Do Not Throw Away the Cigar

The bishop's wife, who has Alzheimer's, slaps the bishop, forgetting they are married. Sad.

Father has a cigar. Now THAT I can relate to. He sits with Jesus. Jesus says he used to talk to Father's dad. Says he's a good man. Not sure what to make of all this goodness.

Father then stuffs the cigar when he sees a counselee run on by.... That's weird. Better to have two cigars to share.

Father then jokes on "living together in sin" to the parishioner, who is living with his fiancee. "Just kidding" he says. Kind of funny. Have to use that myself.

Stud goes to his girlfriend's house, the daughter of a vestryman [I think] of Father's parish. They start gettin' heavy, when the dad gets curious. Stud tries to escape and then falls out the window onto the Jaguar. The dad, Roger [paxton] , sees everything.

Winner: wife comes out with a martini. She's nonplussed to see an Oriental on her Jag.

At the hospital, he sees the mob priest. Jokes about the Jaguar. The Paxton wife forbids the stud and their daughter from meeting. Makes racist statement about oriental grandkids. This would have been believeable about 10 years ago, but adopting Asian children is... very popular. See Angelina Jolie.

Daddy bishop introduces girl to gay grandson at choir practice. He meets cute guy, first, who happens to be the guys sister. Jokes abound about the guy being all over him if he messes things up with his sister. Kind of funny.

My general review so far is that... it's not bad. But it isn't really about the church, and when they do talk about the church, it feels forced. I wonder if the pseudo religious aspect allows the mundane to seem suddenly scandalous. For example - is Salsa dancing risque? not really. And Episcopal Priest salsa dancing? That's interesting.

Who is the audience? edgy people who just can't imagine that church can be so amusing? Or churchy people who need a bit more edginess.

But the Jesus just doesn't work.

Comments

[Karen B.]

Good job live blogging John. I agree with you. I can't figure out who the audience is supposed to be.

And I definitely agree the Jesus figure doesn't work. It's as if Christ is provided for comic relief. Sad. I predict a short life.

[John Covert]

Unfortunately the racism about Asian grandchildren is real. I'm an advisor to a group of young men at MIT, about half of whom are Asian. A lot of the Asians have faced racism, especially if they are from certain areas of the country, and a lot of them still run into racism from parents if they're dating someone of the other race.

BTW, the actor playing the role looks like he's half-Asian himself, at least to me. I could be wrong.

/john

[your aspirant]

I can imagine a rich anglo woman finding it "acceptable" to adopt an asian child, but to have her pampered little daughter marry one and produce children SHE might have to acknowledge as grandchildren..well, that is quite another matter!
The woman bishop is a poor example of a bishop...she seems to have nothing to do but be a pest. Guess I was hoping that we just might get a more realistic view of Episcopalians and our church instead of "Leave it to Beaver goes all wrong!"

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