Who says comedies don’t have substance anymore?
Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage Season 1 Episode 7 had a lot of heart. It perfectly blended comedy and drama while telling an emotional and relatable story.
Even better, it gave Connor something more to do than pass through the kitchen, making quirky demands that everyone rolled their eyes at. He’s not the butt of jokes anymore — he’s finally a full-fledged character with hopes, dreams, and frustrations with his relationships with his parents.
Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage Season 1 Episode 7 Featured A Random Road Trip, But It Worked
I’m not exactly sure why Georgie and Jim decided to take a road trip.
It had something to do with that Mustang they were trying to fix, but I missed what it was.
Whatever their mission was, they didn’t accomplish it on-screen, but that’s okay. The point of the road trip was for Connor to discover an ally in Georgie.
I could relate to Connor’s frustration with his parents.
Jim hadn’t tried to steer Connor toward a job or career path that might interest him; he just assumed that because Connor is different (aka neurodivergent in the 1990s), he’d never be able to support himself.
The good news for Connor is that the Internet revolution is just around the corner, which will lead to all sorts of jobs that weren’t possible before, so he may be able to carve out a career path by the time he’s in his mid-30s.
Of course, if he’s working from home online, his parents might not have any idea what he’s doing and continue to worry about what will happen to him after they’re gone, but at least he’ll have options that he doesn’t have now.
I totally get where they’re coming from, but I also strongly relate to how Connor felt.
I’ve been on the receiving end of conversations like that.
Even though the people who are worried are well-meaning, the inadvertent message is that you’re broken in some unnameable way because you aren’t able to do things the way you’re “supposed” to.
In the 1990s, Connor’s parents may have been aware he was different in some ways, but it’s unlikely they’d realize he was autistic or otherwise neurodivergent.
That makes it even more frustrating. When you’re expected to understand things that you just don’t understand because your brain is wired differently, you feel like there’s a code to success that you can’t crack and begin to wonder what the hell is wrong with you.
(This is also likely why Young Sheldon had Sheldon be evaluated and determined to be neurotypical when he very clearly is not — there wasn’t nearly as much awareness about autism then, and anyone who was able to communicate verbally was assumed to be neurotypical even if they were “weird.”)
Connor wanted so badly for his father to be proud of him or at least happy with him that he took his instructions to get a job literally and tried to become the busboy in the diner they stopped to eat at. Then, he was confused about why that wasn’t an acceptable solution.
Georgie’s Acceptance Of Connor Came From Growing Up With Sheldon
Georgie had a rough time growing up with Sheldon. He was pegged as the “stupid brother” while everyone made a big deal out of Sheldon’s intelligence, so it’s natural that he didn’t try to understand what it was like for Sheldon to be so different than most people.
He told Mandy he regretted not trying to understand, and though he didn’t want to pick up the phone and rectify that situation, it made him try harder with Connor.
That was why Connor shocked Audrey by saying that Georgie was a “great person.”
Georgie didn’t think Connor wearing headphones to block out the world while on the road trip was weird or unacceptable. While Jim saw that as yet another reason Connor was impossible to relate to, Georgie saw that was just Connor being Connor.
Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage Season 1 Episode 7 Made It Clear What Audrey’s Real Problem Is
The scenes with Audrey and Mandy helped humanize Audrey.
She doesn’t like Georgie for the same reason that All In The Family‘s Archie Bunker didn’t like his son-in-law: she sees Georgie as an obstacle to her child having the life she deserves and a loser who can’t support his family on his own.
Audrey’s surprising dream of getting involved in politics never came true, so she wants Mandy to have the freedom to make her own dreams into realities. Having a baby young and being tied to an even younger father wasn’t supposed to be part of the plan.
Ironically, Audrey didn’t understand why Mandy wanted gender-neutral decorations for CeeCee’s nursery even though Mandy only wanted CeeCee to grow up to realize she could become whoever and whatever she wanted to become.
Audrey and Mandy have this in common, but Mandy is so busy resisting Audrey’s ideas about what her life should be like, and Audrey is so busy imposing her opinions that neither one of them realizes it.
Despite Heavy Themes, Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage Season 1 Episode 7 Was Hilarious
The best thing about “An Old Mustang” was that it had heart and substance without losing sight of the fact that it’s supposed to be a comedy.
Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage Season 1 Episode 7 had several hilarious moments.
Audrey: The first night you slept in your own room, I cried.
Mandy: You did no.
Audrey: Of course I did. You were my sweet little angel and I loved you. Then you learned to talk and ruined everything.
There were some great one-liners and jokey conversations, but my favorite was the sequence in which Georgie negotiates a higher price for the water pump than Jim had planned on paying, unaware that the “other guy” he is competing with is Jim.
The two of them screwed themselves out of the original, low price with all that unnecessary negotiation, and I couldn’t stop laughing about it.
Random Thoughts
- It really is a shame that Georgie and Mandy will eventually break up. Georgie seems such an important part of the McAllister family that I feel Jim and Connor should get him in the eventual divorce.
- No Ruben on Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage Season 1 Episode 7. I didn’t miss him.
- The laugh track/studio audience seemed muted today, which made it much more tolerable.
- I almost forgot this takes place in the 1990s and was confused by Audrey’s description of Friends until I remembered.
Over to you, Georgie & Mandy fanatics!
What did you think of Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage Season 1 Episode 7?
Vote in our poll to rank the episode, and then hit the comments with your thoughts.
Rate Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage Season 1 Episode 7
Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage airs on CBS on Thursdays at 8/7c and on Paramount+ on Fridays. It returns with all new episodes on January 30, 2025.
Watch Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage Online
The post Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage Season 1 Episode 7 Finally Delivered The Connor Story I’ve Been Waiting For appeared first on TV Fanatic.
Source: TV Fanatic
