“And I have a real gap in my early 30s – that happened less then. For some reason, my interest in current music really picked up again in my late 30s.”
Too busy raising little ones or bad stretch in new music, @JHS?
Although I’ve tried to keep current during every stage of the game, It has picked up in the last 8 years or so but that’s also because we learn of new music from the kids.
I really enjoyed this episode. I agree with everything sailakeerie said.
I don’t understand the need to pick a show apart. I don’t mean to be critical - it’s just I truly don’t understand it and I live with it. My husband does it. He notices all the little things that aren’t quite right and then he has the need to tell whoever is watching with him about his issue. I am always saying, “It’s TV. It’s story telling in a compressed time frame.” We’ve done this routine for decades. To me it doesn’t matter if the Super Bowl is shown in daylight or nighttime, but my husband cares and he will point it out if he thinks it’s wrongly portrayed. Then I’ll say something like, “Maybe the Super Bowl was a day game that year.” Then he’ll have to look it up. Drives me crazy. I just care about the story, the dialogue and the characters. I don’t expect or even want TV shows to be 100% realistic.
I also think the term misogynist to describe Jack is harsh. The term is defined as a person who hates, dislikes, mistrusts or mistreats women - or one who shows contempt or prejudice against women or girls. Jack isn’t perfect, but he holds his wife and daughter in very high regard. I’m the mom of boys and I’m happy to see a male on TV without a gun in his hand. Jack isn’t perfect - he drank too much, he was jealous when Rebecca wanted to go on the road with an ex-boyfriend, he was dumb to go back into a burning house, and maybe he’s even over-bearing at the car dealership. But, he’s fundamentally a good guy who tried to overcome an abusive, alcoholic dad, fighting in Vietnam, and losing a brother in the same war. For the most part he succeeded. He’s a guy who at his best adopted a child in need, cleaned up the kitchen after the Super Bowl, loved and supported his family, saved the dog his daughter loved and wanted nothing more than for his family to be okay.
Well, he’d be 18 in 1962 and 26 in 1970. Not sure why the casualty rate during that time period is relevant since he didn’t die there?
Anyway, the link above said he was 25 when he went to Vietnam. He was with his younger brother, so maybe he volunteered when his brother was drafted?
If he was born in 1944, then he would have been 53 when he died. He doesn’t look, nor do I think that is how old he is supposed to be. I bet he was born 10 years later. That puts him at 43 at time of death and Rebecca a few years younger. He would be in his late teens, early 20’s in the Vietnam war. She said they were married 21 years. So, I think that all fits.
I saw a glimpse of her Mom at the funeral.
Here’s the link where I got his age from. Plus, he was supposed to be 36 when the triplets were born (they were born on his birthday, remember?). Since they were 17 when he died, that would have made him 53. I think Rebecca is supposed to be six years younger. And he died in 1998, making this year the 20th anniversary of his death.
“I just care about the story, the dialogue and the characters”
So do we and that’s a lot of what we have issues with. I’ve been a fan of the show overall (otherwise I wouldn’t be watching). However, I did not care for the storyline and dialogue in this episode.
I don’t how one could expect a thread to go on and on about one series and expect solely praise for the show.
“I also think the term misogynist to describe Jack is harsh.”
Fair enough. I see your point. How about sexist and unenlightened. 
^^^ Sexist and unenlightened. How unusual!
I’m the one who brought up the Springsteen issue. It’s not that someone of his cohort would not have been a fan, it’s that Springsteen is not at all emblematic of his cohort. The ones I mentioned – The Who, The Stones, The Doors, Dylan – those are emblematic of that age group.
Springsteen might be more emblematic of Vietnam vets who were drafted, though. Springsteen was a draft dodger and his “Born in the USA” was an anti-government, anti-Vietnam war anthem that addressed how vets were treated when they came home.
Was the intention to be emblematic? If so, I didn’t read it that way. I wouldn’t consider Alanis Morissette emblematic of someone Kate’s age at that given time. Popular maybe. Icon, no.
Dochicos … I don’t want an admiration only thread, either. I have issues with the show over some things. My biggest issue is how the producers/network teased Jack’s death for so long. I think they also try too hard to make viewers emotional, it seems so over used. But, I think it’s one of the best shows currently on TV. I love the humor and the technique of showing a past, present, and future view of a family is so unique. There are things I don’t get, too, like Randall’s not quite mid-life, mid-life crisis.
“There are things I don’t get, too, like Randall’s not quite mid-life, mid-life crisis.”
That I actually think works and I do get it.
@Mom2jl …ok, thanks for the link. Well, they did a horrible job making them look age appropriate. He looks older with the beard in season 1.
If you watched the opening ceremony last night, did you notice that Sterling Brown narrated NBC’s opening film?
I thought the scene of Rebekah making and eating lasagna alone was gut wrenching. 20 years later and it’s still “celebrated” I refuse to acknowledge anniversary of deaths. I was very cold on Rebekah the first season. I like her more and more every episode. Personally I would have not told the kids that the smoke had anything to do with it.
Props about the foster boy twist. That was really well done.
I could have nearly cheered when Jack had that conversation with the car dealer - if I wasn’t already choked up. The way he handled that? That is EXACTLY what I always want to do at the dealership - put the bull aside and just be flat out honest with the salesman and say “this is why I’d like it and this is what my bottom line is”- no games - either it’s a win or a rejection - which I think Jack was prepared to accept. But his story, his plea, won. Atta boy Jack.
I found so many moments tender in this episode. Mandy Moore - steppin it right up in the acting department.
The scene when Jack is sure her dizzyness is not a tumor. His glass once again, half full. And when he says, “please don’t put me in the ground - keep me outside” - HEART TUGS. I totally get that.
I refuse to analyze some of the details some of you do. I chose to not evaluate the show to that degree. I want to just stay IN the story, the emotions of the family, the journey. For me, those details are just minor details that don’t affect the family story.
Re: the cup. I don’t know why but my first thought when I saw the cup when they arrived at their house was - what was in it? I was hoping it wasn’t a set up to be alcohol - and that Rebecca would eventually open it and see that it wasn’t coffee.
“There are things I don’t get, too, like Randall’s not quite mid-life, mid-life crisis.”
I think having his biological Dad show up only to die a few months later has something to do with it.
I think the calling the car buying thing sexist and unenlightened is a bit harsh. I just think the writers wanted to show for the hundredth time that Jack was a (near) perfect husband and father. He was able to perform a miracle and bought them the car that they needed.
If both he and Rebecca had been involved in the car buying transaction, then the car theme for the episode wouldn’t have worked. He bought the car. He bought the tickets. They went to the concert in the car after he died because that’s what he would’ve wanted. And for once, in the car, they were all getting along.
Well, it brought Jack down off his pedestal in my mind whether the writers intended it to or not. I still think it was a poor plot device if what the writers were trying to evoke was Jack the Perfect Dad/Husband. They could have gone in any number of directions and this was what they chose to write. The whole car buying scene didn’t ring either authentic or enlightened to me.