There is something particularly heartbreaking about Ordinary Joe. It hits you in the gut and makes you cry, but I think that Ordinary Joe is so unique that it stands on its own.
It doesn’t need to be like anything else, because it’s not like anything else. The way that it’s easy to follow the timelines, the way everything is so distinctive, the way that in every timeline you are so invested in these characters.
It means something that TV affects you on a level where you look forward to it. Most of the time television seems like a job to me.
But it’s not like that with Ordinary Joe.
Ordinary Joe manages to make you wonder about the what if’s in life, sure. But it also makes you appreciate the moments and know that it doesn’t matter what you are living this big life where everyone knows your name or this life where no one does. It doesn’t matter what your job is. It doesn’t matter what could happen.
Any time you are living your life, fighting for what matters, you are living anything an ordinary life. Every moment in life can be extraordinary.
In Shooting Stars, “Each Joe must come to terms with an unfamiliar and challenging feeling. Music Joe enlists help to look for his son. Cop Joe navigates the aftermath of a shooting. Nurse Joe and Jenny discuss a big career opportunity.”
Let’s break it down.
COP JOE
Sometimes I think that this version of Joe is the hardest to watch, because it’s the version of Joe that seems so innocent and carefree. It’s the version of Joe that you know is the most guarded and really is fearful of breaking down.
He saw what his Mom went through when his Dad died. He feels like he has to be this man that keeps his shit together even when we all know that anyone in that situation would fall apart.
His shooting of Diaz’s would be assassin is marked a clean shoot, but the shooting board wants him to go to therapy. Joe is resistant and I don’t think it’s because he thinks he doesn’t need it. I think it’s more the fact that he knows that he does and that’s the scariest thing of all.
Because he could break wide open. And if he breaks, how will he be the person he thinks that everyone expects him to be.
Joe is resistant to answering questions in therapy, but he’s got his tells that something is wrong. Frank has told him to get his mind straight, but I feel like for Joe that is a bigger conversation. But like the therapist says, if he doesn’t deal with what is bothering him, it will deal with him.
I love that Joe is pouring himself into Amy, even though she’s not my favorite. But Amy changed this episode. Like she became likable in this situation. Why? Because Amy finally stands up for herself. She finally sees her self worth and that playing mistress to Diaz is less than she deserves.
Joe has taught her that she deserves to be happy and loved. He has shown her that she doesn’t need to be someones secret, she deserves to be someones everything. She needs to be taken out in public and made to feel amazing, because the thing that is what anyone deserves in a relationship.
She’s also there when Joe has a full blown panic attack and she’s able to get him help. He feels like he can trust and tell her anything. For the first time, Joe feels like he can let walls down.
She tells Diaz that she wants her key back and doesn’t want to be his side piece. She’s not willing to settle. Of course, that makes Diaz mad and so he decides that he’s going to ruin her happiness.
Telling Joe that he’s involved with Amy makes me sick to my stomach because Diaz is hurting Joe for no reason, except the fact that he wants to hurt Amy.
One should never lead with their dick, because Diaz inviting Joe to be part of his team and then Joe finding out that Diaz may have been involved in his assassin’s sisters death, puts Joe in a position to take down the Congressman. And he’s got even more motivation now that Diaz has taken something away from him.
I feel for this version of Joe. I feel for him because he wants to open himself up and everyone is lying to him.
MUSIC JOE
Just because you are rich and famous doesn’t mean that life is easy. I think for this version of Joe, life is the most complicated, because anything is on a world stage. So how do you protect your heart when the world will be on your ass.
Since Jenny has told him about his son – it’s all he can think about. And Uncle Frank has found him. He’s living upstate, his name is Zeke. Joe stares at his face in a yearbook and you can see his heart leap out. His love for his son has been there since the moment he found out about him.
He can’t talk to Amy, because she’s so wrapped up in her own world that she’s not even seeing that there is anything going on with him. She’s so deep in her own ambitions and no lie – I think she’s gonna cheat with Diaz. I don’t like her in this version and I think that she’s a self absorbed person.
When Amy heads off to talk to people from the Democratic party, as her speech has gotten a lot of attention online. People want to donate to her campaign. And so Joe doesn’t say anything and lets her go do her thing.
He goes to talk to Jenny, who I feel for. I think everything that she’s done has been selfish to cleanse her own conscious, but I think that Joe doesn’t see it that way. He sees himself at fault, because he wasn’t there for her. He didn’t show up after graduation. He wasn’t around.
But he asks her if she wants to see his face. He tells her their sons name. He tells her that he’s sorry for how he’s acted, but since he found out about his son it is as if he’s been living outside his body, watching and all he can think about is his son.
He invited Jenny to go with him to see him, but she asks him to leave. It’s hard for her. It’s hard for her to come face to face with the past she thought she’d left in the past. But she knows she needs to and heads to her Dads to face it.
I never knew that the last thing to come out of Pandora’s box was hope. But it makes so much sense, because hope can be one of the scariest things to feel. Jenny thought that she had put the past behind her, but it’s right there, staring at her and telling her that she hasn’t put it as behind her as she thought.
In this box at her Dads is a picture of her son’s sonogram, his booties, and his hospital bracelet. She breaks down. It doesn’t matter that it was hard for her, she knows that he’s out there. She knows she can see him. And everything changes.
When Joe and Jenny go to drive to see him, just to look at him as he leaves school, they warm up to each other. I am beginning to think that Joe is meant to be with Jenny in every version of himself.
Because these two bring out the best in each other. They challenge each other. It’s not an easy road for either of them. It’s complicated. But they’ve been bonded through so many things in life and they’ve never lost that. They’ve never given each other a chance to make up for their mistakes.
But seeing them wait to see their son, seeing them look at him come out of the school, and the tears roll down their faces, all I want to do is tell them that it will be okay. They have definitely opened Pandora’s box, and that’s probably not the best thing, but I have to wonder if it’s the worst.
They hope that they feel, the knowledge that they have – it’s dangerous. I have a feeling watching them that their whole lives are about to blow up, but I hope more than anything that they don’t blow up their sons.
NURSE JOE
Personally, I love therapy. I think that is the most amazing thing. Therapy is hard, but it’s not a bad thing to be challenged.
Jenny and Joe going to therapy is going to be a process. And of course the first session is shit. Joe thinks it went fine, Jenny says it was horrible. She doesn’t feel like Joe was all the way there, but Joe thinks that half the battle was showing up.
He’s talking to Eric, who ends up telling him about Jenny and how at least she didn’t go to Atlanta.
Oh Eric, you’re a good best friend, but sometimes you need to keep your mouth shut.
Joe is reprimanded at work by Jenny’s Dad, after finding out that he ordered a test that the doctor didn’t approve. It’s a fireable offense, but Joe was right. Diaz has Parkinson’s and it’s now for Joe to tell him.
Before you know it – Jenny and Joe are back in therapy yelling at each other. Joe is pissed he found out about Atlanta from Eric. But Jenny admits that she didn’t want to tell him because telling him felt like she was getting his dream and she wasn’t.
And Joe just wants to know when she started pitying him. That was a hard scene to watch.
Who I feel for is Christopher. Everyone is trying to protect him, but the thing is – he’s observant. He knows that his parents are going to therapy. And this kid just wants his life to be back to normal, with both his parents living with him.
Eric, who doesn’t know how to keep his mouth closed tells Chris how his Dad used to dream of being a musician and then life happened. He’s a kid, but he’s smart. A very smart kid.
When the three of them head out to watch a meteor shower, Christopher asks Joe if he ruined his life basically. He did the math and he knows that Joe gave up his dreams around the time he was born.
Seeing a child ask if they were a mistake is a hard thing to watch. But the way that Joe tells him that dreams change and there are more beautiful dreams happen and Christopher is the most beautiful dream he had that came true.
Joe is meant to love and to be a Dad. He’s meant to be a father to Christopher and meant to love Jenny. Him talking to Jenny and telling her that he wants her dreams to come true and that they all should go to Atlanta – I cheered for him. I cheered for them all.
It doesn’t matter what iteration of Joe it is, I want him to be happy. I want them all to be happy.
And right now, I believe that whatever dreams that any of them are rooting for them – all the versions of Joe, Jenny, Amy, and Eric.
