#doafp asks

It looks like S2 will be great. I was impressed by how little evidence of covid restrictions there were; that will definitely help the series age well. I thought it was likely that Sam would move in and I’m excited to see how that plays out. The mother-daughter growing apart angst is going to be brutal to watch but there's a lot the writers can do with it. Interesting that they’re focusing so much on Melissa’s redemption right off the bat and that they’re also introducing a school play story line. I’m withholding judgement on the use of Gina Rodriguez as Elena’s conscience but it does make sense to increase her role since she’s by far the most famous cast member.

I was very pleasantly surprised that the trailer focused so much on Bobby’s story line. The biggest shock was that they included a brief shot of Bobby and CJ smiling at each other in the high school hallway. I’ve thought that CJ is a likely choice to be Bobby’s real love interest ever since it became clear last fall that Donovin Miller had joined the cast. He’s the right age, non-white, and only shows up in 2x06 which is very late but makes sense if CJ and his role in Bobby’s story line is subject to Disney restrictions that straight characters don’t have to worry about. It’s interesting that CJ is featured in the part of the trailer where Elena talks about being there for others and lifting them up, it strongly suggests that CJ will be a positive influence on Bobby. A lot of the Bobby clips look pretty angsty and with CJ only first appearing in 2x06 I’ve speculated that there could be a shift in Bobby’s story line then or an old one wraps up and CJ helps launch a new one. 

That scene of Bobby walking at night with Liam is almost certainly Bobby coming out to Liam in 2x10, a scene which Brandon has been hyping up for a while. Nathan was also on set that night but perhaps he leaves earlier or joins later. There’s also the possibility that Bobby comes out to Danny earlier but it’s hard to tell which ep that could be since Danny is in every ep except 2x09 this season. Of course, it could also be a misdirect and Bobby decides he’s not ready to tell him yet. I’m shocked that Danny somehow found out that Bobby had a crush, on what he thinks was a girl, back in 7th grade. I can’t wait to see how that comes up, did Bobby let something slip or were they talking about Monyca? Also I think that Bobby on the blue couch is him talking to Cami about struggling to come out which I’m sure will be well done. I’d love to see Cami coming out to her own parents but I really don’t know if Disney will allow that when it looks like the writers already have quite a bit packed in to Bobby’s coming out arc. 

We’ll also go a long way to finding out whether Brandon has been hyping Cartero because he has been explicitly told that Liam is meant to be bisexual regardless of whether Disney ever allows it or whether he’s been projecting his own bisexuality onto Liam without any basis in reality. That being said, I don’t think we’ll actually get canon Cobby or Cartero this season and any canon relationship for Bobby would only come in the 3rd season if they’re lucky enough to get one. Back in the fall Ilana liked a tweet that said writers should normalize interracial relationships that don’t involve a white person and I think she’s applying that to Bobby’s story line and that we can rule out his love interest being white. It’s a bold move for a Disney show since even most of their straight interracial relationships involve one white person. Not to mention Disney has a poor track record of how they treat their black male characters, something Doafp seems determined to improve on. 

There’s also the unfortunate fact that there will be limits on what Disney allows but I’m confident that the show will make history with Bobby coming out to his family and friends by season’s end. There will be a price to pay for all this lgbtq rep and I think the show being released all at once which will likely doom any hopes of S3 is part of that. Disney did something similar with The Owl House which is the only Disney show to surpass Doafp’s level of lgbtq rep, the show was cancelled and the 3rd season will consist of only three 44 minutes eps (if you haven’t watched The Owl House yet you should, it’s a hoot). 

The trailer seems to confirm what was evident from the cast’s social media posts while filming, that Ziggy only has a very small role and is largely absent. Presumably he goes to another high school but it’s gonna be hard to reintegrate him back into the show if they get a S3 and he’s the only one who wasn’t around for Bobby’s coming out arc. We saw Tony Espinoza’s character on stage with Elena during the student rep speeches so he’s connected to that story in some fashion. Brogan Hall’s character Tripp is absent from the trailer but we know he’s in 5 eps, most in the first 6 eps of the season and he seems to be Elena’s main opponent in the student rep race. Also not much of Jessica and nothing of Joey. 

I’m curious to see how all these story lines fit into only 10 eps especially when so many of the recurring characters are in so many of the eps: Liam and Sasha are both in all 10 eps, Danny in 9, even Melissa is in 7 eps this season. Some story lines and characters will probably fall through the cracks. We know Ilana directed 2x09 so we’ll see if that’s a special ep. Fwiw Charlie on twitter said that his favourite eps were 2x03, 2x05, 2x07, and 2x09, presumably some of those eps focus on Bobby coming out to Cami and his family at least. 

Yes it's the previous post under my doafp tag. I have no problem with people sharing my posts so long as I'm properly credited both because it's scummy to take credit for someone else's work and because providing proper sources allows people to do their own follow up research.

I think that doafp very likely is returning on August 20th as the Disney Italy site actually edited their original summer releases article to remove most of the shows they listed just a few hours after I made my post; clearly they weren't supposed to reveal all those premiere dates. The Italian site also leaked the premiere date for Marvel's What If series which is scheduled for August 6th which is the same date that Disney UK also leaked which makes it more likely that both sites were given the same list of summer premieres.

The show not returning until August certainly isn’t good news. Most concerning for me personally is that as Tess and Brandon revealed on a live a while back, doafp S2 was originally set to premiere April 28th. It must have been a pretty solid date if the cast had been informed and it’s not a good sign that Disney decided to push it back four months. I also didn’t like that Disney didn’t include doafp in its Summer of Disney + post (though they also didn’t include Marvel’s What If series). 

If the show does return on August 20th then 2x10 would air October 22nd. We got the S2 renewal about two months after S1 ended so if Disney follows the same pattern they wouldn’t announce a possible S3 renewal until around the end of 2021 or the beginning of 2022. In an interview the Mighty Ducks: Game Changers showrunner said that Disney told him they were only making a renewal decision after the season was over so they had time to analyze their various metrics. And that’s for a show that was very popular and had a ready built fanbase thanks to the Mighty Ducks movies. Diary was never properly advertised but it did manage to find a decent sized audience however, I wonder how many people have forgotten about the show or assumed it was cancelled, or won’t know that S2 is airing if Disney doesn’t promote doafp. 

Not much in the way of big new updates which is surprising since S2 is only a week away. There's actually an old update that I only just noticed now, the actor who plays Davis the racist white tennis guy from the rival team who made fun of the accent on Cañero is in eps 2x01 and 2x06. I hadn't noticed because I didn't recognize the actor. I don’t think his character will be super important but it is interesting that Davis’ last appearance is in 2x06 which is CJ’s first appearance. There’s a good chance that Davis will say something, probably racist, to Bobby or CJ and I could see Bobby standing up for CJ or vice versa and that’s their first big interaction ( I could definitely see Davis making fun of CJ’s afro but we’ll see). 

The actor who plays Craig, Sam and Gabi’s married gay co-worker had updated his imdb a while back and he’s only in 2x07 this season. Dr. Cooper’s actor just updated his imdb and he’s in eps 2x01, 2x07, and 2x10. There’s a character named Adrienne who I think was one of Elena’s classmates in S1 who’s in eps 2x02, 2x05, 2x09, and 2x10. Another classmate named Flip is in eps 2x02, 2x05, and 2x06. A brand new character named Clara is in eps 2x04, 2x06, and 2x10. A new character named Hannah is only in ep 2x01. There’s a freshman girl character credited for 2x05, maybe a girl one of Bobby’s crew talks with in the background or something since she doesn’t get a name. Most of the mains and major recurring characters haven’t updated yet though so we might not know how many eps Cami or Jessica or Joey are in until the season is out. 

It doesn't seem like a good sign to me anon. Doafp was never that popular and last aired March 2020, I’m skeptical that moving S2 from April to August 2021 and then dumping all 10 eps at once will actually do much to increase views. I’m sure the first few days will see a big spike in viewership but then it will quickly drop which is a well known pattern for all but the most popular Netflix shows (and Disney would also know this from owning Hulu). I don’t care if Disney wants to experiment but this could easily be setting up Doafp for failure and a quiet cancellation.

I saw on Disinsider that Disney is considering releasing S2 of Big Shot all at once as it didn't perform as well weekly as they'd hoped (they're also planning to cut the ep order and do more general advertising as well as focusing on twitter hashtags for the main characters). If it works then great but if the problem is advertising then that can easily be fixed regardless of how the shows are released and can more consistently be done on a week to week basis. I hope Disney does properly advertise Doafp S2 but so far they haven’t even bothered to set up an instagram account for the show, forcing the cast and crew to rely on a fan made account. 

Dumping eps all at once can have its advantages but it’s been known for years that the Netflix model relies on constantly churning out shows, most of which are quickly forgotten. That’s why Disney + decided to go with weekly releases; both to distinguish the platform from Netflix and because weekly releases increase customer subscriptions and create more buzz which in turn draws in more viewers. Imagine if shows like the Mandalorian, Wandavision, Loki, HSMTMTS, and Secrets of Sulphur Springs had been released all at once, how many of them would have actually become hits?

Not really, all that’s new is some imdb info and something Brandon Severs has let slip about 2x10. Brandon was answering some questions on twitter recently and said that his favourite ep of S2 was the finale, specifically the end of the finale. He had previously posted photos of him, Charlie, and Nathan filming a night during the final week of filming and Brandon had mentioned that the scene they filmed that night was one of his favourites of the whole series (fwiw Ilana liked that tweet). There’s been a long running theory/gag on twitter that there would be a cartero confession on the tennis courts at night in S2 and someone tweeted about Brandon telling the writers about that theory. Brandon replied to that tweet saying that he was pretty sure it was him, Charlie, and Nathan who did that after they shot a scene. Later he clarified that he didn’t say anything would or would not happen and people shouldn’t go canonizing things. I think that night time scene near the end of the S2 finale is actually Bobby telling Liam and Danny that he’s gay which would be a great end to Bobby’s arc in S2.

This suggests that Bobby doesn’t have to come out to people one at a time which will help the show cover more ground. I do think that Bobby also comes out to Elena and Gabi (and most likely Sam along with them) at some point in S2 but when is anyone’s guess. Whether Disney will require big gaps between coming outs or not is still unknown. We also have no insight on what Cami’s arc is. She and Dani will most likely provide some sort of guidance to Bobby but whether the writers can fit in Cami coming out to her parents in S2 or have to save that for a potential S3 is unknown. 

There are some interesting imdb updates, anyone can update imdb but since the doafp fandom is so small I think these updates are probably legit. Brogan Hall who plays Tripp is in eps 2x01,2x02, 2x04, 2x06, and 2x10. He seems to be Elena’s opponent in the school council elections. The drop off in his appearances in the latter half of S2 is something I’ve flagged before as a sign that there’s some sort of shift in Elena’s story line and a partial answer has been provided by Sanai Victoria whose imdb has Melissa in eps 2x01, 2x04, and 2x06-2x10. We know from set photos from 2x10 that Melissa is wearing an Elena for student council president button so they must be on good terms by then. So Elena’s school plot is probably running for student council president and campaigning against Tripp, maybe ending with a debate in 2x06, then spending the latter half of the season trying to come to terms with Melissa which eventually leads to them being on good terms and Elena presumably winning the election in the finale. 

Well anon I’ve never thought Liam was meant to like Bobby back. There are no signs of it in the writing or acting and the school dance with Liam slow dancing with Jada and refusing to leave as Bobby desperately tries to make Liam leave with him was a pretty clear message imo that Liam is straight. Given that there’s only been one bisexual Disney character so far on an animated show about witches I’m not holding my breath for bi Liam.

The fact that Donovin’s character shows up around the halfway mark of the season is very interesting. It doesn’t so much matter if his first appearance is ep 4 or 5 or 6 because who knows what order they’re filming the eps in but introducing a character later on when you only have 10 eps a season doesn’t leave you room to do much with him. That would fit with a potential love interest for Bobby since it’s unlikely they’d be able to do much with him until S3. In S1 all of the recurring kid characters were introduced in eps 1 & 2, even minor adult recurring characters like Dr. Cooper and Joy were introduced in eps 3 & 4 respectively (imagine how different Bobby’s S1 story line would have been if Liam or Monyca only showed up in 1x05). Another new character Tripp, who seems to be connected to Elena’s story line is in at least a couple of the eps in the first half of S2, they didn’t wait to bring him on. 

The writers have decided that introducing a new character with some sort of connection to Bobby is worth spending some of the limited time the show has which is noteworthy. Every line Donovin’s character has is necessarily a line less for other characters in Bobby’s orbit like Liam, Ziggy, or Danny. Donovin’s also the right age to play a potential love interest for Bobby. With Ilana liking that tweet about normalizing interracial relationships that don’t involve a white person I think we can rule out any white dudes being Bobby’s love interest. Especially since there’s no way the show would permanently break up Gabi and Sam or Cami and Dani and it doesn’t seem likely that Elena’s plot will focus too heavily on boys. 

It’s only something to worry about if doafp gets a S3 and if Head of the Class gets a series order. If both occur then yes there’s a possibility he won’t be in doafp S3. When HBO max ordered the Head of the Class pilot last year they also ordered an additional 5 scripts, which could mean a quicker turnaround time if they decide to give it a series order. Doafp S2 just wrapped so it’s likely to be at least a couple months before it premieres which probably means we’re looking at the show returning in the spring. S1 finished March 20th 2020 and it was renewed for a 2nd series on May 29th 2020 so if they followed that pattern we could expect a S3 renewal to come in summer with filming likely occurring in the fall. Of course, if things go really well Disney + could renew it sooner which would speed everything up. 

Head of the Class is a half hour multi-cam show so the pilot won’t take very long to film. A lot of pilots never get picked up but since HBO max also ordered 5 additional scripts I think a series order is more likely than not. Then it becomes a matter of when they order it and when production begins and for how many eps. Production for Doafp S3 and Hotc S1could easily overlap sometime in the 2nd half of 2021 and if they do overlap then Brandon’s series regular contract with HBO max takes precedence. A somewhat similar situation happened on Andi Mack when Garren Lake got cast as a regular on General Hospital early during production of AM S2, he was able to work both shows for a couple months but that ended and he was written off AM only to be brought back 29 eps later to give Buffy her endgame after the show had been cancelled. Of course, Disney Channel and ABC are both part of the broader Disney family which made negotiations much easier and Garren was brought back because he was important to Buffy’s story line who was effectively the 2nd lead of the show.