No Tomorrow 1.08: "No Rest for the Weary"

“I just talked to my spreadsheet and you didn’t make fun of me.”
-Evie

This particular episode of “No Tomorrow” was not one of my favorites. I appreciated the support for unions and workers’ rights, and I certainly think that there are warehouses with bad working conditions where strikes would be a good thing, but that’s not why I watch “No Tomorrow.” I have other shows that I enjoy that also have good, progressive social commentary, like “The Wire,” or “Atlanta.” “No Tomorrow,” however, is more my candy television. All I want from “No Tomorrow” is happy Evie and Xavier moments, warm fuzzies, and a smile on my face at the episode. It’s my comfort television. This episode had too much conflict between Evie and Xavier for my taste. There can be other conflicts in the show that Evie and Xavier need to address, but I prefer when they are on solid footing in their relationship. Thankfully, they are solid at the end of this episode, and Hank and Deirdre are decidedly not. Huzzah!

This episode is very much about two things: relationships and new beginnings. As I alluded to in the introduction, Evie and Xavier’s relationship is a focus of the episode. Xavier wants to go zorbing (basically running around in a big, inflatable hamster ball), but he finds Evie at Cybermart asleep at her desk. Working two jobs has her working around the clock. Xavier thinks asking Evie to do both her old job and the CyberHugs job isn’t fair and that she should quit. Evie, however, thinks she needs to work like crazy to show exactly how dedicated she is to the job. Xavier is really frustrated by this and just wants to spend time with his girlfriend, so he does the only logical thing. He decides to take a job in the Cybermart warehouse.

In other relationship news, Kareema and Sofia are still going strong. To be more specific, they’re going at it in the back seat of a car. Sofia says she has made it clear to Kareema’s brother Rohan that she only wants to marry him for a green card. Since Rohan is actually in love with Sofia, though, the fact that Sofia is having sex with his sister still isn’t going to go over well. Evie warns Kareema to break it off before things get out of hand. Also, Deirdre and Hank have to meet with HR to fill out all the necessary paperwork to get their relationship in compliance with company policy. The HR lady says they are going to have to watch a film on the subject, and they are clearly overjoyed with the prospect (that’s sarcasm, if you couldn’t tell). As soon as Deirdre realizes that Xavier is now working at Cybermart, she decides they need to watch the HR movie, too. The movie itself is a cartoon starring two dogs that tries to go through the perils of workplace relationships. It’s pretty silly.

Xavier gets bored with the drudgery of warehouse work pretty quickly. He can’t believe that all they do is load and wrap boxes all day. He starts doing his usual Xavier “seize the day” thing, which starts with a box wrapping race. And he invents a “nap sack” out of material he finds around the warehouse. Then he gathers the workers and starts asking them what they do for fun outside the warehouse. One guy says he’s an amateur rollerblader, so Xavier thinks he should do his job on rollerblades to get around faster. Another woman bakes, so she’s on afternoon snack duty. Overall, Xavier thinks that if they have fun, productivity will go up and Evie will get her life back. Deirdre is not happy when she sees all the rollerblading, nap sacks, and yoga classes, though. She tells Evie that productivity is still down, and Evie needs to fire Xavier.

Evie goes to talk to Xavier, who is in the middle of afternoon yoga on the warehouse floor. He tells her that everyone has already fulfilled their quotas for the day, which gives Evie an idea for how to save Xavier’s job. She shows Deirdre a graph that demonstrates productivity is actually up. Deidre is happy about that and says Xavier can stay, but she also decides that means the warehouse workers can handle double the quota. They now have to handle 80 boxes an hour instead of 40. Needless to say, when Evie announces this, the workers aren’t happy. They throw things and call Evie “rat lady,” because she’s been caring for a rat that the leader of a rodent rescue charity that had their CyberHugs funding cut left with her. Xavier tries to get the crowd to calm down, but he doesn’t want them to just accept Evie’s pronouncement of the higher quota. He wants them to strike.

Soon enough, the protest is going full swing. It starts with everyone sitting down as they try to figure out their demands. They settle on going back to the original quota, bringing leave policies in line with industry standards, and per Hank’s request, an “I’m not feelin’ it” day off. Deirdre isn’t having it, though. She tells everyone that they aren’t going to get paid as long as they’re striking. She also tries to recruit Hank as her spy by calling him to her office for some sexy times, but he continues to side with the warehouse workers. Evie can’t take the blaring music that the strikers are playing, so she ends up cutting off the power to the warehouse. This just leads the workers to just sing “She’ll be Coming ‘Round the Mountain” over and over, which is just as annoying. Timothy, by the way, is vlogging all of this as an audition of sorts for a job with “In Propaganda,” which seems kind of like “Vice” to me. They take if it bleeds, it leads to the extreme (I do love Vice, though). Evie and Xavier fundamentally disagree on the worth of work. Xavier thinks everyone should leave their jobs at the warehouse to better use the short amount of time they have left. Evie genuinely wants to make a difference with CyberHugs.

In other news, Rohan found a sext that Kareema sent to Sofia, so he has called off the wedding. Sofia has to go back to Venezuela since there’s no prospect of a green card, and Kareema is devastated. Evie makes the bold suggestion that if she really loves Sofia like she says she does, Kareema should marry her instead. Kareema bristles at this at first, since marriage goes against everything she stands for, but eventually she comes around. The actual proposal scene is pretty sweet. Sofia is taken aback at first, but both ladies eventually decide that defying convention is worth it to give their relationship a chance. Plus, Kareema’s never exactly been conventional anyway.

Deirdre calls Hank into her office for a report, but Hank refuses to snitch on his friends. Deirdre gives him an ultimatum: he can either have his friends or her. Hank chooses his friends, and Deirdre is clearly not happy. She goes outside to call in some scabs, and Mikhail overhears the phone call. He reports back, and the workers want to all-out trash the place in protest. Xavier tries to convince them there’s a better way. One of the warehouse workers is a Kiwi, so he gets him to teach everyone the Hakka. So they can be extra intimidating when the scabs arrive. I saw the New Zealand All Blacks do the Hakka before a rugby match in Sydney this summer – it’s no joke! Meanwhile, Evie is so stressed from trying to fix the problem of the strike that she starts hallucinating that her rat is talking to her and that she’s in a rat cage. She wakes up in a nap sack to find that the scabs have arrived, and the workers are going to Hakka their asses off.

As the situation in the warehouse is coming to a head, Evie finally has an idea to end the strike once and for all. She thinks that if management and the workers could each better understand each other’s perspective, they could come to an agreement. Deirdre has to stack boxes coming off a conveyor belt, and naturally it becomes a bit of a Lucy in the chocolate factory situation. One of the factory workers has to try and do Deirdre’s job, and she is also appropriately traumatized by the experience (the Seattle warehouse is just barely avoiding being merged with a warehouse in China). Both come out of the experience with more respect for the other, and a deal is struck. Quotas will only increase by 50%, and the I’m not Feelin’ It days are still on. Xavier decides to quit working at the warehouse, and Evie gives Deirdre an ultimatum that she can’t keep doing two jobs. Deirdre passes the QA Manager job on to Hank, and she breaks up with him, because as she puts it, by standing with the warehouse workers, he was a good employee but a bad boyfriend. Evie and Xavier, meanwhile, finally take some time off and go zorbing together.

Lucifer 2.13: “A Good Day to Die”

“This isn’t your fault. It’s mine. I’m to blame for all of this.”
- Charlotte

This is our last episode before our dear Devil and his gang goes on hiatus until May! Lucifer, having seen that it appears Chloe’s been poisoned, has taken off with her in the car at a mad dash to the hospital. She insists they go to the precinct and try to figure out if there’s an antidote (after she realizes she’s in fact been poisoned). She also insists on not telling Ella the truth for fear it will mess with the investigation. While the girls do some digging, Lucifer gets to have some words with his big brother. Amenediel admits to creating Chloe but is rather pissed at dear old Dad in terms of being used. He also confirms that Chloe is none the wiser about her angelic origins or any of the drama going on with the celestial family.

Chloe and Lucifer follow a lead (about the guy who was smuggling the poisons into the country). After a few minutes with Lucifer, they learn there was a middle man who might have said antidotes but Chloe collapses to the ground. After Lucifer and Dan bicker a little bit at the hospital (Chloe still isn’t thrilled with being there), the guys head off to follow the next lead. Lucifer does get to use his mojo on the guy and learns that the would-be artist who uses his sales to cover up shadier transactions just wants someone to buy his art for real. So, Lucifer does that to get the antidote ingredients. Unfortunately, it isn’t the actual formula. Back at the hospital, Charlotte shows up and mentions that the man who poisoned Chloe is where he belongs: in Hell. Lucifer realizes that he has a way to get what they need out of the professor. Lucifer just needs to die and go to Hell!

He calls a family (and Linda) meeting to figure out how he’s going to get down and back. Charlotte is absolutely opposed to the idea and I can see why. It isn’t just that she doesn’t really care about saving Chloe’s life. She spent millennia down there being tortured by Maze. She can’t even fathom letting her son go back down. But Amenediel and Maze are up for it. I did really enjoy the interactions in this scene. Amenediel being pissed that Linda kept it from him that she knew about Lucifer’s true nature and the fact that both Maze and Amenediel were up for killing Lucifer. I am also curious to know why Maze can’t go down to Hell with him.

Anyway, it’s going to take a combined effort to make the plan work. Maze and Linda are responsible for bringing Lucifer back from the dead and Amenediel is in charge of making sure Chloe isn’t moved from the room she’s presently in. After all, they are going to try and kill him in the room below. Hopefully it will be close enough to do the job! While Maze and Linda are getting ready to kill Lucifer, Amenediel has a very sweet interaction with Trixie. He tells her there are more good people in the world than bad and they are trying to help her mom. When he falters on whether he’s good, she insists that he is. Downstairs, it turns out Maze and Linda aren’t able to shock Lucifer with the defibrillator so he does it himself. Oh and we get to see Dan and Ella do some breaking and entering to get the last antidote ingredient!

Down in Hell, Lucifer finally finds the professor who is reliving the accident in which he let a college kid die to save his research. A crowd forms and calls him a murderer. Lucifer convinces him to give up the formula with the promise (or at least suggestion) that it will help make amends and pull the professor out of his punishment. But of course, it doesn’t help one bit. Lucifer leaves but as he’s waiting to be brought back, he sees another door and hears someone playing piano. He enters it (bad idea Lucifer!) and finds Uriel playing. It would appear our dear Devil is going to face his own form of punishment for killing his brother. Can we hope he is strong enough to pull himself out?

It appears that Lucifer can’t stop stabbing his brother, even when he really doesn’t want to. I can’t tell if he’s just denying his part in his brother’s death or just afraid to face it. But even now, Uriel is giving him a clue. The words he whispered before his death are important (“the peace is here”). Given what I know about spoilers (yes, I’m that person) I suspect I know what it means, even if we have to wait until May to find out if it’s right. When it’s time for Linda and Maze to bring Lucifer back, they find that he’s trapped and then Chloe starts having a seizure so clearly, they are connected in ways we don’t yet know. Despite her fear of the place, Charlotte mans up (as it were) to rescue her little boy.

It takes the pair of them to break each other out of their guilt but Lucifer finally drags Charlotte away from the Hell-induced Uriel. Back on Earth, true to his word, Amenediel doesn’t let anyone take Chloe, even after she’s stopped seizing. Finally, everyone is back on the mend and Chloe really seems to want to push forward with her feelings for Lucifer, but despite what he spent the rest of the episode doing, he can’t handle it. It’s all just God’s manipulation and he can’t trust anyone. He even tells Charlotte he’s done with her. In fact, it appears he’s done with everyone. Chloe goes by his apartment, hoping to talk out their feelings (after leaving a stalker-level number of voicemails) to find the place is empty and packed up. The Devil has left the building and we now have four months to wait to see where he’s gone.

This Is Us 1.13: "Three Sentences"

“Talks don’t work anymore. I couldn’t make Kate feel better. That’s like my thing, you know? I tried but it just didn’t stick.”
- Jack

While some people may have not felt the emotional punch of this episode, I did. It was different from what we’ve gotten before but I think it had a lot of sweet moments and interesting little tidbits to chew on while we wait for the next episode. In the past, we find Jack watching home movies celebrating the Big Three’s (and his) birthday over the years. It is a montage of presents, cake and pin the tail on the donkey. Jack is really looking forward to it until Kate and Kevin announce they want separate parties—Madonna for Kate and Princess Bride for Kevin (on a side note, I was very pleased with this choice, I love that movie so much)—and Randall even throws in that he wants a magician (although you can tell he doesn’t really care). Jack and Rebecca relent and give their kids three different parties at the house. At first things appear to be going well, Kate and her girls are glamming it up and Kevin is reenacting the best Inigo Montoya moments from the film for his buddies. Then Kate goes outside and sees that only three kids showed up for Randall’s party. She is upset that none of the kids in his class came even though they were invited. But as Randall puts it, he has three really good friends and they all came so he’s happy. Then, Jack notices all the girls hanging at Kevin’s bash and he finds Kate sitting alone in a room. He tries to cheer her up with one of his dad talks (god he’s just so sweet) but it doesn’t work. The heartbreak on his face when he tells Rebecca that his parenting isn’t working was just so painful. He’s been portrayed as such a great father and having a special bond with his little girl, that the fact he can’t fix things anymore is just brutal. In the end, he and Rebecca figure out that the party was all about Kate’s friend Sophie, whom Kevin likes. Oh, and they decide that after the pre-teen drama emerging with their three kids, the thought of having any more is out the window. They do end the night with a wrapping paper fight and cake.

In the present, the Big Three are dealing with the fallout from their own recent life choices. Randall is surprised by how much energy William has and despite having a lot of work to do, he spends the afternoon with his father. They shop for sunglasses, find his favorite drink and then sit in a parking lot where William explains his childhood dream to be a cool cat like the guy who owned the record shop back in Memphis where he used to hang out. So in a sweet moment, Randall teaches hi father to drive. It was nice to see Randall loosen up a bit and not be so focused on his work.

Meanwhile, Kate decides to forgo the gastric bypass surgery (at least for now). Toby’s surgery was something of a wake-up call to her. Her doctor suggests an alternative weight loss experience but it is nothing like Kate imagined. Her expectations of a Biggest Loser-esque workout hell are dashed with horseback riding, yoga and food classes. At first she can’t even handle any of it but when she gets told off by a guy who works there (I think), she decides to give it another chance and start to focus on the issues beneath the weight.We see her flash back to seeing the difference in clothing sizes between her and Rebecca when she was 8 or 9, we see her get the nasty note at the pool and for the first time we get a glimpse of Jack’s funeral. I’ll be honest, I got emotional just seeing that. We don’t even know how it happened or when exactly (though we do get a glimpse of the Big Three around teenage years) and yet it hit me hard. It hits Kate so hard that she starts screaming. But she needed the emotional release. I think she’s ready to work out her issues now. She goes to thank the horse guy but he’s totally a dick and keeps hitting on her. He’s of the opinion that they will be hooking up despite her engaged status. Yeah, I kind of wanted to sic angry Man-ny breakdown Kevin on this dude. Seriously, if you are a decent human being, you don’t get up in someone’s business once they say they are in a relationship. That’s just not what you do. I really dislike this guy (and not just out of loyalty to Toby). He’s controlling and a bit misogynistic. Telling Kate that she’s going to give in and be with him.

Speaking of Kevin, he’s been tasked by Kate to keep Toby company while he’s still in New York on doctor’s orders. Kevin is still hemming and hawing over his romantic prospects so Toby gives him some advice: picture the woman he loves and what three sentences he’d say to her if he had just 30 seconds. We also learn that Toby is a walking rom-com directory. But hey, the advice works. It just doesn’t take us to the woman we’re expecting. He shows up on a woman’s door and says his piece (it’s kind of sweet). And then we learn that they used to be married and are now divorced. I was not expecting that at all. I was also not expecting that this woman was Sophie (although in hindsight we can see it—especially given the whole contrivance of the birthday party when they were 10). He gets her to agree to at least meet him to talk. It’s interesting that he had this part of his history we had no idea about and we are just learning about it now.

Lucifer 2.12: “Love Handles”

“Seriously, insulting a serial killer? That’s an awesome idea.”
- Dan

Now that Lucifer and Chloe have shared their first kiss, the writers have seen fit to throw our duo all kinds of curveballs. We find Chloe having very vivid sex dreams about hooking up with Lucifer (oddly enough including horns which makes me wonder if she really does acknowledge his supernatural nature). Meanwhile, Lucifer thinks that maybe her immunity to his charms has worn off. Much like always, he doesn’t let Linda finish a thought on a reasonable explanation for Chloe’s actions. So, they are super awkward when they get to the crime scene. Lucifer is trying to be all business and Chloe is trying to loosen up (per Maze’s instructions). It’s just laughably painful to watch.

What’s not so laughable, is the poor kid that is their victim. He was poisoned. His roommate feels terrible that he didn’t realize the kid was dead (and not sleeping off a killer hangover). But he does say that some famous actor came by and signed one of the roommate’s DVDs. Allegedly, the actor was there researching a role. I’m not so sure about that when he comes in, wielding a knife saying “the man” said he’d kill our victim if the actor didn’t cut his face. Uh, what now? He shows our duo a video he received and it’s very creepy (it also took a later scene for me to recognize Tim DeKay as the actor doing the voice in the video). As they talk to the actor, Lucifer wonders if perhaps Chloe was manipulated into kissing him (much like the actor’s deeds). So, he confronts Mama Morningstar who just happens to be at the precinct. But she just gives him encouragement to go after his lady. We then get a really awkward little scene with Dan, Lucifer and Charlotte. Lucifer and Dan are really developing an amusing bromance this season and I kind of love it.

The cyber tech teach has found who sent the email to the actor but it looks like the grad student it belongs to isn’t behind the video. The duo does discover another video sent to a highly skilled surgeon (with the threat of poisoning a sophomore). Makes me think given that this is being framed as an “experiment” and it’s at the same university that the killer is a professor at the school. Lucifer and Chloe head to the university to find the next victim while Dan sits with the doctor whose been targeted. They split up and Lucifer gets caught up with a group of girls who make him chug beer before they tell him where the victim is. Chloe is a little miffed by the fact he’s gone off and storms in to find out he’s found their girl. She’s in the bathroom and she is not holding up well.

Elsewhere, Charlotte pays Linda a visit to try and convince the doctor to tell Lucifer about Chloe’s real origins and what she means. Linda refuses but Charlotte (much like her son) interprets Linda’s words to mean she should find someone dumb who care about Lucifer (aka Maze). Back at the doctor’s house, the doctor is seriously freaking out about the fact that she took an oath to do no harm and yet if she takes no action, that’s what happens to an innocent life. When Dan reports the news that the antidote the lab had developed from the first victim’s blood isn’t working, the doctor excuses herself to get some water and sticks her hand in the garbage disposal. Yuck!

Despite the grossness, it gets the antidote to the student. She doesn’t recognize the other victim but she did get a flu shot (and so did the other victim). Ella and Dan also identify the first victim (the douche rich guy from last week). Thanks to some surveillance footage and digging, we learn that the killer is a disgraced professor (I was sort of right) from the university who saved his dissertation over a college Uber driver in a car accident. He’s recreating his dilemma to prove anyone would do what he did. Chloe emails him and insults him in the hope of provoking him. It does, but he’s already got his next victims (out of the control of the police). If the big track star doesn’t hack off his own leg, another student dies. Well, that didn’t work at all.

While Ella is being pretty fabulous and finding footage of the killer at a local airport (and giving Lucifer and Chloe a hint of where to find the nut bag), Charlotte fills Maze in on Chloe’s origins. She insists that Chloe wasn’t supposed to be there and if Maze is still skeptical, then Charlotte has something to show her. I really want to know what it is! But first, we have to deal with the last dilemma posed by the killer. Lucifer and Chloe find the guy’s lab but he poses a choice: in one vial is an antidote for the poisoned student, the other is a poisonous gas that will kill Chloe. So, whose life is more important? Lucifer offers to bust in and get the kid out while Chloe goes after the killer (as we know so he’ll be invincible). He manages to rescue the kid and Chloe corners the guy but he ends up slitting his own throat. Things look like they are going to be all happy (especially when Lucifer realizes what he and Chloe have is real) until Mama Morningstar and Maze break the news that Chloe was put in his path by God. He gets super angry (kind of at everyone) and busts into Chloe’s place, demanding to know if she knew the whole time. Well she’s probably not interested in what he’s ranting about because her nose is bleeding and it won’t’ stop. I suspect she’s been poisoned (in her pursuit of the killer) and there’s no antidote. I’d say the guy should be thanking Hell that he’s dead, but that’s Lucifer’s domain and I think he won’t think twice about going to Hell to bring the guy back to save Chloe.

Fresh off the Boat 3.06: "WWJD: What Would Jessica Do?"

“The only thing I know about Christianity is the sad story of Mary’s son leaving her.”
-Jessica

This particular episode of “Fresh off the Boat” delves into an interesting intersection between a parent letting their child grow up and make their own decisions a bit and anxiety over religion. Jessica is very upset when Evan tells her he wants to forego their weekly Costco trip to start going to church. Jessica wasn’t raised in a religious household (she considers herself non-practicing Buddhist with light Christmas), so she doesn’t understand what Evan could get out of going to church. She also really, really misses their Costco ritual. The other plots going on in this episode (Louis is unhappy with a free dental treatment Marvin gave him and Eddie and Emery try to use up a bunch of gross cereal so they can get Frosted Flakes) seem in consequential in comparison.

The episode opens with Honey and Marvin eating dinner at Cattleman’s. Louis offers to give them the “friends price,” and in exchange, Marvin agrees to give Louis a dental cleaning at the “friends price.” Louis has time on Sunday, because Jessica and Evan will be going on their weekly 5-8 hour Costco run. When we actually see them go on that Costco run, it’s something to behold. Jessica is more relaxed than we’ve ever seen her before (knowing all the bulk deals are waiting for makes her calm). She and Evan read books while sitting in camp chairs, great all the staff that they know by name, try some free dip, and sneak some broken eggs back into the refrigerator case. The best moment is a montage of Jessica and Evan trying on sunglasses and making stereotypical hip hop video faces at each other. I guess Eddie has influenced the rest of the family! Meanwhile, Louis goes for his cleaning, and everything looks great. The only problem is that Marvin snuck some tooth whitening into the fluoride treatment, and now Louis’ teeth look like they could light up a room all on their own.

The next week, Jessica is all ready for another epic Costco run. It’s toilet paper week, after all. Evan, however, doesn’t want to go. A friend and his mom have offered to take him to church. Jessica has never been religious, so she’s kind of concerned about this. And she’s upset that she won’t have Evan with her at Costco, but she decides to let him go anyway. Louis offers to go with Jessica instead, but she’s not interested, because she “knows people” at Costco, and Louis’ teeth are still janky. She sadly tries to go through the usual Costco routine on her own, but as she tells the lady who gives out the free samples, she is worried that she may have lost Evan. That fear seems to be justified when Evan returns home gushing about how much he enjoyed church. He enjoyed the free crackers and juice and the fellowship so much that he wants to go back next week, because there’s going to be a guitarist.

When Jessica sees Evan praying, she really wants to put a stop to the whole thing, but Louis reminds her that Evan needs to find his own way. After all, he (Louis) almost became a Mormon back in the day. He just realized he liked caffeine more than the prospect of being allowed to have a second wife. Jessica, however, tries to intervene, using a voice changing machine they bought at Costco to be the voice of God. The voice of God who tells Evan to spend Sunday with mommy at Costco, obviously. Louis gives Jessica a talking-to about this, and she does feel bad about it, but her next Costco run is very lonely again. She talks to the sample lady, and they have a bit of a confessional moment when the sample lady needs to restock. It was an interesting visual with the sample lady taking crackers from one side of a shelf and Jessica talking salsa from the other, creating a little window in the middle. The sample lady says she’s always trained to ask people what they like about the sample, so she makes Jessica think about what Evan likes about church. Jessica realizes that the things Evan likes about church (like community, values, and free snacks) are some of the same things Jessica likes about Costco. Church is his Costco, in other words.

Meanwhile, Eddie and Emery had asked for Frosted Flakes on the last Costco run, but they got a Kellogg’s variety pack that definitely didn’t include any sugary varieties of cereals. They do have some Rice Krispies, though, which gives Evan an idea. He gets his chef on and makes a “Bad Ass Cereal Treat” with all the cereals combined. Jessica can sniff out wasted food like nobody’s business, so if the boys didn’t figure out a way to use up the cereal she already bought, they’d never get their Frosted Flakes. Unfortunately, Eddie’s cereal treat doesn’t turn out as well as he hoped. It’s kind of difficult to eat, and even though he and Emery keep eating, it never seems to get any smaller. Also, Louis continues to struggle with his teeth. Marvin brings a whole group of his dentist friends to Cattleman’s to try and show off his work, but Louis doesn’t want to open his mouth. Marvin says he turned Louis from a 7 to an 8 or 8.5. This doesn’t sit well with Louis. Eddie ends up breaking a tooth on the cereal treat, and Louis has to take him to see Marvin. The two patch up their differences, and Louis pays full price for the cap on Eddie’s tooth. In exchange, Marvin says he will pay full price at Cattleman’s going forward. They both think it is best for their friendship.

Jessica is determined to be more supportive of Evan’s desire to go to church, and Evan actually ends up making it a bit easier for her than she expected. He wants to alternate weeks between church and Costco. To show her support, and because she still wants to spend Sundays with her son, Jessica decides to wait outside church every week while Evan attends the service. That way he can tell her all about it right away. Jessica still isn’t willing to actually go into church, but she is impressed when Evan tells her they have school on Sunday.

Review: "Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds"

“Age. It’s horrible for all of us, but she falls from a greater height.”
-Carrie Fisher

I first watched Star Wars as a tween and almost instantly became a massive fan. I also have very distinct memories of watching “Singin’ in the Rain” while young, too (I was raised on a pretty steady diet of classic sitcoms, musicals, and sci-fi). So you can imagine the events of December hit me harder than most celebrity deaths do. I was pleased, however, that HBO made the decision to air “Bright Lights,” Alexis Bloom and Fisher Stevens’ documentary about Debbie Reynolds, Carrie Fisher, and some of their extended family, earlier than planned in their honor. I came away from the documentary wishing I had read some of Carrie Fisher’s work before she died (although I do plan to remedy that lack of reading at some point). She had some of the most insightful commentary on her family in the documentary, and I would imagine that same wit and perceptiveness is present in her written work as well.

Let’s start with some of the less heavy aspects of the documentary. One scene that really stood out to me was when Fisher goes to a convention to sign autographs for fans. As you know if you’re a long-time reader of MTVP (do any of you exist?), you know that Sarah and I are big time convention attendees. We’ve even been to Comic-con International in San Diego (which was an amazing experience). I do, however, at conventions, sometimes feel a tiny bit sorry for the celebrities. I especially felt this way at Wizard World Philadephia last year. I mean, the celebrities do get paid for their time, which is definitely deserved, but there’s something that feels a bit unseemly about it all. They’re human beings too, and they’re being inundated with people who want their photo and autograph because they like a character they played once. Princess Leia is such an iconic character that I imagine the fan attention was extremely intense for Fisher. She very aptly describes conventions as a “celebrity lap dance” except the money isn’t placed in underwear. After the convention, however, she does reflect on the fact that people love Leia and she (Carrie) is as close as they can get to her (Leia), and that people are nice. I imagine many of the celebrities who frequent the convention circuit have similarly conflicted feelings.

I was especially struck by the extremely close, pretty much co-dependent relationship between Reynolds and Fisher. They lived in separate houses in the same Beverly Hills compound, and they spent a great deal of time together. During the time of the documentary, Reynolds was not generally in great health, and it was clear how much this was weighing on Fisher. She was clearly very (understandably) upset at seeing her mother decline, and she was determined to do whatever she had to in order to give Reynolds a few last chances to perform. She also spoke very eloquently about how she needed her mother to be the same person she had always been and how she’s having a harder time preparing herself to let go of her mother than she had letting go of her own daughter. My own mother and I are very close, even though we live three hours apart. Fisher mentioning that she was her mother’s best friend more than her daughter also somewhat rings true to me. I can only hope, if we are blessed to live that long, that my mother and I can have the close, loving relationship of Reynolds and Fisher when we are in our 80’s/late 50s.

I also have come to really appreciate what a tireless advocate Fisher was for destigmatizing mental health. Fisher had bipolar disorder, and the documentary included footage of her having a manic episode on the Great Wall of China followed by an episode of depression severe enough that she couldn’t get out of bed. Fisher called the two sides to her moods “Rollicking Roy” and “Sentiment Pam,” one the meal and the other the check. I have a close relative with pretty severe (to the point of disability, even when on the right levels of medication) bipolar disorder, and I greatly appreciate Fisher providing more insight to the public about what the disorder is really like. Reynolds’ take on her daughter’s struggle rang especially true to me. She said in one scene, “When she was 13, her personality changed. So it’s a constant battle — it takes all of us to assure her that she’s loved.” I could picture my grandmother saying the exact same thing. She’s often marveled, tearfully, at how my relative with bipolar disorder keeps going with the thoughts he has going through his head.

Going into watching “Bright Lights,” I wasn’t sure if I was emotionally ready to handle the film so soon after Fisher and Reynolds’ deaths. I ended up, however, being glad that I took the leap. I knew abstractly that Carrie Fisher had been a talented writer and advocate for mental health, but there was definitely value in seeing her wit and her struggles depicted on the screen. Like I mentioned, I really want to read some of her writing now. If the insight she displayed in this documentary is also present in her writing, a read will be very worthwhile. I’m not sure which I want to start with first – “The Princess Diarist” for all the behind the scenes Star Wars gossip, or one of her earlier works. Either way, I have no doubt after watching “Bright Lights” that I will be in for an interesting read.

This Is Us 1.12: “The Big Day”

“God, I know we only talk during play-off season but if you’re listening, I think my wife’s been possessed by a demon.”
- Jack

So, coming into this episode, I knew that it was set all in the past, which as we know is a departure from the usual story structure of the show. But that’s totally fine. The show has established itself enough at this point to occasionally break from tradition. And it means we get some more insight into the past characters and the day that led us to the Big Three entering the world! We find Jack and Rebecca the day before the Big Three come into the world. (well we actually see Rebecca’s transition from loving being pregnant to needing Jack’s help to get out of bed in the middle of the night to pee). She’s just really stressed about the fact that the house is still a mess and they just aren’t ready for the children to arrive. On the afternoon of Jack’s birthday, Rebecca is in a real mood and she kicks Jack out of the house (he’s relatively gracious about it) and even offers up a little prayer to God. And then Rebecca realizes her mess-up and she’s really upset.

Elsewhere, we meet Joe, the firefighter who will ultimately unite Randall with his family. He’s at confession, talking to the priest about how he lied to his wife about quitting smoking. I guess the regulations about firefighters smoking being prohibited didn’t come into effect until much more recently. He goes on about how they met when she rear-ended him. I think he misses what they used to have. He even tells his wife that he asked the priest to help fix his marriage. Also missing what he used to have is Dr. K. We see him getting ready to have his grandchildren over and he’s talking to his wife but no one else is there. He even finds an excuse (in work) to turn down a female friend (or acquaintance I guess) that he runs into at the grocery store when she offers to make him dinner. When his family arrives, it’s clear that he’s still struggling to make connections with people after losing his wife. When his son and daughter-in-law try to talk to him about their concerns that he isn’t moving on, he kind of loses it and says he’ snot going to move on. She was his life and now she’s gone. He does go to her grave and is having a really emotional conversation with her when his pager goes off, summoning him back to work.

Rebecca is frantically trying to figure out something to do for Jack’s birthday and she ends up leaving Miguel’s wife a long rambling message before deciding she’s going to make Jack a fancy cake. That’s all well and good but they don’t have the ingredients. So, she duct tapes flip flops to her feet and makes the trek to the only store within waddling distance (a liquor store). Together with the owner, she cobbles together a banana muffin and Twinkies (for icing) and she snags the pilot’s infamous terrible towel. Meanwhile, Miguel is trying to get Jack into golfing but all Jack wants to do is be with his wife and unborn babies. He’s such a good husband. Even when he was having issues with drinking after the babies were born, he was still a good guy.

At the fire station, we find Joe on shift when someone rings the doorbell. We see baby Randall (so interesting that Rebecca calls him Kevin and Kate’s younger brother even though he’s actually older than them) on the doorstep. William is watching from around a corner and once Joe takes the baby inside, William takes off. While a co-worker suggests Joe take the baby to the police, I don’t think he’s going to end up doing that (in fact we know he doesn’t). Well at first, he tries to convince his wife that they should keep the baby but she says that a child isn’t going to fix their problems. But finding the baby was enough to make them both realize that they want to try and fix things and go back to way the it was.

Back at home, Rebecca puts together the cupcake and then gets to spend some time in the nursery, talking to the babies in her belly. She raves about Jack and how excited she is for them to meet him and then she shares her fears about her shortcomings as a prospective mother. The things she says are definitely born out in what we’ve seen of her on the show thus far. Jack comes back and has been filming her which is kind of adorable. He says it’s only picture but I suspect it has sound, too. It would be a sweet way to incorporate Jack into the present if the Big Three watched it or something. But he convinces her to do the sexy dance and we’ve about caught up with the events of the pilot.

We see Jack stripping down for his birthday dance and then Jack and Rebeca at the hospital meeting Dr. K. They cut in between the delivery and Dr. K telling Jack about losing the third baby. Unlike in the pilot, we get to actually hear Jack tell Rebecca about the baby and hear her vehemently denying the truth. I honestly can’t imagine what that would be like. But in the end, they end up taking Randall home and it prompts Dr. K to move on with his life. We see him having dinner with that lady friend while Joe and his wife are reconnecting and rekindling their marriage. And as we jump ahead to Father’s Day when the Big Three are 8 or 9, we see that they are in fact watching the video he took of Rebecca (and it doesn’t have sound). It was really sweet. I really liked getting to see what brought all of these people together on this one day in the history of the Pearsons. And if I’m honest, I didn’t even miss the adult Big Three all that much.