#emily ramierz

[popculturebuffet]

Candace: Mommy, if my dolly is cold, can I put her in the toaster oven?

Emily: No, Candace, that would be a mistake.

Candace: Mommy, I made a mistake.

[hqnews-blog]

Legends of Tomorrow ganhou imagens do oitavo episódio da quarta temporada. O episódio intitulado “Crisis on Earth X: Part 4” irá ao ar no dia 28 de novembro no canal CW dos EUA. Esse episódio é a segunda parte do crossover especial com os heróis da DC/CW. Veja abaixo (clique nas imagens para ampliá-las):

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow — “Crisis on Earth — X, Part 4” — Image Number: LGN308c_0350b.jpg — Pictured: Dominic Purcell as Mick Rory/Heat Wave — Photo: Bettina Strauss/The CW — Ì?å© 2017 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow — “Crisis on Earth — X, Part 4” — Image Number: LGN308c_0118b2b.jpg — Pictured (L-R): Rick Gonzalez as Rene Ramirez/Wild Dog, Maisie Richardson- Sellers as Amaya Jiwe, Vixen, Caity Lotz as Sara Lance/White Canary, Grant Gustin as Barry Allen/The Flash, Nick Zano as Nate Heywood/Steel and Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen/Green Arrow– Photo: Bettina Strauss/The CW — Ì?å© 2017 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow — “Crisis on Earth — X, Part 4” — Image Number: LGN308c_0113b2b.jpg — Pictured (L-R): Caity Lotz as Sara Lance/White Canary, Grant Gustin as Barry Allen/The Flash, Nick Zano as Nate Heywood/Steel and Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen/Green Arrow– Photo: Bettina Strauss/The CW — Ì?å© 2017 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow — “Crisis on Earth — X, Part 4” — Image Number: LGN308c_0095b.jpg — Pictured (L-R): Chyler Leigh as Alex Danvers, Echo Kellum as Curtis Holt/Mr. Terrific, Maisie Richardson- Sellers as Amaya Jiwe/Vixen, Rick Gonzalez as Rene Ramierz/Wild Dog, Caity Lotz as Sara Lance/White Canary, Grant Gustin as Barry Allen/The Flash, Nick Zano as Nate Heywood/Steel, Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen/Green Arrow, Brandon Routh as Ray Palmer/Atom, Dominic Purcell as Mick Rory/Heat Wave, Wentworth Miller as Citizen Cold/Leo – X, Tala Ashe as Zari Tomaz and Juliana Harkavy as Dinah Drake/ Black Canary — Photo: Bettina Strauss/The CW — Ì?å© 2017 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow — “Crisis on Earth — X, Part 4” — Image Number: LGN308c_0084b.jpg — Pictured (L-R): Chyler Leigh as Alex Danvers, Echo Kellum as Curtis Holt/Mr. Terrific, Maisie Richardson- Sellers as Amaya Jiwe/Vixen, Rick Gonzalez as Rene Ramierz/Wild Dog, Caity Lotz as Sara Lance/White Canary, Grant Gustin as Barry Allen/The Flash, Nick Zano as Nate Heywood/Steel, Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen/Green Arrow, Brandon Routh as Ray Palmer/Atom, Dominic Purcell as Mick Rory/Heat Wave, Wentworth Miller as Citizen Cold and Tala Ashe as Zari Tomaz — Photo: Bettina Strauss/The CW — Ì?å© 2017 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow — “Crisis on Earth — X, Part 4” — Image Number: LGN308c_0066b.jpg — Pictured (L-R): Chyler Leigh as Alex Danvers, Echo Kellum as Curtis Holt/Mr. Terrific, Maisie Richardson- Sellers as Amaya Jiwe/Vixen, Rick Gonzalez as Rene Ramierz/Wild Dog, Caity Lotz as Sara Lance/White Canary, Grant Gustin as Barry Allen/The Flash, Nick Zano as Nate Heywood/Steel, Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen/Green Arrow, Brandon Routh as Ray Palmer/Atom, Dominic Purcell as Mick Rory/Heat Wave and Wentworth Miller as Citizen Cold/Leo – X — Photo: Bettina Strauss/The CW — Ì?å© 2017 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow — “Crisis on Earth — X, Part 4” — Image Number: LGN308b_0323bc.jpg — Pictured (L-R): Tala Ashe as Zari Tomaz, Tom Cavanagh as Harrison Wells, Maisie Richardson- Sellers as Amaya Jiwe/Vixen, Danielle Panabaker as Caitlin Snow/Killer Frost and Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon/Vibe — Photo: Robert Falconer/The CW — Ì?å© 2017 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow — “Crisis on Earth — X, Part 4” — Image Number: LGN308b_0300b.jpg — Pictured: Candice Patton as Iris West — Photo: Robert Falconer/The CW — Ì?å© 2017 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow — “Crisis on Earth — X, Part 4” — Image Number: LGN308b_0249b.jpg — Pictured (L-R): Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon/Vibe and Tom Cavanagh as Harrison Wells — Photo: Robert Falconer/The CW — Ì?å© 2017 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow — “Crisis on Earth — X, Part 4” — Image Number: LGN308b_0138b.jpg — Pictured (L-R): Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen/Green Arrow and Caity Lotz as Sara Lance/White Canary — Photo: Robert Falconer/The CW — Ì?å© 2017 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow — “Crisis on Earth — X, Part 4” — Image Number: LGN308b_0075b.jpg — Pictured (L-R): Danielle Panabaker as Caitlin Snow/Killer Frost, Melissa Benoist as Kara/Supergirl and Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity Smoak — Photo: Robert Falconer/The CW — Ì?å© 2017 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow — “Crisis on Earth — X, Part 4” — Image Number: LGN308b_0070b.jpg — Pictured (L-R) (TOP): Brandon Routh as Ray Palmer/Atom, Tom Cavanagh as Harrison Wells and Dominic Purcell as Mick Rory/Heat Wave (MIDDLE): Echo Kellum as Curtis Holt/Mr.Terrific, Wentworth Miller as Citizen Cold/Leo – X, Russell Tovey as The Ray/Ray Terrill, Chyler Leigh as Alex Danvers, Rick Gonzalez as Rene Ramirez/Wild Dog, Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon/Vibe, Candice Patton as Iris West and Juliana Harkavy as Dinah Drake/ Black Canary (BOTTOM): Nick Zano as Nate Heywood/Steel, Danielle Panabaker as Caitlin Snow/Killer Frost, Caity Lotz as Sara Lance/White Canary, Melissa Benoist as Kara/Supergirl, Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen/Green Arrow, Grant Gustin as Barry/Allen The Flash, Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity Smoak, Tala Ashe as Zari Tomez and Maisie Richardson- Sellers as Amaya Jiwe/Vixen — Photo: Robert Falconer/The CW — Ì?å© 2017 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow — “Crisis on Earth — X, Part 4” — Image Number: LGN308b_0069b.jpg — Pictured (L-R) (TOP): Echo Kellum as Curtis Holt/Mr.Terrific, Wentworth Miller as Citizen Cold/Leo -X and Russell Tovey as The Ray/Ray Terrill (MIDDLE): Nick Zano as Nate Heywood/Steel and Danielle Panabaker as Caitlin Snow/Killer Frost (BOTTOM): Caity Lotz as Sara Lance/White Canary and Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen/Green Arrow– Photo: Robert Falconer/The CW — Ì?å© 2017 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow — “Crisis on Earth — X, Part 4” — Image Number: LGN308b_0041b.jpg — Pictured (L-R) (TOP): Brandon Routh as Ray Palmer/Atom, Tom Cavanagh as Harrison Wells and Dominic Purcell as Mick Rory/Heat Wave (MIDDLE): Echo Kellum as Curtis Holt/Mr.Terrific, Wentworth Miller as Citizen Cold/Leo – X, Russell Tovey as The Ray/Ray Terrill, Chyler Leigh as Alex Danvers, Rick Gonzalez as Rene Ramirez/Wild Dog, Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon/Vibe, Candice Patton as Iris West and Juliana Harkavy as Dinah Drake/ Black Canary (BOTTOM): Nick Zano as Nate Heywood/Steel, Danielle Panabaker as Caitlin Snow/Killer Frost, Caity Lotz as Sara Lance/White Canary, Melissa Benoist as Kara/Supergirl, Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen/Green Arrow, Grant Gustin as Barry Allen The Flash, Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity Smoak, Tala Ashe as Zari Tomez and Maisie Richardson- Sellers as Amaya Jiwe/Vixen — Photo: Robert Falconer/The CW — Ì?å© 2017 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow — “Crisis on Earth — X, Part 4” — Image Number: LGN308a_0260b.jpg — Pictured (L-R): Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity Smoak and Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen/Green Arrow — Photo: Robert Falconer/The CW — Ì?å© 2017 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow — “Crisis on Earth — X, Part 4” — Image Number: LGN308a_0241b.jpg — Pictured (L-R): Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity Smoak and Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen/Green Arrow — Photo: Robert Falconer/The CW — Ì?å© 2017 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow — “Crisis on Earth — X, Part 4” — Image Number: LGN308a_0136b.jpg — Pictured (L-R): Melissa Benoist as Kara and Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity Smoak — Photo: Robert Falconer/The CW — Ì?å© 2017 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow — “Crisis on Earth — X, Part 4” — Image Number: LGN308a_0125b.jpg — Pictured (L-R): Brandon Routh as Ray Palmer/Atom, Melissa Benoist as Kara and Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity Smoak — Photo: Robert Falconer/The CW — Ì?å© 2017 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Leia a sinopse do episódio Legends of Tomorrow – Crisis on Earth X: Part 4

Leia abaixo a sinopse do oitavo episódio da terceira temporada.

EPISÓDIO 3×08

“Crisis on Earth X: Part 4”

O casamento de Barry e Iris reúne a turma, mas problemas surgem quando vilões da Terra-X atacam a cerimônia. Os super-heróis contam com a ajuda de seus super amigos como Cidadão Frio, The Ray, Felicity Smoak, Iris West e Alex Danvers para enfrentar os perigosos vilões. Os heróis mais poderosos da Terra – Arqueiro Verde, Supergirl, The Flash e Canário Branco – lideram suas equipes na batalha para salvar o mundo.

Quando apenas heróis sozinhos não são suficientes… o mundo precisa de lendas. Tendo visto o futuro, um que ele precisa desesperadamente evitar que aconteça, o viajante do tempo Rip Hunter recebe a tarefa de juntar um time heterogêneo, composto tanto de heróis quanto vilões, que devem dar fim a uma gigantesca ameaça — uma que coloca não apenas o planeta em risco, mas o próprio tempo. Será este time capaz de derrotar um inimigo imortal diferente de tudo que já foi visto?

Legends of Tomorrow: Veja imagens de “Crisis on Earth X: Part 4”, crossover das séries de tv da DC/CW Legends of Tomorrow ganhou imagens do oitavo episódio da quarta temporada. O episódio intitulado “Crisis on Earth X: Part 4…

[nofomoartworld]

Hyperallergic: Massive ‘Nasty Women’ Art Show Raises 35K for Planned Parenthood Opening Night

Installation view, Nasty Women at the Knockdown Center (all photos by the author for Hyperallergic)

It began (as so many things do these days) with a Facebook post. On November 14, less than a week after the election, artist Roxanne Jackson wrote on the social media platform: “Hello female artists/curators! Let’s organize a NASTY WOMEN group show!!! Who’s interested???” At the time, Jackson had been thinking of Donald Trump’s misogynist comments and his subsequent winning of the presidency, but also of a certain aesthetic akin to her own: purposefully and playfully grotesque art made by women. She’d been talking to curator Jessamyn Fiore about doing a show of such work. As responses to her post swiftly accumulated, however, she realized she was tapping into something much larger than just an artistic style. “Hundreds of people responded to this in an hour, and some didn’t fit into the category of grotesque work,” she told Hyperallergic. “We realized that we needed to include all those women who wanted to participate in this show so their voices could be heard through their art.”

Within five days, the pair had a venue — the Knockdown Center, a former door factory–cum–art space in Maspeth, Queens, whose curatorial advisory board Fiore sits on — and a website — thanks to graphic and web designer Barbara Smith. They posted an open call: anyone who identified as female could submit an artwork, and as long as it measured under 12 inches in every direction, it would be accepted. Submissions began rolling in — hundreds and hundreds of them.

“I think the week that we did this, there was this crazy energy” in response to the election of Trump, Fiore said. There was “a need for something, and it needed to land somewhere. We were able to give a conduit” for people’s desires to take action.

Or, as a friend put it to her: “You just happened to create the spark that landed on a giant pile of tinder.”

Debra Broz, “Pussies Grabbing Back,” part of Nasty Women

Importantly, the fire was lit by more than just the opportunity to show work in a high-profile group show in New York. Nasty Women was conceived from the get-go as a fundraiser, a fact that stressed by both women. All of the nearly 700 artworks included in the final exhibition are priced at $100 or less, and all of the money from their sales goes to Planned Parenthood. According to Jackson, that means the show has the potential to raise about $50,000 for the national women’s health organization, which has already been threatened by the new Congress.

“People want to do things. This is a straightforward visual arts response that has practical results because it is a fundraiser,” said Fiore. Jackson added that the low pricing of the works was also meant to encourage people who’d never bought art to give it a try. “We’re trying to make the process more democratic.”

The “W” in Nasty Women at the Knockdown Center

Building on that idea, the installation is egalitarian. Although it’s now an art center, the Knockdown Center does not actually have many walls on which to hang art. Artist Clive Murphy volunteered a solution: he would design and build an armature for the exhibition, a series of 10-foot-high pinkish-purple letters spelling out “NASTY WOMEN.” The show’s paintings, drawings, collages, sculptures, videos, and more are splayed across these letters, not curated in any traditional sense, only arranged by volunteers. (The rest of the Nasty Women team consists of Angel Bellaran, Liz Nielsen, Aimee Odum, Young Sun Han, Haley M. Shaw, Stephanie Stockbridge, and Carolina Wheat.) Some groupings seem purposeful, and resonances do arise — vaginal necklace and fruit imagery side by side, two portraits about aging on a diagonal — but the letters act most importantly as a unifying force, bringing together pieces by established artists and those who’ve never shown before; art that feels deeply earnest and rooted in cynicism; works that evoke pride, introspection, shame, and anger.

Clockwise from top left: Shenise Ramierz, “Bruja”; Lauren Silberman, “Birds”; Cidy Trinh, “Pussies in Formation”

In spite of its diversity, Nasty Women does seem to manifest one central idea: Women across the United States are unhappy with the election of Donald Trump (even though many other women voted for him). They are scared, threatened, pissed off, defiant, and galvanized by a misogynist taking the country’s highest office. But the very existence of the show suggests they won’t be silenced, and that is genuinely inspiring — so inspiring that in the course of last night’s three-hour opening, 444 artworks were sold, raising $34,950 for Planned Parenthood. As the pieces are purchased, they will disappear from the display, leaving only the show’s worded skeleton. “If we have a whole bunch of empty letters by Sunday, that’s exciting,” said Fiore.

Nasty Women continues at the Knockdown Center through the weekend, with planned music, performances, and workshops every day. The run is short, but, as Fiore pointed out, it’s also the first in an international series; there was so much interest in the exhibition that the organizers decided to franchise it, allowing anyone to organize their own Nasty Women show, so long as they involve a diverse group of female-identifying artists and use it to fundraise for a women’s rights organization. Right now, 25 other shows are confirmed, in places from Lubbock, Texas, to Brussels, Belgium.

“It’s important for people to come to the idea of protest in a way that’s familiar to them,” said Jackson. “It’s important to have different kinds of protest — which is what this is. Art should not be underestimated. Art, in itself, is protest.”

Caitlin Rose Sweet, “Tiptoeing”

Installation view, Nasty Women at the Knockdown Center

Lazy Mom, “Eat the Patriarchy”

Bottom left: Ginger Cook, “Self Portrait at 60”; top right, Julia Standoval, “My Nasty Mom from the Edge of Europe”

Left: Kristen Jensen, “Turd”; right: Louise Stamat, “Drosera Dentata”

Installation view, Nasty Women at the Knockdown Center

Megan Watter, “Glass Slippers for Sale”

Above: Holly Anderson, “Artemis says: HANDS OFF OUR BODIES”; below: Emily Downing, “Tell Her I Love Her/An Artist’s Duty/Liminal Space”

Installation view, Nasty Women at the Knockdown Center

Emmy Mikelson, ‘Fever no. 1″

Elizabeth Riley, “Pussy Affront”

Installation view, Nasty Women at the Knockdown Center

The organizers of Nasty Women

Installation view, Nasty Women at the Knockdown Center

Nasty Women continues at the Knockdown Center (52-19 Flushing Avenue, Maspeth, Queens) through January 15.

The post Massive ‘Nasty Women’ Art Show Raises 35K for Planned Parenthood Opening Night appeared first on Hyperallergic.

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[popculturebuffet]

Close Enough Reviews: Skate Dad

Josh tries to bond with his daughter through the art of skateboarding but ends up upstaged by a younger skateboarder with abs for days. Also Teddy Ruxpin begs for death but death won’t come. Since I don’t have as much to jaw jack about since this episode is on it’s own and I already reviewed i’ts pairing brother, full reveiw’s under the cut. 

We open with a cold open gag divorced from everything else.. a first for this show as even the Turn Down for what bit in “Logans Run’d” help set up Candace being gone for the weekend. But yeah it’s the bit from the trailer of Josh, Bridgette and Alex getting ready for a concert only for the other two to drop Josh off because he has no free time and just wanted to pretend. Also josh drinks a Glowstick. So majestic. 

In the main plot we start with something I can relate to: a small child watching youtube videos while ignoring the world around her. Having two nieces, 9 and 6, I can relate so hard it hurts. Josh fails to get her to pay attention to him and tries getting them to do something they can do together by reliving his childhood. Again, easily relate to this. Things go poorly as TeddY Ruxpin bursts into flames and tape hilarously and Candace is throughly unintrested in simon and a magic 8 ball. Josh is understandably depressed, Teddy begs for death but death wont’ come, their gag not mine and Emily comes in with Josh’s old skateboard.. which actually DOES get Candace’s attention. Josh naturally latches onto this and decides to teach her out to skate.  The group go to a skate shop and Josh relates his own experince going.. while leaving out the fact his dad was a total asshole who rather than go into the grungy skateshop with his son and be present just went back to the car and pointed at his watch. Which he apparently did so much a later bit in the episode shows josh’s photo of him is just that. It’s some nice character stuff: like I hoped the show would it explains WHY Candance isn’t spending whole weekends with her grandpa: Josh likely dosen’t want to subject her to the same crap he went through and it shows why josh is trying so hard to connect with her: besides just generally being a good dad HE Never had a dad who wanted to do anything with him and wants to be better.  The skate shop they end up in though is more apple store, to the point Candace wonders if their in one, as their greeted by an employee and then the store’s owner the Gooch, a modern skater whose a totally nice guy actually, offering artensially crafted skateboards, a nice gag and impressing Emily and Candace, while Josh is understandably jealous and paranoid about being upstaged by the guy. Candace picks hers which is satanrific... which is not only great but it’s made even funnier by Emily only being horrified by it because it’s 100%, with Gooch offering the above one of his abs. Finding the dark lord satan more approraite than some dude’s john oliver level shredded pecs, Josh goes with the satan one.  The Ramierz’s head to the skate park, and in order to one up Gooch who candace now clearly idolizes, Josh attempts to show her an Ollie and instead wangs himself in the balls iwth the board bad to everyone but his families laughter. Also we get a great visual gag of the paramedics skating the gurney up the ramp when they go to fetch josh.  Back at the house Josh is depressed about not being able to teach his daughter and is in a wheelchair, having an iron plate put over his crotch due to his injuries because of course he has. The crew REALLY seem to love the fact they can now do nutshots huh? I don’t blame them given they probably couldn’t on regular show, which I find weird given you can do jokes about eating feces, even if you don’t show it, as loud house has horrifingly shown us, but not someone getting hit in the balls. I just find it a WEIRD double standard. 

Anyways Josh lets the pain pills takes him away and has a nice dream of being a skate dad and something I like about this show is it really uses the animation well and plays with it more than regular show did. Regular Show did so too, it just didn’t do it nearly as much and the animation bump for this series is fairly easy to see. Probably helps Close Enough has an episode order for the season closer to say steven universe, so there’s more room in the budget to make the standard stuff look gorgeous. 

Back at the plot, Josh wakes up to find himself in the car some time, days or weeks later. Turns out Emily signed Candance up for lessons with the Gooch, and Josh takes it about as well as you’d expect and gets even more insned when the gooch innocently starts acting fatherly to her. It’s decent character stuff; Josh isn’t NORMALLY this crazy jealous or possesive, at least so far, but it’s understandable to be upset when someone else is being fatherly to your kid and doing things YOU want to be doing with them. Candance calling him papa gooch causes Josh to flip out, amble up and angrily rant at the nice man with the 6 pack before challening him to a bombing run, which I had no idea what that was and is basically what candace started with: Riding down an inciline while body riding the board.  Naturally Josh is worried about his chances but refuses to admit it, Emily is wondering what the shit has gotten into her husband and Candace, being candace, starts street bombing down the incline with her parents and gooch in persuit. Josh is still being a dick but eventually realizes how much of one he’s being when he points at his watch and instead of just being defensive and mean, is honest with the goosh and politley asks him to let Josh take care of this himself. Goosh relates to that as his own dad never took him skating and he took it up to spite him, the two now have mutal respect and goosh wooshes out. What a legend. Anyways JOsh and emily speed after her, and end up on the same board holding Candace, and we get the bit from the pitch trailer of josh grinding on his nuts and josh saves the day, and wins the familys respect and brings Goosh to tears... what a man what a man what a mighty good man, say it again lord!

Final Thoughts: Another more standard episode, this one is eleveated a bit by josh’s character stuff.. it’s just a bit thiner than Emily’s stuff at the open house a few episode back or in the following episode as Josh comes off as kind of a bit too dickish before the end as Goosh is really just nice. I know it’s the point but it’s still hard to watch. Overall it’s still another great episode and a joy to watch. It’s also getting me to notice a trend of the episodes, at least so far we’ll see as we go, opening with the weaker of the two and closing with the stronger one. No episode’s been outright bad but with the six so far the second ones’ have been the standouts while the first ones are just the series standard quality. It also is the first episode without Alex or Bridgette in it as even other episodes without them so far have still had token apperances and the lack of Jason is felt.. but it somehow didn’t hurt this episode and it felt understandable given they really had nothing to add.  This was a short one, I have more to go, until we meet again later days. 

[popculturebuffet]

Jake Reviews Stuff: Close Enough: Logans Run’d and Room Parents

IT’S FINALLY HERE, PERFORMING FOR YOU. Seriously I have waited 3 years for this. And while yes thanks to a combination of a french animation festival and HBO’s own oopsie doodle I was able to watch 3 episodes already, and review them, it dosen’t make this any less sweet.  The fandom can finally come togehter as a whole and enjoy the hell out of the series. And doubling my excitment is the fact that HBO Max dropped 15 episodes! 14 episodes bundled into half hours and one extra long episode that seems to feature one of the greatest musicans and comedians of all-time, a man who needs no introduction but hell if i’m not giving him one. WEIRD, AL, YANKOVIC!

I could not be more excited if I tried. And yes that’s with full awarness my pre-amphibia and owl house workload just became at LEAST 4 times what I expected and this may be all there is. Having to review 12 episodes still means getting to WATCH 12 episodes of a show I truly adore. It’s an easy trade off. So with that out of the way, we can dig into close enough’s second two episodes and see if the show can keep the momentum from the first pair! Door’s open, let’s do this! The full review and spoilers under the cut. 

Logans Run’d   With Candace having her first sleepover Josh and Emily (Who apparently aren’t on good enough terms with their parents to have them watch her something I hope they explore later in the series), have their first Candace free evening and spend it as you’d expect for a 35 year old couple: Pelvic thrusting to turn down to what while doing general errrands then planning to have a nice night in of tea and the great british baking show, which continues this show’s hard to get used to trend of using actual brand names.  The two invite Bridgette to join them which she scoffs at saying the pair, and Alex who is not only delighted to join them but is in an old timey sleeping costume with listening horn which, no joke, is his profile picture on the show’s website, which feels perfect honestly and I love everything about that. 

The three soon realize to their horror through flashback that they indeed are old (Hilariously alex’s is literally just his introduction in this episode), and beg Bridgette to take them along to a club, Logan’s Run’d. What follows is the three of them getting hard core drunk all the way to 9PM while  Bridgette flirts with a younger guy and youtube sensation and who looks like the earth 3 version of hank venture.. until it turns out he’s actually a toddler wearing some sort of robot suit because of course.  Things go south however both as our heroes realize their running out of steam.. and as another 30 something is made VIP>.. which in this club is being murdered to death by a giant fan. With blood which I”m sure JG was giddy to do first chance it was approriate given he did 8 years of a show on a children’s network and children’s networks hate blood as much as they hate actually letting shows mention the concept of death directly by name.  Naturally the four of them want to book it out of there: While Bridgette , if she wasn’t lying about her age to the toddler, isn’t in the danger zone, she still just hit on a toddler and is naturally afraid of going to prison, but get stopped by the bar guy. Alex, in a supremeley sad yet badass moment, pulls out his blockbuster card and prepares to sacrifice himself for his friend’s sake: Partly because he cares about them and candace and partly because he’s worried he has nothing left to live for now he’s old, something I myself worry about going into my 30′s next year. Josh (Emily takes a second to join in) rushes to save his best bud and the two reassure Alex he has a future, a future of not having to get new music, of having nights of just relaxing and watching tv and getting pepper in your beard for , as Alex puts it “That george clooney look” Bridgette was the last one and guards her friends from being murdered for obvious reasons before breaking the fan.  Our heroes are saved, alex and me honestly as all of that sounds really appealing to be honest and I live 2/3 of it already, are convinced that growing old is pretty sweet. Oh and the owner turns out to be an old guy, as Alex realizes when he refrences logans run and is murdered by the crowd. Our heroes enjoy pancakes, Bridgette still finds the guy cute which.. no no bridgette just no, and Alex muses about them having seen a man die.  Final Thoughts: A decent episode.. while not as good as 100% no stress day ahead of it or the previous episode, i’ts a simple episode with good gags, an utterly great character moment for Alex which shows that despite his weirdo exterior he’s a damn good guy and he has something to live for. Also the toddler subplot was stupid and kinda creepy. A decent gag filled episode withs ome great ones and some really good animation. Also the opening is utterly iconic, easily one of the shows best jokes so far and probably in total and still works despite the use of turn down for what being slightly dated, but it works because it’s just really damn funny. Not the series best thus far but it’s still okay if a standard episode is this enjoyable. 

Room Parents: Now this is the good shit. It’s parent meeting time at Candace’s school with Me Daughter Teacher having one last announcment while Josh is about to pass out from having to hold in 3 powerades... dude should’ve gone for gatorade.. it still goes through you it just tastes objectivley better. Anyways me Daughter Teacher locks the room for the announcment because he needs a room parent and things quickly turn to purge as everyone is either fleeing or trying to murder each other to avoid it. While i’m not a parent, I can at leat understand not wanting to give time to do this when your schedule is likely already a hellscape. Josh (Who wonders if they got a purge going, got a good laugh out of me. ), being basically what if Mr. Peanutbutter had an illigitmate son he dind’t know about, and i’m still not convinced he’s not his dad until the show proves otherwise, happily volunteers to Emily’s horror.  Josh however.. is entirely game. He even makes a dad joke calling it a “Fun Raiser” to emily’s annoyance. It’s a nice show of just HOW opposite the two are: Emily being more stressed, as 100% stress day proved/will prove given it’s after this episode even though i’ve already seen it but it’s set later but...

The point is she’s a ball of stress while he’s a ball of enthusasim just like his dad, who i’m now just.. 100% convinced is his dad and dosen’t know it. Prove me wrong. Anyways Josh meets Nikki another parent whose own son is ominously framed in shadow because of course something weird about her who offers to pitch in.. and is also transparently intrested in josh.  The next day Josh and nikki talk on the phone and Bridgette and Alex instantly pick up that she’s into him and that josh is the kind of guy every girl wants, with Bridgette sighting the look when he inhales mustard and Alex, being the objectivley best, citing his thin papery jack of clubs body type. I’m now 100% convinced they all had a foursome at some point before the divorce which Emily tries not to think about and Emily isn’t convinced.. until Josh, in another great gag, says Nikki said “wash your balls, so random”.  Emily, now panicked, enlists Pearle who gladly volunteers her spy van, because Pearle is also objectivity the best, to go spy on alex in a montage set to heart’s crazy on you were we get our image for this episode which is a great gag.. especailly Emily mouthing “Wait afterwords’ and it being followed by them going to the sex hotel.. which is actually the essex hotel.. which is for affairs as it’s sign says. It’s hard not to just list gags for this show because it’s damn good but i’ll try.  Emily then confronts Josh that night (doing the dramatic light turning on thing by holding the lamp another great gag), and Josh explains no he’s not cheating on her because he’s a pure boy, and he aquises to her, also finally realizing Nikki’s been transparently trying to seduce him.  Naturally their attempt to uncoroomparenther before the Fundraiser goes pear shaped as it turns out Nikki is a con artist who pulls what professionals call a josh , scam a stressed parent, tie him up or kill him and then steal the fundraiser money for a school, for a living (She has another one cooking at the moment) and leaves them. Emily orders a knife via a delivery service, while a waiting Pearle wonders where they are.. which raises a lot of questions. WHy pearle is there is easy, she’s supporting Candace and her friends/tennants. That part is easy. Why she brought Randy, who at least at this point is objectively useless and why Alex and BRidgette AREN’T there I can’t explain. Maybe mecha pope garfield rose from the grave. Maybe Bridgette’s fucking that clown again. Maybe Alex has more garifled theroies to bust out. Actually those last two answer my question for me.. I mean someome’s gotta reveal Garfield was a founding member of the Justice Society of America. 

Our heroes arrive however to Foil Nikki , who thent ries to escape on a children’s train.. which being a children’s train Josh and Emily just hop on and in a hilarious bit slowly remove the kids before ending up with Candace, who says “daddy’s girlfriend is getting away”. Jessica DiCiccio is a delight as Candace and her delivery is impecable here. However Nikki switches tracks and cranks up the speed. Thankfully while Emily and Candace fall off the train pearle and Randy, who I STILL don’t know why he’s in this episode he has no lines and does nothing, catch them, leaving it to Josh to fix his mess. After a breif fight and a nut shot Josh sucesfully swaps the money for Nikki’s fake son/dummy who she chokes bart style before both explodes when they hit a thermometor factory.  Our heroes win, the fundraiser is a sucess and the teachers have elected Josh room parent for life (”That can’t be legally binding” “IT’S LEGALLY BINDING!”)  Final Thoughts: A great , really damn funny episode with a great premise. While Emily being worried Josh would cheat seems weird given he’s a nice enough guy, it’s sometimes understandable to be panicky about that sort of thing and her worry is warnated given one party is trying to seduce her husband, josh is just too stupid to realize, which makes for a lot of great gags. It’s a really tighly done episode that like the above is more pure comedy and just hilarious, but has even better jokes and a much better executed premise to work with. And no weird toddler things. So overally a slam dunk.  I have more close enough reviews coming today, obviously though i’d rather watch the rest before reviewing them, but while I do you can shoot me an ask to talk more close enough, and in more serious matters... One of my best friend’s cat’s cancer has come back and being out of work and just having moved into a new appartment, he needs help paying for it. You can find the go fund me here.  And as always until we meet again, later days. 

[popculturebuffet]

Close Enough: So Long Boys And Clap Like This

ON this hour’s episodes: Josh decides to have a vasectomy after a pregnancy scare and soons end up dealing with second thoughts and bostonian robots while Alex regrets getting his after meeting what are maybe his children. Then Josh finally sells a game but it falls through and takes up extra jobs to avoid telling his family while Bridgette is forced to get a real job on her birthday and Alex enjoys inudstrial humis. Clap Like This under the cut. 

So Long Boys

Aka the greatest vacesctomy based comedy episode since Brooklyn Nine Nine’s “Choclate Milk”. If you don’t know the show or don’t remember that episode if you are a fellow 99er it’s the one where Jake thinks his superior officer and friend Terry getting a vasectomy means chopping his penis off. I mean it starts off just assuming he’s making a joke but it becomes blurry if he’s just making quips or genuinely thinks that’s how it works. It’s also easy to compare these two because they both, while vastly diffrent and great episodes in their own rights: have a simlilar beat to the plot: a character trying to get a vasectomy for responsible reasons but being unsure they don’t wnat more kids. It’s just Brooklyn Nine Nine is more also about Jake being hurt Terry dosen’t think of him as a friend, a position he reverses while Close Enough has indentured pop and lock teenagers, a dark ride dedicated to scaring people out of kids and bostionan robots that sound like JFK from Clone HIgh. How does any of this fit together, let’s take a look. 

So we open with Josh and Emily having a huge pregnancy scare, which was caused by the birthday sex from the pitch trailer aka Josh trying to pass it off as “we’re just doing our taxes sweetie!”. In other words the main bit I wanted to see transfered to the show proper. And while there’s a few joke this scene is mostly played for drama.. it’s not out of tone with the rest of the show. What really has made this show work for me is it combines regular show antics, but with the added maturity of having an older cast dealing with growing up. A bunch of 30 somethings to start instead of a bunch of 20 somethings so instead of dealing with stuff like video game competitionts, guys nights, and dating woes, it’s more dealing with juggling family and friends, having a job you hate and trying to ballance your career with your passion.  And here is no diffrent: Josh and Emily HAVE no money, live in a cramped apartment with their best friends and a newly divorced couple which as we’ve seen isn’t always easy, and work jobs htey utterly hate and would have to double down on, snuffing out their real dreams, in order to support this kid. Josh outright says he’ll get a second job and give up his video game development which wihle it’d probably be miserable for him would be a sad neciscity. I myself do this blog on the side while trying desperatley to get an actual paying job, it sucks and their situation is compounded by having a kid on top of it who needs their support and attention. It’s stressful enough without adding a second child. Thankfully it’s a false alarm.  However Josh, in a show of responsibility decided to do something about it and get a vasectomy. Still being josh though, his getting one also involves a massive and hilarious vasectomy party, where a bunch of people we never met, and alex and bridgette obviously play party games involving pinning sisssors on testies and theires even a breakdancing sperm. Emily and Pearle’s reactions are gold to this: Emily, before the opening, tells Josh he’s not allowed to plan parties anymore, understandable while Pearle genuinely didn’t belivie they were dumb enough to have a vasectomy party and gives out an understandable “Damn you white people” when she’s proven wrong. Alex also gets set up for his subplot in the episode mentioning he got his a year ago, which given his and Bridgette’s relationship was probably falling apart around then was a good call. I do however like this: Something big happend and Josh is taking responsibility for it, while still being josh about it, but it shows how unlike a lot of idiot heroes in adult cartoons,he’s still a genuinely nice guy who tries to do what’s right, and has more than one brain cell. he has two thank you. So Alex drives josh to get a vasectomy, while Randy presumibly watches Candace as we only see her at the start (Peale was watching her during hte party to help keep her in the dark for now) and finish of the episode. Meanwhile Emily, Bridgette and Pearle have a small B plot having brunch mamosas and boxing up candace’s baby stuff. We also find out for 100% sure our heroines nationatlities: Bridgette is japanese while Emily is Mexican. Mostly because Bridgette always saw Emily with a bigger family and only half for racist reasons that get her handcuffed to a pipe by a drunken Pearle. This show really needs more of Pearle asa every time she shows up she’s a fucking delight and if the show hopefully returns for season 2 I could easily see her getting more screentime. Emily ends up in tears and realizing she may want more kids, which is.. resonable. Their only 32. While it’s resonable to want or have any amount of kids, except like 20 like that one tlc show... I never watched it but when the only two things you hear about a show you don’t watch is the weird, archacic dating setup they have that feels like it produces a good marriage as much as Charlie Sheen did, and that the mother won’t stop having kids despite it nearly killing her  multiple times and having you know 20, you kinda don’t want to watch it.  Anyway it’s resonable to want a family of any size you want, Emily realises she’s not sure she wants to stop at 1 just yet.  Meanwhile in the A-Plot Josh has come to the same conclusion after finding out that not only is this version of a vasectomy he’s getting permentant, mostly due to ball scorching done by robots, but after a hilarious but deeplly insulting carnival ride in the clinic that’s supposed to Scare josh out of having kids and features two teenagers fighting and pop and locking, a goblin and a wall just saying why why why why, impilng kids ruin your sleep, your romantic lives and are terrible. Josh however understandably takes offense to this, and seeing a brother and sister.. only make him not want to deprive candace of possibly having a sister oneday. Again while he and Emily are in no way in position for a second kid now.. they have time and Josh could easily sell a game at some point: he almost does in the next episode. ONe of Emily and Bridgette’s songs could go viral. Or Josh could end up finding a much better day job or Emily could get a promtion at hers. While not wanting to have a second child while they can’t support one is the right move, Josh realizes not wanting ot have one at all, at least in their spectfic case, was an overreaction to a scary situation.  Josh decides to think more, despite the doctor offring up some pubic scaping for extra, and he and Alex end up finding the Teens from the ride.. who are in fact real kids who look an AWFUL lot and act an awfl lot like alex and are basically indentured to the doctor,who treats them like crap and has them undder contract to pop and lock for him and look at his new pubic hair designs (”Those nights are the hardest”). Josh decides not to go through with it but the bostioan robots who do the procedure refuse to let that happen and leave Josh, Alex and the Twins on the run, while Alex himself reconsiders parenthood as he’s now proud of what he thinks are his kids. As the four are cornered it turns out the doctor is also a prisoner.. but an unsympathetic one since he can A) go home and B) is willingly collaberating with obnoxious robots to do a dangerous verison of a serious procedure to save his own ass and is karmically atomized. When Alex brings up his thinking the kids are his, they sadly explain he isn’t: Their dad’s a republican senator (Tot hteir shame the girl, who I almost forgot to mention is voiced by the wonder Kate MIccui, in her second role in a JG Quintel show. HOpefully if there’s a season 2 or the show stars having arcs they can find a full role for her on the show. ) and Alex finds his sperm he donated ended up in a dumpster.. but is determined to protect the kids anyway. Thankfully our heroes are able to escape with Emily, who sneaks ina fter the robots locked down the faicility’s help, with Josh bummed because he was proud for being responsible as the two discuss still wanting to have kids, with Emily pointing out .. this is STILL responsible. Not going through with something you have doubts about and having an honest talk with your partner is the responsbe thing> The five of them escape, and while Alex knows he’s not the teens father, offers to be there for them if they ever need it.  Wrapping things up at a skating rink, The Ramierz’ skate and Josh and Emily plan to do their taxes again later, though likely with a rubber this time, and Alex got his vasectomy reverse and is really weird about it to Bridgette’s annoyance. Also 20,000 years into the future subhuman cavemen versions of hismelf are the dominatne lifeform Neat. Overall this ep was really good, having great character stuff for Josh Emily and Alex, while still having some good bits for the rest of the main cast minus randy who I feel the show honestly forgets exists half the time, with drunk Pearle being a delight. But it’s the emotional core for both sides: Josh and Emily hastily deciding to not have more kids before wondering if they want to keep the option open while Alex realisses he might want to be a dad himself and his bond with waht he thinks are his kids and protectivness of them is really sweet. It’s also not lacking in great jokes; The entire rollercoaster of “DON’T HAVE KIDS” is just black comedy gold from start to finsih including the green goblin for some reaosn, the boston robots and vasectomy doctor are great vilians and overall the episode is just really good and really mature for an episode that also makes plenty of testicle scaping jokes. You can do both. 

Clap Like This

And continuing the trend from the last few episodes, we have the weaker one (though Golden Gamer was still pretty damn good), second this time around, though like Golden Gamer it’s still decent.  The plot is a bit simplier and starts with Josh FINALLY selling a game to two idiot tech billionares, Clap LIke This, a game about clapping along that actually seems really damn fun and I wish were real like Ladder World.  While Emily enjoys being able to spend money and her husband finally living his dream or so she thinks, Bridgette, who we find out has been on an allowance from her parents, is cut off on her birthday and has to get a job at a forever 23, one of the few times this show has used an offbrand and not nearlya s awesome a name as “Plugger Inners” it feels lazier if only because again, Plugger Inners exists. But as was revealed earlier, the two guys who bought it went broke and the deal feell through but josh, feeling terrrible about them not being able to afford the finer things anymore, hides it from his family and takes as many shifts as possible at plugger inners. He also runs into David Hasslehoff doing his best mitch von malibu as he just.. throws more money at josh to do what his son asks. Or nephew or whatever. I went back and redited this after finding out that really was him and supposed to be him. I’m also calling his annoying son Hobie for reasons that will be come clear if you’ve ever watched allison pregler’s baywatching series but it’s always fun to see the hoff in something. Especailly the time he made this really embarassing music video. 

But alass the 200 dollars Hoff made off “jump in my car”  that he gave josh isn’t enough and with him having taken all the insltation jobs josh is forced to turn to black market insltations including one where he installs a tv while jaws eats a guy.. I genuinely wish they’d used this song.

[popculturebuffet]

Close Enough Review and Recap: Prank War and Cool Moms

Josh’s stupidity lands a man in the hospital and puts his wife in legal danger then Josh and Alex go on a best buds road trip with Hologram Tupac and Randy... sadly not this one...

While Emily tries to impress the cool mom of a scary girl in Candace’s class. Also we finally find out Candace’s Teacher’s name! For Valhalla under the cut!

Prank War: We open at Plugger Inner’s josh’s place of work and the best best buy parody name since the Buy More.. anyone else remember Chuck? Anyone? Starred the future Shazam as a nerd whose college rival sends a computer into his brain? Was pretty good but had a weak finale? HOpefully someone said yes so let’s move on.  Anyways Josh’s younger co workers are doing pranks, and Josh wants in but they all feel he’s too old but really he just sucks at it and his attempt just ends up with water on his head. Meanwhile Emily is forcing Bridgette, with an utterly bored Candace forced to watch, to take self defense lessons from Pearle with her as when the two were recently approached by a stranger, Bridgette took off without her. Thankfully he was just playing pokemon go which gets the great gag of Emily screaming “No one plays that anymore!”. I mean I only don’t because I don’t have phone room.. also he’s after  Polliwrath. You have to respect him. Just look at that face. 

That’s a face that will MURDER YOU IF YOU DON’T RESPECT HIM RIGHT NOW DO IT DO IT NOW FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY! 

Anyways, Josh comes in after what HAD to be an agonizing car ride for alex with invetations to a prank war. No one is on board and we come to why this episode really dosen’t work for me: Josh is kind of a dick, trying to shove eveyrone else into a prank war he’s not only not good at but no one else wants and is visably annoyed by. Yes including Candace. While his attempts at pranks that follow are funny for the sheer pain they put him through overall their just not that intresting and Josh’s final prank of putting snakes in his wife and roomate’s guitars during a performance is just..e xtra dickish. Emliy and Bridgette work hard on their perofrmances probably and it’s really stupid to bring your dumb bullshit into that. It clashes with Josh’s usual preferable aura of “Stupid but loveably so” and the one time he has been a real dick outside this ep so far was understandable. It just feels out of character which should feel weird to say this early but with 6 episodes before this , it’s really easy to tell what his character is. He can be a dick by accident, but he’s usually good natured. The snake prank just takes it a bit too far and while the episode acknowledges he’s being stupid it dosen’t feel in character enough to really work. There is a great gag where Emily chasitises him for acting like a teenager and a delivery man shows up with his crossfire refills. That was great.  Josh is depressed he’s failed and leaves Candace with Josh who admits his small talk with children is limited.. and while he dosen’t admit this I sure will it’s comedy gold. 

Anyways Josh runs into a guy who jumps him from the bushes.. whose also 32. I’ts also how I learned the characters ages at all.. I mean I do think Bridgette is slightly younger and Alex seems slightly older, even if they met in high school given I had friends above and bellow me in grades it’s easy to assume Alex could’ve been a grade higher or two, but it still is nice to have a ballpark you know? Anyways Bush Guy , since he dosen’t get another name, soon sees bridgette and is extra triple horned up and thus agrees to scare them.. which only gets the poor dude beaten into a coma as what the hell did either of them exepect. And yes this series is Zany. So far we’ve had stripper clowns, meat mafia’s, emily getting trapped in a sitcom, logan’s run but with a giant murder fan, and giant rats. But it still just feels dumb in a way that dosen’t fit the series.  At the hospital Josh regrets being a dumbass and sends Alex out with Candace which he grumbles about. THen Emily and Bridgette get arrested for beating the guy up for some reason even though he jumped the fuck up at them.. I mean they still put a man in a coma but still. The two think it’s part of josh’s dumb prank war but soon find that nope it’s real. There’s even a gremlin in there. Great cameo.  Back at the hosptial Candace Tricks josh into giving her sugar which she’s not allowed to have.. because she soon goes nuts and develops radioactive spider powers and climbs up walls. Great stuff and I genuinely wish, like I did back in the “Quitly Pleasures” review, back when I didn’t know what it was called, that we just got a full or at least most of an episode of Josh babysitting Candace as this episode shows that yeah, it’s pretty damn great. Josh soon finds a way to get his wife out of jail: turns out mentioning bridgette causes the guy to stir, because she’s fine so fine, and decides to rush him to the jail so she can use that sex magic to wake him up and we get the above as Alex uses candace to propel them to jail. Also alex gets another golden line with “It feels really weird holding your daughter while my ass is in this guy’s face!”  Back at jail, CHAOS REIGNS.. people die and one inmate flashes everyone and it works just like the arc of the covenant. Thankfully help arrives as Josh barricades the door , and Alex sucesfful distracts the guards and knocks out candace by throwing the candy bar as once she eats it she sugar crashes, and shoves the guy in. WHile BRidget talking to him, awkardly understandably, dosen’t wokr Alex suggests what they did on their wedding night.. and after Bridget tries “it happens to a lot of guys” Alex calrifies the viking stuff and BRidget sucessfuly saves htem all by grabbing the guys nips and screaming “For valhalla”..  huh guess tha’ts another thing I like. Thank you close enough. He drops charges, Emily pranks josh with a faked death btu accidently starts a prank war, and we’re mercifully done with this one.  Final THoughts: This one as you can plainly see wasn’t very good. While the Alex and Candace shenanigans and the climax were really good, overall it just felt REALLY weak and while the premise wasn’t bad a combianton of the show having ALREADY done the “one of the cast feels their getting old” Schtick and much better, and Josh being dumbed down further just to fit one episode, something I really hope they don’t do again as Regular Show was at it’s lowest when it’d exagerate a character’s worst traits just to make th episode easier to write, it’s just a chore, and the worst episode so far.. still had great stuff, again the alex and candace stuff was really damn funny as was the climax, but overall not very good. Thankfully next we have...

Cool Moms: 

Yup clearly an intentional pattern at this point.. wether it breaks I dunno but the better episode being second is so far the standard. 

Anyways at School Emily barely gets through a boring conversation with one mom, with Mr. Cambell sliding in. And yes that’s candace’s teacher’s name! He has a name! He even gives his full name later , Timothy Rice Cambell. While I do think it was mentioned in “Room Parents”, I honestly wasn’t sure but nope this episode makes it clear. I celebrate not just because I love the guy as every scene he pops up in is magic, including this one but so I don’t have to dance around hsi name. Me Daughter Teacher isn’t a bad gag but i’ts still annoying to not have a name to attach to this mr.wonderman. Anyways emily’s annoyed at having to put up with boring morons because her daughter likes their kid and Mr. Cambell tries to help her find her clique: You have the single moms (one of whom’s on fire which Mr.Cambell says can’t be helped) the plaid ones and the cool moms. Naturally emily wants to get in with them and while too nervous to try talking to htem, one of them comes to her since her daughter seems to like candace, even if Candace isn’t as on board and a playdate is set up.  Naturally being high strung as a motherforking stradivarius, Emily is busily cleaning and annoyed by Josh being messy while coding a new game and Alex is, in his own beauitful words “Beautiful Minding” on the windows. Thankfullys he gets a way out when Randy crashes his car outside then barges in demanding to use emilys. Randy has’nt really done much up to this point as you’ve probably seen, but this is his first focus episode. Turns out he’s worried about Pearle who left with some random guy for a retrat in the desert and wants to drive up. Emily uses this as a way to get rid of alex and josh for the day by having the two drive him framing it as a road trip. THe two adorably do a synchornized song and handshake about it and are clearly on board while Randy is annoyed. Good.  So a road trip happens! Alex and Josh have a fun time, randy is annoyed and the two also buy a tupac hollogram which annoys randy furhter because of course. Every road trip should have a tupac hollogram. It’s a fun motange that shows both why the two are so close and is just really charming. Plus Randy isn’t that hard to root against as he’s following his adult mom into the desert for flimsy reasons and was rude in asking for help. And somehow has a girlfriend and alex dosen’t despite alex having way more charisma and both being human dumpster fires.  Anyways back at the house the playdate happens. Candace gives Emily a cool mom hat to wear which she brushes off and it’s clear her new friend is kind of nuts, throwing away things her daughter makes, letting her daughter do whatever, bringing homeade beer to emily’s enjoyment before casually revealing she not only follows outback stake house promos as her philosphy but gives her kid beer. Also candace isn’t really a fan of her daughter, understdnably as the girl breaks her piggy bank and made mr cambell cry. It’s how we learned his name though at least. Anyways, Emily is clearly starting to wane but doubles down when her new pal invites mother and daughter to children’s wrestling where she promises the rest of the gang will bet here.  Back in the desert randy is understandably frustrated as free ride or not he’s supposed to get to his mom. However we actually get some depth from him as it turns out part of the reason he’s so insanely worried is that as the son of a cop, as Pearle’s reitred LAPD, he always worried about her coming home and can’t stop now, his tears moving Josh and Alex and .. bringing a statue of a pterodactyl to life because fuck yes. Naturally the statue is a nice fellow who is sympathetic and when asked by Randy for a ride gladly agrees.. before not only turning out to be religious but the crazy extremist kind who thinks stoning women for adultry is okay.. but that line being said by a pink magical ptreodactyl casualy while the others fly on his back makes it really fucking hilarious. They make it to the retreat, getting naked since the guards are and sneak in. 

At children’s arm wrestling, Emily meets the crew, which incdlues a woman who gave usher herpes and a reporter for goop kids. one is a legend if a bit gross the other is oh god no incarnate. That said it’s really sad that GOOP is not only still around, but that that joke from a show that sat on the shelf for a bit is even more relevant after their disasterous netflix show last year. 

Back at the soundless retreat the guys fight some more guys and Alex agrees to “naked wrestle these guys while you go save yoru mom” Alex is the best. What a guy. Makes you cry. And I did. Randy rushes in.. and as you’d probably have guessed, Pearle’s just on a date with a rather nice elderly gentelman who takes randy trying to attack him in stride. Turns out they met when she was undercover and he took 13 bullets for her. What a legend. Also he’s treating pearles aches with sound waves. Randy admits he jsut gets so worried because he’s used to the reassuring click of the door. Pearle assures him that if the streets of LA couldn’t take her out nothing can. And really she was a black police officer in a city that I’ve heard could be very racist, trying to work within an inhernetly corrupt system to do the right thing for her people while also raising a white son. The woman is a fucking legend. I did worry a bit about how the show would handle pearle: With the horror cops have been putting on people of color, and such stellar depcitions of cops of color like brookyn nine nine, the show had a LOT of pressure on it that wasn’t it’s fault, but I like Pearle, she’s a godo character and a good example of what police SHOULD be and could could be if we just do waht needs to be done and rebuild the system from the ground up. Defund the police, take away their army weapons, get cilvillian volunteers in, and fix this system so officers like pearle dont’ have to fear that their backup wont’ be there for them due to their color or that their own coworkers will murder an innocent person of color for racisit and stupid reasons. And yes I am bringing up black lives matter in an otherwise goofy review of a goofy show but I felt it needed bringing up at least once.  Randy cryingly hugs the guy accepting him as dad, which he may not be but it’s sweet and alex and josh naked hug. Back at the terrible mom olympics, Candace is up against her new friend and clearly terrified. Thankfully emily realizes she done fucked up and stops things before her daughter ends up in a cast. And this is really a good contrast to the josh episode above: Both have one of them screwing up royally and realizing it but here, Emily is far more relatable: we all want to belong and it’s probably 10 times harder when your a parent to find other parents you like and not just tolerate because your kids are friends. But ultimately you have to put the kid first and Emily does so when it counts most.  Emily then ups the ante when insulted by her now former friend and when told “You could never be a cool mom” gives the badass response “Maybe but I can beat a cool moms ass so the fights back on but with new combatants. What follows it he most dramatic arm wrestling bout since over hte top or regular shows arm wrestling episode where Skips murdered Rigby. Emiy breaks her fucking arm, the other mom accept sit resets her arm and has her daughter drive and Emily and Candace earn a happy ending, as the one mom who wasn’t completely insane out of the group ends up befreinding her.  Final Thoughts: A complete 180 this one is possibly the best so far, tied with “The Perfect House”. Both plots while seperate are really damn good. The road trip plot has Alex and Josh being adorable but the real focus is on Randy who while we still don’t get a godo sense of who the hell he is, we do see he’s a loving son whose simply having trouble letting go of a lifetime of worrying his mom will come home safe. We also get more of pearle as we see she’s a good mom, we’ve barely seen the two interact so far, but also a capable badass who can take care of herself.. she dosen’t DO anything badass but it’s her voice and tone that make it clear she’s as unkillable as she says.  The emily plot is also great.. while most of the resoultion was easy to see the climatcitc arm wrestling fight wasn’t, and overall it was well done.. while it’s outshined by the subplot including the wonderful one seen what the fuckery of the religious ptreodactyl, it’s still a good grounded plot. As I said my only real complaint is that Bridgette’s absence isn’t even given a throaway line. it’s one thing to not explain her and alex being around when the episode’s plot really dosen’t involve them but here it feels weird for her to just be gone in the middle of the day.. it’s in character but that’s why the lack of a throaway line bothers me more: bridgette is a realy easy character to write out for the episode with her freewheeling do anythign ways and it could’ve been a great joke.. but it’s a really small complaint in a REALLY damn good episode. Speaking of episodes i’ve still got 4 more to go, so until we meet again, later days.