Andi Mack: Season 1/ Episode 7 “Dad Influence” – Overview/ Review (with Spoilers)

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Bowie is firmly introduced and well, let’s just say that *fingers crossed* he can grow on us.

To Our Graves: Jonah, Cyrus, Buffy

As Andi spends the day with Bowie, Cyrus and Buffy are trying to figure out what is Jonah’s next move after breaking up with Amber? Well, it seems to just be single since he was so recently hurt. However, thanks to Cyrus reminding Jonah that he is Jonah Beck, he decides to that perhaps another round with Amber is called for. Which, upon hearing, Buffy swears to Cyrus to keep what he did, and she pushed for, to be a secret between them.

Commentary

I really wish they pushed this storyline back an episode. If only because Jonah breaking up with Amber is the type of thing you would want to see more of. Especially since this episode, multiple times, has it where a guy is being kind of vulnerable and it would have been interesting to see that side of Jonah. Not the sort of heartthrob but the guy who got cheated on and is kind of lost on what to do. Maybe even avoiding said feelings because he doesn’t know what to do with them.

That is, rather than what we get which basically is just rushed ditty so that Cyrus and Buffy could have screen time. For, really, this whole Amber thing coming back around in the same episode, it made me roll my eyes. Especially since they broke up and got back together within 24 hours. But, hey, in a way that is very authentic for just as the rumors begin that two people broke up, guess who is back in each other’s arms?

The Unpredictable Bowie: Andi, Bex, Bowie

With the discovery of having a kid, when he was perhaps just there to see Bex, so comes a father/ daughter day. One which allows Andi to get to know her dad and see why Bex was so taken with him. For never mind the fact he cares about his carbon footprint, but he is uninhibited, whimsical, and charmingly goofy. However, he also works as a drummer and sometimes guitarist and tours. Meaning, originally, he was only going to have one day with Andi. Yet, so it seems, like Bex, he is ready and willing to reorganize his life in order to spend more time with his daughter.

Commentary

Bowie to me is a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, we have that usual, weird dad who has talents, and some non-traditional intelligence, but the general way he talks and acts is annoying. Like his whole, “Let’s make like a check and bounce” saying, among the many others. Yet, in that moment when he asks “Am I what you were hoping for?” I started to feel bad for the guy. For never mind, as Andi notes, he probably just showed up to see Bex, but now he has a kid. He, with his current lifestyle, wasn’t prepared for her existence and now he has to be responsible. Not just in terms of being there, or at least accessible, but living up to these expectations that, between Ham, and her own imagination, she has built up.

Which is what makes him a bit of a mixed bag for me. On one hand, you can see he isn’t always this weird, goofy, hippie type, yet I feel that serious manner isn’t part of his core and will be rarely seen. Perhaps making him the first character on this show who is, without a doubt, struggling between traditional Disney and this new and progressive age [note]Traditional Disney, though perhaps this is the trope of sitcoms in general, being the father as the comic relief while the mom is the serious one. That is in comparison to what I think Girl Meets World and this show are doing in which they are trying to show the dad’s goofy side is just that, one side to a complex being. A being who is 30, 40, or more and wants to be silly with his kids because his job doesn’t afford him to do that. Plus, his kids remind him of why he works so hard.[/note].

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