3x06 University

A very strange episode. The stuff with Meadow and Noah and Caitlin felt like a high class version of Dawson's Creek. No one involved in the story was the strongest actor, and the stock material didn't do much to help the actors out. The whole thing was a bit rushed and felt like it was chasing its own tail for a while there.

Then the story with Ralphie and Tracee not only seems like it comes out of nowhere, but feels like something pulled out of a Lifetime movie. You do get to see what an asshole Ralphie is, or at least it's cemented on top of his prior assholery, but there doesn't seem to be much point to it than a chance to underline that already pretty clear character trait and provide a further wedge to drive between Ralphie and Tony over the capo issue. You can see Tony's heart strings being pulled a bit, which I suppose helps to humanize him, but I don't know. Something about it didn't really work for me.

You can kind of sew the two stories together thematically - a pair of woman in a new-ish environment in over their heads and the different reactions and responses to their struggles and, in Tracee's case, abuse. But it didn't really launch for me beyond further setting up that Ralphie's a prick and Tony feels bad for young, innocent kids who get caught up in the gears of the machine he's running.