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Jan. 27th, 2015 11:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
geebsTV commentary:
The Fosters- First things first, lets get the ridiculous thing out of the way first. So Brandon asks the parentals about letting him go on tour for the summer. They say they'll think about it, but as soon as he leaves, Mike is all, "Yeah, that's crazy right? Do you want me to play the bad guy and say no?" Lena also thinks it would be crazy to let Brandon just travel the country playing dive bars all summer. However, Stef thinks it might be okay. Mike and Lena are flabbergasted that Stef is the one who's for it. But eventually they all move towards the idea. Like Monty tells Lena that it would set Brandon apart from other applicants who do the "typical" things to get noticed by colleges.
Speaking of Monty, she wants Lena to convince Timothy that they need to get English scores up so the school looks better in that area so they can get grants and keep their charter. Timothy is livid, saying he didn't take a pay cut to teach students how to pass Standardized Tests. He wants them to learn something substantive. Lena backs him up, but Monty backtracks all, "Oh, no, I wasn't telling you to tell him to change his curriculum, or else! I just wanted you to tell him the situation. I support you handling the academic side of things!" Of course, when Lena mentions Timothy "outright refuses" to change his teaching style, its like Monty gets all sketchy, all, "Well, isn't he being a little unreasonable, there needs to be some give and take? Like if he refuses to budge an inch, doesn't that mean he's unworkable with, and maybe needs to be terminated?"
Like, I'm not sure how to read her. Like she seemed genuine when she said she really wanted Lena's opinion on how to run the academic side of things. And there should be some give and take, Timothy should at least try to negotiate with the administration over what and how to teach. So the fact that it almost sounded like Monty wanted to use that as leverage to can him if he doesn't come to the table sounds suspect.
But yeah, they covered the whole learning for real vs just scoring well on standardized test things, but they also covered the pitfalls of the Foster care system- Kiara calls Callie in the middle of the night, freaked out because her foster parents were having an argument with a junkie armed with a knife look for his stash. Its obvious they're drug dealers. Anyways, Callie tells Stef, who comes in with the cops to arrest the junkie, question the parents and get Kiara and her foster sisters out of there.
But yeah, the foster parents are cleared of any wrong doing, claiming the junkie was some random robber. So, they want to throw Kiara back in with them, even though that's crazy since they know she narced on them. Stef and Lena lambast the social worker and basically tell the viewing audience the problems with the system. There's not enough foster homes out there. So, the state goes to "private agencies" to help place kids. But those places first priority is making money, so they want to place as many kids as they can, not doing a great job of checking if these foster parents are capable/legit.
Kiara is of course freaked out, so Callie takes her to a youth advocacy center, but they can't do anything for weeks. Which isn't going to work for Kiara since they're gonna put her back with those drug dealers in a day. Unbeknown to her, Stef and Mike have been trying to break the foster parents and have them declared unfit. First, they harass them. Well, Stef is a little too aggressive, and Mike reigns her in telling her she doesn't want IA questioning her again. So then they go after the landlord, basically threatening him with constant patrols and contacting "friends" to look into code violations they saw unless he gets rid of them. Which is kinda effed up, I get these guys are drug dealers who are using foster kids for the money, but basically making them homeless?
So, she tries to bring Kiara the good news, but its too late, she ran away. They did a big fakeout where it seemed like Callie was running away with Wyatt, but she was just giving him back a piece of that wall, and talking him out of actually running away. Heh, I'm surprised Kiara didn't get upset with Callie over her comparative non-issue. I mean, I get what Robert is doing with messing up her adoption by the Fosters is messed up. But he's still her birth father, and its not like he's some abusive pervert. You'd think Kiara and the other girls would roll their eyes a little- they're busy with crappy homes with armed junkies coming around, meanwhile, she has a rich guy and a loving lesbian couple fighting over her. Either of which are way better deals than the Girls United girls have ever seen.
Anyways, nice to see Lena talked some sense into Marianna. I mean, firstly, it was kinda ridiculous for Mariana to play dumb anyways, before she even knew if Mat actually was intimidated/threatened. But as Lena says, if he's the kinda guy who like her less just because she's smarter, dump his ass, because he's not the kinda person you'd want to be with anyways.
The Fosters- First things first, lets get the ridiculous thing out of the way first. So Brandon asks the parentals about letting him go on tour for the summer. They say they'll think about it, but as soon as he leaves, Mike is all, "Yeah, that's crazy right? Do you want me to play the bad guy and say no?" Lena also thinks it would be crazy to let Brandon just travel the country playing dive bars all summer. However, Stef thinks it might be okay. Mike and Lena are flabbergasted that Stef is the one who's for it. But eventually they all move towards the idea. Like Monty tells Lena that it would set Brandon apart from other applicants who do the "typical" things to get noticed by colleges.
Speaking of Monty, she wants Lena to convince Timothy that they need to get English scores up so the school looks better in that area so they can get grants and keep their charter. Timothy is livid, saying he didn't take a pay cut to teach students how to pass Standardized Tests. He wants them to learn something substantive. Lena backs him up, but Monty backtracks all, "Oh, no, I wasn't telling you to tell him to change his curriculum, or else! I just wanted you to tell him the situation. I support you handling the academic side of things!" Of course, when Lena mentions Timothy "outright refuses" to change his teaching style, its like Monty gets all sketchy, all, "Well, isn't he being a little unreasonable, there needs to be some give and take? Like if he refuses to budge an inch, doesn't that mean he's unworkable with, and maybe needs to be terminated?"
Like, I'm not sure how to read her. Like she seemed genuine when she said she really wanted Lena's opinion on how to run the academic side of things. And there should be some give and take, Timothy should at least try to negotiate with the administration over what and how to teach. So the fact that it almost sounded like Monty wanted to use that as leverage to can him if he doesn't come to the table sounds suspect.
But yeah, they covered the whole learning for real vs just scoring well on standardized test things, but they also covered the pitfalls of the Foster care system- Kiara calls Callie in the middle of the night, freaked out because her foster parents were having an argument with a junkie armed with a knife look for his stash. Its obvious they're drug dealers. Anyways, Callie tells Stef, who comes in with the cops to arrest the junkie, question the parents and get Kiara and her foster sisters out of there.
But yeah, the foster parents are cleared of any wrong doing, claiming the junkie was some random robber. So, they want to throw Kiara back in with them, even though that's crazy since they know she narced on them. Stef and Lena lambast the social worker and basically tell the viewing audience the problems with the system. There's not enough foster homes out there. So, the state goes to "private agencies" to help place kids. But those places first priority is making money, so they want to place as many kids as they can, not doing a great job of checking if these foster parents are capable/legit.
Kiara is of course freaked out, so Callie takes her to a youth advocacy center, but they can't do anything for weeks. Which isn't going to work for Kiara since they're gonna put her back with those drug dealers in a day. Unbeknown to her, Stef and Mike have been trying to break the foster parents and have them declared unfit. First, they harass them. Well, Stef is a little too aggressive, and Mike reigns her in telling her she doesn't want IA questioning her again. So then they go after the landlord, basically threatening him with constant patrols and contacting "friends" to look into code violations they saw unless he gets rid of them. Which is kinda effed up, I get these guys are drug dealers who are using foster kids for the money, but basically making them homeless?
So, she tries to bring Kiara the good news, but its too late, she ran away. They did a big fakeout where it seemed like Callie was running away with Wyatt, but she was just giving him back a piece of that wall, and talking him out of actually running away. Heh, I'm surprised Kiara didn't get upset with Callie over her comparative non-issue. I mean, I get what Robert is doing with messing up her adoption by the Fosters is messed up. But he's still her birth father, and its not like he's some abusive pervert. You'd think Kiara and the other girls would roll their eyes a little- they're busy with crappy homes with armed junkies coming around, meanwhile, she has a rich guy and a loving lesbian couple fighting over her. Either of which are way better deals than the Girls United girls have ever seen.
Anyways, nice to see Lena talked some sense into Marianna. I mean, firstly, it was kinda ridiculous for Mariana to play dumb anyways, before she even knew if Mat actually was intimidated/threatened. But as Lena says, if he's the kinda guy who like her less just because she's smarter, dump his ass, because he's not the kinda person you'd want to be with anyways.
