#SHEA Seeds…
As you’ve probably seen by
now, the ABC promotions department released the “Official Trailer” for Season 4
of TGD this past week… along with the official promotional stills of the
“Frontline Part 1” season premiere. As is often the case, no S4 #Shea stills of
any kind have been released yet; however, in watching the 1:45 trailer we DO
get one more image of Shaun and Lea “together” (via webcams) than had been previously
revealed.
--SNIFFLE—
Oh, and there’s also a funny
sequence in the trailer introducing the new 1st year residents that
concludes with a shot of Lea (w/o Shaun) in the St. B cafeteria, sitting amongst
several of the newbies, telling them (re: Dr. Murphy) “At least you know he’ll
be a totally honest boss”—which, if you ask me, looks like she’s saying
it moments after Shaun has walked away from the table saying something very…
Shaun-like. Because she looks like she’s over-selling a little (big smile), and
the newbies we see look… less than sold (mildly horrified). But I digress.
Let’s get back to Shaun and Lea’s computer chat.
And by that, I mean let’s get back to why does he still have a twin-size mattress with no frame or box spring?
This week, I (joylessly) I went back to take a quick look at the “Mutations” episode, for I knew it was the episode where Shaun’s bed was last featured for sure as he and Carly reached their… breakthrough. (I think Carly’s bed was the location of Carly’s “parade” and the opening minutes of 3.14 “Influence,” but I don’t need to know that badly 😉 so I didn’t check.)
Anyway- you know what I was checking, right? Did he and Carly… were they… on a twin-size mattress? With no box spring or frame? They did. They were.
I guess the show decided that while it was important to show Shaun’s place (now void of Lea) as the place he lost his virginity… they were only going to show THE BED for about 2 minutes or less, so why upgrade...!?
Or maybe they snuck a full-size in there for that episode (still no box spring or frame), knowing we wouldn’t think about it that hard. I guess I could go back and—
NAH.
My point is, I was getting ready to call out TGD Continuity Police for sticking him back on the twin mattress in S4, but instead I find myself shrugging and marveling at how Freddie and Jasika pulled that off as well as they did.
AND… hoping that perhaps they’re saving the “Shaun finally upgrades his bed” story for an S4 episode. Could make for a mighty cute prelude…
--
MOVING ON... I know it may come as a shock
to some #Shea-shippers (not!!), but Our Favorite Couple is NOT universally adored… or
even accepted… by TGD fandom. And while this fact has been underscored all
summer, and now into fall, by the Melendez-mourners and/or Carly/Jasika-got-a-raw-deal
club members, it goes further back than that. And for every level of #Shea
appreciation, there seems a corresponding writer and/or publication website. With
the new season almost upon us, I thought I’d dig a little bit and create a
little guide to who supports… who doesn’t… and who stays fairly objective.
I shall be rating each of these on a 1-to-4 green apple scale 🍏 with 4 being the highest honor.😊 Let's start with...
Daniel S. Levine covers all things TGD for popculture, and his job appears to be a straightforward one: recap the episode at hand, adding quotes if you can find ‘em. This recap of the S3 finale doesn’t go into great detail with Shaun and Lea’s saga during “I Love You,” but it doesn’t do so for any other storyline either. Supplemented with quotes from an interview David Shore did with TV Guide before the finale aired, Levine comes across as someone who knows the show- I’ve seen some writers who don’t even know how to spell Shaun’s name correctly, let alone get familiar with the nuances of TGD— and writes to get fans caught up, not fan the flames of debate.
When my kids’ grade schools sold magazine subscriptions in fundraisers, Entertainment Weekly was an easy choice for me, TV & music news junkie that I am. (WAY too expensive for a subscription at regular price, so I only got the PTO discount for a year’s worth and moved on.) All this goes to say that I still enjoy EW online from time to time, so TGD on their radar is, I think, a good thing. Especially since they’re held in high enough regard to score “exclusives” from time to time. This article by Chancellor Agard, leading into the “Autopsy” episode, features quotes from Highmore and is similar in explanatory tone to the one I mentioned at the time from TV Line’s Ryan Schwartz (with quotes from both Highmore and Paige Spara). The difference is a considerably shorter, less in-depth piece from EW. But I think EW follows the word-count/attention span rules of a magazine like People, so this isn’t surprising. Maybe check in on EW if you only have a few minutes, and TV Line for the deeper dive.
Good Housekeeping used to be known as one of the “seven sisters” of high-circulation magazines targeted to married women. As you can imagine with the changing times, most of the “sisters” are now deceased… but GH, Better Homes and Gardens, and Woman’s Day have persevered. And as it happens, Content Strategy Editor Heather Finn covers TGD’s beat. And while her articles get quotes from other sources (rather than exclusive interviews) and glean social media for fan reactions, she did an admirable job capturing both sides of the reactions following “Friends and Family” as you can see here…
🍏🍏🍏
And when the popular thing to do after the “Autopsy” episode was bash Lea for her inability to tell Shaun exactly what he wanted to hear… this article by Finn (which was subsequently picked up by Yahoo’s feed) is all about those of us leaping to Lea’s defense. You might recognize your own words in this article—I did; you can see them in the 8th graph near the end (if you click on "fan eloquently said" you can see my entire Tweet) —so maybe I’m too close to give this particular piece the full four-apple recommendation, but here it is anyway. Fight me! 😀
🍏🍏🍏🍏
Heavy doesn’t provide bylines on its articles, but those that cover TGD manage to keep it friendly (or at least neutral) towards #Shea shippers one way or another. Most of what they provide are scene-by-scene recaps, supplemented with a fan reaction or two near the end. While it’s definitely worth noting that Heavy focused on the Melendez outrage for its S3 finale recap while steering clear of Shaun/Lea commentary (both for and against), it displayed a LOT of #Shea support in this piece that came out justbefore “Fractured” aired… in fact, look! More fellow readers!
The good news is that ScreenRant seems to specialize
in the ever-popular “Listicles,” aka “short-form writing using lists as a
thematic structure” (Top 7 #Shea Smaller Moments, anyone?)… and from time to
time, TGD gets ScreenRant’s attention. And they definitely did a thorough
comb-through of the show to come up with The 5 Best (and Worst) Relationships,
published 12/1/19 (just before “Friends and Family”). Which, as listicles go,
was at least entertaining for fans of the show.
The bad news: Guess who got named #1 WORST TGD relationship?
I’ll just post what writer Katerina Daley said here, and
then you can decide if you want to follow up with ScreenRant in the
future. (I DO wonder if the F&F episode did anything besides piss Daley off
further…?)
The most frustrating relationship on the series, almost from day one, has been the back and forth friendship-romance-whatever-it-is between Shaun and Lea, a girl so petulant and immature it's hard to believe that we're supposed to take her or their relationship seriously. Lea never once tries to really understand Shaun; instead, she's determined to push him outside his comfort zone, whether that means making him play hooky from work or imposing upon him as his roommate.
Lea is constantly manipulative with Shaun, stringing him along for convenience's sake and never once clearly understanding just how much she hurts him in the process. It's really hard to believe that we're meant to hope these two find their way to each other romantically eventually, when Lea happens to be the worst possible option for Shaun of all.
😠 please.
P.S. There has not been a specific #Shea mention in ScreenRant
since this article, but if you’re a Harry Potter fan.. they did
recently sort all TGD characters into Hogwarts houses… (different writer on
this article, BTW)
Overall, ScreenRant doesn’t seem interested in a lot of #Shea support. TGD, maybe. But it's a package deal.
🍏🍏
BUT THEN Showbiz CheatSheet comes along and says “ScreenRant,
hold my tequila shot…” with Julia Mullaney’s slam-fest The Good Doctor’ Fans
React to Shaun and Lea: ‘What an Awful Ending.’
The dynamic changed for the two at the end of season 3’s finale — and most fans weren’t happy about it, proclaims Mullaney, going on to cite exactly THREE unhappy fans (not even providing usernames for these sources) as evidence that “the general consensus” was not supportive of Shaun and Lea moving forward as a couple. Guess she must have blocked all the "ecstatically happy about it" fans in those other articles I've mentioned... to say nothing of all y'all who keep coming to read this blog (THANK YOU FOR DOING SO!). Hmm. Quite an oversight there.
All I can say is… I guess the website is called “CheatSheet” for a reason.
And I don’t know who wrote this gem, but the title is certainly
an attention-grabber: LEA WILL DESTROY SHAUN.
I'm not kidding. That's the name of the piece.
No interviews here, and not even a sampling (selective or otherwise) of social media input to be found in this no-holds-barred assault on Ms. Dilallo's character. The one source quoted is—surprise!—the aforementioned Showbiz CheatSheet. And since it’s not quoted directly, it is tough to tell the connection there—other than heartless speculation. In this case, Lea is only after Shaun for the opportunities and “comfortable lifestyle” she couldn’t attain otherwise, and will squeeze him and all his self-esteem away because “we’re not buying it” that she loves him. We?!? We who?? There’s not even a byline assigned to this drivel!
I really hope this particular Lea-hater/possible Melendez and/or Carly worshipper didn’t get PAID to write this. And if you see former fans of TGD sharing this article—or anything like it—feel free to call it out for the bullshit that it is.
If you care to give it any of your time at all. Because now… you don’t have to!
(You're welcome.)
6 comments:
In a weird way, I was hoping you would get to one of these posts!
Now, just to clarify, I hold no ill will toward dissenting opinions from my own. People who look at the entirety of the show and come up with an opposite viewpoint tend to be the ones with whom I can at least hold a respectable conversation. And even though there are some...less-than-intelligent donkeys...who use exactly one of the "harder" scenes as their entire argument (or even insist that "Shaun is back with his t__c ex" when they have never truly dated prior to the end of Season 3), I think it's fairest to direct our criticism & outrage toward the commercial publications that help shape these individual opinions.
That Screen Rant "article" is nothing but Screen Troll to me. And I'd rather take two apples from Sleeping Beauty's wicked witch than from these clowns. As I mentioned in the comments last week, Lea was shoved into a serious corner through the first 9 episodes of last season - enough so that one of the RECURRING characters was in as many EPISODES as Lea was SCENES up to that point. So not only was the "article" baseless - it was also pointless for that time! They might as well have ranted about Jared or Aoki!
Actually, can I give those two witch-apples to the Hot Lifestyle Falsehoods instead (the site itself - not the people - as I do not condone anything bad happening to even the...less-than-intelligent donkeys). They flip-flop on spelling Lea's name at different points within the "article"; and then, they have the audacity to say that Lea urged Shaun to "get lost" after Shaun's love confession.
As you know, Kelli, I moderate a TGD Facebook group (and for others who might not be aware, check out "The Good Doctor ABC" - it's actually quite Shea-friendly and currently has the Season 4 image of Shaun/Lea on opposite sides of the door). And though I can't speak for other moderators, I really try to keep the pure trash "articles" away. Though it can be fun watching one slide through, just so that we can gang up on calling out its crappiness!
Thanks for also pointing out the positive/fair articles (and note I'm not using quotes around the word articles here). As with the Shaun and Lea fans, these do exist, and they are every bit deserving of the recognition.
And much props to you - not only for going through the agony of the garbage pieces, but also re-living the "Mutations" episode as part of your continuity research. You're constantly taking bullets for the team, and words alone cannot express how grateful I am for the hard work you consistently put into this great blog!
And on a happy closing note, we've made it to the last TGD-less Monday before the Season 4 Premiere here in the US. Look forward to chatting about new episodes very soon!
Olá, me chamo Amanda Oliveira,sou brasileira e uma fã apaixonada de shea. Amo as análises desse blog sobre o casal,que é tão interessante no que diz respeito à dinâmica de relacionamento, pois como Paige disse na coletiva virtual da comic con," todos podemos aprender e nos ver através do casal shea". Espero que nesta temporada, possamos ouvir Lea falando do porquê,inicialmente rejeitou Shaun,motivo pelo qual,alguns odeiam Lea. Sheaendgame.
Thank you, Tony! There were some #Shea articles that I'd read in the past but just couldn't re-locate... mostly the ones I didn't like, LOL... but I think this is a pretty good cross-section.
And Ola Amanda!! Welcome, and thanks for your input!
I've taken the liberty of putting your comments through Google Translate (they're in Portuguese):
"Hello, my name is Amanda Oliveira, I'm Brazilian and a passionate shea fan. I love the analysis of this blog about the couple, which is so interesting when it comes to relationship dynamics, because as Paige said at the comic con virtual press conference, "we can all learn and see each other through the shea couple". I hope that this season, we can hear Lea talking about why, initially rejected Shaun, which is why some hate Lea. Sheaendgame."
I'm seriously questioning if some of the people who wrote some of those articles actually watched the show for any length of time, because if they had, they would know that Shaun and Lea's story began in season 1 and has been progressing for the length of the series. And Lea's toxic? I know I'm biased, but in what universe? Shaun has made his mistakes and had his outbursts of temper with Lea as well, be they justified or borne of emotional pain.
I avoid Showbiz Cheat Sheet like the plague. And I automatically disregard anything that misspells Lea's name or doesn't get that they didn't become a couple until the season 3 finale.
Thanks for all you do for us Shea shippers, Kelli.
Thanks for the effort of digging up and reviewing these articles again, Kellie. I read into them again today and I was especially intrigued by the ScreenRant list… again.
With Amy D, I doubt that the reviewers did pay attention to the plot or if they ever watched the series at all. Yet, reading the list again and taking into consideration how they perceived Shaun’s relationships to Claire, Carly and Glassman, another idea struck me.
They wrote the series lost its way “when these two engaged in a fight seemingly without cause” in season 1 – which is a gross negligence of actual dialogue which states the reason expressis verbis: Shaun wanted to make his own decisions while Glassman forced a life coach onto him and had refused him learning how to drive for long.
Meanwhile, Claire and Carly are described as always ensuring Shaun’s comfort level – essentially, the author perceives Claire and Carly handling Shaun with kid gloves.
Here, a pattern of thought emerges: essentially, Shaun is seen a kid that has to be taken care of, denying him the self-advocacy of an adult because of his “mental disability”. A stereotypical pattern very common in ableism.
Of course, Lea does not fit into this picture since she always advocated for Shaun to be treated as an adult.
Obrigada Kelli, beijos do Brasil.
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