When we’re talking about friendships, you want a friend who holds you up. A friend who is there for you in the good times and the bad times. A friend who will pick you when you’re down, a friend who will celebrate your wins and your losses. Madison and Jules are those two friends. They are going to want to be there and protect each other.
Today’s the first of their new lives. Todays the first day of their new lives. They are going to pick themselves up by their bootstraps and move forward. Jules has decided to care and Madison has decided to write her own destiny.
They are best friends and they believe in each other.
As they go off in their own directions, Jules has a day that is looking up. She finds $20 on the ground, while Madison in the opposite direction finds a used condom on the ground and gets hit by a robot, cracking her iPad and destroying it. Talk about a sh*t day.
Jules, on the other hand, is having an amazing day. Sure, Izzy is trying to play up their seniority at WOMB and make it known that Jules and her are at the top. But others don’t even realize that they are there. They look at them as if they are old people.
OLD? Please. 30 isn’t old. It’s not even close to old. I wish I was that young. Yet, I see why they are saying that because their boss, can make anyone feel ancient, even though she’s older than all of them.
The thing about Jules is that she doesn’t just want to WOMB to be like it’s been. She’s going to use her new space as the right hand to make sure that the site goes in a good way.
It’s the time of year for the sites beauty guide. They’re going to focus on human body parts and all of the things that are wrong with them and how to fix them. As the right hand, Jules needs to have an idea. And the idea that Jules has was that they should also include inner beauty. Jules is thinking of things that make you feel good. Everyone is confused, but her boss asks for a one sheet.
Jules will have to sample all the products for the issue and make sure up to WOMB standards.
Meanwhile, Stella is at the bank and she’s not happy. She doesn’t belong there, you can see that. It’s stifling her creativity. She is meant to be an entrepreneur and have a big life, but she’s been basing it off what other people think she needs and wants her to do.
The men are slime balls and talk about how she reminds her of a stripper they met. What’s up with the red suit, she’s wearing, they ask? They are a bunch of small minded men who think that she’s wearing it because all chicks are into AOC.
As if I couldn’t love Stella more, she gets up on her chair and shows them that they need to shut the fuck up. And hey, I do agree that with AOC it’s not about the fashion, it’s about her not taking anyones shit.
Madison is still having the worst day ever and has barely moved. Jules is being made over at work when she calls. Izzy walks in the room and has to take a picture of Jules. Jules isn’t the person that likes her picture posted, but she gives Izzy permission. Only nows not the time to post as there is an elephant named Rancoon trapped in a ditch and nows not the time to post.
You don’t post about being happy in the face of global tragedy. It’s been the reason that Izzy hasn’t gone public with her relationship. Or that’s the way that she’s convinced herself that it’s okay not to post.
But Jules doesn’t have much time to think about it because Madison calls. Like a good best friend Jules runs to Madisons side.
The thing that is special about Dollface is that they really explore female friendships and every side to them. They show that they are there in the good times and the bad. This show makes you see that you need to cherish friendships.
Madison is having a complete breakdown. She’s however, not going to give up and she’s not going to cancel her meeting. She’s going to put on a brave face. But sometimes brave faces don’t get the job done. But the thing is that we all have to know what our breaking points are. Madison doesn’t know what hers is or she’s not really willing to allow herself to fail. Though, I don’t think that she realizes that she’s not failing.
Though she’s not the only one. Stella hates her job. Hates it. So at lunch she wanders into a dive bar and it’s one of those chance encounters that will change her life.
We all need those.
Frank Ginatra’s is the sh*tt*est of dive bars, but that’s definitely part of its charm. The owner tells Stella to get her own drink and they end up talking. You can’t help but laugh when they try to size each other up.
Meeting new people can change your life, just like running into people from your past can do the same.
Wes is one of those people that we wish Jules would avoid. Hell, he’s like bad news. But we also know that in life the bad news of our past has a tendency to make an appearance when we least want it to.
Jules is trying to do something good – buy Madison a gift to make her feel better. It’s something that I would do as a best friend. You want to make people feel better when they are having a bad day.
But you know, life has a funny way of working itself out and so it decides that Jules needs to run into Wes. Ugh. He’s there buying stuff to help his now ex move out. Where we can understand Jules excitement to see someone she cares about, we’re wondering where Cat Lady is to wave a big red flag. Wes spews some lines that Jules falls for. Lord, has a bad day made her oblivious to the world around her.
Even though Jules is having a good day, leave it to her to think about others first. She’s concerned about Madison, which doesn’t make Madison feel any better. Jules has a habit of putting everyone before her – which isn’t always the worst thing. But when you’re supposed to be celebrating yourself, you need to do just that.
Jules wants to cancel dinner, which Madison sees her try to do on her iPad. But it’s not something Madison will allow, which makes her an even better friend than I thought that she was. She wants to have dinner with her friends to celebrate Jules.
The issue is, Madison is horrible at faking happiness, which I find shocking for a PR person. Every PR person that I know is skilled at lying, faking, and deceiving. No offense meant to all the PR people I know (and yes, I am aware that it still can be offensive that way).
What is hard to watch is that even when Jules arrives at dinner, she’s still downplaying her life in order to lift Madison up. I don’t think that it is a healthy way to be. Sure, I do believe that putting things aside to be there for friends is a part of life. But I also believe in not downplaying successes.
And I also believe that downplaying successes isn’t something that we should do. Jules feels bad that her self worth is rising while Madison’s is bottoming out. She wants to quit celebrating herself.
And that’s the saddest part about Jules to me. She doesn’t seem to ever recognize her own self worth. It’s hard to see someone like that, but also it’s something that we all do and maybe that’s the hardest part, is that we recognize things like this in ourselves.
The beauty of friendships though is that you can see what people need and find a way to make things better for everyone. You don’t take away joy, you find a way to bring happiness through pain, you don’t put others down to bring each other up. Friendship is complicated. It’s unnerving at times. But that’s okay.
Friendship makes us all grow.
Stella is the friend who can always take control and make people see things a different way. She knows where they need to go. Back at Frank Ginatra’s.
Remember how I said that new places can change lives? This place was it for her. She didn’t realize it, she just felt instantly comfortable there.
Madison is able to embrace her bad day, not smiling, not happy. She’s able to drink and just deal. Of course the old Santa looking man tells her that she would be prettier if she smiled, and her friends go off.
I can appreciate the fact that this show addresses how a woman doesn’t need to smile for anyone but herself. I also appreciate Stella’s sarcasm so keep at it.
I don’t know why you quit your job at the North Pole to get a meth problem, but hey. Somethings are hard to understand.
That may be my favorite thing ever.
The best lessons that we can learn from this episode is that honesty among friends is a good thing. It’s an important thing. But also, celebrating our successes and good days are just as important as being there through the bad ones.
Madison reminds Jules that telling her about her good days isn’t a bad thing. If anything it makes her bad days better.
Judgement is a scary thing. We all like in fear of it even if we don’t think that we do. Even when Rancoon is freed and it is “ok” for Izzy to post about her relationship, she’s afraid to because of judgement.
We are all that way. We live in a world where we fear the masses of people that don’t know us, because our self worth can take a hit from a random comment from people that don’t know anything about us.
It’s a crazy thing.
Izzy is often underrated, but the thing is she’s got a raw honesty that few have. She see’s the world through a different light and that’s part of what makes her special. She is so innocent and yet so full of hope and has the child like eyes of seeing things.
The bar may be empty, but this excites Izzy. She can channel surf and watch the things she wants. Drag Race, Bravo, etc.
And this sparks an idea in Stella to suggest to Liv (the bar owner) to redo the bar. Renovate it for women. That Bravo and Rose on tap, a bar dedicated to women and what they want; their safe space, would do well.
Liv is like this would really piss off my Dad. She says fuck it, lets do it.
This writer can’t wait to see how it all works out.
OTHER THOUGHTS
- Wes hitting the robot and his ex breaking her arm in the crash – though I don’t wish that on her, I am hoping karma slaps him in the face.
- Madison getting rejected by her client, I feel bad for. But also, she’s strong and however she picks herself up will be epic.
- Can’t wait to see Frank Ginatra’s be renovated
- I really had the urge to go to the container store after this.
Season 2 of Dollface is streaming now on Netflix.