New ep tonight.
Eeeh… this one is one of those where we get a basically pretty-OK-but-clueless guy and get him set straight.
(a) That’s some cheek of her to say in front of her husband that maybe she should have married a gay style maven 
(b) For a moment there it seemed we were about to have one helluva combined disaster, in increasing order of severity of: overcooked berries, smoke damage, and possible burning/asphyxiation of the star of the episode. :eek:
This guy made me angry. I really didn’t see him as “clueless but basically OK.” I got a “inconsiderate jerk who has no idea how truly lucky he was to find someone who put up with it” vibe.
No, sorry, the wife was the bad guy here. Mark did this whole dealie for her, knowing that she thinks he’s a thoughtless ass. Her reaction was twice as thoughtless. Normally, I get a “free goodies, yea!” vibe off the guys, but tonight I got it big-time off the wife. Yes, dear, we know it’s all about you. The Fab Five told him, his players told him, and you’ve told him at least three times.
Mark made an effort, and your reaction to “I love you so much” is “yes, well, thank you”?
Yeah, I didn’t enjoy this one. The guy’s a real crumb for going off on “golf” vacations without his wife. But I think she’s no bargain either. Maybe she expected the Fab 5 to get him hair plugs? Sure they spiffed him up a bit, but he’s still pretty lame. The only thing the guy really has going for him is his rapport with his team.
They needed to send these two off on a dream date, like the one they sent the skaters on (horse-drawn carriage in the park etc.)
And for the sake of that I hope there aren’t any specially tight-assed PTA types in the audience who’ll get all mental over the “Here, feel my hair” bit. Because I think it is them who will have to keep on his case to sustain the change.
I’ll still class him in the “clueless” department though rather than heap on the moral condemnation – after all, he was made to notice that he was doing things wrong, and that he needed to change that. However I’m not sure if repeated exhortations about how “it’s about her” will really do the job. I’ll agree that with the skaters they made a better example of taking a situation where the wife had been doing all the accommodating and compromising and having the husband start doing his share of the relationship-work.
I get the feeling these guys are not going to be in this season’s “look back” special.
Why didn’t roguishly-stubbled Kyan get the guy a decent hair trim? That was dangerously close to comb-over.
Yup, wifey-poo seemed like a real ingrate. I think seeing the new set of golf clubs in the middle of the entryway ticked her off. It would have annoyed me greatly, too! And I think she hated the new decor! Oh, well. . . there’s no rule that the significant other has to love the new design, is there? The little necklace was a sentimental but cheap gift. (HE got the silver engraved whistle from Tiffany, after all!!!) And the dessert was a total flop. Whenever anyone says “I’m sure it will taste great,” you know it won’t.
I don’t know. . . maybe she was tired of wrestling with the kid at the volleyball game and then shlepping him to the neighbor. Maybe she expected something entirely different. Maybe she just wants a divorce! Who knows? But we have come to expect more sincere kvelling upon the reveal!
The guy admitted he’s addicted to golf. In a bad way. Golf is all he makes time for. He plays so much golf that it keeps him from being an attentive husband and father. His idea of a perfect vacation is to drag his wife to a golf course she’d hate. On the rare occasions he takes her on a date, he wears a golf shirt. And when he goes to the bathroom, he does it in a room decorated with a golf theme. The one piece of furniture he was attracted to was made of golf clubs.
This guy’s got a serious, serious problem with golf.
So what did the Fab 5 give him? Golf shoes, golf clothes, a golf bag, and golf clubs.
I disliked this episode quite a bit. I can put aside the greedy wife, the somewhat clueless guy who seems to ignore her, and the golf-addiction. What really ate at me though was the Fab Five themselves and their whole plan of attack this episode. Up until this episode, a vast majority of the clothes they buy, the work they do, is meant to help the guy make a change. What did they do this episode? With a guy who ignores his wife and plays golf way too much? They take him to fucking Golfsmith? That really, really upset me. If they were truly interested in making him over, they’d tell him to cut back on the golf, and take his wife out for a nice breakfast instead of going to hit balls. (I said balls, heh.)
I understand it is a television show, and they have certain marketing things they have to do, but when they sacrafice the show to the almighty Golfsmith and her money, it really, really bugged me. It appeared to be a complete and utter sellout.
Does anyone really believe, for one iota, that Carson would actually complement a guy on wearing golf-shoes with removable spikes that he could wear elsewhere?? Really? The real Carson, not the one who is sucking up to the corporate sponsor, would have endlessly mocked, ridiculed, and despised any idiot who would have the audicity to wear those hidious golf shoes away from the golf course. He’d be the first to throw those things out the window and buy the guy a nice set of loafers. To see him hawking shoes that, in my opinion, he would never, ever get caught dead wearing, almost made me sick. And the entire episode was like that, from the entire wardrobe to the afterthought romantic dessert, to the hidious reveal shot of the living room with the fucking golf bag right in the middle of it. Thom did some nice work on the house, but for the rest of it, I was really put off.
I really, really enjoy the show when they try to make a change for the guy and seem really sincere about doing it. We had next to none of that in this episode. Instead we had an hour long commercial for Golfsmith. Bah!
Here’s hoping they get back on track.
Feeding his illness was a stupid thing to do. Jai was the crocheted club cover in this episode - take a vacation to a spa resort with a golf course? Intruduce him to virtual golf? Ummm… How about find something your wife wants to do? How about incorporating her decor style into the house? I did swoon a tad when they were amid all that Stickley, but it was short-lived euphoria, only to be dashed upon the craggy rocks of that despicable golf club table.
The one and only one thing that saved the episode was that they didn’t shave or “manscape” him. Best line was Carson’s “You are what my people call a cub.” A trim up top would not have been a bad idea though.
And what was the deal with five gallons of ice cream in the freezer?
Best line in the whole ep was Thom’s, “His team would be embarassed if he got his ass kicked by a gay decorator.”
But yeah, the guy seemed to be a schmuck, and his wife wasn’t much of a prize. The only really cutesy part was the volleyball team’s reaction to seeing Mark and the Fab Five watching the game. The parfait was a disaster, and I’m sure Ted telling him it was the easiest thing in the world didn’t help his ego much.
Why did he do half his getting ready at home and the other half in the locker room? He likes the feel of brown paper towels against his skin?
I think I figured out why he was playing all that golf . . . There is a reason some married guys like fishing and golf so much.
Plus the point about all the hard work “trying” for the kid- you mean having sex with your wife? After seeing her in action, I can see his point.
Lots of info-mercial stuff especially from Kyan, who did a poor job this episode. That crap the producers were having you poorly sell will not help his hair loss. DHT is taking that hair out, and that snake oil ain’t going to help.
I really enjoyed this episode while watching it, but after reading all your comments, I realized it was really weak. There wasn’t a single pizza-box under a couch, no mold in the bathroom, and the romantic evening ended up being just dessert after a volleyball match. It was basically “let’s give our coach and wife some new furniture and clothes because we like him”. There was no major makeover…heck, they didn’t even wax his back, though I can imagine that because teenage girls were involved, there were some strict guidelines from the school about how much of Mark would be exposed before they would allow the film crew access to the school. That I can understand, as a parent and a viewer, but I think the show works better with guys who haven’t been able to convince someone to marry them. And the wife did seem a bit underwhelmed by her lovely new furniture.
I sure don’t understand as a viewer why anyone would think that because he works with high school girls it means he can’t have his back waxed or otherwise “expose” the portions of his body that they could see if they happened upon him swimming laps in the school’s pool. While I’m not a parent, I can’t imagine how a rational parent could be concerned over their daughter’s coach appearing on this show even if it meant he dropped trou and was photographed in his underpants.
I got the feeling the wife really didn’t care for the new location of the dining room.
I didn’t even think she cared much for the decor at all, which was odd considering that her ‘family’ room area looked pretty beat and messy with kids stuff. Maybe she prefered it that way?
I see Carson got his old 'do back. HAHA. I told you so! 
I also see that Ted’s hair has gradually become longer and ‘joojed’ (how does one spell that?). I liked it much better when it was like Felix Unger’s hair. Seems to suit him better.
And Jai, the sweetie pie. I love him to death, but fluffing his hair up is not going to make the balding spot go away. If he fluffs his hair any more, he’ll start to look like the stereotypical Texan woman with big hair.
Ah, but it’s not the rational parents that the School Boards worry about, my good man. And often it doesn’t even have to be even parents.
Ah, I can actually sort of relate to this one.
First of all you have to understand there are all types of relationships. I know for a fact that I LOVE it when my husband goes on a golf trip so I can have some time for myself. We’re also not a gooey “lovey-dovey” type so he definitely wouldn’t get much more than a “thanks” to an on-screen “I love you.” Later when the cameras are off, sure, but that’s not for the whole world to see.
I also think the reason the guys stuck with the golf stuff is because they wanted to do something he was comfortable with and would actually STICK WITH. You take a guy like that & put him in an Armani suit or something and it’s going to end up right back in the closet as soon as the filming is over. They were showing him that you could be a coach-guy golf-fanatic and yet not look like a complete schlub. Guys like this are a bigger challenge than guys that just don’t have a clue and are willing to try anything because they don’t really care one way or the other.
I didn’t think the wife was that bad but I think for some reason she was bizarrely hung up about the placement of her dining room. I thought it worked perfectly there, and in fact it looked like that’s where the dining room was SUPPOSED to be all along. The guy should’ve put his golf clubs away before she got there. Did he think she would be impressed by that? Dur!
Finally, Jai gives me the creeps. He’s like a Hobbit or something. What does he even do? He gives the guys a bunch of lame Yoda-type advice and buys something for them to give to the women.
Well, in all fairness, this isn’t Jai’s fault. The “pilot” episode and the episodes with Blair showed that the “culture guy” has a pretty ill-defined portfolio. Jai pretty much admits that in the book.
True… I think maybe he should work with the food guy some, like he should be in charge of the wine or mixed drinks maybe? I consider that as much “culture” as I do music or art. (He could work with the design guy for the artwork too. I suspect he does but they don’t show it for some reason.) He needs more to do than say “So…make sure at some point tonight you mention she looks nice, or that you love her. Um, here’s a CD you might like. And give her this, cos chicks like to get things!”
It’s of course unfair of me to pick on how he looks. He can’t help it and anyone could probably say the same of me! I just think in some episodes he seems to play up his elfish-ness. In a couple he reminds me of that guy who has the website claiming he’s the REAL Peter Pan.