Mary Anne Saves the Day - Spoilers

[CharlotteTJohanssen]

Mary Anne Saves the Day is the fourth episode of the Netflix series. It is based on the fourth book in the series. Please discuss it here! 

[secondhandshoes]

Morbidda Destiny is a witch! And Dawn’s aunt. Excellent callback to Sharon and Morbidda having the same last name.

[sparklymouse]

The first surprise for me! WTF Morbidda is Dawn's aunt. It still bugs me that Dawn is a completely retooled character. Sharon is less scatterbrained, more hippie dippy. This was supposed to be Mary Anne's big episode, but I thought all the interesting parts came from Dawn. I didn't feel like making Bailey trans was a necessary addition to Mary Anne's rescue story.

[merrymelody]

I feel like the Bailey scene in the hospital would have made more sense if they'd mentioned how her notes include her transitioning desires, but the doctors didn't read it or whatever; but since they made no mention of that, it appeared like Mary Anne (and therefore the show by proxy) was presenting the doctors poorly because...they came into the room of a very young child who's medical history says they're a boy, and didn't call them 'she', despite the fact they're wearing feminine coded clothes? Um, yeah, your first thought isn't going to be 'That boy's outfit has a sparkly butterfly motif, I better assume they're transitioning.' And the hospital gown was ridiculously contrived, hospitals tend to stick to white precisely so they don't get into endless arguments with grown adults, never mind children, over what colour it is.

[sparklymouse]

Oh, shoutout to the Schillaber twins! They looked like those creepy kind of twins who talk in unison and live together their whole lives.

[greer]

One thing I realized is that there is no way Richard wouldn't have noticed the flashlight code going on.

[booboobrewer]

Aww, MA looked so pretty at the end. I am totally on board with this version of her.

[bsc]

Jul 3, 2020 19:43:19 GMT -5 sparklymouse said:

didn't feel like making Bailey trans was a necessary addition to Mary Anne's rescue story.

Same here...they should’ve stuck to the original which was Jenny.

[bsc4ever]

Jul 24, 2020 0:33:53 GMT -5 bsc said:

Jul 3, 2020 19:43:19 GMT -5 sparklymouse said:

didn't feel like making Bailey trans was a necessary addition to Mary Anne's rescue story.

Same here...they should’ve stuck to the original which was Jenny.

Same. It seemed like they were trying to be too “woke”. With trans Bailey, Dawn’s gay dad, Charlotte’s lesbian moms . . . I don’t mind these things at all, but I don’t know that the changes are necessary. Bailey would have been a cool character to add in, but not as a replacement for Jenny, you know? I can appreciate that they’re trying to be inclusive, but it kind of bums me out to not have things the way I pictures them, since they got so many other aspects of the books SO spot on. Like Sharon being all new-agey instead of just scatterbrained. I can appreciate it, but I would have liked to see the other depiction of her as well.

I did like that MA actually saves the day on her own, and not calling Dawn to come over and help. It also felt like a lot of MA’s daddy issues are in her mind or self imposed. Like Richard was all, “Do what you want with your hair. I don’t care. I just don’t know how to do hair!” It felt like maybe if MA were more communicative, she wouldn’t have half the battles she had. Richard seems okay with the hair and clothing change. MA was super whiny at the beginning - like borderline Mallory!

I was surprised that MA wasn’t more surprised about Bailey when she say the different sets of clothes. I like that she just rolled with it, but IDK, it seems like she would have at least shown come confusion, because of her later convo with Dawn.

I liked the Humpty Dumpty reference and how they tied it to Alma. I like that they incorporated it into the decor and wish they had done the same in the book.

[andrew]

Mary Anne herself taking a job, then Richard's complaining grounding the others, was kind of a creative way of having the friction while being less intense and widespread than the book but I didn't like the result ... knowing Richard as they do the other sitters shouldn't have been so offput and so blaming her, especially Kristy, also petty to complain that one client still asking for her meant it was now common.

Dawn being pretty chill about her parents being divorced made her a pretty different character from the start.

[cnj]

Jul 9, 2020 15:38:29 GMT -5 greer said:

One thing I realized is that there is no way Richard wouldn't have noticed the flashlight code going on.

He probably did notice, but didn't think it was worth going into Mary Anne's room and forbidding it.

He actually trusted Mary Anne, but was fearful of losing her the way they lost Alma.

[bambi]

I have to admit that while I did end up liking Dawn a lot and quickly got used to the change seeing her first did confuse me a little bit. I'd totally understand if she wasn't described much in the books but Dawns main description is having extremely blonde almost white hair, so seeing someone with super dark hair was a bit confusing at first, although after about 5 seconds I didn't really care. Maybe if they put a wig on her? I don't know but to me it just seems a bit odd to change the main characteristic looks wise of a character unless an actor/actress is allergic to something or whatever else.

Also in other news while personally while I get what they are going for in representation I personally felt they were going a bit overboard in the "wokeness". I understand trying to include everyone, and I have pretty left leaning views and part of the lgbtq+ but in many ways it came off as performative. As if they only added half that stuff in because they felt they needed to for modern audiences, not because they actually wanted to. I'm not saying don't do it at all but I felt like it could of been done a bit better because to me personally it came across as "look at us! We have gay characters! YAYYY!"

[CharlotteTJohanssen]

Apr 13, 2021 19:25:23 GMT -5 bambi said:

I have to admit that while I did end up liking Dawn a lot and quickly got used to the change seeing her first did confuse me a little bit. I'd totally understand if she wasn't described much in the books but Dawns main description is having extremely blonde almost white hair, so seeing someone with super dark hair was a bit confusing at first, although after about 5 seconds I didn't really care. Maybe if they put a wig on her? I don't know but to me it just seems a bit odd to change the main characteristic looks wise of a character unless an actor/actress is allergic to something or whatever else.

Also in other news while personally while I get what they are going for in representation I personally felt they were going a bit overboard in the "wokeness". I understand trying to include everyone, and I have pretty left leaning views and part of the lgbtq+ but in many ways it came off as performative. As if they only added half that stuff in because they felt they needed to for modern audiences, not because they actually wanted to. I'm not saying don't do it at all but I felt like it could of been done a bit better because to me personally it came across as "look at us! We have gay characters! YAYYY!"

I really agree with you on the last half, it feels like the woke points was shoehorned it in places. Like with Charlottes moms, I was looking forward to learning more about her dad. However, I did like Bailey she was cute! 

[sparklymouse]

Yes. Sometimes I feel like they have a checklist of things that they have to squeeze in so that they don't leave anyone out.