4 seasons season 2 — better than first

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm in my late 40s so young Gen X and I have elementary school kids. I can't imagine having the kind of time on my hands that these characters do. Their lifestyles definitely seem closer to my Boomer parents. Anne as a punk chick turned homemaker married to a (late) cheating finance bro was a particular stretch.

That said, I found Tina Fey and Colman Domingo's friendship very relatable and touching, and I loved the sweet subplot involving Will Forte's character meeting a new straight male friend.

But they are all supposed to be 10 years older than you. Tina Fey, Colman Domingo, and Kerri Kenney-Silver (Anne) are all 56. Will Forte is 55. Steve Carrell is the oldest at 63 (and I think his character reads as older). Marco Calvani (Claude) is your age, and he reads as younger. But that's why they have so much more time than you do -- they are 10 years later and empty nesting (or in the case of Danny and Claude, DINKs). That is where you will be in a decade when your kids are in college. You, too, will have a bunch of time to hang out with your friends, pursue hobbies, and start thinking about what your life looks like now that the parenting marathon is coming to an end (or shifting into a different gear).

And Anne as a punk chick turned homemaker makes perfect sense. She would have been in NY in her 20s in the 90s, partied all decade, met her finance bro husband (who is 6-7 years older than she was, which tracks) when they were both partying, then married and had a kid in her mid-30s, threw herself into that while her husband made the money and was never around, and then in her mid-to-late 50s when she's done raising their daughter, he finally feels free to dump her for the younger version of her (late 20s/early 30s free spirit), which in his mind is him being a good dad because he kept the family "intact" until his daughter was in college. And then Anne is lost because she changed her whole life and personality for her husband and kid and now they are both gone. It's not a stretch at all, it's just that people are unused to seeing an actress in her 50s who actually looks her age, and therefore think Anne is older than she is, but it's one of the most realistic things about the show.

Yeah I had friends who were punk in the 80s and from FB they all seem like normal suburban moms with boring jobs now. I think you either flame out on drugs or you transition into a more boring life in which you sometimes rock out in your kitchen and keep some old concert t shirts to wear with your jeans. There are lots of those women in their 50s and 60s now, and some of them do stuff like make ceramics, or they organize protests or whatever. I’m sure Nick didn’t present as finance bro when they met.

[Anonymous]

I really cannot like Jack.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm in my late 40s so young Gen X and I have elementary school kids. I can't imagine having the kind of time on my hands that these characters do. Their lifestyles definitely seem closer to my Boomer parents. Anne as a punk chick turned homemaker married to a (late) cheating finance bro was a particular stretch.

That said, I found Tina Fey and Colman Domingo's friendship very relatable and touching, and I loved the sweet subplot involving Will Forte's character meeting a new straight male friend.

But they are all supposed to be 10 years older than you. Tina Fey, Colman Domingo, and Kerri Kenney-Silver (Anne) are all 56. Will Forte is 55. Steve Carrell is the oldest at 63 (and I think his character reads as older). Marco Calvani (Claude) is your age, and he reads as younger. But that's why they have so much more time than you do -- they are 10 years later and empty nesting (or in the case of Danny and Claude, DINKs). That is where you will be in a decade when your kids are in college. You, too, will have a bunch of time to hang out with your friends, pursue hobbies, and start thinking about what your life looks like now that the parenting marathon is coming to an end (or shifting into a different gear).

And Anne as a punk chick turned homemaker makes perfect sense. She would have been in NY in her 20s in the 90s, partied all decade, met her finance bro husband (who is 6-7 years older than she was, which tracks) when they were both partying, then married and had a kid in her mid-30s, threw herself into that while her husband made the money and was never around, and then in her mid-to-late 50s when she's done raising their daughter, he finally feels free to dump her for the younger version of her (late 20s/early 30s free spirit), which in his mind is him being a good dad because he kept the family "intact" until his daughter was in college. And then Anne is lost because she changed her whole life and personality for her husband and kid and now they are both gone. It's not a stretch at all, it's just that people are unused to seeing an actress in her 50s who actually looks her age, and therefore think Anne is older than she is, but it's one of the most realistic things about the show.

+1 the whole point is they are out of the kids-at-home phase and figuring out what to do with their lives. I am early 40s with young kids so obviously cannot relate to their lifestyle but i thought it was thought provoking about the future when so much of my time and bandwidth and identity is wrapped up in this phase of parenting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good to know. 1st season felt insufferable (mainly for those of us triggered by Boomers).

Seek help

[Anonymous]

I can't stand Tina Fey.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Was anyone else surprised they never circled back on the story Tina Fey’s character mentioned about her childhood during the Covid episode? I thought they were going to go further with that. Otherwise it seemed kind of strange to bother mentioning.

Yes!! I thought that would be addressed more directly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband and I both struggled in season 2 with how incredibly unlikeable Jack (Will Forte) was. They kind of redeemed him by the end but it was hard to get to that point.

I get that the idea was that he was grieving his friend, but they all lost a friend. His pushiness in wanting everyone to grieve the same way reminded me of people in my real life and it was so irritating -- the narcissism of deciding your feelings are everyone's feelings and if they can't get on board with how you are expressing your feelings, it must be because their feelings are wrong.

Also it was extremely on point that he was the most insane about Covid precautions but then his insanity resulted in them all getting Covid. Tracks, that happened in our friend bubble too!

I think Jack was just sort of a doormat in season 1 so they needed to give him some texture. I found his need to have peolel grieve in a specific way to be realistic and fitting his character but what was irritating was everyone else’s inability to validate that feeling and then say “that’s not right for me though.” But I guess it made sense in the context of Tina fey’s character having a pathological need to avoid upsetting or emotional conversations. He has basically accommodated that their whole lives by being the easy going one, emotionally, so then when he hits a rough spot, that dynamic doesn’t work. And I think nicks death hit him harder because it was clear that was his only friend and Nick was sort of his “cool guy North Star” friend. The other couple have all their fabulous gay friends that they keep mentioning.

The whole show was basically about how the habits you’ve developed over decades can fall apart in middle age, for various reasons. Each one of the couples had a dynamic that was shown to be dysfunctional in season 1 and in season 2 they had to basically rearrange that dynamic. (With anne, it was her utter dependency on Nick —when Nick died, she replaced him with his gf/baby and became their caretaker … then realized this is f—ed up and I don’t even really remember who I was before I started down that path.).

The most unlikeable Jack episode was the Covid flashback episode though, before Nick died. It shows that he was actually not chill at all before Nick died -- he had extreme anxiety and could make weird and unsupportable choices in service to his anxiety. There's actually this great parallel between his behavior in that episode and his story arc for the season. In the Covid episode, he is the one suffering from extreme Covid anxiety, even considering sleeping in the car because he's so afraid to be inside around other people. He's obsessive about their Covid rituals like reading the poem every night, and while Tina Fey's character is supportive of this because she can see he needs it, you can also see that it's not what she needs and he doesn't really seem interested in what she needs. Then when they all start getting Covid his first instinct is to blame everyone else for breaking quarantine, until his daughter points out that he was the one who broke quarantine to get all those Covid tests, and he went to a clinic full of sick people to get them.

This is similar to what happens in the aftermath of Nick's death, with his grief making it impossible for him to see that others are also grieving but in their own way. He's once again being ruled by his emotions (this time grief and anger instead of anxiety) and Tina Fey is again focused on trying to give him what he needs. Her own needs get pushed to the back burner and when she does start to assert herself a bit during the summer episodes, it leads to him suggesting the "free balling" approach where they basically live separate lives. He is then a complete jerk at Thanksgiving (he doesn't even shower after his run or change out of his sweaty clothes???) has a huge meltdown and throws the turkey (ostensibly because he's mad at Danny for something Danny didn't even do, but actually because he just has unprocessed grief that is coming out as rage), and then becomes obsessed with everyone being mad at him for it even though they are all very forgiving.

And even then, Tina Fey focuses on what he needs, pushing him to do the marathon and recognizing that he uses physicality to work through emotions. Yes, it's nice when he pushes her to really express her own fears to him and he is very receptive and they come together at the end. But by the time that happens, he's spent he entire season focused pretty much entirely on his own emotions, behaving like a selfish child, and just generally being hard to deal with.

I like a lot of the ideas in this thread but will push back on this one. Tina Fey's character thinks she is being supportive but she's actually not because she keeps pushing Jack to get past grief and interrupts him whenever he tries to explain to get how he's really feeling. She's basically telling him to bottle up his true emotions and just act more happy. You can't exactly blame her for his blow ups, but perhaps if he was allowed to actually talk about and process how he feels he wouldn't get to that point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't stand Tina Fey.

You will be amazed to learn that there's a simple way to cope with this fact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was anyone else surprised they never circled back on the story Tina Fey’s character mentioned about her childhood during the Covid episode? I thought they were going to go further with that. Otherwise it seemed kind of strange to bother mentioning.

Yes!! I thought that would be addressed more directly.

What did she say? I can’t remember.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I mean, the acting is good. But I don't really get it viscerally as a Gen X person. It doesn't resonate to our generation's struggles.

Which is what?

[Anonymous]

I watched both seasons together without my husband and there were so many just gut wrenching, raw things about this series. I really feel it portrays the messiness of life. With the exception of someone dealing with a disabled or very ill spouse.

I'm 41 and know many disabled spouses. All disabled young too.

I loved how really it was, with humor, and I can understand how it would make other people extremely uncomfortable. It's too close to home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was anyone else surprised they never circled back on the story Tina Fey’s character mentioned about her childhood during the Covid episode? I thought they were going to go further with that. Otherwise it seemed kind of strange to bother mentioning.

Yes!! I thought that would be addressed more directly.

I did too. I thought that might be explained during the ridiculous scenes where they're finishing the marathon together, but they didn't go there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was anyone else surprised they never circled back on the story Tina Fey’s character mentioned about her childhood during the Covid episode? I thought they were going to go further with that. Otherwise it seemed kind of strange to bother mentioning.

Yes!! I thought that would be addressed more directly.

What did she say? I can’t remember.

Something like she spent some years living with her grandparents because of her mother's depression? Which seemed to come as a shock to her best friend since college.

[Anonymous]

I didn't find it very funny. But I did laugh at the soap dispenser.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was anyone else surprised they never circled back on the story Tina Fey’s character mentioned about her childhood during the Covid episode? I thought they were going to go further with that. Otherwise it seemed kind of strange to bother mentioning.

Yes!! I thought that would be addressed more directly.

What did she say? I can’t remember.

Something like she spent some years living with her grandparents because of her mother's depression? Which seemed to come as a shock to her best friend since college.

It may be a generational thing -- the older you are, the less likely you are to be an open book, even to your loved ones.

I think a lot of viewers would have a frame of reference for "effed up thing we didn't discuss, to our disadvantage even years later." We don't need a big long unpacking and examination