"What about Miss Lucy?"
"Have they seen where we go to college? Everyone here's racist! My florist is racist! I don't have a florist but if I did, she would be racist."
The Gumdrops is a 2019 Irish comedy webseries, produced by No WiFi.
It is a Slice of Life revolving around a quartet of college roommates who get up to all sorts of mischief. Characters include:
- Laura - the ringleader, Genki Girl extraordinaire and usually the first one to jump into the hijinx.
- Roisin - the Deadpan Snarker who will mock whatever the other girls do, before happily joining in.
- Lindsay - the Only Sane Man of the group, but expect her to get sucked into the madness.
- Sadia - a wild, fun-loving Troll who may or may not be the puppetmaster.
Other characters include Laura's boyfriend Robbie - who likes to think he's the Only Sane Man (he isn't), Lindsay's boyfriend Pete (who actually is) and their long-suffering landlady Nora.
The episodes can be seen here
.
"Miss Lucy would approve of these tropes"
- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Implied in "Party Animals", if the state of the kitchen the next morning is any indicator.
- Audience Surrogate: Pete in the first episode - as an outsider getting introduced to the madness for the first time.
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead:
- Roisin (blonde), Laura and Lindsay (brunette) and Nora (redhead). Sadia is black-haired, adding the fourth colour.
- "Party Animals" has the straightest combination, where Nora and Roisin feature, joined by Roisin's brunet cousin Marty.
- Bottle Episode: "Skivvy" is just a minute long, features only two characters and has a simple plot. It was even shot in the space of an hour.
- Brick Joke: "Miss Lucy" opens with Laura burning toast and getting mocked for it by the others. After Nora's lecture later in the episode, she adds "keep Laura away from the toaster".
- Buffy Speak: Robbie decides that 'taco-fest' is the Distaff Counterpart of a 'sausage fest'.
- The Chew Toy: Laura is often on the receiving end of slapstick or bad luck.
- Deadpan Snarker: Both Roisin and Robbie have their moments. Lindsay sometimes too.
- Establishing Character Moment:
- Laura burning toast and getting sidetracked talking about Murphy's Law.
- Roisin making a snarky statement about Laura's cooking.
- Sadia trolling Pete by pretending she doesn't speak English.
- Lindsay trying to keep everyone under control.
- Everything's Better with Sparkles: Lindsay is introduced wearing a sparkly patterned dress.
- Eye Take: Pete when he finds out who/what Miss Lucy is.
- Fiery Redhead: Nora is the only redhead in the cast and is definitely spirited.
- "Friends" Rent Control:
Word of God is that the house they use to film is far too nice for students to afford, so they've avoided showing the whole layout of it and confined action to the relatively small kitchen. Additionally the location is left vague - if it's a town with a lot of colleges, rent prices in nice houses would be more affordable. - Four-Girl Ensemble: We have sweet but naive Laura, snarky Roisin, sexy and wild Sadia and responsible Lindsay.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: If you look at the chores chart in "Skivvy", you can see that Laura and Lindsay have three chores each to do. Roisin and Sadia meanwhile just have to do the dishes.
- Genius Ditz: Laura actually gets very high marks, and is revealed to be studying Biology.
- Girl's Night Out Episode: Inverted. As the series is about the girls, "Sausage Fest" is a boys' night out episode.
- Goofy Print Underwear: Marty after the session is wearing a pair of boxers with elephants on them.
- Ham and Deadpan Duo:
- Whenever Sadia and Roisin are put together - Sadia's enthusiasm and Roisin's snark filling the requirements.
- Roisin also fills this role with her cousin Marty in "Party Animals".
- To a lesser extent Laura and Lindsay.
- Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Each of the girls could qualify, since they're college students.
- How We Got Here: "GBH" opens with the aftermath of Robbie getting injured somehow - and then shows how it happened.
- Lady Drunk: Nora is interrupted while enjoying a glass of wine in "That's Gas".
- Lethal Chef: Defied by Laura, who claims to have cooked "quality meals" right after she's burnt the toast.
- Little Miss Snarker: Darcy Lou the attempted thief is quite the snarker.
- Manchild: Robbie has some elements of this. And it has to be said, so does Laura.
- Messy Hair: Roisin's is quite messy after she regains consciousness in "Party Animals".
- Never Heard That One Before: Nora to Roisin's cousin Marty - "Let me guess - I don't look a day over twenty-five?"
- Never My Fault: Sadia when she's called on not doing the shopping in "Nice to be Nice".
- Noodle Incident:
- Involving Sadia waking up on a ferry to Wales.
- Another one involving Roisin and some alligators.
- Not So Above It All: Frequently with Nora, who subverts Reasonable Authority Figure at most turns.
- The One Guy: Robbie and Pete are the only males versus five females in the principal cast.
- Rotating Protagonist: Although Laura is promoted as the lead, the rest will take the lead in other episodes.
- Running Gag: The eponymous "Miss Lucy" is constantly referenced, with no confirmation on who or what she is.
- Satellite Love Interest: Both Robbie and Pete are there as the love interests of Laura and Lindsay respectively. They only appear in an episode featuring their other half.
- Schoolgirl Series: Well college girl series.
- Sidetracked by the Analogy: Robbie and Laura discussing Murphy's Law in "Miss Lucy".
- Sinister Shades: Nora is wearing these when she arrives at the house to give a lecture.
- Spicy Latina: Sadia is wild and exciting. She is however more of a troll and prankster as opposed to sexual or aggressive.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: In "Miss Lucy" when Nora notices Robbie there, he insists he'll be sleeping on the couch.
- Teasing from Behind the Language Barrier: Sadia pretends she doesn't speak English when she first meets Pete.
- Tsundere: Laura is a Type B. Mostly sweet but does have an explosive side.
- The Unreveal: We never do find out who or what Miss Lucy is.
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?: The college the characters attend is left vague, as is the town they live in. It's definitely in a more rural area outside of Dublin. The landlady is from Belfast, although she references euros in one episode (confirming it's not in Northern Ireland).
- Wild Teen Party: "Party Animals" shows the destructive aftermath of a session caused by apparently two people.
