Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23

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Murdoch
Joined: Sun Apr 20, 2008 11:59 pm
Location: Upstate NY

Re: Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23

#51 Post by Murdoch » Thu Nov 26, 2020 12:25 am

I decided to rewatch the show on Hulu and love it just as much as I did 8 years ago, if not more. However, the episodes are horribly out of order, with James jumping back and forth between grieving his Dancing with the Stars embarrassment and nervously prepping for his debut on the show. Does anyone who has the DVD complete series know if the episodes are in order?

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23

#52 Post by therewillbeblus » Thu Nov 26, 2020 12:37 am

They *mostly* are, however it's not irritating when they're not because disc three is the only disc that's slightly out of order. The remaining S1 unaired eps are in the middle of that disc so you can easily watch them first and everything else plays out correctly. I didn't watch the show live (though I caught eps on demand shortly after it finished) but from what I understand, season 2 was released out of order and the discs correct that to the sequence I see posted online (though it seems that some folks on reddit have a slightly different arrangement). It played fluidly for me using Paste Magazine's list: (I copied/pasted it below, spoilers for size)
SpoilerShow
Season One
1×01 – “Pilot”
1×02 – “Daddy’s Girl…”
1×03 – “Mean Girls…” (originally aired as 2×10)
1×04 – “Making Rent…” (originally aired as 1×05)
1×05 – “The Wedding…” (originally aired as 1×04)
1×06 – “The Scarlet Neighbor…” (originally aired as 2×09)
1×07 – “Whatever It Takes…” (originally aired as 2×05)
1×08 – “It’s Just Sex…” (originally aired as 1×06)
1×09 – “The Leak…” (originally aired as 2×12)
1×10 – “The Parent Trap…” (originally aired as 1×03)
1×11 – “Shitagi Nashi…” (originally aired as 1×07, the Season One “finale” — in its defense, it actually worked as such)
1×12 – “Bar Lies…” (originally aired as 2×06)
1×13 – “A Weekend in the Hamptons…” (originally aired as 2×07, the actual Season One finale)

Season Two
2×01 – “A Reunion…”
2×02 – “Love and Monsters…”
2×03 – “It’s a Miracle…” (originally aired as 2×04, the production code even says it should’ve come before Halloween episode “Love and Monsters,” despite being a Thanksgiving episode)
2×04 – “Sexy People…” (originally aired as 2×03)
2×05 – “Paris…” (originally aired as 2×08)
2×06 – “Teddy Troubles…” (originally aired as 2×14, post-cancellation)
2×07 – “Monday June…” (originally aired as 2×13, post-cancellation)
2×08 – “Dating Games…” (originally aired as 2×11, the last episode aired before cancellation)
2×09 – “The D…” aka “Making the Grade…” (originally aired as 2×15, post-cancellation)
2×10 – “The Seven Year Bitch…” (originally aired (originally aired as 2×16, post-cancellation)
2×11 – “Using People…” (originally aired as 2×17, post-cancellation)
2×12 – “Ocupado…” (originally aired as 2×18, post-cancellation)
2×13 – “Original Bitch…” (originally aired as 2×19, post-cancellation) ***the last five technically aired in order

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Professor Wagstaff
Joined: Tue Aug 24, 2010 11:27 pm

Re: Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23

#53 Post by Professor Wagstaff » Thu Nov 26, 2020 1:20 am

Murdoch wrote:
Thu Nov 26, 2020 12:25 am
I decided to rewatch the show on Hulu and love it just as much as I did 8 years ago, if not more. However, the episodes are horribly out of order, with James jumping back and forth between grieving his Dancing with the Stars embarrassment and nervously prepping for his debut on the show. Does anyone who has the DVD complete series know if the episodes are in order?
I found this similarly frustrating during my recent rewatch. When Netflix had the series, they were shown in chronological order. I wish Hulu had done the same.

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Murdoch
Joined: Sun Apr 20, 2008 11:59 pm
Location: Upstate NY

Re: Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23

#54 Post by Murdoch » Thu Nov 26, 2020 1:25 am

Thanks twbb, I appreciate the guide.

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23

#55 Post by therewillbeblus » Sat Nov 13, 2021 12:49 am

I cued up a full series revisit pre-Thanksgiving, as the I now think of this show as a primary signifier for the holiday, but I forgot just how incredible the Halloween ep is, particularly its intelligence at mixing tonal ideas to serve the program's irreverent ethos. “Love and Monsters…” not only deconstructs rom-coms, but self-reflexively body-swaps the unwanted glowing sheen of June's dreamy illusory-schema (and genuine personality) onto Chloe, and subsequently casts June into the supporting role against her will- but the pendulum swings further by planting her into a nightmare of oily stink with the gross friend (the kind of guy Chloe would drunkenly sleep with) while also temporarily, yet fatalistically, blinding her to identifying her soul mate in the fireman. It's almost cruel, and so insolently in step with the spirit of the show, blending misguided trust and delusional optimism with embraced cynicism and championed hedonism, fulfilling the chosen outcomes of each character but for the other undeserved principal. This occurs both structurally and thematically, banishing June to the B-story and leaving the A-story in a place of complete confusion and unknowability- as neither of these 'winners' can admit their true feelings with trust or self-confidence, even within the constructs of either sitcom or rom-com narratives!- subverting the programmatic design and subgenre entirely across layers of insight into the mechanics of their respective symbiotic functions. In the end, what feelings are 'real' become so comically twisted up that we simply don't care- just like perhaps we shouldn't care about a rom-com, nor stiffly expect the happy endings people like June so desperately seek, from and within format or genre.

This show has never strived for High Art, but if it's possessed any consistent messaging, that would be the value of elasticity in perspective- including the resignation or malleability of rigid insular morality- to access more fruits from life. So what better route in such a show, that also smashes the very notion of a moral or lesson to take, than to exhibit just how lost these two paradoxically complementary characters are when they go full-throttle into embodying the other's path with absolutist flexibility. The episode may not be the show's best, but it's the peak demonstration of its perversity, undercutting its own secret ingredient of bare-minimum sitcom-y cuteness in personal growth with a lethal dose of ironic expulsion.

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