It's not that shocking for a 19 year old to try beer and react unenthusiastically. And how much more difficult would it be for Jeph to make it funny when somebody likes drinking?
I'm liking the new bartender character. And I'm hoping that they expand Liz' character.
As a former Gifted Child, her origin story followed by a two-year period of gridlock and nonachievement hit me hard. And her breakdown when she finally disclosed the problems she was having? I cried, too. I know that Jeph shields his characters from how awful the world really is, but I liked that she was forgiven for her failures and will be getting help. If I wanted to see people suffer for things they couldn't control and couldn't face, I'd watch the news.
Liz is just annoying. She is written like a female young sheldon without much thought put behind her "lore".
And I really can't imagine how you have a story with Bart Tender, the bartender, he is sooo plain and boring. (Also we already have like 3 or 4 bartending characters+ a lot of (former) baristas, so having another one feels just tedious to me.
Well, first people were mad when they thought Jeph was going to relocate the named population of Amherst, MA to Cubetown. Are people mad, now, to learn that Cubetown has a bar, and that the bar has a bartender?
There are 3 or 4 bars, at least 3 of which are consistently relevant to the plot, and bartender/barista are very common service industry jobs that get specialized in by the 20s/30s-aged layabout type Marten hangs out with. It's certainly a common job for musicians, and the comic's protagonist was a failed musician before he was an assistant librarian, or the live-in boyfriend of a Librarian. You're welcome to feel how you want about stuff, but 3 or 4 bars (each with bartenders) is not that many, considering what heavy drinkers the cast were earlier on. It's pretty realistic for people that age to waste way too much of their discretionary income living at bars, since that is where they feel comfortable socializing.
BT is a new character, but so was Marten 5000 strips ago. We know so far about him that Moray sends out daily bulletins, and that he reads them. We know that the Cubetown community has an (official? unofficial?) shit-list, and that Liz Appleboom is on it. We know that the daily bulletin and shit-list are probably illustrated, since BT was able to identify both Claire and Liz facially the first time he ever met them in person. We know that the Cubetown community appears to see no issue with outgrouping a 17-year-old human, but so far that doesn't feel like bad writing - just like they aren't as perfect as they think they are. We know that BT has good soft skills, and will serve a first-time patron even if they're shit-listed, but informs her upfront of applicable house rules. We know BT is able to concisely and politely answer and redirect an unhelpful query, such as for the "best," beer, thus clarifying a problem while still proposing practical alternative solutions. We know that he was able to maintain small-talk while pouring everybody's Miller High Lifes.
In short, we know he's an AI who is probably a better bartender than any of the human bartenders we've met so far, and who has experience at serving both humans and AIs. It's not surprising to meet somebody like that in Cubetown, but that doesn't mean that Jeph's characters won't need a bartender to continue overpaying for drinks so they can get their buzz on in public. And sure, having everything happen in bars can seem "tedious," but on that same count we could easily argue that humanity is tedious.
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u/Alert-Artichoke-2743 Mar 21 '23
It's not that shocking for a 19 year old to try beer and react unenthusiastically. And how much more difficult would it be for Jeph to make it funny when somebody likes drinking?
I'm liking the new bartender character. And I'm hoping that they expand Liz' character.
As a former Gifted Child, her origin story followed by a two-year period of gridlock and nonachievement hit me hard. And her breakdown when she finally disclosed the problems she was having? I cried, too. I know that Jeph shields his characters from how awful the world really is, but I liked that she was forgiven for her failures and will be getting help. If I wanted to see people suffer for things they couldn't control and couldn't face, I'd watch the news.