twop Men in Trees (latest post)
51 -I also like that they took several cliches -pregnant ex, city girl embarassed by blue collar guy- and then kind of turned them in on themselves. Ex's baby isn't Jack's. City Girl gets over herself. Since usually in these kinds of situations, everyone behaves as though they are 12. It was nice to see grown ups behaving more or less like grown ups.
yeah I think this show is surprisingly and impressively down-to-earth ~ in how situations resolve. marin returns to have jack's girlfriend answer the door, then jack goes to see her but she's out on a bike ride -so we are heading into the typical scenario where because things keep going wrong they take all episode to meet up and tell each other their feelings- but no right away jack in his truck finds marin on her bike. several times the show has done this none-dragging out, resolving of a typical scenario realistically rather than in the expected more prolonged and dramatic anc cliched way.
52 -That's what I like, too. In every instance, they've taken a cliche that caused me to groan "Oh, no!" and flipped it. Like, Jack stubbornly refusing to read Marin's New Yorker article - he could have remained stubborn indefinitely and never read it or read it and hated what she'd written, but he read it, liked it, and apologized for being stupid about it. Or Marin missing his call - they could have had her pursue the cute publisher guy and never get Jack's message. Instead they sent her back to Elmo under her own steam. Marin knocking on Jack's door to find Lynn standing there in a shirt could have been a disaster to span many episodes. But they resolved it quickly. Same thing with Lynn's not-Jack's-baby. What we expected to happen yep was Marin thinking Jack and Lynn slept together and then to think that Lynn's baby was Jack's and for Marin to go stomping off, rejected, without ever knowing the truth and Jack to not understand why Marin was angry, yada yada yada yep. They didn't even have Lynn "accidentally forget" to tell Jack that Marin stopped by - she told him flat out so he could go chase after Marin and we all could enjoy that amazing reunion scene.
I think the key is that because Marin is a relationship specialist, the writers know better than to use the old Big Misunderstanding to cause conflict. From the get-go Marin has been militant about communicating. huh. After she and Jack slept together and Jack just disappeared, Marin tracked him down and made him talk until they understood each other. Same thing with Lynn - instead of Marin "assuming" the worst, she talked about it in such a way that Jack was able to set her straight. I really appreciate that the writers aren't jerking us around just to create artificial angst and UST. ? unresolved story tension?

p49 begins responses to this episode:
-The Lynn storyline didn't bug as much as I thought it would. Its sort of a triangle without being a triangle. which is realistic.
-I did like how it is just their history and friendship right realistic that is the roadblock, not that's "she's having his baby!!" ..Gotta say, I loved in the Marin/Jack reunion scene before they kiss - how JT kindof leans into Marin the whole time and his eyes never leave her face. His body language is just "I'm so into this woman and I'm so happy to see her" - it's very sexy and endearing.
-I'm glad that the writers didn't use the non-communicating device to the extreme. Usually when the protagonist thinks the ex has slept over at her love interest's house, it gets dragged out into a whole blown-up thing because they don't communicate what really happened. It's a tired and boring device... and I'm glad they didn't go down that road.
-I agree with everyone who said they were glad that the conflict wasn't that Lynn is having his baby. It actually seemed original to have it just be their shared bond.
-I was quite pleased with this as well. Lynn isn't this gorgeous woman who blows Marin out of the water, and the baby isn't Jack's, and doesn't create some stupid, contrived situation where he goes back to Lynn out of some sort of sense of duty. But they do have a history, and with the way Lynn told Marin "Jack is a good friend" you can see that she has a history of leaning on him, and even if nothing happens, the old girlfriend showing up all needy for your current flame can wreck all sorts of havoc on a new relationship. I thought that was a very nice, realistic touch. ..And I really, REALLY like the way they are writing Marin. So many female leads on network shows are just a big ball neuroses and they usually devolve into shrill harpies. But Marin, while she have her own issues, is for the most part a smart gal with a good sense of humor. That is just such a nice change. And who knew that it would be friggin' Anne Heche who would bring a character like that to TV.
-I did like how quickly the 'misconnecting' about Lynn's sleeping at Jack's house was explained. ..I still like Justine Bateman, and thought she had a nice, easy camraderie with Theresa at the Chieftan, AND Jack, at the hospital. And even with Marin.

-All in all, I really enjoyed this episode-- the writers and actors made so many good choices, I was surprised.