Suburgatory: Join, Change, Revert

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Tessa and George have essentially the same story in this episode. While she joins the school newspaper, he joins the PTA. She faces opposition from the fact that nobody cares about the paper, he is the only male who seemingly cares about the PTA. She changes the paper into a tabloid of sorts, he takes over the PTA and begins running the events. She realizes that someone is suffering (Lisa, for instance) so she changes the paper back to its news format... he realizes that someone is suffering (Tessa) so he resigns as President, giving the gavel back to the previous leader. Despite the fact that nothing really changed, it's still the best episode of the season so far... what's that saying?

Suburgatory "The Chatterer" (S01E03): [As you might guess, I'm covering Tessa's story first...] The guidance counselor is upset that Tessa hasn't picked an elective.... and suggests day-trading, flat-ironing, or drama. [day-trading amused me, drama was strange, but what was with flat-ironing??] She chooses newspaper, which is unpopular and poorly supervised. [in fact, it doesn't look like there's a faculty adviser at all...] There's one other kid there, who backs the paper as if it was his only friend. [ahem, it seems to be...] Tessa tries to help Malik with the paper, and suggests that they do more gossip to appease readers like Dahlia. The first issue of the new paper was a hit [though I didn't understand all of the acronyms...] and Tessa starts getting the royal treatment from people all over school. [probably so she doesn't bad-mouth them in the "paper" ...] However, Malik has become drunk with power, so Tessa starts writing a story about his obsession with Medium. The problem is cut short when Lisa arrives with a petition to get the old paper back, and Tessa and Malik agree. The end result? Lisa also joins the editorial staff.

[Noe, onto George...] One of the moms in the neighborhood (Sheila) has been making Tessa bagged lunches, which makes George uncomfortable. Sheila also started a college fund in Tessa's name. [the lunch thing isn't a big deal to me, a non-parent. However, I do see that starting a college fund is out of line.] George drives Tessa to school, though Sheila had offered. [this isn't outrageous... carpool, hello.] George confronts Sheila about making Tessa lunches, but Sheila says she won't stop... as President of the PTA, all of the kids are hers... even though she ignores Lisa. [I hate Sheila, this shouldn't be surprising. However, I did enjoy the "without the P we're just T and A." hahaha] George joins the PTA, against Sheila's wishes. At his first meeting, George isn't being treated fairly. [what in the WORLD was Dallas wearing while playing tennis??] The next PTA mixer [I'm sorry... why do you even have those?] is pole dancing... designed to get George out of there. But, George surprises the room, when he helps solve one woman's marital problems. After that, a bunch of women want his opinion on things... which starts out helping him to be an equal, but ends up detracting from the mission of the organization. George takes over as President, but without Sheila, he has to do a lot of work. Tessa mentions that George hasn't bought juice in a whole week, so he gives the gavel back to Sheila, though she won't accept it until he compliments her ability to think of everything.

What else? George has painted the exterior of the house white, which is an improvement over the orange.  I'm tired of George's HS friend popping up... who cares about him? He's not adding a darn thing to this show. and what in the WORLD is up with the name Kamantha??