I agree, very cliche. Was the original movie similar? Mid life crisis causing the rift? |
The reason why she does this is because she followed them after seeing their photos (even though the timing of this doesn't make a lot of sense). She then proceeds to be lame and mortifying during this trip. I think she comes off best when she is parenting the daughter in college in the later episodes. |
Yeah, her motivation was ridiculous and she realizes that. But they act like she’s afraid of her shadow and then she travels across the United States. Perhaps your boring personality is based on being married to a cheater for decades instead of just that’s a personality. And again she’s 60-year-old woman what do you want from her? Meanwhile, the other 60-year-olds are in yurts, 🛖, and trying to be as kind as possible about it so that they’re a loser friend can save face while he cries by the fire. Nick is selfish. Both Ann and Ginny (and the daughter) are his victims. |
But that was clearly the heart of it. Agree it would have been more interesting if he hadn't immediately pursued young tail. |
Yeah, I feel this. I know Ann said at the end that she saw his pictures with Ginny and he looked happy. But he also spent a considerable amount of time not seeming very happy -- kind of the same as he did with Ann. He didn't try to share experiences with Ann. I bet if he got sick, Ann would have cared for and taken care of him. But if Ann got sick, he would have cut and run and been resentful. He didn't really "see" Ann anymore -- or, he didn't see her fairly, anyway. And it also doesn't seem like he really tried to talk to Ann about what he wanted, either. Seems like what he wanted to a large degree was sex with a younger woman. What a cliche. |
Ann said this because she is a good person with a kind heart, and mature. Ginny was fairly mature too in her own way. Nick was the problem. And to the earlier poster, yes, Nick knew he was having a baby. Rewatch the grocery scene. |
Ann wasn’t a complete dud at all. Nick was just an immature ass who didn’t appreciate what he had. She was a 60 year old woman who apparently was much like Ginny as a younger woman. The opening scene is her acting fun and drunk in the driveway with Nick, and the friends clearly love her as much as Nick. Ann raised a daughter, cared deeply for her family, friends and husband and built a beautiful life for her husband and child. She was mature enough not to go totally ballistic when her husband of 25 years humiliated her by leaving her for a young dental assistant who he then inappropriately dragged to family and friend events, rubbing it in her face. She was the prize. Nick was a cliche. |
All of this. Also, I feel like there’s a subtext to the pictures.. it’s to the audience. You can’t always believe what you see in pictures. Sure he looked happy, but the reality is most of the time he was sad and sulky when it wasn’t exactly what he wanted. I think it’s to give us a little window into what Ann had to deal with her whole life. |
Yeah, I thought what kept it from being a cliché was he was hiding in his room while the younger folks were celebrating New Year’s and he was playing the same game that ann was playing that drove him crazy.
I thought that was a great call out that he was again just trying to chase and go back to his carefree youth, but as we were shown many times during the movie, when he hurt himself on the island, etc., you can’t go back. You can have temporary moments, but they are fleeting just like your youth was. Should he have stayed with Ann… Probably not. It just seems like if he was a serial cheater if he got to his mid 50s there probably wasn’t much chance of him learning his lesson. He would have been bogged down with Ginni and the new baby and probably not have been happy. He seemed like a good enough guy that he probably would’ve stepped it up and gone through it all again, but I just don’t think he ever would’ve really been happy. I think Ann had a real depth to her which they showed - her being the better parent and being able to put her hurt feelings behind her to step up for parents weekend, etc. But I also think she should’ve stepped up more and gone out of her comfort zone while they were married. I do understand his frustration. As I wrap up my 40s, I can totally see I have some ann tendencies. I totally need to do the same thing. It’s hard. But there’s nothing like a kick in your ass like your husband leaving you to get her to do that. Which is why she started traveling more by herself, putting herself out there with the surfing instructor, even though it didn’t go as planned. Overall, I was impressed with the complexity of it. Nobody was totally good or totally bad. |
I feel similarly in that, as someone who just turned 50, I could totally see wanting to stay on the porch and wrap up in a blanket. I mean, you can see the water! And it's not so jarring. This show really got me kind of down because it really did point out the foibles of people in this stage of life. Thickening toenails. Friendships that have stagnated. Slight irritation with the partners of friends becoming a "thing" that gets in the way. I'm just impressed at how many little long weekends away they still went on together with college friends. I see mine once in a blue moon. Making the effort to see them so often seems like a dream. But, maybe when my kids leave home like theirs had. |
Who that has a job that pays them enough to travel to exotic locations is sufficiently not-busy to take this many vacations per year with their old college friends. |
Besides one exotic vacation, they drove to the other places. One guy had a lake house so it was free for everyone else. They are clearly UMC but I didn't find it that unrealistic. With kids out of the house, weekend trips are not crazy. |
Same here! It gave me some pause and made me think. I always feel so tired and it's easy to just veg out when I'm not parenting or working. Hard to reclaim that independent spark of life. |
I don’t think he knew about the baby. He initially bought wine not cider for the NYE party and just didn’t seem like he was aware. I’m the one who raised the cryptic comment about the legal issue. I’d guess his initial will when he was married to Anne maybe provided for after born children of them jointly but probably not written to apply to after born extramarital children. And when he got divorced he probably re wrote his will to just name his daughter since he’d already given the house and potentially other assets to Anne. So I think it’s highly unlikely there is any provision for Ginni’s baby. And that their happy “we are all a chosen family” vibe will fall apart when Anne is faced with the choice of giving up some of her own child’s inheritance for this other baby. I mean maybe she’ll give ginni somethkng….but do we really think this baby will get half, out of the kindness of their hearts? I don’t even know if the baby gets social security death benefits if parent died before birth and they were never married. In short, I think Ginni is scrwed financially. |
I really don’t think he even knew about the baby, either. The new years thing said baby but he meant it for Ginny. There has been NO indication he knew, either from his actions to Ginny or what he said to his friends, or even his emotional behavior — he would be going through some emotional stuff probably. We don’t see that except his disaffection for Ginny’s friends. I just don’t think he knew. |