Loveday Writing

Meanwhile, Em goes into work where she tries to pitch her ideas to Audrey, only for Audrey to point out that her ideas have already been done. Before Em leaves the office after her pitch failure, Audrey gets a phone call, which leads to her taking Em to the golf course to meet Adam Gilchrist. Audrey wants Em to ghostwrite his autobiography. As Em wants to write original material, she tells Audrey she rejects the offer, but Audrey makes her tell Adam herself. When Adam tells her he loved her book, she decides to take on the job.

When Em eventually gets home, she and Greg get into a fight and Greg tells her she has lost perspective when she talks about her day being tedious. When Greg and Em are in bed, Chloe comes to see her and it’s revealed that she is having trouble sleeping as the book Em brought home from work is giving her nightmares.

Throughout the episode, brief scenes of Sophie at work are shown with Ravi hanging out with her at first. Sophie encourages Ravi to find something to do whilst she’s at work and he ends up going to a party where he creates a Tik Tok video with the cool kids, which makes her jealous. Terry and Marlo then come in to see Peter Rabbit 2 and give her a plausible excuse to give her manager, Brian, so she can leave early. The excuse proves to be effective, however when Sophie sees Brian struggle with juggling a large crowd and a malfunctioning popcorn machine, she feels guilty and ends up staying.

In a post-credits scene, Brian dramatically talks about his trauma in finding Terry and Marlo going at it whilst watching Peter Rabbit 2 and makes them clean up the theatre they’re in.

Overall, I felt that this was another solid episode as it was again set in realistic circumstances. Greg’s story focused on a not-so-glamorous reality of parenthood, specifically sleep deprivation. While Em’s story, specifically her interactions with Adam Gilchrist, wasn’t necessarily realistic, the issue of taking a job opportunity that may not be what she wants but is what she needs, and her conflict with Greg about her “tedious” day was realistic.

What I found interesting was the involvement of Sophie and Chloe in this episode and how their involvement was basically at both ends of the spectrum. The episode dominated around Chloe’s sleep deprivation and her subsequent bad behaviour, while the focus on Sophie was minimal and, in all honesty, her short story didn’t really add anything to the episode. If it wasn’t in the episode at all, I don’t think it would have made a difference.

On a smaller note, I appreciated the transitions between the stories, specifically the over-the-top, sugary “treat breakfast” with Chloe providing a springboard for Audrey’s “treat breakfast” of scotch, and both Chloe and Ravi eating snake lollies. I also enjoyed the fact that Luna was a strong presence in the episode, despite the fact that Casey Donovan didn’t actually appear in the episode.

Stray Observations:

-Brad didn’t appear in this episode.

-Judith Lucy made her first appearance of the season.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “Dad you look…especially old today.” (Sophie to Greg)
• “Take off those sunglasses you look ridiculous!” “You look ridiculous without sunglasses!” (Greg-Chloe)
• “If Isaac Newton wasn’t bored when he was sitting under the tree and the apple hit him on the head, he wouldn’t have discovered gravity.” “I think he would have worked it out somehow.” (Greg-Chloe when Chloe tells him she’s bored)
• “The naughty step is my favourite part of the house!” (Chloe to Greg when he threatens to put her on the naughty step)
• “Your phone manner sucks.” (Chloe to Greg)
• “You can’t hide from me!” (Chloe to Greg)
• “I’m sorry he can’t come to the phone right now, he’s lying on the ground in his pyjamas covered in beer. He’s been trying to organise prizes for the trivia night, but I won’t let him because I’m tired and cranky.” (Chloe to Simon)
• “Yeah, marriage sucks sometimes.” (Chloe to Simon)