Did anyone watch this weeks The Slap?

[katkitya]

Did you think it was abit slow?

I'm not sure I know any over-seventy year olds that are NOT racist. I know lots that pretend not to be, but very few that are truly not racist. I had an allotment in North London and it was like a battleground. Whenever there was a disagreement it all came out - the english hated the greeks, the greeks hated the turks, the turks hated the west indians. The chinese didn't hate anyone though. They really put the older generation to shame.

I think you need to look at it from the individual's view here. To a Greek mama, taking food to an event and having it whisked away to the back kitchen is hugely offensive. To not attend your godfather's funeral with your wife is the same. There's a lot of disrespect going on on all sides, whether racist, classist, ageist, sexist. In the end everyone does do a fair amount of compromising as well though.

Actually is the one character who doesn't appear to compromise at all.

Interesting that she was all over her Greek grandchildren but I don't remember her interacting with Aisha and Hector's at the barbecue.

Dinkum I think the great acting (which goes for all the characters IMO) is down to the director. It's a great skill getting the best out of an actor - I think he must have used a bit of the Mike Leigh school of directing here. Get some great characters and let them improvise, and then edit, edit, edit.

"To a Greek mama, taking food to an event and having it whisked away to the back kitchen is hugely offensive. To not attend your godfather's funeral with your wife is the same"

But surely Aisha didn´t do these things to offend-she´s neither Greek nor in Greece!

I'm not sure about that, when you marry into a culture where family comes first and tradition is everything you would make an effort. My friend is more Italian than her husband and embraces their values. I think you have to. I can't imagine turning down a free family holiday to Greece but, they haven't embraced her exactly, have they? I guess we are yet to find out the real reasons. Is it abit of both from each side? I can't wait to see what comes out.

I´m sure it is "both sided".

The other thing-doesn´t seem to me that Hector makes that much of an effort either?

Or goes along to keep the peace, not because it´s important to him?

I could easily turn down a free holiday to Greece if it was with people I didn´t want to spend time with.

Also-H& A had already booked a holiday for then & the parents knew that(?)

Ah but Hector and Aisha are young - it may be the last holiday that Manolis and Koula have and from their view it would be seen as a generous offer to participate in a significant life event. I think i would go along with it, make sure I booked my own accommodation and made the most of it.

What I find interesting is that Aisha's family are not mentioned. She must have a family somewhere too. It's always fraught with complication when a woman marries into a strong traditional family that dominates her own culture. I've been there and it's almost impossible not to offend somebody. As time goes on you develop your own family traditions but it's a bit of struggle reaching a point where you can be comfortably assertive about them and gain the respect of the old folks at the same time. This seems to be what Aisha and Hector are going through. Hector kindly respects Aisha's wishes but can't do it without disrespecting his own family.

I think they all need to lighten up a little.

It wouldn´t be a holiday though-it would be being forced to meet relatives that you don´t know & have no interest from a village that the parents lefft x years ago & haven´t kept in contact with.

It´s the hypocrasy as someone said previously.

The funeral-it was a guy they hadn´t seen for thirty years, but the expected Hector´s family to be there rather than them lose face.

Thats perfectly normal in those circles though. I dont think its anything to spit your dummy out over (not you personally, Aisha). My friend has just been to the states because it was an Iranian uncles 50th wedding anniversary who she had never met. There were 90 relatives she didnt know, they partied every night. She never complained, was just glad to go to LA.

Its true we dont know Aishas background at all. Thats whats going to be interesting, I think.

But wasn´t it also because her & Hector already had a holiday booked & it was assumed that they would cancel that & go to Greece?

Not just that she didn´t want to go.

I dont think that was ever really clear. Did they not already know about the Greece holiday when they booked theirs? You can cancel if its well in advance.

That was the very first thing that happened, when Manolis and Koula announced the Greece holiday Aisha said it was 2 days after (or before) the special holiday they had booked together in Bali, so she couldn't take any more time off work. Sounded to me as though that holiday was intended to be really special, a bit of a make or break thing to them, I assumed that was because of Hector and his infidelities or similar, but maybe not, remember at the BBQ he was really going for Connie, that only changed after the slap, I assumed he had a track record for it.

So I think Koula and Manolis already knew about the Bali holiday and had no intention of letting it happen, clearly Aisha is not deemed good enough for their precious son. Who, after seeming like a complete shit at first is becoming one of the characters I am more sympathetic to. I love all the twists and turns, Harry has also been made more easy to sympathise with now, but remember he is unfaithful, takes drugs, is physically rough with both wife and lover, treats his employees like shit and lets this all play out in front of his child.

I am still puzzled a little bit by the Anouk episode, it was interesting in it's own right, and clarified that there was a strong and long-standing bond between the three women but she really has't been central to the storylines like the other characters we have followed.

And yet, I was really drawn to Anouk. I liked her from start to finish. Ive missed her and I hope she comes into the next two.

I don't think Harry's more easy to sympathise with AT ALL. Since his episode we've seen him admit to character destroying Rosie at the trial (he knew his lawyer was going to mention the PND incident when Rosie drove off leaving her baby home alone). That had absolutely nothing to do with what happened on the day of the barbecue and was clearly designed to discredit the mother and by extension her child in the judge's eyes.

He also had a go at Hector for being under his wife's thumb and showed his underlying contempt for him.

But yes he was all dutiful in church showing up the funeral and kissing the suitable icons.

Anouk gave Hector drugs for his birthday and they both took it. It's another example of minor acts of hypocrisy and disloyalty (as was the smoking behind Aisha's back). Interesting that Aisha gets a lot of sympathy. I think she is the one I can identify with the most, but I can't say she is perfect either - she seems to be very passive on the surface but is very disrespectful of Hector and his family. There was also a very quick change of heart when she announced to Rosie that she wouldn't appear in court after firing her up to take action.

And I didn't like Anouk because of the way she treated her toyboy about the pregnancy, not discussing it with him at all. She was not aware of how big a part she was in his life and how devastated he would be. But as I said they're all fallible, as are we. If I were a character in this book I dread to think of the tone of the ensuing conversation on MN!

And Harry... I don't like him at all but there's nothing he's done that I find particularly worse than any of the others. He slapped the kid (bad, but the emotionally abusive Rosie's husband is just as bad IMO). Kid wasn't damaged and possibly learnt a lesson he would never learn from his parents - that getting your own way isn't always tolerated. He has another woman (bad, but he gives her money and she's happy with the arrangement, however distasteful it seems to an outsider, she's not oppressed or abused). And on the other hand he works hard and is a 'good' son to his parents. But I would agree that Harry gets the lowest grade in the moral score.

Regarding the holiday, I think she had booked time off, but not booked the flights. So they couldn't do both holidays, but the tickets were only bought for the Greek one.

The Greek holiday was a once in a lifetime trip with ageing Dad for him to go home and reminisce, show his grandchildren off etc etc. They had talked about it previously as well. I didn't see it as an act of sabotage. I think the mistake they were making was to assume Aisha and Hector would want to go and there's a naive innocence in that which I find charming rather than vindictive.

IIRC from the book, Aisha is at a conference in Singapore (work related) and she and Hector arranged to have a holiday in Bali immediately afterwards. So the timing of the Bali holiday is outside of her control.

Really looking forward to tonight's episode - the Aisha chapter in the book is brilliant!

Yes I can't wait. I do wonder what Aisha's really like. She hasn't given much away so far, other than that she's a bit of a people pleaser - apart from the holiday - I am waiting for her to change her mind about that now.

Oh, I wont have time to watch it until next week!! I never had her down as a people pleaser to be honest.

I thought this was very underplayed and not how I remembered it in the book. I read it a long time ago but I'm sure Aisha was much more up for it at the conference and a big thing was made about how beautiful both she and her suitor were as if it was only right that two such creatures should mate. They also took drugs and got completely s* faced dancing before sex. Whereas in the tv it was kind of dreamy and not entirely clear that she had been unfaithful.

After being the "good" character it was a surprise to see her being so hypocritical about telling Hector she didn't want to know of his affair and then unburdening her "secret" about Harry unto Rosie.

My 26 year old looked up from her laptop when it was on (near the start) and asked what had happened to the woman as she looked so totally broken.

Still loving this though - only it and misfits are my required viewing. Very sad next week is the last one.

pretend you don't find Harry's physical abuse of his wife in front of their son worse than what the others have done?

Is the last episode about another individual character or is it a general one to tie up all the loose ends?

I thought the scenes with Aisha and the lover lacked a bit of sizzle factor, they could have made more of that, shown Aisha really let her hair down (I haven't read the book, so it was interesting to hear your thoughts on that Javo).

It was good to see Harry look so crestfallen when she confronted him, so far he has not shown much remorse for any of his bad behaviour.

You thought he looked crestfallen? When he thought she was talking about the trial he told her to get a life but she was she told him it was about Sandy the look he shot her was full of hate not remorse.