Netflix’s Ginny & Georgia follows the titular Georgia Miller (Brianne Howey) and her 16-year-old daughter Ginny (Antonia Gentry) as they — along with Georgia’s young son Austin (Diesel La Torraca) — pack up their lives and move to the affluent and idealistic town of Wellsbury, Massachusetts. As the series continues, romance has become quite an issue for the two titular women, particularly Georgia and her many love interests. On the one hand, she married Mayor Paul Randolph (Scott Porter) in the second season's finale, though the events that transpired after may make that marriage short-lived. However, she also has an on-and-off-again relationship with Ginny’s father Zion (Nathan Mitchell), which flared up again at the end of the first season before quickly fizzling out as Georgia has tried to make her current relationship work because of her strong feelings for Paul. Finally, there’s the slow-burn romance the writers are teasing between Georgia and Joe (Raymond Ablack), owner of the local restaurant Blue Farm Café, as Joe has held a torch for Georgia since they met for five minutes at a gas station nearly two decades ago. Unfortunately, especially after the second season, this slow-burn romance just isn’t working.
There’s No Time for Joe on ‘Ginny & Georgia’
Ginny & Georgia is obviously trying to follow in the footsteps of Luke (Scott Patterson) and Lorelai (Lauren Graham) on Gilmore Girls with Georgia and Joe, but there are a variety of factors that just make that unrealistic and unattainable. First and foremost is the episode count per season and the wait in between seasons. Without the large episode order, there isn’t time to focus on much outside of the season’s main story, which is leaving Joe high and dry. Unlike Luke on Gilmore Girls, who had his own life and stories thoroughly developed to help the character grow before he was ready to pursue a relationship with Lorelai, Joe is mostly just… there. He’s around because he’s a series regular, but the show clearly doesn’t know what to do with him, giving him little to do other than stand around his restaurant and have brief interactions with the titular characters. Or, they have him pining for Georgia, waiting for her other relationships to fall apart and/or for Georgia to have a miraculous epiphany that Joe is who she wants to be with.
In the first season of Ginny & Georgia, there was a conscious effort to include Joe. While the majority of his scenes took place at the Blue Farm, his feelings for Georgia were growing from the moment she came into town and they started their flirty banter. Joe was there for Georgia in a way nobody else was, listening to her and helping her out whenever she needed him to take part in something to help her or the mayor’s office. Before Joe even knew Georgia was the girl he met all of those years ago, which he didn’t figure out until late into the season, his feelings for her were strong. There was clearly something there on Georgia’s side, too, but her decision to strive for the perfect Wellsbury life kept her focused on Paul and potentially becoming the town’s First Lady.
In the second season, there’s little content between Georgia and Joe to discuss. The story has heated up, and Georgia is trying to save her forthcoming marriage to Paul as her dark past inches closer, especially with the arrival of Austin’s father Gil (Aaron Ashmore). There are a few little interactions in the café with lingering looks, mostly from Joe, but the relationship comes across as incredibly one-sided. Georgia doesn’t really pay any attention to Joe, yet he’s unable to stop focusing on her. He even begins to hook up with Georgia’s rival Cynthia (Sabrina Grdevich), whose husband is slowly dying, but this is simply used to bring Joe closer to Georgia as well. When Cynthia learns of Joe’s unrequited love, she tells him that Georgia will eat him alive, prompting a series of flashbacks that begin to chip away at Joe’s “Golden Boy” persona, showing that there’s a little darkness and Georgia-like cleverness under the surface. Then, suddenly, Joe is at Georgia’s door at the end of the season confessing his feelings and hoping Georgia will reveal she’s secretly been in love with him the whole time, but that’s not what happens. There hadn’t been enough of the slow burn to warrant this moment finally coming to fruition, and the two had such limited interactions throughout the season that the characters just didn’t fit together in that moment.
‘Ginny & Georgia’ Has Other, More Interesting Relationships
The series is too focused — and rightfully so — on the tense mother-daughter relationship between Ginny and Georgia and the shocking pattern of Georgia’s crimes, leaving Joe out in the cold as the writers haven’t created the story in a way that includes him. And, with only ten episodes per season, there just isn’t time to create a slow-burn romance and do it justice. The series is too full already with twists, flashbacks, and Georgia continuing to get herself into messy situations, like her recent murder that she was arrested for in the season finale. Nothing between Joe and Georgia can simmer, leaving moments like Joe’s confession feeling unearned. Plus, Georgia’s other relationships are far more interesting and getting their time in the spotlight.
Paul and Georgia’s relationship has not progressed as anyone could have expected, with Paul continuously choosing to stay with Georgia and accept her haunting past — well, sans the murders, at least. Likewise, her relationship with Zion, while currently not on the table, has not gotten any closure. Those two have such a long history and hold such a deep love for one another that it seems probable they could wind up together at any moment, especially as they have Ginny to keep bringing them toward one another. There’s so much more story to be told in these relationships, relationships that are actually connected to the main storylines, it’s difficult to want the show to change focus and give the relationship with Joe more time in the spotlight. Joe definitely deserves to have a story of his own, one that shines the spotlight on him, but that doesn’t need to be Joe waiting around for Georgia to love him back. Let him find love with someone who chooses him first, preferably never replicating the ghastly hook-up with Cynthia.
All in all, the slow-burn romance between Georgia and Joe isn’t working. If the writers want to continue this, they need to shift gears and change things up in a potential third season. They probably also need to throw the slowness away and dive into the relationship headfirst, as there just isn’t enough time to do otherwise. However, the path they’re on now with Georgia’s romantic life is wholly enjoyable, giving us two very interesting relationships with Georgia and the men in her life that would more than suffice as a love triangle for the rest of the show. Perhaps it simply wasn’t meant to be with Joe, given Georgia’s past, which can be just as entertaining and emotional to watch.
Every episode of Ginny & Georgia is now streaming on Netflix.