Sunday January 18, 2009
313
Just as Greenatopia gets the green light Sarah's business partner breaks some startling personal news; Nora rekindles a romance with an old flame.
Write a Recap »This episode shows exactly how much this series needs the whole family to be together. It just isn't that good with the characters having separate storylines. The Kevin-Robert storyline was just boring to me, Kitty was there for like a minute, Tommy wasn't there at all, Nora was acting weird and the party just didn't look like a real party because it didn't contain a big Walker family drama. Ok, there was a little conflict between Sarah and Nora but that just didn't do it for me. Sarah with Paige I really liked. The compromise she found with Paige's dress in the end was a very good solution. Sarah with her co-worker guy was just too weird to find it real. Rebecca and the blonde guy didn't have chemistry. Fortunately nothing happened and Rebecca and Justin made up in the end.
In general...the opening scene with Sarah, Nora and Rebecca in the elevator got my hopes up for this episode but it turned out to be not that good.
Greenatopia
Written by Peter Calloway And Sherri Cooper-Landsman
Directed by Laura Innes
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Sarah: "Thanks to you, Paige hates me."
Nora: "You talked to her?"
Sarah: "I took the Spice Girl outfit back."
For an episode that seemed desperate to promote the issue of going green, there's one particular connotation with that colour I bet the writers really wish some viewers didn't feel and that's green with sickness.
Arguably this is one of the most frustrating episodes from the series I've had to watch and the reasons for the various frustrations can be found in just about every plot of the week. There isn't one that is solely great and that's a shame.
Maybe Kitty's book plot sucked the least and that was only because there was very little of it and we can attribute that to Calista Flockhart only being there for one whole scene and this week, we could've had a little more of the character.
Last week, Kitty expressed fears to Kevin that Robert was going to run for senator and even before the reveal, it had been clear that her fears were justified. Right now, she's still in the dark over Robert's new ambitions and contributes to the episode by admiring one of his guns.
The idea of hunting for quail is enough to put me to sleep so watching a subplot on the very subject was one of the dullest things this show has ever done. Of course when you're in politics, you do have to suck up to the right sort of people and there's no one better at sucking up than Robert.
For that matter, there's no one worse than Kevin, who flat out sucks at trying to appease the kind of people he wouldn't normally tolerate. Every reason why Kevin shouldn't be working for Robert is greatly highlighted in his afternoon with Gordon and Wade.
Both men were openly hostile and belligerent to Kevin's political beliefs and both men pretty much seemed to go out of their way to goad him as much as they could during the hunt and Robert more or less did nothing about it.
Okay, so Kevin's a grown man and can more than stand up for himself and while I understand that Robert needed to get both Gordon and Wade on side in order to put him forward for governor, I don't think I've ever hated Robert as a character as much as I did in this episode.
As soon as Kevin finally had the good sense to actually stand for himself and tell Gordon and Wade where to get off, Robert reacted by ripping Kevin a new one, which the latter was surprisingly mute during. What infuriated me more is that this should've been the very moment where Kevin handed in his resignation and told Robert where to go.
I really can't for the life of me understand why Kevin didn't quit after this latest incident. Over the last few episodes we've seen Robert withhold information and yell at him for no reason and given Kevin's actual lack of media experience and his political views, it makes no sense for him to be working for Robert.
And if the writers are expecting viewers to be touched by that winning speech Kevin made about Robert that persuaded Wade to back the latter, then they really are deluding themselves. Just about no-one actually cares about Robert wanting to become governor and thanks to this episode, I think even the most ardent of Robert supporters would see him and Kevin working together as a bad idea.
Even that Boston Legal cigars and brandy scene failed to resonate. Kevin might have some father issues but working with Robert is certainly not a way of getting through them and also, I'm disappointed that the writers went there with Kevin and his William issues. Personally I hope Kitty goes into full blown soap hysteria when she finds out that Robert's running for governor. Please tell me that by the end of this season, Kevin will do the right thing and get away from Robert. As for a career storyline that I do like, it's nice to see that Sarah is getting some success in her riskier than thou business venture with Kyle and Ethan. Okay, so she may have overemphasised the fact that she wasn't up to speed on her social networking and Paige's comments on her appearance didn't help matter but at least I didn't want to shoot myself when watching her plot.
So Greenatopia needed Arlo's money to take and after a very exasperated sales pitch (at one point, I thought Sarah was going to lose breath), she secured herself a hefty sum of money. Okay, so in later episodes, things might not be smooth sailing but for the time being, it's nice for Sarah to have success.
Also nice is the fact that it was Ethan who tried his case on with Sarah and not Kyle. Ethan is probably the more interesting of the two and I'm glad that Sarah decided not to mix business with pleasure but I'm also glad that Ethan handled getting knocked back by her fairly well.
Sarah's other plot this week involved Paige wanting to wear something skimpier and Nora being daft enough to let her buy an outfit that no ten year old girl should be wearing. I had to side with Sarah in this plot because it seemed illogical that even Nora would want her granddaughter to wear something like that and also because Paige showed a vicious side.
I know divorce affects kids and all but Paige's comments regarding Sarah were harsh and it was because of them that Sarah relented with the outfit, provided Paige wore some leggings and a jacket to compliment it. Some viewers said it would've been great for Paige to have apologised to Sarah before Sarah had relented and I have to agree with them.
A better moment with Sarah though involved her and Nora having it out over sex. Sarah didn't want Paige dressing in a skimpy outfit because she rightly pointed out that kids are growing a lot faster than expected and Nora pointed out that Sarah was expressing fears over herself getting older.
Sarah however did manage to remind Nora that it's been a while since she's had sex. All through this episode, Nora's attraction and frustration to Roger was being highlighted and it did look like the writers were finally going to have the two of them do the deed so to speak.
Well they probably would've at Sarah's launch if Nora hadn't passed out instead but she is beginning to get past the shy phase and soon enough, Roger will probably get his leg over. I'm not sure if their relationship is something that's really genuine though – Nora more or less admitted she once flirted with him purely to make William jealous and nothing more.
Also Roger seems to have the same smug and self-satisfied character traits that Nora has criticised Kitty for finding attractive in the past and given that he keeps seeming to go against Nora's expressed wishes for her centre (this week, going over her budget), I wouldn't bank on these two lasting long. Shame because I do like Nigel Havers in the role.
Another set up this week for having a night passion were Rebecca and Kyle, two characters who until now have had no real interaction with each other. Kyle managed to call Justin an idiot and lucky during his failed bid to seduce Rebecca. The worst thing is that I really hated Rebecca for turning him down.
Her and Justin just do not work as a couple and Justin had no problem in ditching her to play on his sponsor role for Chelsea, another person who has the potential to tear Justin and Rebecca apart and to be fair, given that they're less popular than George and Izzie from Grey's Anatomy were, I commend Chelsea to do some damage.
Holly might have only appeared in one scene but I get that she might actually care about Justin and Rebecca without an agenda of her own. She wants her daughter to be happy, clear loves the fact that Rebecca is impressing at Ojai and is also blissfully unaware that Tommy is trying to get her out.
However getting back to the couple with the least, we got another maudlin scene where the two of them made up. I know we're supposed to find Rebecca's moment where she told Justin that she needed him sincere/sweet/whatever but it came across every bit as false as Kevin's glowing recommendation of Robert as well. I love this show to bits but even I'm having a hard time with some of these plots now.
Also in "It's Not Easy Being Green"
This episode opened very similarly to the way Season One's "Valentine's Day Massacre" did.
Sarah: "Mom, what are you doing here? Did you spend the night?"
Nora: "I don't know, Sherlock, what do you think?"
Loved the mussed up hair that Nora, Sarah and Rebecca were all exhibiting in spite of the fact that not one of them got up to mischief.
Nora: "Is Justin still sleeping?"
Rebecca: "I don't know where Justin is."
Holly: "It's hard I know. Believe me; I could never pull it off."
Rebecca: "What, a healthy relationship?"
Holly: "Well that too but I was talking about balance, relationship and work. It probably explains my relationship with William. Being with a married man, he didn't make too many demands."
Sarah did go overboard with the mentions she made of Facebook and Twitter. Stephen Fry would be ashamed of her for not using the latter.
Sarah (re Paige): "She can explore in her bedroom but she's not going out looking like Hannah Montana meets a call girl."
Nora: "You're overreacting and the thing is, Paige feels great. That's what's important."
Justin: "They sort of frown opposite sex partnerships."
Chelsea: "It's weird. What if I were gay?"
Justin: "That's a good point."
Justin showed a certain amount of attraction to Chelsea and she definitely seemed to be flirting with him as well.
Nora: "Don't flirt with me. You're just trying to get your hands on my solar panels."
Roger: "It seems to be working. You're blushing."
Paige (to Sarah): "I hate you. You're never around and when you are, you just ruin everything."
There was a hilarious scene where Nora looked like she was going to kill Kyle over his eco chatter.
Nora: "I flirted with you thirty years ago to piss my husband off and now here you are, picking me off the dance floor and where's William? He's not around."
Roger: "That's enough dancing."
Rebecca (re Justin): "He has a new sponsee so he couldn't leave her hanging."
Kyle: "Oh but he could leave you hanging?"
Standout music in this episode was "The Kitchen" by Little Jackie.
Kevin: "This is some tragically lame attempt to get my father's approval."
Robert: "Wouldn't be the first time."
Chronology: A year since Nora's relationship with Isaac ended in "Separation Anxiety".
"It's Not Easy Being Green" was rich in its eco-friendly message but as an episode, it was disjointed and unsatisfying. It's easy to see why so many viewers have become under whelmed and flat annoyed with this season.
Green-a-topia finally comes true! So in true Walker style, a party is needed to celebrate. hide show
In this episode of Brothers and Sisters, the following happens. Nora takes Paige shopping for Sarah, but when Sarah sees what they picked she is horrified. She returns it and Paige and her have a huge argument. At the Green-a-topia party, Sarah and the boys get the money that they need, to get the company off of the ground.
After the party, Nora and Roger end up spending the night together, but before anything can happen, Nora falls asleep. The next day, when Rebecca and Justin bump into each other they argue. The next day, Sarah gives the Paige that she wants for her dance and then gives her some leggings and a jacket to go with it, so it won't look so old on her. At the end of the episode, Nora and Roger kiss.
When is Holly going down? hide show
The main reason I am watching this show at the moment is to see that Holly woman go down.
Seriously down.
In flames. With people cheering.
My hatred of her is irrational but I don't care. I don't even like Sally Field much. In fact I also am starting to hate Sally Field. Her acting style annoys me. She was perfect cast as Abby's bipolar mother in ER and should stick to people on the edge of sanity. Otherwise I want to slap her.
I reckon Sarah should have shagged the younger man. Why not? It would have made his day and her self esteem could use a boost.
And I wish Sarah and Ally McBeal would kiss and make up for once and all. They obviously love each other, why else would they tolerate someone saying such hurtful and nasty things?
Go Kevin as well. I think he should run for office. Don't you just love people who tell it like it is!
Greenatopia gets the green light. hide show
Let me just start off by saying that all things considered, I absolutely loved this episode. Although, I have to say that I thought that it was pretty weird not having Tommy in this episode since he's one of the main members of the Walker family, but in the end I didn't really care since he's one of my least favorite characters on the show. I really missed not having Scotty in this episode though, but I still loved this episode. All of the story lines were great, especially Nora's. Nora's storyline was definitely my favorite. Kevin's storyline was great too. It was so funny! I loved it! Justin's storyline was pretty interesting too. I love how they structure this episode by showing the morning after the party and then going back in time several days before the party. In closing, I thought that this was a very well written, well acted and well made episode of Brothers & Sisters from everyone involved, and I can't wait to see the next episode of Brothers & Sisters.
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