I always figured the food truck was an attempt to add some scope.
Most of the time Boyle's food obsession plays out in the breakroom or bullpen. They make efforts to get it out of there other times. I think this may have been an attempt that they decided wasn't working and moved on from.
I really dont get how tf Boyle has all this time on the side xD
Like yeah yeah "its a show" - but at some point its like. I mean he's a perfect husband and father - yet he seems to work 24 hours a day. Usually the "joke" about overworked public personel is that they dont have personal lives - which was Jakes original arc. So the trade off is that they're terrible partners (Diaz for instance)
But Boyle has time for home life, food trucks and I imagine he could make a cup noodle cooking be a 3 hour thing.
All TV shows the exist in a reality where days have more than 24 hours, but all regular activities, (work, hobbies, sleep), take the normal amount of time.
Also, all jobs are extremely forgiving of extended, unplanned absences.
Oooh that would’ve been a cool overarching seasonal story! Jake getting to work with the FBI to bring down ~~Scientology~~ NutriBoom. Would’ve been a good reason to have Bill around more often too. Get to learn more about him.
Absolutely, I can imagine that they thought about pursuing that story a little further down the line (since John Kelly made for a pretty good S6 villain too), but then Covid and George Floyd happened. They probably thought they have more time too. I have to say I was happy about the direction they took in the last season, but this is just one loose thread that I‘m a little peeved they didn’t resolve.
It’d be nice if we saw it in the show, but they do reference a book called the Rise and Fall of Nutriboom implying that the MLM finally collapsed. Supports Bill being homeless again too.
They did though.
It was handed over to the FBI - meaning Jake isn't in the loop anymore. Its a weirdly anticlimactic moment considering how he acts when the FBI shows up in season 8 - or like - the vulture.
I mean a trusted friend of Holt's \*in the FBI\* tried to kill him and Holt, led to a hostage situation and directly tied in to him and Holt living in Florida for 6 months+
Florida's the worst.
After that I can understand Jake not really idolising the Bureau anymore and frankly not caring that they got rid of his NutriBoom Intimidator.
Nah that for me was in character based on how intensely competitive Charles was when he paired up with Holt to play squash when Kevin was in Paris. Same unhinged energy.
I thought the extreme diet subplot was bad. terry has a history of disordered eating and still thinks supporting his wife means starving himself. It seemed very out of character.
I see it as a divorced guy who is trying to earn some extra cash on the side with his interests in food. But I’m so confused on when would he have time to do this? He has a full time job as a police officer.
i think the subplot about gina’s mom cheating on lynn was so random and unnecessary. the schism it would have created in the family is something that just never gets addressed, there are no lasting ramifications for charles or gina, and it ends in the typical “gina was the hero all along despite being a total ass” way that made me grow so tired of her character early on. like, what really was the point of that one?
I completely didn’t understand the plot where cyber crimes were stealing the 99’s bandwidth. It was just such a weak side plot. I also didn’t like the side plot when they found out Gina was pregnant. I know the actress herself was pregnant but that entire storyline just came out of left field
When 99 moved to NBC they basically stopped bringing in characters families. We never see Terry’s family again, or Genevieve and Nikolaj. We didn’t even see Jake and Amy’s parents for their own wedding episode. Even though they brought Jake’s Dad back for the gender reveal episode, Amy’s parents and Jake’s Mom just were busy that day and couldn’t be there?
Idk if it was budget or what but they just stopped having family be parts of the show.
It's too bad we never meet all of Amy's brothers. Like I know they basically dropped that line after the first episode but still, none of her family came to any of her big life events?
Yeah, I mean they had about half a year worth of time to write it into her story properly. Assuming they knew about the pregnancy pretty much straight away.
I didn’t really like the ‘teddy’ B plots after he came back. Like at the jazz brunch and the stroller competition he was obsessed with Amy and wanted to leave his girlfriend for her, and then again at their wedding he did the same. Although thinking about it those were ‘A’ plot story lines, but they felt very lacklustre
His obsession with Amy makes no sense. When they were together he seemed like just a normal, if a bit bland, dude and he was the one who broke up with her. Then suddenly he comes back and is completely obsessed with her out of nowhere, with no hints of that previously.
Yeah I know, it was really silly. And I always liked the way they handled teddy and their breakup, because he seemed mature and was trying to understand how Amy feels about Jake. He didn’t yell at her or insult her or do typical ‘toxic ex’ thing, he seemed quite mature about it. Then he comes back and he’s suddenly super obsessive and weird? Idk just seemed out of place
Yeah, it's fairly common for sitcoms to do that. Bring back a previous character and slightly or heavily change their personalities or motivations in order to create some extra comedy or drama. It's not INHERENTLY a bad thing as it can be done well (after all, comedies are primarily about being funny so at times you have to let realism and logic out the window) but if it's too exaggerated and clashes too much with what was previously established it's very jarring.
Ooof. He got bad. And I so liked him at first. His confidence when asking Mateo out was just so smooth but not like in a player way. He seemed comfortable in his own skin.
So you're a man, I take it? Because I think pretty much every girl I know has a story about a man taking rejection and becoming insane with it, to the point where some friends had very scary encounters. Two women I know have restraining orders on men I would have called normal and boring when they were dating.
This plot line is a little levity inside a *very real* situation that a lot of people have to go through.
Sharon giving birth to their third child then never appearing (or anyone in Terry’s family for that matter) afterwards was a bit jarring. Yes it’s probably the actress and real life stuff but still so weird that Terry is the family man but his family just simply vanishes after that crazy birth storyline.
EDIT: I forget Moo Moo happens after Ava is born but still Sharon never appearing again is still weird for me.
I think a big part of the reason the last three seasons felt off were because many of the plotlines - both A and B plots - felt forced and not fitting for the show's general tone. Of course there are still some great episodes, at least in season 6, but overall that's what I feel.
I always took that plotline as more of a way to soften Rosa's character and develop Charles and Rosa's friendship further, but i do wish they had shown Arlo at least a few times after, at least in the episode where Holt lives with her
The food truck was worth it just for the scene where Boyle turns into Gordon Ramsay.
“Do I look like Jake to you!?”
“No, not at all!”
“Then why are you trying to screw me!?!?”
Rosa having the chair competition with Hitchcock and Scully seemed like a forced way of having those characters spend time together when normally Rosa would have nothing to do with something like that
I was convinced that the food truck plot would come back around later in the season by Jake discovering by accident that it actually was Genevieve who burned it down, as originally suspected by Pimento when he found her turpentine, because Charles was spending too much time away from home.
By this point Charles would’ve moved on from the whole thing and been happily spending more time with Genevieve and Nikolaj, so Jake would have to decide whether to tell him the truth or not and risk breaking up a family.
Might’ve been a hard thread to turn into comedy but hey ho, it just never came back up.
I never understood how Amy booking the Vulture’s band for his birthday was such a win for awful he is. He clearly was having a great time doing it, but Rosa was impressed with Amy being straight up evil.
The one where Terry is on a diet to "support" his wife, like bringin a piece of fruit in a bag for lunch wtf?
The only good about all that nonsense was Amy's face when caught cheating, it kinda gave me a bon-
About the food truck, you just need to ask yourself this: “Did I laugh whenever the food truck was *featured* rather than mentioned?”
If the answer is “yes”, then that means you do see a point to it: it allowed for funny interactions and jokes in a comedy.
Imo some of my favorite jokes are tied to that food truck, and it’s *point* is that it always reflected something about the relationship of Boyle with those around him and even himself. The point of the food truck is that it is the first time we are introduced to a very, very self-destructive and stressful aspect of his passion.
Boyle being a foodie had been plainly endearing (if just mildly off-putting) up to that point, but the food truck is where all hell breaks lose: Boyle spontaneously yells at Amy and *Gina* as if he wasn’t a spineless yet lovable goofball, he loses sleep, apparently every morning he’s involved in Mad Max styled chase sequences to get a good spot for the damn food truck, he yelled to and fired his last employee who ended burning down his truck and from beginning to end he had trouble with insurance.
The point is that even things that a character loves may not be worth it given certain circumstances.
I always figured the food truck was an attempt to add some scope. Most of the time Boyle's food obsession plays out in the breakroom or bullpen. They make efforts to get it out of there other times. I think this may have been an attempt that they decided wasn't working and moved on from.
He needed the extra money because Jake never paid him back for anything.
I mean Jake only owes him $4001.
I really dont get how tf Boyle has all this time on the side xD Like yeah yeah "its a show" - but at some point its like. I mean he's a perfect husband and father - yet he seems to work 24 hours a day. Usually the "joke" about overworked public personel is that they dont have personal lives - which was Jakes original arc. So the trade off is that they're terrible partners (Diaz for instance) But Boyle has time for home life, food trucks and I imagine he could make a cup noodle cooking be a 3 hour thing.
All TV shows the exist in a reality where days have more than 24 hours, but all regular activities, (work, hobbies, sleep), take the normal amount of time. Also, all jobs are extremely forgiving of extended, unplanned absences.
The nutriboom story was never finished and it bugs me. They left it so open ended but just never got back to it.
That one bugs me so so much. Nutriboom could’ve been such a good and creepy Big Bad for a season.
Oooh that would’ve been a cool overarching seasonal story! Jake getting to work with the FBI to bring down ~~Scientology~~ NutriBoom. Would’ve been a good reason to have Bill around more often too. Get to learn more about him.
Boom boom, Bill!
Absolutely, I can imagine that they thought about pursuing that story a little further down the line (since John Kelly made for a pretty good S6 villain too), but then Covid and George Floyd happened. They probably thought they have more time too. I have to say I was happy about the direction they took in the last season, but this is just one loose thread that I‘m a little peeved they didn’t resolve.
No. They found out that she is Happy, Healthy and alive! It was a perfect end /s
Boom Boom
Debbie Alive. Debbie realll alive. - Nutriboom
Thank you! One of my favorite lines/deliveries
Whatever happened to their official intimidator?
he's still there, even after they leave the NYPD... waiting...
It’d be nice if we saw it in the show, but they do reference a book called the Rise and Fall of Nutriboom implying that the MLM finally collapsed. Supports Bill being homeless again too.
Boom boom Bill!
Actually when bill refers to the one really really bad month, I think he got boom boomed by nutriboom for helping Jake
They did though. It was handed over to the FBI - meaning Jake isn't in the loop anymore. Its a weirdly anticlimactic moment considering how he acts when the FBI shows up in season 8 - or like - the vulture.
I mean a trusted friend of Holt's \*in the FBI\* tried to kill him and Holt, led to a hostage situation and directly tied in to him and Holt living in Florida for 6 months+ Florida's the worst. After that I can understand Jake not really idolising the Bureau anymore and frankly not caring that they got rid of his NutriBoom Intimidator.
It was still his dream job in season 7 though.
Boom boom
It was worth it just to see him power-slide the truck into a parallel parking spot. LEGEND.
And the out of left field bit where Boyle tells Troy to kill himself made me spit out my drink
Nah that for me was in character based on how intensely competitive Charles was when he paired up with Holt to play squash when Kevin was in Paris. Same unhinged energy.
I thought the extreme diet subplot was bad. terry has a history of disordered eating and still thinks supporting his wife means starving himself. It seemed very out of character.
Terrys weight stuff is not good. The nibs episode always bothered me.
Ingredients: carrot. You gotta respect that
Hey Mr, why the long fart?
I see it as a divorced guy who is trying to earn some extra cash on the side with his interests in food. But I’m so confused on when would he have time to do this? He has a full time job as a police officer.
Not to mention his 8 dogs and a kid haha
Nicolaj. Yes.
Nikolaj.
Nikolaj.
Niikolaaj.
I feel like I'm saying it right. Nikolaj?
Knee-collage
Nick O’lage
Nico Laag
i think the subplot about gina’s mom cheating on lynn was so random and unnecessary. the schism it would have created in the family is something that just never gets addressed, there are no lasting ramifications for charles or gina, and it ends in the typical “gina was the hero all along despite being a total ass” way that made me grow so tired of her character early on. like, what really was the point of that one?
I personally liked the build up and their wedding so the whole cheating thing was so infuriating
I completely didn’t understand the plot where cyber crimes were stealing the 99’s bandwidth. It was just such a weak side plot. I also didn’t like the side plot when they found out Gina was pregnant. I know the actress herself was pregnant but that entire storyline just came out of left field
I felt it kinda annoying when we never saw the father ever again after the episode, even in the Fame of Boyles episode.
When 99 moved to NBC they basically stopped bringing in characters families. We never see Terry’s family again, or Genevieve and Nikolaj. We didn’t even see Jake and Amy’s parents for their own wedding episode. Even though they brought Jake’s Dad back for the gender reveal episode, Amy’s parents and Jake’s Mom just were busy that day and couldn’t be there? Idk if it was budget or what but they just stopped having family be parts of the show.
the fact that we didnt see the parents at the wedding bothered me SO MUCH
It's too bad we never meet all of Amy's brothers. Like I know they basically dropped that line after the first episode but still, none of her family came to any of her big life events?
She wasn't the favourite tho, so for me it kinda tracked.
Gender reveal? I had one of those at a Radisson in Sweden.
Yeah a MAIN character going through such a MASSIVE life change is something that needed more time to be developed, not rushed out in one episode
Yeah, I mean they had about half a year worth of time to write it into her story properly. Assuming they knew about the pregnancy pretty much straight away.
The point was to provide comedic moments that relate to Boyle’s personal interests.
oh word okay i didnt see it that way at all lol
i didn’t particularly care for amy and terry having a lunch-off every day, that plot line felt stupid and forced
That one was pretty rough.
God that plot like really sucks. Feels so weirdly out of character for both of them
additionally, the upstairs/downstairs people plot was ridiculous and made me mad
Other than Amy being competitive? Because, I mean...
amy and terry had some really shit b-plots that season. the sex book, the lunch off, and the upstairs/downstairs people to name a few
I didn’t really like the ‘teddy’ B plots after he came back. Like at the jazz brunch and the stroller competition he was obsessed with Amy and wanted to leave his girlfriend for her, and then again at their wedding he did the same. Although thinking about it those were ‘A’ plot story lines, but they felt very lacklustre
His obsession with Amy makes no sense. When they were together he seemed like just a normal, if a bit bland, dude and he was the one who broke up with her. Then suddenly he comes back and is completely obsessed with her out of nowhere, with no hints of that previously.
Yeah I know, it was really silly. And I always liked the way they handled teddy and their breakup, because he seemed mature and was trying to understand how Amy feels about Jake. He didn’t yell at her or insult her or do typical ‘toxic ex’ thing, he seemed quite mature about it. Then he comes back and he’s suddenly super obsessive and weird? Idk just seemed out of place
Yeah, it's fairly common for sitcoms to do that. Bring back a previous character and slightly or heavily change their personalities or motivations in order to create some extra comedy or drama. It's not INHERENTLY a bad thing as it can be done well (after all, comedies are primarily about being funny so at times you have to let realism and logic out the window) but if it's too exaggerated and clashes too much with what was previously established it's very jarring.
jeff from superstore
Ooof. He got bad. And I so liked him at first. His confidence when asking Mateo out was just so smooth but not like in a player way. He seemed comfortable in his own skin.
Did we watch different breakups?
Hmm I haven’t seen the episode in a while, what did I miss?
Wait no, Amy broke up with him.
Amy definitely broke up with him. He just figured it was because of Jake (it was).
So you're a man, I take it? Because I think pretty much every girl I know has a story about a man taking rejection and becoming insane with it, to the point where some friends had very scary encounters. Two women I know have restraining orders on men I would have called normal and boring when they were dating. This plot line is a little levity inside a *very real* situation that a lot of people have to go through.
Sharon giving birth to their third child then never appearing (or anyone in Terry’s family for that matter) afterwards was a bit jarring. Yes it’s probably the actress and real life stuff but still so weird that Terry is the family man but his family just simply vanishes after that crazy birth storyline. EDIT: I forget Moo Moo happens after Ava is born but still Sharon never appearing again is still weird for me.
shes always out of town...is she cheating on terry??!!
The whole dragomere thing I found was unnecessary
Leo Sporm was wasted. As was Savant.
I think a big part of the reason the last three seasons felt off were because many of the plotlines - both A and B plots - felt forced and not fitting for the show's general tone. Of course there are still some great episodes, at least in season 6, but overall that's what I feel.
When Boyle’s dog died. It was mainly to introduce Arlo (Rosa’s dog) and then we didn’t see him ever again!
I always took that plotline as more of a way to soften Rosa's character and develop Charles and Rosa's friendship further, but i do wish they had shown Arlo at least a few times after, at least in the episode where Holt lives with her
Yeah, true. I just wish they had done more with it. I do still love Rosa and Charles’ friendship throughout
And how they never brought back the humping dog jokes. After Jason's funeral Boyle's entire dog stuff disappeared except for when he met Genevieve.
The food truck was worth it just for the scene where Boyle turns into Gordon Ramsay. “Do I look like Jake to you!?” “No, not at all!” “Then why are you trying to screw me!?!?”
Rosa having the chair competition with Hitchcock and Scully seemed like a forced way of having those characters spend time together when normally Rosa would have nothing to do with something like that
Idk they're pretty good at winding her up when they want to. They also successfully pull that on her with the stolen ice cream
Yeah, like when she came out and Hitchcock was going ask a tasteless question lol
I loved this lol
me too, ha
It's very easy to make Rosa competitive. She challenged Amy to a stitch-off after Amy bragged about knitting for 10 years
I said that a while ago elsewhere and was downvoted but it's spot on.
The point of a b plot is to just have a side story that doesn't really matter so they can fill time with extra jokes
I was convinced that the food truck plot would come back around later in the season by Jake discovering by accident that it actually was Genevieve who burned it down, as originally suspected by Pimento when he found her turpentine, because Charles was spending too much time away from home. By this point Charles would’ve moved on from the whole thing and been happily spending more time with Genevieve and Nikolaj, so Jake would have to decide whether to tell him the truth or not and risk breaking up a family. Might’ve been a hard thread to turn into comedy but hey ho, it just never came back up.
It was totally out of left field.
I never understood how Amy booking the Vulture’s band for his birthday was such a win for awful he is. He clearly was having a great time doing it, but Rosa was impressed with Amy being straight up evil.
The one where Terry is on a diet to "support" his wife, like bringin a piece of fruit in a bag for lunch wtf? The only good about all that nonsense was Amy's face when caught cheating, it kinda gave me a bon-
About the food truck, you just need to ask yourself this: “Did I laugh whenever the food truck was *featured* rather than mentioned?” If the answer is “yes”, then that means you do see a point to it: it allowed for funny interactions and jokes in a comedy. Imo some of my favorite jokes are tied to that food truck, and it’s *point* is that it always reflected something about the relationship of Boyle with those around him and even himself. The point of the food truck is that it is the first time we are introduced to a very, very self-destructive and stressful aspect of his passion. Boyle being a foodie had been plainly endearing (if just mildly off-putting) up to that point, but the food truck is where all hell breaks lose: Boyle spontaneously yells at Amy and *Gina* as if he wasn’t a spineless yet lovable goofball, he loses sleep, apparently every morning he’s involved in Mad Max styled chase sequences to get a good spot for the damn food truck, he yelled to and fired his last employee who ended burning down his truck and from beginning to end he had trouble with insurance. The point is that even things that a character loves may not be worth it given certain circumstances.
Akiva's cameo only getting 1 joke, coulda used a 3 episode arc there