Kenneth was great in this one — from introducing JJ to some of the pleasures and privileges of adulthood to calling him out for lashing out at his parents (who only wanted to keep up his birthday tradition) — and while JJ’s anger and disappointment are certainly understandable, I’m glad he came around to showing his…

I went into this episode with pretty mixed feelings about the homeschooling plot, as I felt that Maya home-schooling JJ at this point would be going against his ongoing pursuit of independence from her — so I’m glad both characters realized that by the end.

I guess we’ll find out what the deal is in next week’s episode (2x13, “D-I—DiMeo A-C—Academy”), which is also supposed to be about Maya trying to homeschool JJ after a “dust-up” with the high school. :\

If ‘Speechless’ gets to a point where JJ goes away to college, I hope very much that ‘The Middle’ would be its model — I thought it did an excellent job of giving Axl and Sue their own plots and storylines at college while still keeping up with their parents and brother at home. :)

Good comparison; also, I recall in “M-A-Y—May-Jay” (1x22) that when Ray briefly became the faster runner of the two, Dylan felt her identity threatened and tried to become the “smart one.” xD

I seem to recall in the s.1 Prom episode, JJ’s new friend Caroline being very self-conscious about her height and sick of people’s stares / jokes; here, I imagine the writers were trying to tap into the male flipside of that by having Jimmy feel insecure about often being overlooked / unnoticed and unheard, and having…

I really enjoyed it. I’m glad they brought back the spontaneous “annual DiMeo road trip” without totally rehashing the s.1 road-trip episode (1x11); if anything, this ep reminded me more of the Prom ep (1x21), with the main characters grouped into the three adults and the three kids (and one of the groups taking part…

One of my faves. :)

Ooh. YouTube comments liken it to the Smiths and the Cure, but it actually reminds me of the Jayhawks (especially “I’d Run Away”) or something like that.

I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it reminded me of — a cross between Matthew Sweet’s “Sick of Myself” and Third Eye Blind’s “Never Let You Go” was the closest I could come up with —but I think you nailed it. :D

I could see that! :) I liked what I saw of her as Danny’s mom on ‘The Mindy Project’ (I saw all the FOX episodes, but none after the s.4 premiere on Hulu).

Myself and at least a couple other people have been using the ‘Modern Family’ comments to discuss ‘Speechless’; and I’ve occasionally seen some discussion on ‘The Middle’ and ‘Fresh Off the Boat’ too. :)

I thought it was fun. :) I’m already impressed with the addition of the service dog (Pepper); how fitting that the DiMeos ended up with one that had been kicked out of his training program (which may explain why they were able to get him so quickly) for not always following directions.

While the introduction of the dog left me puzzled (as to how the family will be able to afford it, how long Maya will be able to handle the responsibility, how long they’ll be able to get away with violating the lease on their house like this, etc.), I found this episode much better than s.1's Christmas one, and one…

I thought it was a beautiful moment in itself — I would’ve been perfectly satisfied with that ending even without the surprise dog reveal afterwards — but I love the fact that they’re doubling down on the filmmaking thing with JJ (he’s already signed up for a Film class at his high school). I’d love to see him and his…

Yeah, I’m not big on SW, but there were some sweet moments (Kevin Smith getting Ray and Logan some swag and getting them into the screening, JJ’s stairs / ramp bit with BB-8, Ray taking JJ to the restroom), and I though Ray/Logan were a fun pair; still, I felt like JJ admitting he’s been missing Ray since his little…

I think I may have said this before, but I hope it at least lasts long enough to see JJ through a year of college (or film school, given the turn last night’s story took :) ). Ideally, I’d love for it to last long enough to see how Jimmy and especially Maya fare as “empty-nesters.”

Considering JJ is technically still a minor (if he was 16 in the pilot, he’s got to be 17 by now), I wondered how he was apparently able to answer an open casting-call without getting his parents’ permission. :\ But yeah, it was good to see him discover a passion (I loved the scene where he got to operate a camera),…

Dunno... I think they might want to try something different than the camp thing again — at least, not one that lasts the whole summer — especially if JJ ends up getting to go to college after this school year. (Rather than the family spending their whole vacation fund on just him for a second year in a row, I think it…

I thought it was an improvement over s.1's Thanksgiving episode, in terms of how it was able to make room for multiple guest stars while still exploring the main characters and their dynamics. :) Bit of a bummer that Uncle Billy’s wife and kids have since left him, but it was nice to see more of his relationship with…