Disjointed is a Netflix original comedy series created by David Javerbaum and Chuck Lorre. Kathy Bates stars as Ruth Whitefeather Feldman, a longtime advocate of legal marijuana usage who opens up a dispensary in Los Angeles with the help of her son Travis and her hired "budtenders". Hilarity Ensues.
Twenty episodes of the series have been ordered by Netflix. The first 10 episodes premiered on August 25, 2017. The second part premiered on January 2018. The show was then cancelled.
Tropes
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Pete gets a special robot to help with his grow-op. Then he hallucinates the robot becoming sentient and voiced by Frank Caliendo, with plans to exterminate humanity.
- Bittersweet Ending: As the series is cancelled, this is the ending of Part 2 and the entire show. Ruth and Walter decide to make a road trip together, traveling to visit places Walter never did and enjoy his last year as the cancer will kill him soon. Olivia comes back to Ruth's Alternative Caring after a failed business attempt, but is received with open arms by her old friends. Jenny has begun to reconcile with her mother, Tae Kwon Doug has made peace with Ruth and caught Maria's eye; and Carter has begun to achieve his goal of doing stand-up comedy. Travis is presumably running the dispensary in Ruth's abscence, which is what he always wanted.
- Central Theme: The benefits medicinal and recreational use of marijuana can offer to people, as well as its place in society and modern medicine.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Pete, Dank, and Dabby.
- Cool Old Lady: Ruth has had quite an adventurous life and still has the spirit of her youth.
- Country Matters: When the women-only growers meeting descends into squabbling, Dabby drops this word in a spectacular rant about respecting Ruth and the importance of solidarity.
- Deadpan Snarker: Ruth has a sharp and dry wit.
- Doomy Dooms of Doom: The lullaby Ruth would sing to Travis as a baby is a rather (comically) dark piece titled "We Are Doomed". She says that she sang it because Travis was too cheerful as a baby and needed a reality check.
- Dramedy: Despite having a lot of humor, there are quite a bit of sad points in the plot, including Carter's PTSD, Ruth and Travis' complicated relationship, Jenny's hard times with her parents and, as of part 2, Maria's husband cheating on her as well as Walter's cancer.
- Drugs Are Good: The show's fake commercials advertising various brands of cannabis, particularly Tokelers, which is a spoof on the Folgers coffee commercial, as the family sits around the Christmas tree taking hits from the bong. In fact, this trope is the Central Theme of the entire show.
- Genius Ditz: Pete is a spacey goofball who is absolutely unparalleled at growing weed.
- Genre Mashup: Between the studio Sitcom and the raunchy Stoner Flick.
- Hippie Parents: Ruth, for Travis, though she was fairly level in raising him. Pete meanwhile was born and raised in a hippie commune.
- Ignored Epiphany: In Episode 10, Dank and Dabby actually sober up when they aren't able to light up, regain their bearings for a moment, and actually smarten up and make goals and plans for their futures... until they find some matches and immediately fire up some joints.
- I Want Grandkids: Ruth tries to get her son Travis together with one of the dispensary employees Olivia, telling them right away she wants them to pop out some babies. She does lay off when she realizes how uncomfortable it makes them.
- Knight of Cerebus: Carter is a rare heroic version of this trope. Whenever Carter's PTSD is brought up in the show, the jokes immediately stop and the show takes a temporary turn for the dramatic.
- Looks Like Jesus: Dank describes Pete as looking like "white Jesus".
- Mushroom Samba: Mostly for Carter anytime he gets stoned, largely due to him still being relatively new to pot in general. They take the form of trippy Deranged Animations that wouldn't be out of place on Off the Air.
- New-Age Retro Hippie: Ruth, as well as her old friends that we see in "Donna Weed".
- Non Sequitur: Multiple times an episode: scene transitions are made up of random stock footage instead of the establishing shots you'd find in most sitcoms, presumably to be interesting to the stoners who are watching.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Pete spends part of the first episode talking to his plants in an Australian accent. He only realises he's doing it when Ruth walks in and points it out.
- Parental Neglect: Ruth admits she was an "absentee mother" to Travis during his younger years.
- Running Gag: There's a Show Within a Show called "Strain O' The Day" in every one, which usually shares the title of the episode. There are also a collection of fake adverts in every episode which center around the products and services that stoners love.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Carter, the dispensary security guard, has PTSD from serving in Iraq. He finds relief from it by smoking weed.
- Ship Tease: Between Jenny and Carter, who actually come very close to kissing each other in episode 10. They become an Official Couple in the second series.
- Show Within a Show: "Strain O' The Day".
- Sitcom Archnemesis: Tae-Kwon-Doug, the owner of the martial arts school next to the dispensary is almost a parody of the Smug Straight Edge archetype. However, after striking up an Odd Friendship with Pete and getting in a little bonding moment with Ruth over their shared disdain over the new artisinal pretzel shop that opened in the shopping center, he's let up some.
- The Stoner: Many characters count, but Pete, Dank, and Dabby are the most stereotypical.
- Stoners Are Funny: Naturally.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: In episode 10, when Agent Schwartz tells Ruth and Travis the reason for the raid (Dank and Dabby giving out free joints in the parking lot, some of which got into the hands of minors), they both have the exact same reaction."Those fucksticks!"
- Unsuspectingly Soused: Olivia ate some pot-infused fudge swirls that took a bit to kick in, so she ate more than she needed, ending up getting so high that she felt panicky and on edge.
- Values Dissonance: In-Universe, during episode 6, Ruth explains to Travis that there was a short period of time where abandoning one’s children was considered innocent.
- Wham Episode: Episode 10 - the dispensary is raided by the DEA, Maria is arrested, and Ruth has lost her money.
- Yandere: Mary Jane, the spiritual embodiment of marijuana, is this to Pete. When he breaks up with her, she becomes a Woman Scorned.
