It's never a great day when your friends all yell at you for talking them back into watching a show. (Hey, y'all, season three was great until these last couple episodes.)
Never a great day, review wise, when you spend an hour talking about an episode with fans who focus mainly on one "elephant in the room" (Ugh) rather than all the good parts.
But, yeah, that was Friday lunch.
OK, gang, I was wrong. Cordell did just do one angst-ridden wail over Julia's dead corpse, then move on to the next woman.
The writers did fridge one woc to make room for the next one. (I heard a lot of info about colorism and eurocentrism today I never thought of when not applied to African Americans, but ok. I learned.)
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Frankly, Cordell had a Jerry McGuire downside moment. He cannot apparently be alone, so he dove right back into the fox hole where he felt safest.
He's made great strides in mental health since Emily died.
This just wasn't one.
He had worked up to dating someone smart, competent, and professional, which literally blew up in his face. He's realizing his children are almost grown and leaving him with an empty nest.
And there's that emotional, almost hormonal reaction that overcomes everyone at a wedding of friends.
Talk about triggers.
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Even if our group of women viewers find Geri trifling, unaccomplished, and emotionally needy herself, she is safe and she is pretty. Cordell knows he can match her.
He knows her flaws and realizes he can relax around her as long as he gives her free rein to boss him around. (And, again, at this point maybe he feels at ease having someone make decisions. At work he's the legendary hero; maybe at home he just wants to schlub around.)
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My thesis as the group optimist is that I'm setting aside all that.
I mean, if you have a shipwreck, even a rotten beam is worth grabbing onto to keep afloat.
So I'm giving him a pass.
And the writers may have been forced to push this faster than otherwise, because at the point of filming they didn't know if they'd get another season or not.
No nefarious intent there nor INTENTIONALLY unwoke messaging.
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Yet I don't know if I speak for all my friends.
Because it's never a good day when everyone spends lunch hour chewing on a character, from her lack of personality and past plot damage, right down to how she wore shiny cowboy boots to a wedding.
Skipping right past the fun, the music, the intrigue. Right past even Calian jumping time to be a guest detective.
Maybe next season, however, the ire will pass and my watch group will make like Elsa--let it go.
Or maybe Cordell will get the strength to stand on his own two feet as his journey continues.
Possibly Geri will even take stock and show growth. Writers can make people worthy; they do it all the time. (Though my personal vote on this ship is still "no.")
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Anyway, the show, overall, is still outstanding.
So thank heavens for renewals and hiatuses getting our second chance moments through both.
