Last Man Standing: Similarities and Differences

The racist pokes feel so dated... I don't know what to make of them. (I felt the same way with the first appearance of the Larabees, actually.) With Mike and Vanessa being the main family members featured in this episode, it would help if they acted a little more characteristic. Why does Vanessa insist on acting like the Baxters are BFFs with the Larabees? And I'm also intrigued by Carol's motivation to run for school board when the audience hasn't seen her interact with children much. But that's the main problem that anyone should have with this series: so much must happen off-screen in order for some of the episodes to make sense. I understand it's not a drama and not everything requires a lot of build-up, but unless you want the installments to be purely stand-alone, a little more would go a long way!

Last Man Standing "Larabee for School Board" (S03E06): Carol is running for school board and the Baxters put a sign up for her in their yard. But, it gets stolen, so Chuck brings over another one, feuding with Mike the entire time. Mike tells Vanessa that he's not really a "friends" guy, and then realizes that he hasn't talked to his best man in years... despite the fact that they live in the same city. [yikes! of the ten people in my bridal party, there's one only my husband keeps in touch with, two we only talk with a few times a year, but we otherwise keep up with the other seven... tell me that's not uncommon!] The second time the advertisement is stolen, the guys wind up chaining one to a tree.

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However, when the ladies are out to lunch, Vanessa learns that Carol wants to cut an after-school arts program that Vanessa launched, so she wants to pull her support. [ooh, now I hate Carol, too!] However, although the ladies find out they have many differences, Mike and Chuck discover that they are on the same page about a lot of things. [I'm probably being too hopeful, but maybe this is the set-up I'm looking for?]

Eve tells Mandy and Kristin that a hott guy wants to copy her homework, and both tell her to say "no" so that he will respect her. [when I was in high school, it didn't really matter how attractive someone was... if they wanted to copy, you let them, because sooner or later, you'd need some help, too.] She follows their advice, and he asks her out anyway, but in a group date setting. Kristin thinks that's a good thing, but Mandy says that's a bad thing. Turns out, the date sucks, and Eve only wants to hear Mandy's advice from now on. [but we all know that will change soon enough!]

At the store, Ryan is impressing Ed, and Kyle gets jealous.