his dad. Which leads me to my next point:
- Bridget wasn’t real enough: Where the heck did this plotline come from? Yes, Bridget totally abandoned Dean, but how does that make their relationship “not real”? I could buy this plotline if we were shown more of how it wasn’t as real as Dean wanted it to be. But if it wasn’t real, why did Dean try to marry her? He was obviously very much in love with her; if he had reservations, he shouldn’t have popped the question to begin with. Secondly, why say that his short relationship with Colette was the most real relationship? He was having sex with Ginny for most of the freaking time! They didn’t have any real alone time–one time that could have been used as a great bonding moment was when Colette told Kate about her Holocaust past. Instead of Kate being there, it should have been Dean. Or, she could’ve mentioned it at the dinner scene in this episode when Dean’s mom asks about her home in France. It’s a bit heavy for dinner, but anything would be better than just having scenes of sex with no real plot development.
- The messages of sex: Let me be clear–I’m no Puritan. I know that there’s a human need for sex. I get it. Frankly, I’m all right when there is sex in shows and movies because sometimes, it actually helps moves the story along. But the message that was given about how sex is used in this show is “Our women sometimes whore themselves out.” The woman I’m really talking about here is Maggie, since I understand why they showed Colette getting some action. After Sam accuses Maggie of being a talker and not a doer (which is valid–the one characterization point the show has gotten right is Maggie’s love of the faςade instead of substance), Maggie decides to make a difference and accost the senator that is on their flight (who also happens to be in their same hotel). This leads to Maggie going to his room and further talking about how his position on nuclear weapons is wrong. This leads to drinking, which leads to, of course, sex. But did she plan it that way? The writing is a bit ambiguous, I think. Basically, when she goes upstairs, you know what’s going to happen; it’s just hard to believe the writers set up the scene like that so that it would happen. What I’m getting at is that it’s terrible that the writers inadvertently gave the message that the only way to change something or get what you want is to have sex with someone. Maybe I’m reading too much into it; I don’t know. I just know it irked me.
Sanjeev alert:
There’s no ‘Jeev in this episode! Where is The ‘Jeev, one of the few bright spots of Pan Am?! I suppose Kal Parekh was still off filming his movie in this episode as well as the last one. Come back, Sanjeev! Since there’s no ‘Jeev screencap this week, I’ll post this picture, which is an awesome profile shot of The ‘Jeev looking serious:
Credit: ABC
Maybe he’s studying the meters and buttons and graphs and maps and stuff (I don’t know what flight engineers/technicians look at; I’m no Capt. Jeff.)
Other than waiting for ‘The Jeev to make a reappearance, I don’t know about this show anymore, you guys. I just don’t know. I’m still hoping against hope that this show will make a complete turn around, because ABC really seems to want this show to work against all studio logic (I would have to think they’ve lost as much money on this show in America as they’ve made on this show abroad so far). As The Animaniacs so proudly sang in Wakko’s Wish, “You gotta cheer up, and never give up hope!”
