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shallownessHart of Dixie - 3.16 Carrying Your Love With Me
Notable in that they changed the format, slightly, giving us a couple of scenes, then skipping some period of time, usually two weeks. We started with Zoe and Joel reacting to his imminent departure for LA, and Zoe’s feelings about it getting worse after Joel’s no.1 fan pointed out that long distance relationships didn’t work well. Which would prove to be true, with stomach flu, extreme weather and Joel’s job (screenwriting doesn’t work like that) leading to Zoe becoming obsessive about decorating the home they were going to live in forever, and then getting so despondent that Brick and AB staged an intervention and sent her to LA to learn that they were fast-tracking the script and Joel would be going to London. The bit in which Zoe tried to film a sexy literary strip tease as ‘Emily Bronte’ (if she worked in a brothel in a Western) in a badly fitting corset lost me, but we did get a few scenes of Zoe being genuinely sad, which I never like to see, even though I’d called it being the end of the relationship (whatever Joel said, although if he does return, it’s bound to be at the awkwardest time.)
Apart from the timejumps, which were usually managed well – in fact, the plotlines made more sense happening over the course of weeks than in a few days as normally happens – the show was its usual comedy-drama self. Lemon wanted George to stump up the cash for her to buy Fancie’s off Shelby and be a silent partner. (A perfectly reasonable demand from her POV.) He refused until Lilyanne bought it to use as a place to try out her new songs, which all traduced George. (She’d also sing old ones dissing Wade.) Then he was willing to plot with Lemon, but, as Wade had predicted, they couldn’t work together because of their history, leading various townspeole to take shifts as a buffer between them to stop them fighting.
Opening night was a success until Lilyanne’s ace lawyer, fast becoming George’s lady legal nemesis, threatened action because they’d faked a ghost to get Lilyanne to sell Fancie’s quick. In the end, because Lilyanne had been singing her songs trashing Wade too, Vivian did a much better job at getting rid of Lilyanne. But after losing Fancie’s, PREDICTABLY exes George and Lemon had drunk hatesex. (I’ll just note that they’ve done a potential pregnancy plotline.)
Brick was trying to campaign for man of the year, even trying to play nice when Lemon clunkily pointed out to him he’d been a grinch recently. BUT! He was facing a determined contender in Cricket’s husband. Brick thought he’d got it in the bag with the help of Lavon, when he offered to teach Lavon French, because Lavon thought that his counterpart in a French town, an attractive former ballerina, would come along with the school party Rose and her friends bullied him into arranging. Sadly for the now Francophone-ish Lavon, the deputy mayor (a man) came and fancied Annabeth.
So, most of the usual shenanigans, until the big award ceremony where the town voted Joel as its man of the year, because he’d become so beloved (by Lavon and Wade.) Zoe had to accept the prize on his behalf, made a sad little speech and went home to cry in bed until the regulars and some extras, I mean, the whole town came to comfort her, which was nice and showed she belonged in Bluebell. That last I care about, but Joel? No, and the fact that he hasn’t stayed around, like so many other love interests, leaves its toll. Did that relationship even need to last 16 episodes?
Notable in that they changed the format, slightly, giving us a couple of scenes, then skipping some period of time, usually two weeks. We started with Zoe and Joel reacting to his imminent departure for LA, and Zoe’s feelings about it getting worse after Joel’s no.1 fan pointed out that long distance relationships didn’t work well. Which would prove to be true, with stomach flu, extreme weather and Joel’s job (screenwriting doesn’t work like that) leading to Zoe becoming obsessive about decorating the home they were going to live in forever, and then getting so despondent that Brick and AB staged an intervention and sent her to LA to learn that they were fast-tracking the script and Joel would be going to London. The bit in which Zoe tried to film a sexy literary strip tease as ‘Emily Bronte’ (if she worked in a brothel in a Western) in a badly fitting corset lost me, but we did get a few scenes of Zoe being genuinely sad, which I never like to see, even though I’d called it being the end of the relationship (whatever Joel said, although if he does return, it’s bound to be at the awkwardest time.)
Apart from the timejumps, which were usually managed well – in fact, the plotlines made more sense happening over the course of weeks than in a few days as normally happens – the show was its usual comedy-drama self. Lemon wanted George to stump up the cash for her to buy Fancie’s off Shelby and be a silent partner. (A perfectly reasonable demand from her POV.) He refused until Lilyanne bought it to use as a place to try out her new songs, which all traduced George. (She’d also sing old ones dissing Wade.) Then he was willing to plot with Lemon, but, as Wade had predicted, they couldn’t work together because of their history, leading various townspeole to take shifts as a buffer between them to stop them fighting.
Opening night was a success until Lilyanne’s ace lawyer, fast becoming George’s lady legal nemesis, threatened action because they’d faked a ghost to get Lilyanne to sell Fancie’s quick. In the end, because Lilyanne had been singing her songs trashing Wade too, Vivian did a much better job at getting rid of Lilyanne. But after losing Fancie’s, PREDICTABLY exes George and Lemon had drunk hatesex. (I’ll just note that they’ve done a potential pregnancy plotline.)
Brick was trying to campaign for man of the year, even trying to play nice when Lemon clunkily pointed out to him he’d been a grinch recently. BUT! He was facing a determined contender in Cricket’s husband. Brick thought he’d got it in the bag with the help of Lavon, when he offered to teach Lavon French, because Lavon thought that his counterpart in a French town, an attractive former ballerina, would come along with the school party Rose and her friends bullied him into arranging. Sadly for the now Francophone-ish Lavon, the deputy mayor (a man) came and fancied Annabeth.
So, most of the usual shenanigans, until the big award ceremony where the town voted Joel as its man of the year, because he’d become so beloved (by Lavon and Wade.) Zoe had to accept the prize on his behalf, made a sad little speech and went home to cry in bed until the regulars and some extras, I mean, the whole town came to comfort her, which was nice and showed she belonged in Bluebell. That last I care about, but Joel? No, and the fact that he hasn’t stayed around, like so many other love interests, leaves its toll. Did that relationship even need to last 16 episodes?
