Episode Recap and Discussion - 1x01 - Pilot
I noticed this morning that we have a few members, woohoo! Anyway, I decided to play catch up and post some episode discussion (I'll probably put up Hoosier Daddy tomorrow). I'd love to hear your insights, so I encourage you all comment with your own views of the episode. Even if it's just to fangirl over a certain moment. Next week I'll try to get the post episode discussion thread up the day after the episode airs. I can also do a live discussion thread on the day of the episode if you all think that's a good idea. Anyway, on with the show! May not be dial-up friendly (contains some screencaps)
- Mary's purple car was pretty much love at first sight for me. It's loud and a little rough around the edges, but it still has that feminine air about it, which pretty much describes Mary right off the bat.
- We're introduced to Mary and Marshall by classic partner banter. We have no clue what they're talking about, but it's still pretty adorable, especially when Mary hears her phone ring and says, "Oh, thank god!" Marshall is all, "Psh, whatever. I'll continue this when she gets off the phone. Ooo, churros!"
And he gets one for Mary, too. ♥ Luckily he cares enough to ask her about her problems before he launches back into his rant on imagery. And then Mary throws her churro in the garbage. :( And Marshall mocks her.
I love this exchange, because we see a familiarity between them, and basically an acceptance of each other. They annoy one another, but it's endearing for them, because they are comfortable enough in each other's presence to be themselves.
Also, we met some dude named Raphael who's supposedly Mary's boyfriend or something. And her sister. I mean we met her sister too, not that Raphael is also her sister. Anyway, I was too busy being dazzled my Mary's leather jacket to really pay attention to them. Plus, the cute partner banter was still on my brain.
Who can blame me when they look that good?
- Mary makes me fall even more in love with her when she throws the ticket that the traffic cop gave her out the window, and we see her speeding off in a cloud of dust.
- Marshall can speak Russian. And he's a little conceited about it. I love it when Mary chokes on her coffee when the Ukrainian girl embarrasses him. This moment is great, mostly because I believe he was trying to impress Mary and he failed miserably.
- Mary defies her boss, and Marshall just goes along with it. He knows it's no use arguing with her. This is probably why they work so well together.
- We meet Dershowitz and he and Mary proceed to have a bunch of eyesex with each other. We also get to see a more emotional side to Mary when she sees Frankie's dead son.
- Mary's sister steals Raphael's car. This is the greatest thing that she's ever done, and it's probably the only thing I'll ever like about her. Although I've been known to warm up to characters that I originally didn't like. But the sister is just... blah. I have to say that I did enjoy her scenes with Raph though, and in all honesty, I like their chemistry much better than I do Mary/Raph. Marshall takes much pleasure in Raph's car being stolen, by the way. ;) Also, Mary ignores Raph's plea for her to pick him up, which shows us that she doesn't quite respect him.
- I love the scene between Mary and the Ukrainian girl where the girl breaks down crying. Marshall appears to be uncomfortable, and Mary just gets right in there and calms her down. She knows exactly what to say and how to say it.
- Marshall is Mary's bitch. Definitely. She pwned him.
- Very emotional scene with Frankie.
- Marshall is back at the station doing what Mary told him to do. Stan is worried about Mary, but Marshall trusts Mary enough to be able to take care of herself. I love this. He knows she doesn't need a hero, but he'll back her up when she needs it. We also see that Marshall knows Mary enough to not buy her a present for her birthday. He also knows that she just naturally smells good and doesn't wear perfume. For some reason this made me smile. It showed that he really pays attention to every little detail about her, and also, all the Stan/gift scenes showed that Marshall and Mary are probably pretty close if he he knows what she likes and dislikes and her reasoning behind it all. It seems like Mary has trouble letting people in, but Marshall seems to effortlessly understand her.
- We get a bunch of kickass scenes of Mary trying to find the murderer of Frankie's son, and she throws some soap at a Native American's weewee. It was pretty funny. But I was missing the Mary/Marshall dynamic. :(
- Mary's mother is even more annoying than Mary's sister. Ugh. I wish Raph had thrown her in the pool too.
- Mary and Marshall are reunited! YAY!!! And then he repeats exactly what she says and she calls him an idiot.
Is that not a look of complete love? He's got it bad. Oh yes.
- Marshall not only knows Russian, but apparently he knows sign language too. Sort of. And this is what he looks like after women slap him:
- Mary does some dirty talk on the phone to get the whereabouts of Richie, and Marshall is most definitely turned on:
So much that it HURTS:
And it's embarrassing, so he goes and gets something to drink. And Mary is still fake orgasming. And he's still turned on, but he's hiding it better now. But then he ends up sucking at playing Nomi's husband, and Mary is baffled:
Hee. I love them!!!
- Mary throws a table on top of that stupid Richie guy. HELL YEAH!
- Mary has more eyesex with Dershowitz, then she goes and has actual sex with Raph. Hmm... And then Raph tests her with the whole "not going to the surprise party" thing, and she fails horribly and doesn't even realize he was testing her, and she cries. I'll be honest, I didn't particularly like that. But I guess they had to show that she really does want to be loved and she really does want a normal relationship, but she just doesn't know how to get it, nor does she know how to function in that situation. Her tough as nails persona is her defense mechanism, and it ends up pushing people away.
- "And then there are the special cases. The ones who hide because they just want someone to care enough to look for them." I love this line. It sums up Mary so well. Also, right after she says this line in the voiceover, she goes to the station to hide. And who finds her? Marshall!!! And he's actually a little awkward when he comes upon her, and just sits down and let's her do the talking. Now, I know he wasn't looking for her, but it was like the show was saying that he doesn't have to. He always sees the whole her, therefore she can't hide from him.
- Frankie's wife lashes out and kills Richie, and almost kills Frankie too. It's pretty understandable. Mary was awesome here, once again. She's good with the emotional situations in her work, but she seems to have a little trouble with those in her social life. Oh, I also love that Mary tells Marshall she'll catch up with him later, but then he gets in the car with her. Just like he knew when she didn't need him, he also knew when she needed him. And she definitely needed him to push her into having the courage to face her birthday party.
- Mary really does love her sister. Awwwwww. Hello cocaine! Wow. No wonder she's mooching off of Mary. She spent all her money on the drugs! That moment kind of came out of nowhere.
- Mary solves the case. Woohoo! Then she has eyesex with Dershowitz again and Marshall isn't too happy:
And then silly Dershowitz had the nerve to ask him if Mary was seeing anyone.
My thoughts exactly, Marshall, my thoughts exactly. Although, to be honest, I like Bobby D better than Raph.
And that was the episode in a nutshell.
Overall thoughts:
I had actually missed the pilot, so I didn't see this until after I had seen Hoosier Daddy. I was blown away by the awesomeness of Hoosier Daddy and was very, very dazzled by Mary and I fell in instant love with Mary/Marshall. But as I watched the pilot, it just seemed so inferior. I really didn't like the murder mystery aspect, I much prefer the scenes where she's protecting the witnesses. Also, Marshall wasn't quite as likable in the pilot as he is in Hoosier Daddy. And the voiceovers were a bit excessive. So, not the greatest pilot, but it did do a good job of introducing the characters and explaining what they're all about. But I felt like the show didn't really know what format to take on, murder mystery or witness protection. I'm so very happy that Hoosier Daddy cleaned this up. The mother and sister are still annoying though. :( I also didn't like that the pilot focused so much on Mary's love life. Introducing 3 love interests is a bit much. Although, technically, Marshall isn't a love interest, just her partner. But the Mary/Marshall dynamic is definitely my favorite part of the show.
So what did you all think?
- Mary's purple car was pretty much love at first sight for me. It's loud and a little rough around the edges, but it still has that feminine air about it, which pretty much describes Mary right off the bat.
- We're introduced to Mary and Marshall by classic partner banter. We have no clue what they're talking about, but it's still pretty adorable, especially when Mary hears her phone ring and says, "Oh, thank god!" Marshall is all, "Psh, whatever. I'll continue this when she gets off the phone. Ooo, churros!"
And he gets one for Mary, too. ♥ Luckily he cares enough to ask her about her problems before he launches back into his rant on imagery. And then Mary throws her churro in the garbage. :( And Marshall mocks her.
I love this exchange, because we see a familiarity between them, and basically an acceptance of each other. They annoy one another, but it's endearing for them, because they are comfortable enough in each other's presence to be themselves.
Also, we met some dude named Raphael who's supposedly Mary's boyfriend or something. And her sister. I mean we met her sister too, not that Raphael is also her sister. Anyway, I was too busy being dazzled my Mary's leather jacket to really pay attention to them. Plus, the cute partner banter was still on my brain.
Who can blame me when they look that good?
- Mary makes me fall even more in love with her when she throws the ticket that the traffic cop gave her out the window, and we see her speeding off in a cloud of dust.
- Marshall can speak Russian. And he's a little conceited about it. I love it when Mary chokes on her coffee when the Ukrainian girl embarrasses him. This moment is great, mostly because I believe he was trying to impress Mary and he failed miserably.
- Mary defies her boss, and Marshall just goes along with it. He knows it's no use arguing with her. This is probably why they work so well together.
- We meet Dershowitz and he and Mary proceed to have a bunch of eyesex with each other. We also get to see a more emotional side to Mary when she sees Frankie's dead son.
- Mary's sister steals Raphael's car. This is the greatest thing that she's ever done, and it's probably the only thing I'll ever like about her. Although I've been known to warm up to characters that I originally didn't like. But the sister is just... blah. I have to say that I did enjoy her scenes with Raph though, and in all honesty, I like their chemistry much better than I do Mary/Raph. Marshall takes much pleasure in Raph's car being stolen, by the way. ;) Also, Mary ignores Raph's plea for her to pick him up, which shows us that she doesn't quite respect him.
- I love the scene between Mary and the Ukrainian girl where the girl breaks down crying. Marshall appears to be uncomfortable, and Mary just gets right in there and calms her down. She knows exactly what to say and how to say it.
- Marshall is Mary's bitch. Definitely. She pwned him.
- Very emotional scene with Frankie.
- Marshall is back at the station doing what Mary told him to do. Stan is worried about Mary, but Marshall trusts Mary enough to be able to take care of herself. I love this. He knows she doesn't need a hero, but he'll back her up when she needs it. We also see that Marshall knows Mary enough to not buy her a present for her birthday. He also knows that she just naturally smells good and doesn't wear perfume. For some reason this made me smile. It showed that he really pays attention to every little detail about her, and also, all the Stan/gift scenes showed that Marshall and Mary are probably pretty close if he he knows what she likes and dislikes and her reasoning behind it all. It seems like Mary has trouble letting people in, but Marshall seems to effortlessly understand her.
- We get a bunch of kickass scenes of Mary trying to find the murderer of Frankie's son, and she throws some soap at a Native American's weewee. It was pretty funny. But I was missing the Mary/Marshall dynamic. :(
- Mary's mother is even more annoying than Mary's sister. Ugh. I wish Raph had thrown her in the pool too.
- Mary and Marshall are reunited! YAY!!! And then he repeats exactly what she says and she calls him an idiot.
Is that not a look of complete love? He's got it bad. Oh yes.
- Marshall not only knows Russian, but apparently he knows sign language too. Sort of. And this is what he looks like after women slap him:
- Mary does some dirty talk on the phone to get the whereabouts of Richie, and Marshall is most definitely turned on:
So much that it HURTS:
And it's embarrassing, so he goes and gets something to drink. And Mary is still fake orgasming. And he's still turned on, but he's hiding it better now. But then he ends up sucking at playing Nomi's husband, and Mary is baffled:
Hee. I love them!!!
- Mary throws a table on top of that stupid Richie guy. HELL YEAH!
- Mary has more eyesex with Dershowitz, then she goes and has actual sex with Raph. Hmm... And then Raph tests her with the whole "not going to the surprise party" thing, and she fails horribly and doesn't even realize he was testing her, and she cries. I'll be honest, I didn't particularly like that. But I guess they had to show that she really does want to be loved and she really does want a normal relationship, but she just doesn't know how to get it, nor does she know how to function in that situation. Her tough as nails persona is her defense mechanism, and it ends up pushing people away.
- "And then there are the special cases. The ones who hide because they just want someone to care enough to look for them." I love this line. It sums up Mary so well. Also, right after she says this line in the voiceover, she goes to the station to hide. And who finds her? Marshall!!! And he's actually a little awkward when he comes upon her, and just sits down and let's her do the talking. Now, I know he wasn't looking for her, but it was like the show was saying that he doesn't have to. He always sees the whole her, therefore she can't hide from him.
- Frankie's wife lashes out and kills Richie, and almost kills Frankie too. It's pretty understandable. Mary was awesome here, once again. She's good with the emotional situations in her work, but she seems to have a little trouble with those in her social life. Oh, I also love that Mary tells Marshall she'll catch up with him later, but then he gets in the car with her. Just like he knew when she didn't need him, he also knew when she needed him. And she definitely needed him to push her into having the courage to face her birthday party.
- Mary really does love her sister. Awwwwww. Hello cocaine! Wow. No wonder she's mooching off of Mary. She spent all her money on the drugs! That moment kind of came out of nowhere.
- Mary solves the case. Woohoo! Then she has eyesex with Dershowitz again and Marshall isn't too happy:
And then silly Dershowitz had the nerve to ask him if Mary was seeing anyone.
My thoughts exactly, Marshall, my thoughts exactly. Although, to be honest, I like Bobby D better than Raph.
And that was the episode in a nutshell.
Overall thoughts:
I had actually missed the pilot, so I didn't see this until after I had seen Hoosier Daddy. I was blown away by the awesomeness of Hoosier Daddy and was very, very dazzled by Mary and I fell in instant love with Mary/Marshall. But as I watched the pilot, it just seemed so inferior. I really didn't like the murder mystery aspect, I much prefer the scenes where she's protecting the witnesses. Also, Marshall wasn't quite as likable in the pilot as he is in Hoosier Daddy. And the voiceovers were a bit excessive. So, not the greatest pilot, but it did do a good job of introducing the characters and explaining what they're all about. But I felt like the show didn't really know what format to take on, murder mystery or witness protection. I'm so very happy that Hoosier Daddy cleaned this up. The mother and sister are still annoying though. :( I also didn't like that the pilot focused so much on Mary's love life. Introducing 3 love interests is a bit much. Although, technically, Marshall isn't a love interest, just her partner. But the Mary/Marshall dynamic is definitely my favorite part of the show.
So what did you all think?