Jack & Bobby ongoing thread (1 Viewer)

[Citizen87645]

Maybe it's the mid-season blah's but the characters on the show are starting to bug me, Jack's 'tude being a major one. I will feel little sympathy for him if he laments about blowing out his knee when he's the one who decided to risk it.

I find myself getting a little weary of some of the other shows I watch, so maybe it's just me...

 

[Patrick Sun]

In some ways, I could sympathize with Jack's yearning to not feel like he had been feeling after being attacked in the last episode, and for him, that meant he had to get back to being Jack, and that meant running in track meets, damn the potential risk. I kept waiting for Jack's knee to give out, and when it did, that was painful.

Now, the parallel lesson that Bobby learned from an act of commission vs. omission lent itself to the future story, which can be harrowing should it ever happen, and it did seem like Bobby's presidency was plagued with many opportunities to find the right solution/reaction at the right time. The show is about how Bobby's past (our present) forms his decision-making process, and he does make a lot of mistake learning those lessons.

 

[Lew Crippen]

If WB has a network theme, it is whiney teens—especially males. I’m sure that it plays pretty well to the target demographic, but in a show such as this, it reduces focus on what is purported to be the theme of the series.

Pretty clearly some script doctors have been brought in to help save the series. It remains to be seen if this is a good thing.

 

[Patrick Sun]

2/2/05

On a night when all the other networks are airing the State of the Union address, the WB shows a episode of a show which features a fictional future president in his early teen years. Irony?

As it stood, one of the weaker effort in the show's short history so far:

Bobby is devastated by Grace and Tom cavorting on an outing that featured meteor shower watching. Bobby lashes out rather belligerently at Tom. Grace finally sits down with Bobby to get the issues out on the table and that placates Bobby for now.

Jack gets a lesson in high school caste systems by meeting that ubiquitous redheaded girl who's in a bunch of other shows (CSI, Cold Case, etc) at his physical therapist's office and makes Jack take a hard look at his station in high school life. This leads to Jack's breakup with Missy, and Grace didn't skip a beat in displaying her delight at thise development.

Courtney stalks Nate, and is pleasantly surprised that her efforts are rewarded, though he is so playing with fire, being a college student hooking up with the college president's teenage daughter. It's just weird seeing Mike Erwin (Nate) in a normal role after spending seasons on Everwood being sick and near death all the time.

And there was no future history story to tie in with tonight's episode, but it was probably for the best.

 

[Citizen87645]

You forgot Lahti's new 'do.

Y'know I was actually disappointed that Missy turned out to be as shallow and clueless as she first appeared. But the redhead is better all around.

Glad to see the show did not linger on Jack's funk either.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Grace's 'do is a 'don't.

 

[Thomas H G]

I really like those too. I was missing it this episode.

 

[Patrick Sun]

2/9/05

J&B are on my backburner since that timeslot is a little busy.

It was a little weird seeing Jack at that pot-fest. I don't like where the redhead girl is leading Jack into.

Bobby's hunting outing - will he be able to get over shooting Bambi later?

I'm not all that keen on the Grace and Tom romance.

Hated the Courtney subplot, I thought she was smarter than to given into the "I'll pull out in time" line. I guess that's what makes for the drama later.

 

[DaveF]

I watch J&B sporadically. It's a good show, but I haven't worked it into my schedule.

My main critique is they should drop the future-politic segments. While a useful ploy to grab initial viewership, the character drama has proven to stand on its own. The future talking heads only distract from (and cheapen) the real story.

I saw this episode, and it wasn't clear to me what the real source of his grief was: shooting the deer, being unable to finally kill it, or seeing it killed? I thought it was a good bit of drama that got at the mixed views on hunting.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I like the future history vignettes. I didn't quite like this episode's future history lesson, though.

Moms with phasers...scary!

 

[Kevin Hewell]

The future plot where they talk about a terrorist setting off a nuclear bomb in downtown Chicago was good. My jaw hit the floor when they said that at the end of one ep.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Maybe it's just me, but it seems like anything that could go wrong, did go wrong for Pres. Bobby, in terms of events of unrest and uncertainty during his presidency.

 

[Ken Chan]

Yeah, too much stuff happens to him. The idea that the nuke would only kill (was it) a few thousand didn't wash, either.

Same actress led Looks-Like-Michael-Jackson on Nip/Tuck into that threeway with Sophia Bush, right? Is that good or bad?

 

[Thomas H G]

I was thinking the same thing after watching last week's episode. Seems like he couldn't catch a break.

 

[Citizen87645]

Next he will free the (robot) slaves.

 

[Patrick Sun]

2/16/05

Good stuff with the "Truth or Dare" segment for the 3 couples stuck at the diner.

Tom helps with Bobby and Warren fit in with other boys in their class during the snow-in.

Grace's secret romance is uncovered by another colleague, and Grace keeps thinking that she'll be on the hot seat soon when she's called into Peter's office, but luckily for her is that Peter is worried about finding out that Courtney got the morning-after pill from the school's medical clinic. Peter's advances got shut down by Grace.

As to the future history segment, it would appear that Bobby did carry on with his vice president (the Tess Harper character), and Courtney was all set to leave, but Grace convinced her to heed her calling and stay in the White House for the country's sake. That was their last conversation before Grace's passing.

 

[Elizabeth S]

Hope everyone remembered a new episode airs tonight. Locally, it is pre-empted by university baseball, so I will catch the Sunday rerun.

"J&B" is included in the annual USA Today "Save Our Show" survey (along with "Eyes", "Joan of Arcadia", "Arrested Development" and others).

http://www.usatoday.com/life/televis...-our-shows.htm

 

[Patrick Sun]

4/27/05

Marcus is going to be all messed up after this night.

I was also hoping Randy would be the one, but too bad they wrote off Missy instead.

Grace and Bobby's moment in front of the Declaration of Independence was a really good moment, too bad the writing to get to that point was pretty atrocious. How many kids embarrass their parent in such a staged event like that? Bad, Bobby, Bad!

Strangely enough, I didn't care for the future story all that much, that guy playing "Jack" McCallister (Bobby's son in the future) had the reddest frikkin' lips I've ever seen on a guy.

This show's ratings are horrible, though. It got a share of 2 last night! Sigh.

 

[Patrick Sun]

5/11/05

I don't know why my eyes watered as the highlights of Jack's adult life were being recounted, and then his untimely demise, which resulted in Bobby's rise to political power by happenstance, though at such a high personal cost: losing his only brother in a situation of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Yes, this episode felt too neat in spots, like the producers were saying, "okay, we know the ratings stink, but if this is the only season we've got, then we need to give the viewers enough of the future history to know their investment in viewing this show paid off for them." I hope it returns, but I don't know if the WB can keep it on the air if they don't think the ratings will get better next season.

 

[Ken Chan]

Ironically Jack was shot in a convenience store, which is what put his father in prison. It was pretty clear they were rounding out the story in case they didn't get renewed, which I did appreciate. Luckily, I had forgotten they gave away that Jack is the one that meets his father in the previews.

They mentioned the date of the trip as being this year, right? Is that the first hard date in the "present"? If so, the War of the Americas has to happen in the next ten years or something.