-This Week in Titles: Jane The Flirt, which appears over Jane pulling a Marilyn Monroe with her skirt blowing up. At least in her mind.
-Romance has been a key part of Jane The Virgin since it's very beginning. Though never quite as important a theme to the show as family, Jane's various romantic entanglements and relationships, whether with Michael, Rafael, or occasionally someone else (Jonathan Chavez, anyone?) have often been at the forefront of the narrative. Then Michael died, a move that necessitated a backgrounding of the romantic elements, at least where Jane was concerned. There was still romance in the show, most notably Petra's fling with Chuck and Xo's engagement to Bruce but it was all secondary to exploring where the characters were three years later and how Jane was starting to get to a place where she could heal from what she went through with Michael. This was a smart choice on the writer's part because rushing the romance in almost immediately after Michael died would feel sloppy and disrespectful to the fans who were invested in that relationship and this approach. Now that there's a bit of distance from Michael's death though, the romance comes rushing back in this week (after testing the waters for it last week) and Chapter Fifty-Nine has practically everyone trying to get some action.
-There are going to be a fair number of people out there who feel that it's still too soon for Jane to move on from Michael, at least for the audience who only lost him a couple months ago as opposed to three years. That's understandable but I suspect that even if the show waited until the end of next season for Jane to start dating again people would think it was too soon. Losing Michael was painful and his love story with Jane was one for the ages but romance is in "Jane's" blood and the show couldn't keep it away forever. Luckily Chapter Fifty-Nine makes it clear that the show isn't that eager for Jane to be rushing into a serious or even casual relationship anytime soon as multiple possible love interests for Jane are set-up then shut down.
-"Jane" loves it's visual devices and motifs and it comes up with the best one it's had in a while tonight as various characters (Mainly Jane but Rafael and Alba get in on it too) use a Terminator-esque love radar to try and determine if the person they're interacting with is flirting with them. It's a fun device that beautifully captures how hard it can be to figure out if a person is flirting with you or not as the signs and clues differ from situation to situation and person to person. Of course there's no such thing as perfect love radar and it's especially tough to get a handle on the signs when you've been out of the game for a long time and Jane and Rafael both misread situations at various points causing embarrassing situations.
-When Mateo's aide Alex was introduced last episode, it seemed pretty likely that he could end up as Jane's new love interest, and the promos for the episode heavily revolved around the scene where he lets Jane know in no uncertain terms that he is not interested in her, giving the impression that the entire episode would be about this. Happily, the writers go a different way with this. Alex is Mateo's aide and it would be entirely inappropriate for him to pursue a relationship with Jane or for her to even consider him as a romantic prospect, as multiple characters including Jane point out. Once Alex firmly shuts down the idea that he's interested in Jane, it's the end of that particular story. Instead the show uses this moment as a springboard to dive into just how rusty Jane has gotten at reading signs of romantic interest, showing how much work Jane has ahead of her if she really wants to get back into the dating game.
-After an interlude night out at the Fairwick which we'll get to in a sec, the show brings back Dennis, Michael's old partner who's investigating Scott's murder and who is also recently single. Pairing the two together would make a lot of sense in some ways. The two know each other, both have struggled with Michael's death and we saw their connection be rekindled a few episodes back. If they were to get together for a few episodes, no one would be that surprised so it's not shocking when they go out on a mini-golf date. But the show also recognizes that in the long run it doesn't make sense for Jane to date Dennis. His long history with Michael means she'd be thrown with constant reminders of him, which wouldn't bode well for the health of the relationship. Additionally Dennis is clearly not as over his ex-fiancee as he wants to think he is. So instead of forcing them to be together for a few episodes for the sake of drama, "Jane" has the two recognize at the end of the date that it won't work and Dennis decides to give his ex-fiancee another chance. After all the important thing about this story wasn't that Jane find her next great love, it's that she decided to put herself back out there again, even though it's not going to be an easy road for her.
-Now, let's be real. The easiest option for a new great romantic love for Jane would be her old great romantic love, Rafael. In fact it's almost a certainty that Jane and Rafael will get back together at some point, and a worse show would have pushed them back together already. "Jane" isn't a worse show though and instead, they continue to explore Jane and Rafael being best friends. Justin Baldoni is very charming as Raf attempts to help Jane get back up there, especially as it quickly becomes apparent that Rafael might not entirely know what he's doing either, suggesting Jane look for someone in "kids hotel" The Marbella and not realizing his presence will have people assuming they're a couple. It's once Petra gets involved and the action moves to the Fairwick that things really heat up and the interplay between Jane, Rafael, and Petra is very fun to watch. After all these three have been to, it's nice to see them in a place where they can be friends to each other and support each other, even if it's not the most conventional way of support.
-After Rafael and Petra hooked up at the end of last week's episode, it seemed like a sign that we would be returning to the Rafael/Petra romance, something that the show hinted at throughout the second season but never pulled the trigger on. This time however, they're flipping the script by having Rafael be in love with Petra while Petra dates Chuck. It's a neat twist that the episode cleverly builds to throughout the episode, having Rafael assume Petra is interested in him like in the past until she shuts that idea down hard. Petra still likes Chuck and the flirting we see her doing with Raf is just an attempt to make Chuck jealous. It's a nice way to play on expectations and it's nice that Chuck isn't going to be as disposable a love interest as Abby was for the sake of getting Raf and Petra back together.
-Chuck was introduced as a broad, gross slimeball, and while he's still a broad character, "Jane" and Johnny Messner have done an admirable job, making him more nuanced and complex. Chuck is as confused about why Petra cares about him as Petra is and that confusion translates into a much-needed vulnerability for the character.
-Alba's romance with Jorge continues to be a delightful turn for the character. Ivonne Coll has never really had the chance to play a full-blown love story for Alba (There was that priest in season 1 and her old flame Pablo in season 2 but the priest was just a flirtation and Pablo's story was mainly about what bad news the guy was) and it's fun to see her play lovestruck, as she finds a way to work Jorge into every conversation she has without fail. Her walk of shame at the end is a great pay-off to the "walk of lame" Jane, Rafael, and Petra had earlier and it'll be interesting to see how "Jane" continues to explore this as it lays the groundwork for Jorge maybe being not so perfect for Alba. After all Jorge seems sweet, but he also seems like more talk than action and his big romantic idea only came about because he overheard a lovestruck Alba waxing romantic about minigolf. He and Alba are cute together but it feels like Alba can do better than him.
-Rogelio and Xo are back together at last! Once Xo broke up with Bruce, it was only a matter of time before her and Rogelio reunited but it was still a fun surprise when they almost immediately started making out in the settlement chambers after Rogelio found out the engagement was off. Bruce was a nice guy and the show made me more invested in him than I ever expected but Xo and Ro are meant to be.
-The downside of this storyline is it exposes how much of a plot stall Rogelio's desire to have kids really was. Yes, it's nice that Mateo is filling that part of Rogelio's life and the pair's interactions are filling the bromance void that's been empty since Michael died nicely but it still feels cheap that we spent almost a season watching Rogelio insist he needed kids only for him to abruptly change his mind. Sure time changes things but it just keeps me from enjoying the reunion of Xo and Ro as much as I want to (Though Rogelio matter of factly informing Jane that he and Xo had just had sex in his car was hysterical).
-Rogelio also gets back in the telenovella game this week with Los Viajes De Guillermo, a very loose adaption of Gulliver's Travels that's also based off of Honey, I Shrunk The Kids. It's an idea that looks like a lot of fun and the introduction of a sexier male co-star should lead to some great stories as a jealous Rogelio confronts his aging but hopefully The Passion of Santos remake isn't entirely being forgotten about. Dropping the idea in favour of more telenovella shenanigans for the rest of the show would feel like a step backwards. Rogelio mentioning it gives me hope that it'll come to fruition again sooner rather than later though.
-The heart glow is one of "Jane's" favourite visual devices, deployed many times over the years before being used to break everyone's hearts as we watched Michael's heart glow fade out. It was so effective that I was a little surprised that they brought the device back so soon to indicate Rafael's growing feelings for Petra. Things clicked into place however with the last-second reveal of Rogelio's new co-star, the young, very handsome Fabian who inspires a glow from a um, different part of Jane's body. The message is clear. It might be a while before Jane's heart is ready to glow again but her crotch isn't going to wait.
-The Scott murder investigation is mostly in the background this episode but we do learn that Petra has apparently kept in contact with Anezka these past couple years and has her hiding away somewhere. That sounds suspicious.
-So as the narrator begins to run down the great romantic loves of Jane's life, there's a first one before Michael that he purposely refrains from going into detail on. So yeah, whoever that is will definitely be showing up again by finale time.
-The narrator struggling to remember Dana's name, drawing our attention to the character as he struggles: cute joke or foreshadowing that she's important to the murder plot?
-"Jane" will be off for almost a month now after recently being off for three weeks. Come on CW, you're killing me here. The last five episodes of the season should air uninterrupted though, which will be nice.
Wednesday, 29 March 2017
Saturday, 25 March 2017
Superstore Tackles A Complex Obstacle on Mateo's Last Day
-When Superstore had Mateo discover he was an undocumented immigrant back in August's Olympic Special, it came at a time when the 2016 election had made immigration a hot topic. Following the election and the victory of Donald Trump, it's become even more timely and relevant than the writers probably thought it would be when they introduced the storyline, making it an even trickier subject to mine for comedy. Mateo's undocumented status has been mostly backgrounded throughout the season however as the character's been developed in other ways, mainly through his relationship with Jeff. It's popped up so rarely, it's easy to forget it exists. So when Mateo's undocumented status suddenly pops back in with a vengeance and intertwines itself with Mateo's relationship, it makes for a more powerful and emotionally resonant story than if it had been an ongoing concern every week. Mateo's Last Day (Directed by series star America Ferarra) handles the issue smartly, subtly and gracefully, adding in enough laughs to balance the more serious parts of the episode effectively.
-When last week's episode ended with Jeff saying Mateo needed to transfer stores in order for corporate to be OK with their relationship, it was obvious that Mateo probably wasn't going to transfer stores. Nico Santos is too valuable an ensemble player to be let go this early in the show's run. The introduction of the much nicer Signature store Mateo is supposed to transfer to made it even clearer that something was going to go wrong because that's just how comedy works. The only question was how this was all going to fall apart and Mateo's lack of a social security card was a nice, elegant answer to that question. Mateo's undocumented status only ever really comes up when it can organically tie into the story and this was a masterful way to throw a big obstacle between Mateo and Jeff, which is really what the whole story is about.
-Mateo and Jeff's romance has been going on for much of the season but the secretive nature of said romances means the pair haven't actually shared a lot of screentime together, typically only getting a scene or two whenever Jeff is in an episode. So it's impressive how fleshed out and developed the relationship feels. Michael Bunin has done a fantastic job making Jeff feel like a real human being rather than a disposable love interest that can be thrown away without consequence, making us care about him as a character. Bunin and Santos also have terrific chemistry and that chemistry helps us get invested in their relationship, which adds extra weight when that relationship ends. The two of them also do maybe their best work to date in the climatic break-up scene. You can feel Mateo's pain and agony as he tells Jeff he doesn't love him as well as Bunin's hurt from those words.
-Typically, when a TV relationship ends because one party is keeping a secret and thinks breaking up with the other person instead of just telling the truth is the best course of action, it feels contrived and ridiculous. That being said, Mateo choosing not to tell Jeff about his undocumented status works here because the show and Santos do a lot of groundwork leading up that decision so we understand why Mateo makes it. Jeff cares about Mateo but he also cares about his job and we've seen how insecure Mateo can be about where he stands with Jeff as recently as the last episode. Mateo should trust that Jeff will be able to handle the truth about his undocumented status but he just can't bring himself to do it. It's tragic and frustrating but it makes sense on a character level. The good news is that there's still plenty of time left in the season for Mateo to change his mind and tell Jeff the truth (And I hope he does).
-Jonah is used purely as comic relief for Mateo's story this week as he offers to marry Mateo multiple times before trying and failing to beat up Mateo. It's nice to see that the Superstore writers don't feel the need to make Jonah a driving part of a storyline every week and Ben Feldman is clearly having a blast embracing the goofier side of Jonah. The final beat of him punching out Mateo after Mateo calls off the transfer and breaks up with Jeff is a darkly hilarious moment to close the episode on. There's also a lot of fun interplay between Feldman, Santos, and Nichole Bloom this week that makes me want to see more of Jonah, Cheyenne, and Mateo as a comic trio.
-With the Mateo story doing the emotional heavy-lifting for the episode, the other two stories are much sillier and comedy-driven to great effect. Glenn and eventually Amy getting sucked into a battle with an internet troll isn't the most original story in the world but it works because of how well-executed the various comedic beats are, and the game performances from Mark McKinney, America Ferrara, and guest star Neil Casey (Who you might know from the Ghostbusters reboot and the ill-fated but brilliant Yahoo Screen Original Other Space). There's no reasoning with trolls on the internet and everyone knows it, but Glenn cares about the store so much that he can't help from trying to make Tim see the store the same way he does, even though every time he attempts to do so only makes the initial Yelp review worse.
-Internet trolls and their unique brand of awfulness are hard to capture on television without turning them into a caricature, but episode writer Jonathan Green and Neil Casey do an admirable job making Tim feel like an actual character and not a plot device. Casey gives a great performance as someone who seems like a perfectly nice, reasonable guy who doesn't seem like an internet troll at all until he posts online. When Amy decides to visit him at his home and we see he lives with his mentally-ill, hoarder mother who he's been forced to take care of, it initially seems like the episode is offering an easy, lazy explanation for his behaviour. He's frustrated in his own life so he takes it out online. When he and Amy have a heart-to-heart where they discover they aren't so different, I was ready to roll my eyes. Then the episode smartly subverts this by having the heart-to-heart ultimately lead to nothing but another update of his awful review, leaving it ambiguous as to whether he meant anything he said or if he was just screwing with Amy the whole time (The truth is probably somewhere in the middle but the episode leaves it to the viewer to make their own decision). The point is clear, you just can't reason with terrible people on the internet so you're going to need to find another way to handle it.
-Garrett and Dina get a much slighter story as they're required to sign a relationship disclosure form and balk at the limited number of options they have to describe the nature of their relationship (Spouse, Family Member, or Romantic). Superstore has avoided going a conventional route for whatever is going on between these two all season and that pays off dividends here as practically half of corporate gets drawn into their web. They're not friends so "friends with benefits" is off the table. They don't hate each other so "hate effing" doesn't work either. The further they go into their web trying to figure out what label fits best, the more convoluted and hilarious everything gets. The ultimate decision to label the 4th box "other" works like gangbusters because it's so obviously simple, it's absurd no one thought of it in the first place. I still expect Garrett and Dina to try dating for real eventually but I don't mind waiting for that to happen if the show can keep getting material this good from their "other" relationship.
-Best Interstitial: Nothing of note this week. Let's highlight the moment in Mateo's "Looking for a fight" montage where he challenges Brett to a fight and Brett immediately draws a knife. Don't screw around with Brett,
-This Week in Mark McKinney is a Treasure: The look on his face when Amy refers to the person who left a negative Yelp review as a "troll", prompting her to clarify that she means a regular-sized non-magical human person.
-Mateo making an elaborate departure video for himself makes for a terrific cold open. "What am I gonna miss the most? Uh, the people. They're often hilarious, simple, basic. Just sort of harmless."
-Cloud Nine being completely and utterly unready for any kind of natural disaster has been a nice little running joke that continues tonight when Glenn mentions it's been over eight years since their last tornado drill.
-When last week's episode ended with Jeff saying Mateo needed to transfer stores in order for corporate to be OK with their relationship, it was obvious that Mateo probably wasn't going to transfer stores. Nico Santos is too valuable an ensemble player to be let go this early in the show's run. The introduction of the much nicer Signature store Mateo is supposed to transfer to made it even clearer that something was going to go wrong because that's just how comedy works. The only question was how this was all going to fall apart and Mateo's lack of a social security card was a nice, elegant answer to that question. Mateo's undocumented status only ever really comes up when it can organically tie into the story and this was a masterful way to throw a big obstacle between Mateo and Jeff, which is really what the whole story is about.
-Mateo and Jeff's romance has been going on for much of the season but the secretive nature of said romances means the pair haven't actually shared a lot of screentime together, typically only getting a scene or two whenever Jeff is in an episode. So it's impressive how fleshed out and developed the relationship feels. Michael Bunin has done a fantastic job making Jeff feel like a real human being rather than a disposable love interest that can be thrown away without consequence, making us care about him as a character. Bunin and Santos also have terrific chemistry and that chemistry helps us get invested in their relationship, which adds extra weight when that relationship ends. The two of them also do maybe their best work to date in the climatic break-up scene. You can feel Mateo's pain and agony as he tells Jeff he doesn't love him as well as Bunin's hurt from those words.
-Typically, when a TV relationship ends because one party is keeping a secret and thinks breaking up with the other person instead of just telling the truth is the best course of action, it feels contrived and ridiculous. That being said, Mateo choosing not to tell Jeff about his undocumented status works here because the show and Santos do a lot of groundwork leading up that decision so we understand why Mateo makes it. Jeff cares about Mateo but he also cares about his job and we've seen how insecure Mateo can be about where he stands with Jeff as recently as the last episode. Mateo should trust that Jeff will be able to handle the truth about his undocumented status but he just can't bring himself to do it. It's tragic and frustrating but it makes sense on a character level. The good news is that there's still plenty of time left in the season for Mateo to change his mind and tell Jeff the truth (And I hope he does).
-Jonah is used purely as comic relief for Mateo's story this week as he offers to marry Mateo multiple times before trying and failing to beat up Mateo. It's nice to see that the Superstore writers don't feel the need to make Jonah a driving part of a storyline every week and Ben Feldman is clearly having a blast embracing the goofier side of Jonah. The final beat of him punching out Mateo after Mateo calls off the transfer and breaks up with Jeff is a darkly hilarious moment to close the episode on. There's also a lot of fun interplay between Feldman, Santos, and Nichole Bloom this week that makes me want to see more of Jonah, Cheyenne, and Mateo as a comic trio.
-With the Mateo story doing the emotional heavy-lifting for the episode, the other two stories are much sillier and comedy-driven to great effect. Glenn and eventually Amy getting sucked into a battle with an internet troll isn't the most original story in the world but it works because of how well-executed the various comedic beats are, and the game performances from Mark McKinney, America Ferrara, and guest star Neil Casey (Who you might know from the Ghostbusters reboot and the ill-fated but brilliant Yahoo Screen Original Other Space). There's no reasoning with trolls on the internet and everyone knows it, but Glenn cares about the store so much that he can't help from trying to make Tim see the store the same way he does, even though every time he attempts to do so only makes the initial Yelp review worse.
-Internet trolls and their unique brand of awfulness are hard to capture on television without turning them into a caricature, but episode writer Jonathan Green and Neil Casey do an admirable job making Tim feel like an actual character and not a plot device. Casey gives a great performance as someone who seems like a perfectly nice, reasonable guy who doesn't seem like an internet troll at all until he posts online. When Amy decides to visit him at his home and we see he lives with his mentally-ill, hoarder mother who he's been forced to take care of, it initially seems like the episode is offering an easy, lazy explanation for his behaviour. He's frustrated in his own life so he takes it out online. When he and Amy have a heart-to-heart where they discover they aren't so different, I was ready to roll my eyes. Then the episode smartly subverts this by having the heart-to-heart ultimately lead to nothing but another update of his awful review, leaving it ambiguous as to whether he meant anything he said or if he was just screwing with Amy the whole time (The truth is probably somewhere in the middle but the episode leaves it to the viewer to make their own decision). The point is clear, you just can't reason with terrible people on the internet so you're going to need to find another way to handle it.
-Garrett and Dina get a much slighter story as they're required to sign a relationship disclosure form and balk at the limited number of options they have to describe the nature of their relationship (Spouse, Family Member, or Romantic). Superstore has avoided going a conventional route for whatever is going on between these two all season and that pays off dividends here as practically half of corporate gets drawn into their web. They're not friends so "friends with benefits" is off the table. They don't hate each other so "hate effing" doesn't work either. The further they go into their web trying to figure out what label fits best, the more convoluted and hilarious everything gets. The ultimate decision to label the 4th box "other" works like gangbusters because it's so obviously simple, it's absurd no one thought of it in the first place. I still expect Garrett and Dina to try dating for real eventually but I don't mind waiting for that to happen if the show can keep getting material this good from their "other" relationship.
-Best Interstitial: Nothing of note this week. Let's highlight the moment in Mateo's "Looking for a fight" montage where he challenges Brett to a fight and Brett immediately draws a knife. Don't screw around with Brett,
-This Week in Mark McKinney is a Treasure: The look on his face when Amy refers to the person who left a negative Yelp review as a "troll", prompting her to clarify that she means a regular-sized non-magical human person.
-Mateo making an elaborate departure video for himself makes for a terrific cold open. "What am I gonna miss the most? Uh, the people. They're often hilarious, simple, basic. Just sort of harmless."
-Cloud Nine being completely and utterly unready for any kind of natural disaster has been a nice little running joke that continues tonight when Glenn mentions it's been over eight years since their last tornado drill.
Friday, 17 March 2017
Superstore Tries To Win An Integrity Award
-It's been a couple weeks since the last new episode of Superstore but Integrity Award did a strong job keeping the season's momentum going with another funny installment filled with great jokes, solid character development and an expertly deployed setpiece.
-When we first met Amy in season 1, it became quickly apparent that she was the kind of person who took care of other people at the expense of her own needs, the one who was responsible because she felt she had to be. In season 2, Amy's arc has been her learning to be assertive about what she wants and take care of herself. It's been very satisfying to watch her progress throughout the season and her arc reaches a big turning point tonight as we meet her parents and find out why she has to be so responsible in the first place.
-Tony Plana (Who was also America Ferrara's dad on Ugly Betty) and Marlene Forte were terrific tonight as Ron and Connie, who in just a handful of scenes became fully-fleshed out characters who felt like they could exist outside of Amy (I would actually totally watch a spin-off about Ron and Connie, particularly if it meant more of Ron's celebrity portraits). They aren't terrible parents, in fact they seem like terrific people, but they just don't know how to prioritize tasks or manage their time wisely or get the things done that actually matter. This has caused Amy to have to be the one who's always getting things done. The problem is that this has created a cycle where Ron and Connie have no need to get organized or hurry up for once because Amy has always kept them from dealing with the consequences of their actions. The only reason Amy is even there at all is because they didn't bother to get a truck for their move, causing Amy to take one of Cloud Nine's delivery trucks. So when Amy makes the decision to sneak away and leave her parents to clean up their own mess for once, it's rightfully played not as a selfish act but as a triumphant moment of growth for the character.
-The show continues to take it's time setting up a Jonah/Amy romance, which suits me fine. It has a lot of fun tonight with the two of them just being friends, as Jonah takes advantage of this opportunity to learn all about young Amy and finds out that the two of them have a lot in common and would've been friends as kids (Not that Amy wants to admit that). And when Amy is pushed to her breaking point, Jonah is there to support her and help convince her that the right thing to do is leave. America Ferrara and Ben Feldman continue to have terrific chemistry together and I could easily watch another season of them just dragging out their attraction for each other before I got tired of it. The end beat of the story with Amy ignoring a call from Adam felt a little unnecessary though, like it was only their because the writers didn't trust us to pick up on Amy and Jonah's growing bond on their own.
-Glenn and Garrett are two characters who play off of each other very well but they don't get a lot of actual stories together. Integrity Award fixes that as Glenn's campaign to win the upcoming Cloud Nine Integrity Award (And the unframed certificate and All-You-Can-Eat Buffet Luncheon that comes with it) is threatened when Garrett rescues a veteran's dog that was trapped in the snow. We've seen Glenn act insecure and petty before but it gets taken to a new level tonight as Glenn tries to belittle and underplay Garrett's good deed at every turn, and getting Cheyenne (Who nominated Glenn without any provocation from Glenn) to expand and enhance the details of her nomination for him. It's an ugly side of Glenn that we're not used to seeing but Mark McKinney plays it terrifically and naturally so it feels consistent to Glenn's character.
-When Garrett comes in with that dog, it initially seems like the whole thing is an act he's pulling to win the integrity award and mess with Glenn but it turns out that Garrett has no interest in the award, he was just genuinely doing something good for once. He even keeps trying to help Glenn out and direct the attention he's getting elsewhere until Glenn finally pushes him too far and he begins accepting nominations out of spite. It's not that Garrett cares about the award that much, it's the fact that Glenn is undermining one of the few good deeds Garrett has done and it hurts. Colton Dunn is always terrific as Garrett when he's just in deadpan trickster mode, but he does equally well showing off the vulnerable side of Garrett.
-Mateo's misadventures trying to fix things around the store so Dina thinks Jeff is obsessed enough with Mateo to give him special treatment is a fun story that serves as a fun parallel to Sandra sending herself all those elaborate Valentine's gifts a few weeks back. It turns out Mateo's real relationship with Jeff isn't as exciting to the Cloud Nine employees as Sandra's fake one so Mateo is desperate for the same kind of employee validation about his relationship that Sandra got. Dina's manipulating Mateo when she suggests Jeff doesn't care enough to give him preferential treatment and Mateo knows it but he goes for it all the same because Dina has tapped into an actual fear Mateo has. Hence Mateo trying to be a one-man fixing crew, which becomes harder to sustain as Dina's demands get more and more ridiculous (Her vision for what the store could look like in three years is hilariously over-the-top).
-A good rule of thumb for if a bug bomb appears in a sitcom is that it's going to backfire spectacularly so I was ready for Mateo's effort to debug the break room to go awry. I was not ready for him to set off ten at once, forcing a store-wide evacuation. The way the whole thing slowly builds is masterful. There's just enough of a delay from seeing Mateo with the bug bombs to the reveal of the spreading toxins that we almost forget about the whole thing, making it more funny when the whole store starts getting affected.
-The episode ends on a bit of a cliffhanger as Mateo is informed he'll have to transfer stores in order to keep his relationship with Jeff going. Since it seems unlikely that Nico Santos is leaving the show, it looks like the Jeff/Mateo romance is near it's breaking point. That'll be a shame because it'll probably mean less Jeff and his delightfully odd normalness but hopefully Jeff will still pop in now and then if only to be a district manager
-Best Interstitial: A couple makes out in the middle of the check-out line until they're asked to move by a customer, so they move a couple inches and get back to making out.
-This Week in Mark McKinney is a Treasure: The whole Glenn/Garrett story was full of great moments but I think Glenn's reaction to the windows on his car being shattered again takes the cake this week. "Why can't I just have a car?!" Sidenote, I did not see the reveal that Glenn was the owner of that poor car coming even though I totally should have because bad things only ever happen to Glenn's car.
-The runner-up best Glenn moment though was his increasingly befuddled reaction to Garrett feigning ignorance at how an all-you-can-eat buffet works. "Oh, I see, so it's all you can eat on your one trip to the buffet". "No, you're you're not getting it. It's multiple trips". "What size plate do you have to bring with you?" "They have plates there!"
-The Vladmir Putin painting that Jonah is wrangled into buying from Ron was a terrific visual gag.
-Another great visual gag is the shrine to Scott Wolf that young Amy has set up. This also leads to the great tag as it turns out that Amy is still obsessed with Scott Wolf and that Jonah's celebrity crush back in the day was Alyssa Milano (Which of course it was).
-When we first met Amy in season 1, it became quickly apparent that she was the kind of person who took care of other people at the expense of her own needs, the one who was responsible because she felt she had to be. In season 2, Amy's arc has been her learning to be assertive about what she wants and take care of herself. It's been very satisfying to watch her progress throughout the season and her arc reaches a big turning point tonight as we meet her parents and find out why she has to be so responsible in the first place.
-Tony Plana (Who was also America Ferrara's dad on Ugly Betty) and Marlene Forte were terrific tonight as Ron and Connie, who in just a handful of scenes became fully-fleshed out characters who felt like they could exist outside of Amy (I would actually totally watch a spin-off about Ron and Connie, particularly if it meant more of Ron's celebrity portraits). They aren't terrible parents, in fact they seem like terrific people, but they just don't know how to prioritize tasks or manage their time wisely or get the things done that actually matter. This has caused Amy to have to be the one who's always getting things done. The problem is that this has created a cycle where Ron and Connie have no need to get organized or hurry up for once because Amy has always kept them from dealing with the consequences of their actions. The only reason Amy is even there at all is because they didn't bother to get a truck for their move, causing Amy to take one of Cloud Nine's delivery trucks. So when Amy makes the decision to sneak away and leave her parents to clean up their own mess for once, it's rightfully played not as a selfish act but as a triumphant moment of growth for the character.
-The show continues to take it's time setting up a Jonah/Amy romance, which suits me fine. It has a lot of fun tonight with the two of them just being friends, as Jonah takes advantage of this opportunity to learn all about young Amy and finds out that the two of them have a lot in common and would've been friends as kids (Not that Amy wants to admit that). And when Amy is pushed to her breaking point, Jonah is there to support her and help convince her that the right thing to do is leave. America Ferrara and Ben Feldman continue to have terrific chemistry together and I could easily watch another season of them just dragging out their attraction for each other before I got tired of it. The end beat of the story with Amy ignoring a call from Adam felt a little unnecessary though, like it was only their because the writers didn't trust us to pick up on Amy and Jonah's growing bond on their own.
-Glenn and Garrett are two characters who play off of each other very well but they don't get a lot of actual stories together. Integrity Award fixes that as Glenn's campaign to win the upcoming Cloud Nine Integrity Award (And the unframed certificate and All-You-Can-Eat Buffet Luncheon that comes with it) is threatened when Garrett rescues a veteran's dog that was trapped in the snow. We've seen Glenn act insecure and petty before but it gets taken to a new level tonight as Glenn tries to belittle and underplay Garrett's good deed at every turn, and getting Cheyenne (Who nominated Glenn without any provocation from Glenn) to expand and enhance the details of her nomination for him. It's an ugly side of Glenn that we're not used to seeing but Mark McKinney plays it terrifically and naturally so it feels consistent to Glenn's character.
-When Garrett comes in with that dog, it initially seems like the whole thing is an act he's pulling to win the integrity award and mess with Glenn but it turns out that Garrett has no interest in the award, he was just genuinely doing something good for once. He even keeps trying to help Glenn out and direct the attention he's getting elsewhere until Glenn finally pushes him too far and he begins accepting nominations out of spite. It's not that Garrett cares about the award that much, it's the fact that Glenn is undermining one of the few good deeds Garrett has done and it hurts. Colton Dunn is always terrific as Garrett when he's just in deadpan trickster mode, but he does equally well showing off the vulnerable side of Garrett.
-Mateo's misadventures trying to fix things around the store so Dina thinks Jeff is obsessed enough with Mateo to give him special treatment is a fun story that serves as a fun parallel to Sandra sending herself all those elaborate Valentine's gifts a few weeks back. It turns out Mateo's real relationship with Jeff isn't as exciting to the Cloud Nine employees as Sandra's fake one so Mateo is desperate for the same kind of employee validation about his relationship that Sandra got. Dina's manipulating Mateo when she suggests Jeff doesn't care enough to give him preferential treatment and Mateo knows it but he goes for it all the same because Dina has tapped into an actual fear Mateo has. Hence Mateo trying to be a one-man fixing crew, which becomes harder to sustain as Dina's demands get more and more ridiculous (Her vision for what the store could look like in three years is hilariously over-the-top).
-A good rule of thumb for if a bug bomb appears in a sitcom is that it's going to backfire spectacularly so I was ready for Mateo's effort to debug the break room to go awry. I was not ready for him to set off ten at once, forcing a store-wide evacuation. The way the whole thing slowly builds is masterful. There's just enough of a delay from seeing Mateo with the bug bombs to the reveal of the spreading toxins that we almost forget about the whole thing, making it more funny when the whole store starts getting affected.
-The episode ends on a bit of a cliffhanger as Mateo is informed he'll have to transfer stores in order to keep his relationship with Jeff going. Since it seems unlikely that Nico Santos is leaving the show, it looks like the Jeff/Mateo romance is near it's breaking point. That'll be a shame because it'll probably mean less Jeff and his delightfully odd normalness but hopefully Jeff will still pop in now and then if only to be a district manager
-Best Interstitial: A couple makes out in the middle of the check-out line until they're asked to move by a customer, so they move a couple inches and get back to making out.
-This Week in Mark McKinney is a Treasure: The whole Glenn/Garrett story was full of great moments but I think Glenn's reaction to the windows on his car being shattered again takes the cake this week. "Why can't I just have a car?!" Sidenote, I did not see the reveal that Glenn was the owner of that poor car coming even though I totally should have because bad things only ever happen to Glenn's car.
-The runner-up best Glenn moment though was his increasingly befuddled reaction to Garrett feigning ignorance at how an all-you-can-eat buffet works. "Oh, I see, so it's all you can eat on your one trip to the buffet". "No, you're you're not getting it. It's multiple trips". "What size plate do you have to bring with you?" "They have plates there!"
-The Vladmir Putin painting that Jonah is wrangled into buying from Ron was a terrific visual gag.
-Another great visual gag is the shrine to Scott Wolf that young Amy has set up. This also leads to the great tag as it turns out that Amy is still obsessed with Scott Wolf and that Jonah's celebrity crush back in the day was Alyssa Milano (Which of course it was).
Thursday, 16 March 2017
Review is One of TV's Darkest And Most Hilarious Anti-Hero Shows
This post contains significant plot details about the first two seasons of Review. Knowing this stuff won't ruin the actual viewing experience, but if you're already planning to watch Review after the first couple paragraphs, stop there so as to maintain the surprises the show has in store.
"Life. It's literally all we have. But is it any good?"
I'm going to describe a TV show for you. A devoted family man chooses an unorthodox career path. Though his intentions could be considered somewhat noble, the actions he takes to further this career bring nothing but harm and destruction to himself and to everyone around him. Before long a body count starts building up and everything he does has an impending sense of doom. Yet, despite having every chance to change or get out, the man refuses to abandon course because he believes that what he's doing is too important to stop. Even as he stands to lose everything he keeps going, always apparently hitting rock bottom only to learn he still has a long ways down to go.
Sound familiar? You can find at least a part of the basic premise I described above in the majority of anti-hero dramas that have been so popular in the past few years. Without any of the details filled in, I could easily be talking about Breaking Bad. The key difference between the show I'm describing and all those anti-hero shows though? This one is also one of the funniest shows you'll ever watch, even as the feeling of dread kicks in. It's called Review and it's both familiar and unlike anything you've ever watched, a darkly hysterical look at human nature, the systems we trap ourselves in, and the subjective nature of criticism.
Created and adapted from an Australian TV Show by Andy Daly, Jeffrey Blitz, and Charlie Siskel, Review (Which starts it's abbreviated 3rd and final season in the U.S. tonight before premiering in Canada next week on MUCH) stars Daly as self-proclaimed "life reviewer" Forrest MacNeil. Forrest hosts "Review", a show-within-a-show where he reviews life experiences chosen from an apparently random system of viewer requests on a scale of 0.5 to 5 stars. The reviews range from small things like being racist, having a best friend, being the life of the party, and public speaking to more significant things like divorce, being buried alive, being a little person and going to space. No matter the size of the task though, the reviews almost always backfire on Forrest, wrecking havoc on his life and bringing pain on him and/or the people around him in all kinds of unexpected ways, which is where the fun and dread come into play. From having to attend a custody hearing in a Batman costume to getting lost at sea for three months to seeing an imaginary friend brutally shanked in prison, you can never predict how a review will go wrong for Forrest, only that it will go wrong and it will always be funny. Even something has harmless sounding as an afternoon alone in a rowboat could get Forrest stranded at sea for over three months.
The genius of Review comes from the decision to make it so the reviews themself don't exist in a continuity-free vacuum. This isn't some cartoony setting where everything that's torn down is built up again by the next episode. The stuff Forrest does for the show has actual consequences on his life that carry over and build up over the course of the show bringing a weight and a darkness to the show as Forrest's life gets worse and worse. When Forrest divorces his wife Suzanne (A terrific Jessica St. Clair) three episodes in, she doesn't forgive him and take him back after the review is over, instead he spends much of the show pining for her and hoping to win her back as she just grows more and more disappointed in him and the insanity he invites into his life. When Forrest attends that custody hearing in a Batman costume, Suzanne's lawyer has a whole list of reasons why Forrest is an unfit parent based solely on things Forrest has done for the show. When Forrest's actions end up somehow leading to the destruction of both of his father's (Max Gail) homes (Over two different episodes), he has to live out of his office for the rest of the season. When Forrest eventually murders someone for the show, he spends an episode in prison before getting released on bail (The upcoming 3rd season is apparently going to deal with his trial). Slowly but surely Forrest loses or alienates everyone that he cares about, is plunged into debt, and almost dies a dozen different times. The result is a show that's hard to watch but impossible to look away from, with a darkness that doesn't stop growing but never takes over completely. This is a comedy after all.
A lot of why the darkness of Review never becomes too much to take comes from Daly's performance as Forrest, a person who's as charmingly innocent and full of child-like wonder about what he does as he is selfish and woefully shortsighted. Over the course of the series Forrest does some horrible, horrible, horrible things for the show but he never becomes totally unlikeable thanks to Daly who makes Forest blissfully unaware that things are about to go terribly wrong until the second before it happens. That ignorance keeps the audience on Forrest's side and keeps them rooting for him to somehow break the cycle he insists on trapping himself in, even as he fails to do so time and time again. At the same time when Forrest does ruin his life or almost gets himself killed, you don't feel too badly because the show knows there's something incredibly arrogant about a middle-age white man insisting that he's somehow able to objectively rate life experiences and the show isn't afraid to show what a fool Forrest is. It's a tricky balance to manage but Daly pulls it off with aplomb, making Forrest into a much more complex character than he might be in lesser hands.
Ultimately what makes Review great is the same thing that makes all the best anti-hero shows great: a refusal let the protagonist off the hook for their horrible actions and a willingness to play with audience expectations and push them out of their comfort zone. Early on the show introduces Grant (James Urbaniak), Forrest's oily producer who manipulates Forrest every time Forrest has doubts about a review into going through with it and who has no apparent moral compass. Urbaniak plays the character with such expert sliminess that it becomes easy to buy into the idea that Forrest is some poor innocent sap being manipulated for the sake of ratings and prop up Grant as the show's villain. As the show goes on though, it becomes obvious that Grant's manipulation isn't to blame for Forrest's problems, Forrest is. Forrest is the one who created the show and chooses to follow absurdly narrow guidelines for how to go about interpreting and completing his assignments. Forrest is the one who ignores the concerns of his co-host A.J. (Megan Stevenson, the show's secret comic weapon), his father and everyone else because he thinks his work is important. Forrest is the one blind to the fact that objectively reviewing life experiences is impossible and his pain is not universal. Forrest is the one who refuses to say no time and time again in order to uphold the principles of the show and prioritizes those principles over everything else in his life. After his review of using a Magic 8 Ball to make all his decisions goes poorly, Forrest lambastes the idea of using an arbitrary system to make choices instead of following your gut instinct, but his entire life is beholden to the arbitrary system of Review, a system he can't back down from because doing so would expose how meaningless everything he does really is (A simple request to rate something six stars out of five is enough to trigger a near-existential crisis).
Review, like any anti-hero show isn't for everyone and even those with very high tolerance for cringe comedy will be sorely tested. Watching a man destroy his life over and over and over for no reason isn't always the most pleasant viewing experience and it's hard to describe why the show is so appealing. In the end, it probably comes down to how oddly joyful and fun the show is. Don't get me wrong, it's a very dark show and the situations get quite bleak, but it never feels like a bleak show, even when the show gets around to it's Murder review. The show takes great glee in the ridiculousness of what Forrest is doing and it never forgets an opportunity to add in some silliness to all the pain. From the complete ineffectualness of Forrest's unpaid College intern Josh (Michael Croner) and Josh's girlfriend Tina (Hayley Huntley) to Forrest's complete ignorance of how the internet works to the brilliant asides and reaction shots of A.J., there's always something to laugh at in this show. Even when Forrest is broken to his very core, you're excited to see what will happen next because the show doesn't forget how to have fun. So yes, Review's devotion to the anti-hero drama formula is what makes it interesting but the joy it brings to all of it's misery is what makes it special and what will keep it in the conversation of all-time great comedies for a very long time. Five stars.
"Life. It's literally all we have. But is it any good?"
I'm going to describe a TV show for you. A devoted family man chooses an unorthodox career path. Though his intentions could be considered somewhat noble, the actions he takes to further this career bring nothing but harm and destruction to himself and to everyone around him. Before long a body count starts building up and everything he does has an impending sense of doom. Yet, despite having every chance to change or get out, the man refuses to abandon course because he believes that what he's doing is too important to stop. Even as he stands to lose everything he keeps going, always apparently hitting rock bottom only to learn he still has a long ways down to go.
Sound familiar? You can find at least a part of the basic premise I described above in the majority of anti-hero dramas that have been so popular in the past few years. Without any of the details filled in, I could easily be talking about Breaking Bad. The key difference between the show I'm describing and all those anti-hero shows though? This one is also one of the funniest shows you'll ever watch, even as the feeling of dread kicks in. It's called Review and it's both familiar and unlike anything you've ever watched, a darkly hysterical look at human nature, the systems we trap ourselves in, and the subjective nature of criticism.
Created and adapted from an Australian TV Show by Andy Daly, Jeffrey Blitz, and Charlie Siskel, Review (Which starts it's abbreviated 3rd and final season in the U.S. tonight before premiering in Canada next week on MUCH) stars Daly as self-proclaimed "life reviewer" Forrest MacNeil. Forrest hosts "Review", a show-within-a-show where he reviews life experiences chosen from an apparently random system of viewer requests on a scale of 0.5 to 5 stars. The reviews range from small things like being racist, having a best friend, being the life of the party, and public speaking to more significant things like divorce, being buried alive, being a little person and going to space. No matter the size of the task though, the reviews almost always backfire on Forrest, wrecking havoc on his life and bringing pain on him and/or the people around him in all kinds of unexpected ways, which is where the fun and dread come into play. From having to attend a custody hearing in a Batman costume to getting lost at sea for three months to seeing an imaginary friend brutally shanked in prison, you can never predict how a review will go wrong for Forrest, only that it will go wrong and it will always be funny. Even something has harmless sounding as an afternoon alone in a rowboat could get Forrest stranded at sea for over three months.
The genius of Review comes from the decision to make it so the reviews themself don't exist in a continuity-free vacuum. This isn't some cartoony setting where everything that's torn down is built up again by the next episode. The stuff Forrest does for the show has actual consequences on his life that carry over and build up over the course of the show bringing a weight and a darkness to the show as Forrest's life gets worse and worse. When Forrest divorces his wife Suzanne (A terrific Jessica St. Clair) three episodes in, she doesn't forgive him and take him back after the review is over, instead he spends much of the show pining for her and hoping to win her back as she just grows more and more disappointed in him and the insanity he invites into his life. When Forrest attends that custody hearing in a Batman costume, Suzanne's lawyer has a whole list of reasons why Forrest is an unfit parent based solely on things Forrest has done for the show. When Forrest's actions end up somehow leading to the destruction of both of his father's (Max Gail) homes (Over two different episodes), he has to live out of his office for the rest of the season. When Forrest eventually murders someone for the show, he spends an episode in prison before getting released on bail (The upcoming 3rd season is apparently going to deal with his trial). Slowly but surely Forrest loses or alienates everyone that he cares about, is plunged into debt, and almost dies a dozen different times. The result is a show that's hard to watch but impossible to look away from, with a darkness that doesn't stop growing but never takes over completely. This is a comedy after all.
A lot of why the darkness of Review never becomes too much to take comes from Daly's performance as Forrest, a person who's as charmingly innocent and full of child-like wonder about what he does as he is selfish and woefully shortsighted. Over the course of the series Forrest does some horrible, horrible, horrible things for the show but he never becomes totally unlikeable thanks to Daly who makes Forest blissfully unaware that things are about to go terribly wrong until the second before it happens. That ignorance keeps the audience on Forrest's side and keeps them rooting for him to somehow break the cycle he insists on trapping himself in, even as he fails to do so time and time again. At the same time when Forrest does ruin his life or almost gets himself killed, you don't feel too badly because the show knows there's something incredibly arrogant about a middle-age white man insisting that he's somehow able to objectively rate life experiences and the show isn't afraid to show what a fool Forrest is. It's a tricky balance to manage but Daly pulls it off with aplomb, making Forrest into a much more complex character than he might be in lesser hands.
Ultimately what makes Review great is the same thing that makes all the best anti-hero shows great: a refusal let the protagonist off the hook for their horrible actions and a willingness to play with audience expectations and push them out of their comfort zone. Early on the show introduces Grant (James Urbaniak), Forrest's oily producer who manipulates Forrest every time Forrest has doubts about a review into going through with it and who has no apparent moral compass. Urbaniak plays the character with such expert sliminess that it becomes easy to buy into the idea that Forrest is some poor innocent sap being manipulated for the sake of ratings and prop up Grant as the show's villain. As the show goes on though, it becomes obvious that Grant's manipulation isn't to blame for Forrest's problems, Forrest is. Forrest is the one who created the show and chooses to follow absurdly narrow guidelines for how to go about interpreting and completing his assignments. Forrest is the one who ignores the concerns of his co-host A.J. (Megan Stevenson, the show's secret comic weapon), his father and everyone else because he thinks his work is important. Forrest is the one blind to the fact that objectively reviewing life experiences is impossible and his pain is not universal. Forrest is the one who refuses to say no time and time again in order to uphold the principles of the show and prioritizes those principles over everything else in his life. After his review of using a Magic 8 Ball to make all his decisions goes poorly, Forrest lambastes the idea of using an arbitrary system to make choices instead of following your gut instinct, but his entire life is beholden to the arbitrary system of Review, a system he can't back down from because doing so would expose how meaningless everything he does really is (A simple request to rate something six stars out of five is enough to trigger a near-existential crisis).
Review, like any anti-hero show isn't for everyone and even those with very high tolerance for cringe comedy will be sorely tested. Watching a man destroy his life over and over and over for no reason isn't always the most pleasant viewing experience and it's hard to describe why the show is so appealing. In the end, it probably comes down to how oddly joyful and fun the show is. Don't get me wrong, it's a very dark show and the situations get quite bleak, but it never feels like a bleak show, even when the show gets around to it's Murder review. The show takes great glee in the ridiculousness of what Forrest is doing and it never forgets an opportunity to add in some silliness to all the pain. From the complete ineffectualness of Forrest's unpaid College intern Josh (Michael Croner) and Josh's girlfriend Tina (Hayley Huntley) to Forrest's complete ignorance of how the internet works to the brilliant asides and reaction shots of A.J., there's always something to laugh at in this show. Even when Forrest is broken to his very core, you're excited to see what will happen next because the show doesn't forget how to have fun. So yes, Review's devotion to the anti-hero drama formula is what makes it interesting but the joy it brings to all of it's misery is what makes it special and what will keep it in the conversation of all-time great comedies for a very long time. Five stars.
Saturday, 11 March 2017
Riverdale: Chapter Seven: In A Lonely Place
-At it's core Riverdale isn't a deconstruction of Archie comics, it's a deconstruction of the idea of Archie Comics, built up over the course of it's over 75 year history. It takes the "idealized, make-believe TV version of the American Dream" that we associate with Archie, a world where squeaky-clean teenagers hang out at Malt shops, have innocent love triangles and get into wholesome mischief trying to solve their simple problems, and turns it on it's head, revealing that image for the unrealistic fantasy it's always been. Our core Archie characters (I.E. Anyone who isn't a parent) haven't been significantly changed. Archie still does whatever it takes to help his friends, Jughead still follows his own path, Betty is still down-to-earth and driven, Veronica is still sophisticated and glamorous, and so on. What's changed is their circumstances, the world around them has become darker and more dangerous than the platonic ideal of the comics, but also richer and more rewarding for the people watching them. Despite all the murder and insanity around them, Archie and the gang feel relatable, much more so than those happy, idealized versions that have dominated the imagination for so long. Riverdale isn't ignoring it's history, it's just rearranging it in a way that resonates with people today, and when it nods to that history with moments like Jughead's comic-inspired dream tonight, it makes the show that much more effective.
-That whole spiel was my way of saying how much I appreciated the opening dream sequence, particularly the costuming on everyone. Seriously that might be my favourite Riverdale moment to date. It even elevated the narration around it. And the way reality starts to creep in as idealized Archie is stabbed in the back (Can you tell Jughead is conflicted about what happened with Betty?) to end the dream before transitioning into the sequence of Jughead wandering the school he's been living in was masterful.
-Riverdale has been on a real upswing ever since Ms. Grundy left and that continues with In A Lonely Place. This episode doesn't have any crazy setpiece like Jason's memorial or the trip to the asylum (Though the dueling search/hunting parties for Polly early in the episode comes close) but it makes up for that with some serious character work for Jughead, Fred, and F.P., fleshing out some relationships and dynamics that sorely needed it while keeping things entertaining.
-In his first appearance, all Skeet Ulrich really got to do as F.P. was be imposing and threatening until the big twist that his character was Jughead's father, which came on the heels of the other twist that revealed Jughead was currently homeless. These two things seemed to suggest that Jughead and his father had an animosity-filled relationship but the truth turns out to be more complicated than that. Ulrich does a great job this week making F.P. into a tragic figure, a guy who wants to put his life together and get his family back, but just isn't strong enough to change. Cole Sprouse also gives his strongest performance to date as he gets across how much Jughead loves his dad, while still being angry for how much F.P. has screwed everything up. When F.P. shows up at the end of the episode drunk and ready to fight the sheriff before resolving to get clean in a couple months, you can just feel the heartbreak. A sense of regret and uncertainty hangs over every scene they share together and you really feel the weight of the situation.
-We also find out more about F.P. and Fred's history tonight as we learn that they used to be the best of friends before their big falling out. Fred has been kind of a snooze of a character so far (Though not as much as his son) but Luke Perry does great work tonight underlining the character's fundamental decency and the uneasiness he has about giving F.P. a second chance after all that's happened. It really drives home the idea of Fred as an older version of Archie, one who will do what it takes to help people in need but who has enough experience to recognize when he's dealing with a lost cause. It doesn't mean Fred's a bad guy, just a responsible one, even if Archie is right to be mad about how Fred's decision also left Jughead to "drown" also.
-My favourite thing Riverdale has done with the adult characters is establish a history between all of them that suggests they were once just like the Archie gang before assorted life decisions got in the way of that. We see it most clearly with Fred and Hermione's flirtation and Fred and J.P.'s history, but also in things like Hermione saying she'd do anything for Alice Cooper's daughters. It gives the sense that our heroes are part of a cycle and something much bigger than themselves. I'm really hoping that we get flashbacks to Fred and company's younger days at some point (Maybe with their children playing their younger selves to really drive home the parallels.). I feel that could be interesting.
-Archie didn't have a huge storyline this week, which is for the best. Archie is at his strongest as a character when he's a supporting player in other people's stories rather than holding down his own. Here his main goal in the episode is to help Jughead. There's a bit of conflict with Fred when he learns about Fred unceremoniously cutting F.P out of the company they started, but even that comes more out of a place of anger about Jughead's struggles than anything and it's easily resolved once he sees Fred lie to the sheriff to help Jughead. If only Archie could be mostly out of the spotlight every week.
-So after the big Betty/Jughead kiss last week, it's still kind of unclear to everyone (especially them) where things stand between them and the whole thing is really underplayed this week. That's a smart move. Also though the opening dream set up the idea that Jughead was betraying Archie, Archie didn't get jealous at all when he found out, nor did it defer his efforts to help Jughead. He even apologizes to Betty for not being around to support her like Jughead was That was good to see because Archie being jealous would have felt inorganic and made him pretty unlikeable, considering he hasn't had much interest in Betty to date anyways. Good move Riverdale writers.
-The one story beat that felt off about this episode was the revelation that Jughead spent time in juvenile detention six years back for trying to burn down Riverdale Elementary (He explains it as him just "playing with matches"). It comes out of nowhere to basically set up the "Fred saves the day and falsifies evidence" beats of the plot and winds up feeling like one complication too many. Sheriff Keller's interview with Jughead where he judges him based on his upbringing also seemed out of character for someone who's been characterized as much more reasonable and level-headed up to now. Maybe the pressure from the Blossom's is getting to him.
-After last episode ended with Polly escaping from the asylum, I figured she'd be kept off the board for a couple episodes while the show dealt with other stuff or spun it's wheels a bit. Instead not only is the question of her whereabouts answered by the half point of In A Lonely Place, but the end of the episode sets her up to be around for the rest of the season. This was surprising but also welcome. Tiera Skovbye is great in the role and I'm excited to see her bounce off the rest of the cast (Particularly her new roommates Veronica and Hermione) throughout the remainder of the season.
-After a week off, Cheryl was back with a vengeance this week as she mobilizes the masses against Polly Cooper only for things to take an abrupt turn when she learns that Polly's pregnant with Jason's baby. Cheryl's sudden turn into from wanting to lynch Polly to wanting to help her could seem abrupt and jarring but Madelaine Petsch is able to make it work by anchoring Cheryl's actions to her love of her brother that gives her arc some needed consistency. Everything Cheryl does in this episode from tweeting out that Polly killed Jason to telling Polly not to go to her parents when it becomes obvious they want to get rid of her and take the baby for themselves makes sense because we know how much Cheryl loves Jason and how desperate she is to get some kind of closure or some reminder of him.
-The first part of the episode promises a big Cooper v. Blossom war as everyone tries to find Polly but it gets quickly defused by Alice's church-side press conference, which is a bit of a let-down. At least we got the aforementioned dueling search/hunting parties scene out of it. That was a lot of fun. This episode also does a good job at comparing and contrasting the Coopers and Blossoms this episode as we see why neither of them would be good for Polly or the baby.
-The most unintentionally funny scene in the episode was the one where Cheryl found out about Polly's asylum escape because the Archie gang held a long conversation about a sensitive subject they all agreed should be kept from the Blossoms in the middle of a very public space full of people (Particularly Ginger, one of Cheryl's minions who's really good at blending into the background.). Really guys? Were you that shocked when the news leaked?
-Betty seems to be on weirdly fine terms with her parents (even if she doesn't trust them with Polly or the baby) considering that last week she literally accused them of murder.
-Veronica acts out against her mother this week as retribution for Hermione's actions last week. Whereas Veronica's anger felt pretty justified last week, her stubborn behavior this week felt overly juvenile and petty for the first part of the episode. It improves in the second part though when she reveals to Kevin, Josie, and Reggie the main reason she's upset about Hermione forging her signature. When the Lodge's lost everything, Hermione swore to her that they'd never be able to take her name, only to take it herself to act against the father Veronica's still loyal to. Even though partnering with Andrews Construction is the right decision, Hermione has seriously breached her daughter's trust. The eventual make-up scene between them also works as it shows that Veronica is willing to make concessions and accept her mother's involvement with Fred to an extent, something it didn't seem like she was willing to do earlier. Her being there to support her mother as she came clean to Hiram about Fred was also an effective button for that particular plotline.
-So when Veronica was planning her night out and telling Kevin that she needed dumb, disposable arm candy, was I the only one who thought she was going to invite Archie? I was glad she went with Reggie though as he's been in serious need of some screentime.
-Josie and Veronica are officially friends now after last week's episode, which hopefully means we'll finally start getting significant screentime for the character and more than the occasional spotlight she's been thrown up to this point.
-This Week in "Conspicuous Covergirl Product Placement": Lots of shots of Alice applying make-up as she prepares to speak in front of the church.
-Fred and J.P. used to be in a band called The Fredheads, which is amazing. Again, good week for Fred.
-So when exactly did Fred fire F.P. anyways? Was this a recent thing or did it happen a long time ago? Because it feels like Jughead being on the streets is a somewhat recent development, but both he and Archie were shocked to find out that Fred and F.P. started the company together and I feel that's something they would be aware of unless this happened ages ago.
-Is that Southside Serpent guy Kevin was flirting with ever going to show up again? Also are Fred, Jughead, and Archie aware of F.P.'s involvement in the Serpents? That part of F.P.'s life was not on display at all apart from a quick conversation with Hermione to close off the plot thread of them threatening her for more money.
-Murder Theory Corner: Hey, my hunch about F.P being involved in the destruction of Jason's car was right on the money . We still don't know why he did it though (Or why he took the jacket and is keeping it fairly visible) so I'm sticking to drugs. I doubt F.P. is the killer because years of avid TV watching has taught me to assume that every obvious killer candidate is a red herring. I guess Jughead's lack of an alibi is questionable but come on, Riverdale is not going to turn one of their most marketable characters with a 75-year history into a murderer. So I'm gonna stick with my Mayor McCoy theory until I have reason to doubt it.
-Bad news. The next new episode of Riverdale isn't until March 30th. Good news! The show got renewed for season 2 this week so we have at least another year of this ridiculous show.
-That whole spiel was my way of saying how much I appreciated the opening dream sequence, particularly the costuming on everyone. Seriously that might be my favourite Riverdale moment to date. It even elevated the narration around it. And the way reality starts to creep in as idealized Archie is stabbed in the back (Can you tell Jughead is conflicted about what happened with Betty?) to end the dream before transitioning into the sequence of Jughead wandering the school he's been living in was masterful.
-Riverdale has been on a real upswing ever since Ms. Grundy left and that continues with In A Lonely Place. This episode doesn't have any crazy setpiece like Jason's memorial or the trip to the asylum (Though the dueling search/hunting parties for Polly early in the episode comes close) but it makes up for that with some serious character work for Jughead, Fred, and F.P., fleshing out some relationships and dynamics that sorely needed it while keeping things entertaining.
-In his first appearance, all Skeet Ulrich really got to do as F.P. was be imposing and threatening until the big twist that his character was Jughead's father, which came on the heels of the other twist that revealed Jughead was currently homeless. These two things seemed to suggest that Jughead and his father had an animosity-filled relationship but the truth turns out to be more complicated than that. Ulrich does a great job this week making F.P. into a tragic figure, a guy who wants to put his life together and get his family back, but just isn't strong enough to change. Cole Sprouse also gives his strongest performance to date as he gets across how much Jughead loves his dad, while still being angry for how much F.P. has screwed everything up. When F.P. shows up at the end of the episode drunk and ready to fight the sheriff before resolving to get clean in a couple months, you can just feel the heartbreak. A sense of regret and uncertainty hangs over every scene they share together and you really feel the weight of the situation.
-We also find out more about F.P. and Fred's history tonight as we learn that they used to be the best of friends before their big falling out. Fred has been kind of a snooze of a character so far (Though not as much as his son) but Luke Perry does great work tonight underlining the character's fundamental decency and the uneasiness he has about giving F.P. a second chance after all that's happened. It really drives home the idea of Fred as an older version of Archie, one who will do what it takes to help people in need but who has enough experience to recognize when he's dealing with a lost cause. It doesn't mean Fred's a bad guy, just a responsible one, even if Archie is right to be mad about how Fred's decision also left Jughead to "drown" also.
-My favourite thing Riverdale has done with the adult characters is establish a history between all of them that suggests they were once just like the Archie gang before assorted life decisions got in the way of that. We see it most clearly with Fred and Hermione's flirtation and Fred and J.P.'s history, but also in things like Hermione saying she'd do anything for Alice Cooper's daughters. It gives the sense that our heroes are part of a cycle and something much bigger than themselves. I'm really hoping that we get flashbacks to Fred and company's younger days at some point (Maybe with their children playing their younger selves to really drive home the parallels.). I feel that could be interesting.
-Archie didn't have a huge storyline this week, which is for the best. Archie is at his strongest as a character when he's a supporting player in other people's stories rather than holding down his own. Here his main goal in the episode is to help Jughead. There's a bit of conflict with Fred when he learns about Fred unceremoniously cutting F.P out of the company they started, but even that comes more out of a place of anger about Jughead's struggles than anything and it's easily resolved once he sees Fred lie to the sheriff to help Jughead. If only Archie could be mostly out of the spotlight every week.
-So after the big Betty/Jughead kiss last week, it's still kind of unclear to everyone (especially them) where things stand between them and the whole thing is really underplayed this week. That's a smart move. Also though the opening dream set up the idea that Jughead was betraying Archie, Archie didn't get jealous at all when he found out, nor did it defer his efforts to help Jughead. He even apologizes to Betty for not being around to support her like Jughead was That was good to see because Archie being jealous would have felt inorganic and made him pretty unlikeable, considering he hasn't had much interest in Betty to date anyways. Good move Riverdale writers.
-The one story beat that felt off about this episode was the revelation that Jughead spent time in juvenile detention six years back for trying to burn down Riverdale Elementary (He explains it as him just "playing with matches"). It comes out of nowhere to basically set up the "Fred saves the day and falsifies evidence" beats of the plot and winds up feeling like one complication too many. Sheriff Keller's interview with Jughead where he judges him based on his upbringing also seemed out of character for someone who's been characterized as much more reasonable and level-headed up to now. Maybe the pressure from the Blossom's is getting to him.
-After last episode ended with Polly escaping from the asylum, I figured she'd be kept off the board for a couple episodes while the show dealt with other stuff or spun it's wheels a bit. Instead not only is the question of her whereabouts answered by the half point of In A Lonely Place, but the end of the episode sets her up to be around for the rest of the season. This was surprising but also welcome. Tiera Skovbye is great in the role and I'm excited to see her bounce off the rest of the cast (Particularly her new roommates Veronica and Hermione) throughout the remainder of the season.
-After a week off, Cheryl was back with a vengeance this week as she mobilizes the masses against Polly Cooper only for things to take an abrupt turn when she learns that Polly's pregnant with Jason's baby. Cheryl's sudden turn into from wanting to lynch Polly to wanting to help her could seem abrupt and jarring but Madelaine Petsch is able to make it work by anchoring Cheryl's actions to her love of her brother that gives her arc some needed consistency. Everything Cheryl does in this episode from tweeting out that Polly killed Jason to telling Polly not to go to her parents when it becomes obvious they want to get rid of her and take the baby for themselves makes sense because we know how much Cheryl loves Jason and how desperate she is to get some kind of closure or some reminder of him.
-The first part of the episode promises a big Cooper v. Blossom war as everyone tries to find Polly but it gets quickly defused by Alice's church-side press conference, which is a bit of a let-down. At least we got the aforementioned dueling search/hunting parties scene out of it. That was a lot of fun. This episode also does a good job at comparing and contrasting the Coopers and Blossoms this episode as we see why neither of them would be good for Polly or the baby.
-The most unintentionally funny scene in the episode was the one where Cheryl found out about Polly's asylum escape because the Archie gang held a long conversation about a sensitive subject they all agreed should be kept from the Blossoms in the middle of a very public space full of people (Particularly Ginger, one of Cheryl's minions who's really good at blending into the background.). Really guys? Were you that shocked when the news leaked?
-Betty seems to be on weirdly fine terms with her parents (even if she doesn't trust them with Polly or the baby) considering that last week she literally accused them of murder.
-Veronica acts out against her mother this week as retribution for Hermione's actions last week. Whereas Veronica's anger felt pretty justified last week, her stubborn behavior this week felt overly juvenile and petty for the first part of the episode. It improves in the second part though when she reveals to Kevin, Josie, and Reggie the main reason she's upset about Hermione forging her signature. When the Lodge's lost everything, Hermione swore to her that they'd never be able to take her name, only to take it herself to act against the father Veronica's still loyal to. Even though partnering with Andrews Construction is the right decision, Hermione has seriously breached her daughter's trust. The eventual make-up scene between them also works as it shows that Veronica is willing to make concessions and accept her mother's involvement with Fred to an extent, something it didn't seem like she was willing to do earlier. Her being there to support her mother as she came clean to Hiram about Fred was also an effective button for that particular plotline.
-So when Veronica was planning her night out and telling Kevin that she needed dumb, disposable arm candy, was I the only one who thought she was going to invite Archie? I was glad she went with Reggie though as he's been in serious need of some screentime.
-Josie and Veronica are officially friends now after last week's episode, which hopefully means we'll finally start getting significant screentime for the character and more than the occasional spotlight she's been thrown up to this point.
-This Week in "Conspicuous Covergirl Product Placement": Lots of shots of Alice applying make-up as she prepares to speak in front of the church.
-Fred and J.P. used to be in a band called The Fredheads, which is amazing. Again, good week for Fred.
-So when exactly did Fred fire F.P. anyways? Was this a recent thing or did it happen a long time ago? Because it feels like Jughead being on the streets is a somewhat recent development, but both he and Archie were shocked to find out that Fred and F.P. started the company together and I feel that's something they would be aware of unless this happened ages ago.
-Is that Southside Serpent guy Kevin was flirting with ever going to show up again? Also are Fred, Jughead, and Archie aware of F.P.'s involvement in the Serpents? That part of F.P.'s life was not on display at all apart from a quick conversation with Hermione to close off the plot thread of them threatening her for more money.
-Murder Theory Corner: Hey, my hunch about F.P being involved in the destruction of Jason's car was right on the money . We still don't know why he did it though (Or why he took the jacket and is keeping it fairly visible) so I'm sticking to drugs. I doubt F.P. is the killer because years of avid TV watching has taught me to assume that every obvious killer candidate is a red herring. I guess Jughead's lack of an alibi is questionable but come on, Riverdale is not going to turn one of their most marketable characters with a 75-year history into a murderer. So I'm gonna stick with my Mayor McCoy theory until I have reason to doubt it.
-Bad news. The next new episode of Riverdale isn't until March 30th. Good news! The show got renewed for season 2 this week so we have at least another year of this ridiculous show.
Friday, 3 March 2017
Riverdale: Faster Pussycats! Kill! Kill!
-Man, I love Riverdale. It has a myriad of flaws and plot holes and I'm not sure I would call it "quality" television by any means, but it is very fun, very entertaining television and I'm not sure how I ever managed without it. At many times in this week's episode, my jaw dropped in and my eyes went wide delight at the ridiculous twists and turns. During all three of the big kisses this week, I think I shouted "Whoa!" at my TV screen. Riverdale is a deeply silly show, but it's aware that it's silly and owns it with impressive confidence that keeps the show from being an overly serious, morose wreck. Riverdale may be a darker take on the Archie mythos, but there's an unmistakable joy to it that comes through in every episode and that's what keeps me watching every week. There are plenty of better shows on TV but few of them are as fun as the one that can have both a big high school variety show and a visit to an asylum in the same episode without losing a step.
-Once again, Archie finds himself in high school drama land, completely disconnected from the murder plot at large, save for a funny moment where he offers to help Betty and Jughead but gets shut out. This time though, the grounded high school stuff works as well as the heightened stuff, because Archie isn't shut off from all the more interesting characters as he prepares for the big Variety Show. Veronica and Josie and Val and Kevin are there too to elevate the material enough that Archie was actually kind of interesting this week.
-As the title of the episode implies, "Faster Pussycats! Kill! Kill!" gives us our biggest look yet at Josie and the Pussycats. For a credited main character, we haven't actually spent that much time with Josie yet and don't have much of a sense of who she is as a character beyond "Proud Woman of Colour" "Lead Singer of Josie and the Pussycats" "The Mayor's Abrasive Daughter" and "Apparently Close With Cheryl". This changes tonight as we get a much better sense of why Josie is the way she is and get to see her vulnerable for the very first time. Ashleigh Murray does terrific in her first major spotlight, especially in her crushed reaction when her dad walks out before the end of her performance, which is just heart-breaking.
-Impossible to please parents are a common occurrence on television. Hell, Riverdale already has multiple sets of them. The McCoy's offer a less crazy, more grounded version of the trope though and it works well. We see Sierra McCoy has demanding with her daughter at first as she puts a lot of pressure on her not to disappoint her father at the variety show and exert control over her daughter's brand. This would be enough to explain why Josie seems so harsh in every episode we've seen her in so far but it turns out that Josie's demanding mother is nothing compared to her father Miles, an accomplished Jazz musician who would be right at home in a Damien Chazelle movie. Harsh and pretentious and dismissive of basically every kind of music that isn't Jazz, particularly Pop, Miles is a broadly-drawn caricature, but an effective one. Josie's mom is very invested in the success of her daughter, but she also cares about Josie, where Miles is content to just leave if he doesn't feel Josie is living up to her potential. It makes for a fascinating family dynamic that brings some extra emotional weight to the episode.
-The falling-out between Josie and Val isn't as effective as it could have been because we've been given almost no context for their friendship or dynamic prior to this episode and no reason to invest in the fate of their friendship beyond any nostalgia we have for the old Josie cartoon/movie. Since we've seen nothing of the softer side of Josie prior to this episode, it's hard to understand why Val and Mel are friends with her at all. Everything else is much better though, particularly their reconciliation scene at the end when we get to see actual warmth between the two. We also get a better sense of who Val is after this episode. She's not just back-up for Josie, she's talented in her own right and she appreciates working with Archie, where she actually gets more of a chance to shine. The moment she finds out Miles is in town though, she drops the fight with Josie and makes nice because Val is a great person and cares about her friends well-being. I'm a little nervous for her being in a relationship with Archie because there's no way that ends well, but I'll have to trust the writers know where they're going with this.
-So after getting him into the variety show in the first place, Veronica offers to sing with Archie so he won't have to deal with his stage fright, and then he kicks her out the second Val is available? Not cool! Veronica's anger may have been mostly related to her mom and Fred kissing but this alone is enough to justify her rage. At least Archie apologizes later.
-Archie is basically there this week to suffer stage fright, briefly Yoko the Pussycats, piss off Veronica and overcome his stage fright. He's still the least interesting character in the narrative but I liked him a lot more this week as a character and found the big moment where he performs in front of people for the very first time was emotionally earned very effective. The nicest touch was where after Veronica's advice to focus on someone who makes him feel safe, the show feints with him looking at Veronica before settling on his dad, which was much more realistic.
-As for the song itself? It was alright. Nothing to write home about or give a standing ovation to, but not terrible either. The music element of this show is always going to be tricky because there's a difference between the show telling us something is good and something actually being good, particularly something as subjective as music. But while I didn't find "Only You" particularly memorable, the scene worked in the context of Archie's narrative up to this point. The top performance of the night was easily the Pussycat's cover of "I Feel Love" though.
-Veronica has been presented as worldly and wise beyond her years for the most part so far on Riverdale, but tonight we get to see her act mostly as a hurt, 16-Year-Old and it's refreshing. Veronica knows that her dad did bad things and probably isn't the best person, but there's a part of her that's still loyal to her dad and the life she had with both her parents before this all happened. So when she sees Hermione and Fred kissing, of course she's going to feel threatened about the situation. It doesn't help that Hermione has a tendency to keep acting shady, first continuing to not tell Fred about who owns the land he's bidding on, then trying to get Veronica to sign off on awarding him the bid while still keeping this all quiet, and then forging Veronica's signature anyways. Veronica has every right to be hurt and angry at her mother, even as she tries to take Josie's advice and see her mom's side of the situation. This growing rift between the two is also very effective because we've been given time to see their relationship and bond so we care now that it's threatened.
-So Veronica is a legal officer of Lodge Industries? That's definitely not going to come into play down the road.
-Meanwhile Betty and Jughead finally figure out where Polly is and go to see her only to discover... she's pregnant with Jason's baby! This is a terrific twist because it's really obvious in retrospect, but I was still blown away when they revealed her expecting belly. Suddenly the reason she was sent away makes a whole lot more sense and Alice and Hal become that much more despicable.
-Polly is played by Tiera Skovbye, who besides looking very much like Lili Reinhart's sister, does a really good job at portraying Polly as someone who doesn't seem like a nutjob, but is just ever so slightly off that you find yourself doubting her story just a bit. There's also strong chemistry between her and Reinhart, so you understand why Betty is so determined to get to the bottom of what happened to her sister. And with Polly escaping through the window of the asylum at the end of the episode, the landscape of Riverdale has just gotten an enticing new wildcard thrown into the mix, which should spice things up as we start moving into the second half of the season.
-Riverdale is on a role, when it comes to introducing interesting new locations. Last week, we got Thornhill Manor, this week we get the Our Sisters of Silent Mercy Home For Troubled Youth, the asylum (With the stern-faced nuns and the men in white coats, it's definitely an asylum) that Hal and Alice had Polly sent to. With the muted colours, and creepy lighting, it sets the imagination ablaze as much as Thornhill does and offers another possible reason for Polly seeming unstable. Who wouldn't go crazy in a place like this?
-So Jughead kissed Betty. That's new. The comics version of Jughead of course historically has shown no interest in either sex, and the recent reboot of the character has him as asexual. And while it's disappointing that Riverdale isn't going down that road with the character (at least for now), I have no problems with the kiss itself, which jives with this version of Jughead and the bond they've established between him and Betty. Of course we have no idea how Betty feels about the kiss because she immediately gets distracted by plot stuff, so the whole thing feels more out-of-the-blue and random, but I am interested to see how they explore this possible love connection down the road.
-The number one rule for being in a TV mystery show? If you stumble upon a key piece of evidence, like say a car that has the victim's belongings in it and corroborates someone's story, the moment you leave it alone, it's going to be destroyed or compromised. Seriously why did Betty and Jughead leave the scene instead of getting the sheriff to come to them? Yes, they needed to show him the pictures, but they also apparently texted him to meet them at the school. If they can text the sheriff, why not text him the pictures with your location and guard the car?! Because people in TV mystery shows never think when it's be crucial.
-This Week in "Conspicuous Covergirl Product Placement": A distracting close-up on Josie's bottle of eyeshadow during her reconciliation scene with Val.
-The Best of Dumb Archie: Archie said and did a lot of dumb things in this episode but the best one is probably how surprised he is to learn that "Josie" is short for "Josephine". Really Archie?
-The dinner scene with Archie, Fred, Hermione, and the McCoy's was deliciously awkward, but the breakfast scene between Betty, Alice, and Jughead takes the cake as far as uncomfortable dinners go. Alice's obvious disdain for Jughead is incredible.
-So now that Josie and Val are actual characters, can we get some development for Mel now please? Or is she doomed to just be behind those drums forever?
-Why are Reggie and the other football players just hanging out at the variety show auditions randomly heckling people? Do they have nothing better to do with their time? Why were they even allowed in at all? Shouldn't they be closed auditions?
-So is Veronica just going to be in Josie and the Pussycats now? Is that a thing? Is that how we get more screentime for Josie and Mel (Val has Archie for now so she's good for being assured screentime.)? I'm fine with that.
-Also can we talk about how easily Veronica managed to join the band in the first place? She basically barged in, announced that she could sing and had aggression that needed releasing and suddenly she's slow-walking down the hallway in cat ears. Was there an audition at least that we didn't see? A spirited debate between Josie and Mel? Had Tina, the other established teenage Woman of Colour character burst in first with the same argument, would she have joined the Pussycats instead? OK, the answer to the last question is no, because Tina's still a background character with no personality and Veronica's a lead, but still.
-Murder Theory Corner: So now that Betty has confronted her dad about maybe being the killer, it's clear that he isn't the killer. The Polly angle to the case is really heating up which means it's about time to unveil a different motivation for the murder of Jason Blossom. My faith in it being Mayor McCoy is shaken a bit by there still being no real connection between the McCoy's and the Blossom's. Cheryl wasn't even in this episode to hang with her apparent good friend Josie. Meanwhile, I'm going to go out on a limb and predict the destruction of Jason's getaway car was mainly about those drugs stashed away in there. Drugs mean Southside Serpents. Southside Serpents means maybe Papa Jones is involved in this?
-Bonus Theory Corner: If Jason and Polly were running away together, why did Jason go the extra step of faking his death? It could be because he knew his parents were crazy and would come after him with a vengeance but my hunch is that he wasn't as in love with Polly as Polly thought and he had no intention of running away with her to start a family. So he told Alice and Hal about the July 4th plan so they'd intervene and then faked drowning in the river as a fail-safe in case Polly escaped. Then he tried to leave on his own. Maybe I'm off but I think there's more to Polly's story than she's telling and this is the most logical fit.
-Once again, Archie finds himself in high school drama land, completely disconnected from the murder plot at large, save for a funny moment where he offers to help Betty and Jughead but gets shut out. This time though, the grounded high school stuff works as well as the heightened stuff, because Archie isn't shut off from all the more interesting characters as he prepares for the big Variety Show. Veronica and Josie and Val and Kevin are there too to elevate the material enough that Archie was actually kind of interesting this week.
-As the title of the episode implies, "Faster Pussycats! Kill! Kill!" gives us our biggest look yet at Josie and the Pussycats. For a credited main character, we haven't actually spent that much time with Josie yet and don't have much of a sense of who she is as a character beyond "Proud Woman of Colour" "Lead Singer of Josie and the Pussycats" "The Mayor's Abrasive Daughter" and "Apparently Close With Cheryl". This changes tonight as we get a much better sense of why Josie is the way she is and get to see her vulnerable for the very first time. Ashleigh Murray does terrific in her first major spotlight, especially in her crushed reaction when her dad walks out before the end of her performance, which is just heart-breaking.
-Impossible to please parents are a common occurrence on television. Hell, Riverdale already has multiple sets of them. The McCoy's offer a less crazy, more grounded version of the trope though and it works well. We see Sierra McCoy has demanding with her daughter at first as she puts a lot of pressure on her not to disappoint her father at the variety show and exert control over her daughter's brand. This would be enough to explain why Josie seems so harsh in every episode we've seen her in so far but it turns out that Josie's demanding mother is nothing compared to her father Miles, an accomplished Jazz musician who would be right at home in a Damien Chazelle movie. Harsh and pretentious and dismissive of basically every kind of music that isn't Jazz, particularly Pop, Miles is a broadly-drawn caricature, but an effective one. Josie's mom is very invested in the success of her daughter, but she also cares about Josie, where Miles is content to just leave if he doesn't feel Josie is living up to her potential. It makes for a fascinating family dynamic that brings some extra emotional weight to the episode.
-The falling-out between Josie and Val isn't as effective as it could have been because we've been given almost no context for their friendship or dynamic prior to this episode and no reason to invest in the fate of their friendship beyond any nostalgia we have for the old Josie cartoon/movie. Since we've seen nothing of the softer side of Josie prior to this episode, it's hard to understand why Val and Mel are friends with her at all. Everything else is much better though, particularly their reconciliation scene at the end when we get to see actual warmth between the two. We also get a better sense of who Val is after this episode. She's not just back-up for Josie, she's talented in her own right and she appreciates working with Archie, where she actually gets more of a chance to shine. The moment she finds out Miles is in town though, she drops the fight with Josie and makes nice because Val is a great person and cares about her friends well-being. I'm a little nervous for her being in a relationship with Archie because there's no way that ends well, but I'll have to trust the writers know where they're going with this.
-So after getting him into the variety show in the first place, Veronica offers to sing with Archie so he won't have to deal with his stage fright, and then he kicks her out the second Val is available? Not cool! Veronica's anger may have been mostly related to her mom and Fred kissing but this alone is enough to justify her rage. At least Archie apologizes later.
-Archie is basically there this week to suffer stage fright, briefly Yoko the Pussycats, piss off Veronica and overcome his stage fright. He's still the least interesting character in the narrative but I liked him a lot more this week as a character and found the big moment where he performs in front of people for the very first time was emotionally earned very effective. The nicest touch was where after Veronica's advice to focus on someone who makes him feel safe, the show feints with him looking at Veronica before settling on his dad, which was much more realistic.
-As for the song itself? It was alright. Nothing to write home about or give a standing ovation to, but not terrible either. The music element of this show is always going to be tricky because there's a difference between the show telling us something is good and something actually being good, particularly something as subjective as music. But while I didn't find "Only You" particularly memorable, the scene worked in the context of Archie's narrative up to this point. The top performance of the night was easily the Pussycat's cover of "I Feel Love" though.
-Veronica has been presented as worldly and wise beyond her years for the most part so far on Riverdale, but tonight we get to see her act mostly as a hurt, 16-Year-Old and it's refreshing. Veronica knows that her dad did bad things and probably isn't the best person, but there's a part of her that's still loyal to her dad and the life she had with both her parents before this all happened. So when she sees Hermione and Fred kissing, of course she's going to feel threatened about the situation. It doesn't help that Hermione has a tendency to keep acting shady, first continuing to not tell Fred about who owns the land he's bidding on, then trying to get Veronica to sign off on awarding him the bid while still keeping this all quiet, and then forging Veronica's signature anyways. Veronica has every right to be hurt and angry at her mother, even as she tries to take Josie's advice and see her mom's side of the situation. This growing rift between the two is also very effective because we've been given time to see their relationship and bond so we care now that it's threatened.
-So Veronica is a legal officer of Lodge Industries? That's definitely not going to come into play down the road.
-Meanwhile Betty and Jughead finally figure out where Polly is and go to see her only to discover... she's pregnant with Jason's baby! This is a terrific twist because it's really obvious in retrospect, but I was still blown away when they revealed her expecting belly. Suddenly the reason she was sent away makes a whole lot more sense and Alice and Hal become that much more despicable.
-Polly is played by Tiera Skovbye, who besides looking very much like Lili Reinhart's sister, does a really good job at portraying Polly as someone who doesn't seem like a nutjob, but is just ever so slightly off that you find yourself doubting her story just a bit. There's also strong chemistry between her and Reinhart, so you understand why Betty is so determined to get to the bottom of what happened to her sister. And with Polly escaping through the window of the asylum at the end of the episode, the landscape of Riverdale has just gotten an enticing new wildcard thrown into the mix, which should spice things up as we start moving into the second half of the season.
-Riverdale is on a role, when it comes to introducing interesting new locations. Last week, we got Thornhill Manor, this week we get the Our Sisters of Silent Mercy Home For Troubled Youth, the asylum (With the stern-faced nuns and the men in white coats, it's definitely an asylum) that Hal and Alice had Polly sent to. With the muted colours, and creepy lighting, it sets the imagination ablaze as much as Thornhill does and offers another possible reason for Polly seeming unstable. Who wouldn't go crazy in a place like this?
-So Jughead kissed Betty. That's new. The comics version of Jughead of course historically has shown no interest in either sex, and the recent reboot of the character has him as asexual. And while it's disappointing that Riverdale isn't going down that road with the character (at least for now), I have no problems with the kiss itself, which jives with this version of Jughead and the bond they've established between him and Betty. Of course we have no idea how Betty feels about the kiss because she immediately gets distracted by plot stuff, so the whole thing feels more out-of-the-blue and random, but I am interested to see how they explore this possible love connection down the road.
-The number one rule for being in a TV mystery show? If you stumble upon a key piece of evidence, like say a car that has the victim's belongings in it and corroborates someone's story, the moment you leave it alone, it's going to be destroyed or compromised. Seriously why did Betty and Jughead leave the scene instead of getting the sheriff to come to them? Yes, they needed to show him the pictures, but they also apparently texted him to meet them at the school. If they can text the sheriff, why not text him the pictures with your location and guard the car?! Because people in TV mystery shows never think when it's be crucial.
-This Week in "Conspicuous Covergirl Product Placement": A distracting close-up on Josie's bottle of eyeshadow during her reconciliation scene with Val.
-The Best of Dumb Archie: Archie said and did a lot of dumb things in this episode but the best one is probably how surprised he is to learn that "Josie" is short for "Josephine". Really Archie?
-The dinner scene with Archie, Fred, Hermione, and the McCoy's was deliciously awkward, but the breakfast scene between Betty, Alice, and Jughead takes the cake as far as uncomfortable dinners go. Alice's obvious disdain for Jughead is incredible.
-So now that Josie and Val are actual characters, can we get some development for Mel now please? Or is she doomed to just be behind those drums forever?
-Why are Reggie and the other football players just hanging out at the variety show auditions randomly heckling people? Do they have nothing better to do with their time? Why were they even allowed in at all? Shouldn't they be closed auditions?
-So is Veronica just going to be in Josie and the Pussycats now? Is that a thing? Is that how we get more screentime for Josie and Mel (Val has Archie for now so she's good for being assured screentime.)? I'm fine with that.
-Also can we talk about how easily Veronica managed to join the band in the first place? She basically barged in, announced that she could sing and had aggression that needed releasing and suddenly she's slow-walking down the hallway in cat ears. Was there an audition at least that we didn't see? A spirited debate between Josie and Mel? Had Tina, the other established teenage Woman of Colour character burst in first with the same argument, would she have joined the Pussycats instead? OK, the answer to the last question is no, because Tina's still a background character with no personality and Veronica's a lead, but still.
-Murder Theory Corner: So now that Betty has confronted her dad about maybe being the killer, it's clear that he isn't the killer. The Polly angle to the case is really heating up which means it's about time to unveil a different motivation for the murder of Jason Blossom. My faith in it being Mayor McCoy is shaken a bit by there still being no real connection between the McCoy's and the Blossom's. Cheryl wasn't even in this episode to hang with her apparent good friend Josie. Meanwhile, I'm going to go out on a limb and predict the destruction of Jason's getaway car was mainly about those drugs stashed away in there. Drugs mean Southside Serpents. Southside Serpents means maybe Papa Jones is involved in this?
-Bonus Theory Corner: If Jason and Polly were running away together, why did Jason go the extra step of faking his death? It could be because he knew his parents were crazy and would come after him with a vengeance but my hunch is that he wasn't as in love with Polly as Polly thought and he had no intention of running away with her to start a family. So he told Alice and Hal about the July 4th plan so they'd intervene and then faked drowning in the river as a fail-safe in case Polly escaped. Then he tried to leave on his own. Maybe I'm off but I think there's more to Polly's story than she's telling and this is the most logical fit.
Wednesday, 1 March 2017
Jane The Virgin Struggles To Find Her Voice in Chapter 57
-This Week in Titles: Jane The Helicopter Mom
-Apologies for missing last week's recap. Unexpected business came up and I wasn't able to get around to it.
-Each chapter of "Jane" tends to be focused around a main unifying theme or idea or motif, like stress or faith or the selectiveness of memory or suspense that weaves it's way through the episode, informing most of the stories that week. There might be other themes or motifs that pop up throughout the episode but by the end you can typically tie those in to a larger picture that the episode is weaving Chapter Fifty-Seven throws a lot of ideas out there, but it's unable to unify them the way it usually does. It's main thing is about Jane finding her voice (Both figuratively and literally) as she writes and revisits her novel and it does that in interesting ways. But it also throws in a running theme about various biases Jane has, as well as stuff about communication and conflict mediation and a recurring thing about how Abbey (Raf's oft-forgotten girlfriend) tends to sneak up on people and while some of it tries to connect back to the finding your voice thing, ultimately it's unclear what the main takeaway from Chapter Fifty-Seven is supposed to be, making for a more muddled "Jane" than usual, though one that still had excellent moments.
-The episode begins with a flashback explaining how Jane came to write Falling Snow, her novel about her relationship with Michael. Feeling unable to connect with or work on her Venezuela novel after the death of Michael, Rafael encourages a hoarse-voiced Jane to write about something, anything, to get her voice back again. She winds up researching the history of Florida and gets sucked in but it's not until she looks at a photo of Michael and envisions him telling her "you got this" that she's able to start writing again. This results in Falling Snow, a love story set against the back-drop of the rise of the hotel industry in early 20th-century Florida. Jane takes her pain and makes something very personal with it reclaiming her voice in the process. But when she's asked to re-examine it and add to it, the personal nature of the work causes her to lose her voice again as she struggles to find a way to insert more obstacles into the story and confront the parts of her history with Michael that she'd rather ignore.
-Jane's basically asked to include more obstacles in her idealized love story, particularly involving the robber baron character "Rake" (The Rafael analogue in her story). This leads to a series of scenes where essentially the whole cast gets to dress up in early 20th century garb (Probably the main reason they decided to set Jane's novel in 1902) as Jane tries to figure out a way to bring more conflict into the story. But making the "Rake" character more sinister just doesn't ring true (Possible foreshadowing that whatever shadiness Raf is up to with his prison friend isn't so bad after all?) and all her efforts fall flat. As it turns out though, what her story really needs is to sell the idea that "Josephine" and "Rake" were in love before "Josephine" went back to Martin, which is when Jane is confronted with a whole new dilemma.
-Since Jane chose Michael back in early season 2, the Jane/Rafael romance has been cast to the side for the sake of simplifying things. However it's hard to forget that the bulk of season 1 centered around the love story of Jane and Rafael and that history isn't just going to disappear. Jane feels that to tap into what she once felt for Rafael would be a betrayal of Michael, but Alba rightfully points out that the fact that she fell in love with someone else but ultimately chose Michael only made the love between her and Michael more impactful (Which is true. I was much more invested in Michael after her relationship with Raf had ended). It feels like a justification for the writers to begin exploring the Jane-Rafael bond again and it mostly works. I am a bit concerned that they are setting up for a new Jane/Rafael romance by the end of the season though, which would be unfortunate. I'm not opposed to Jane and Rafael finding their way back to each other eventually, but anything between them that happened this season would feel much too soon.
-The episode sets up that Jane has a gender bias because she tends to gravitate to female authority figures over male ones, which they back up by pointing out the large number of female mentors Jane has turned to over the course of the episode (Even though the episode starts with her taking Rafael's advice about writing again, proving that she doesn't only listen to women). This is a development that makes sense, considering Jane's upbringing in a household of strong women and then it's not really explored in any meaningful way apart from some choice narrator quips. Jane has Jeremy, a male editor for her book who seems like an obnoxious bro, but has genuine good advice and a desire to meaningfully engage with the material under his exterior. She also has Carly, a female aide for Mateo who seems perfect until it becomes apparent that she's a huge gossip who has no qualms with revealing sensitive information about kids and parents in addition to the disinterest and negligence Mateo reveals. Both these turn-arounds are easy to predict and while Jane recognizes by the end that she does engage in bias, at no point does the show attempt to dig into where this bias comes from or what it means on a deeper level, which seems like a big misstep. If you're going to introduce the idea of Jane being biased, at least be willing to explore it beyond the most surface level.
-Calling it now: Jane's first post-Michael love interest will be either Jeremy or this Alex, who's never seen but is set up tonight as the perfect aide for Mateo. Also at some point down the line, Jane's definitely going to have to change the ending of her book so that "Martin" dies.
-Somewhere between Jane writing her novel and Jane dealing with her biases is the plot of Jane accidentally yelling at the director of the preschool over a conversation with apparent mean girl mom Stacy that she misunderstood to be about Mateo's behavioral problems. It brings together both the idea of Jane losing her voice (Jane just can't find the right thing to say or action to show to this director to smooth this whole incident over, with everyone of Petra's ideas that she tries making it worse) and the idea of Jane having bias (Jane feels Stacy is just a mean girl, when Stacy turns out to have real problems of her own). In the end Jane is able to resolve both of these conflicts by being true to herself and coming through when it counts the most (Washing dishes at a school fundraiser when they're almost out and no one else is able to do it, firing Carly and reaching out to Stacy with empathy) making some new friends in the process. The Jane preschool stories are interesting because it's the rare environment where Jane can't seem to easily impress the people around her. Having her clash with both Stacy and the director though on top of the whole aide thing may have been too much for one episode though and added to the muddled feel.
-I've been pretty lukewarm on Bruce since he first showed up, but he won me over tonight with that sweetness the show keeps insisting he has. As he steps in to mediate the conflict between Xo and Ro, asks Jane and Alba for permission to propose and agrees to become Rogelio's new lawyer even though Rogelio has inadvertently interrupted his proposal, he does it with a patience and understanding that makes you see how he could be good for Xo. Based on the look on Rogelio's face when he proposes, it doesn't seem likely that Bruce and Xo will go off into the sunset together but I am more invested in Bruce than I am in other temporary love interests like Chuck or Abbey.
-Rogelio bursting in on Bruce's proposal and mistaking his careful planning for signs that Bruce is meant to be his lawyer alone makes this a good episode of "Jane", even if it's muddled. That scene was incredible.
-It was a little frustrating to see Rogelio and Xo have the exact same fight about Xo's portrayal in The Del La Vega Factor Factor that they've been having and resolving for three episodes now. Yes, Xo's anger is justified and this isn't something you get over right away, but it seemed unnecessary to venture into that territory yet again. Hopefully we're done with that for the time being and can move onto different things like how Rogelio feels about Xo and Bruce's engagement and his lawsuit.
-Danny Woodburn makes an appearance as a lawyer to the stars nicknamed "The Jaguar". He helps Rogelio by starting a smear campaign against the Del La Vega Factor, only to make things worse when his campaign is uncovered and Rogelio is in further breach of contract. It's an alright story but it feels like the majority of action in it occurs offscreen with us only getting updates from Rogelio or "The Lawyer" on how it's going so that we have more time for rehashing the Xo and Ro conflict.
-Rafael considers moving in with Abbey tonight and is ready to go through with it until reading the new version of Jane's novel reminds him of the passion he wants in a relationship that he doesn't feel with Abbey (Though we're led to believe he made his choice because of Petra's advice, as is Abbey). This shines a light on why Abbey is portrayed as being "just there" and is constantly forgotten by the narrator. It's an intentional show choice designed to show us how complacent and disconnected the relationship is in contrast to Rafael's relationship with Jane. She's intentionally unexciting and boring to get across what we haven't seen of the last year or so of her relationship with Rafael. It's an interesting choice but the result is there's zero emotional heft to Raf's relationship at all so why should we care about whether or not he moves in with her. We know she's not going to last so it makes the whole storyline feel slight (Though the end reveal helps a bit).
-Chuck isn't much better of a character than Abbey so far but at the least there's been a clear effort to dig into his and Petra's relationship and explain why she finds herself falling for him in spite of her better instincts. He's a gross caricature but he actually does care about Petra and wants a meaningful relationship that can actually be public. So when Petra comes clean with him about moving the bones (Something that's been gnawing at her all episode) and he rightfully breaks up with her over it, there's an actual emotional impact to the moment, unlike the Raf/Abbey break-up.
-Just when I assumed that Abbey was exactly as nice and forgettable as she seemed and the show was done with her for good, along came the reveal that she had assumed Rafael broke up with her over what Petra said, stole the book she saw Petra hid (Scott's burn book, which contains all of the secrets he has on people) and sent it to Dennis with the most incredible pop-up card I've ever seen. There's still a good chance we won't see more Abbey after this episode, and that "Jane" mostly wasted Minka Kelley's talents but this was a strong twist that manages to kick the murder story back into high gear. Also did the show came up with the idea for the greeting card first before settling on Abbey being a greeting card designer? I would not be surprised if they did.
-Ultimately even if this episode was kind of a misstep, there was still enough strong moments in there that I'm not worried that this is the beginning of some kind of decline for "Jane". Everyone's allowed to have an off week, especially with such a strong record of quality.
-Jane is taking a mini-break until March 20th. Agh, I don't know how I'll survive.
-Apologies for missing last week's recap. Unexpected business came up and I wasn't able to get around to it.
-Each chapter of "Jane" tends to be focused around a main unifying theme or idea or motif, like stress or faith or the selectiveness of memory or suspense that weaves it's way through the episode, informing most of the stories that week. There might be other themes or motifs that pop up throughout the episode but by the end you can typically tie those in to a larger picture that the episode is weaving Chapter Fifty-Seven throws a lot of ideas out there, but it's unable to unify them the way it usually does. It's main thing is about Jane finding her voice (Both figuratively and literally) as she writes and revisits her novel and it does that in interesting ways. But it also throws in a running theme about various biases Jane has, as well as stuff about communication and conflict mediation and a recurring thing about how Abbey (Raf's oft-forgotten girlfriend) tends to sneak up on people and while some of it tries to connect back to the finding your voice thing, ultimately it's unclear what the main takeaway from Chapter Fifty-Seven is supposed to be, making for a more muddled "Jane" than usual, though one that still had excellent moments.
-The episode begins with a flashback explaining how Jane came to write Falling Snow, her novel about her relationship with Michael. Feeling unable to connect with or work on her Venezuela novel after the death of Michael, Rafael encourages a hoarse-voiced Jane to write about something, anything, to get her voice back again. She winds up researching the history of Florida and gets sucked in but it's not until she looks at a photo of Michael and envisions him telling her "you got this" that she's able to start writing again. This results in Falling Snow, a love story set against the back-drop of the rise of the hotel industry in early 20th-century Florida. Jane takes her pain and makes something very personal with it reclaiming her voice in the process. But when she's asked to re-examine it and add to it, the personal nature of the work causes her to lose her voice again as she struggles to find a way to insert more obstacles into the story and confront the parts of her history with Michael that she'd rather ignore.
-Jane's basically asked to include more obstacles in her idealized love story, particularly involving the robber baron character "Rake" (The Rafael analogue in her story). This leads to a series of scenes where essentially the whole cast gets to dress up in early 20th century garb (Probably the main reason they decided to set Jane's novel in 1902) as Jane tries to figure out a way to bring more conflict into the story. But making the "Rake" character more sinister just doesn't ring true (Possible foreshadowing that whatever shadiness Raf is up to with his prison friend isn't so bad after all?) and all her efforts fall flat. As it turns out though, what her story really needs is to sell the idea that "Josephine" and "Rake" were in love before "Josephine" went back to Martin, which is when Jane is confronted with a whole new dilemma.
-Since Jane chose Michael back in early season 2, the Jane/Rafael romance has been cast to the side for the sake of simplifying things. However it's hard to forget that the bulk of season 1 centered around the love story of Jane and Rafael and that history isn't just going to disappear. Jane feels that to tap into what she once felt for Rafael would be a betrayal of Michael, but Alba rightfully points out that the fact that she fell in love with someone else but ultimately chose Michael only made the love between her and Michael more impactful (Which is true. I was much more invested in Michael after her relationship with Raf had ended). It feels like a justification for the writers to begin exploring the Jane-Rafael bond again and it mostly works. I am a bit concerned that they are setting up for a new Jane/Rafael romance by the end of the season though, which would be unfortunate. I'm not opposed to Jane and Rafael finding their way back to each other eventually, but anything between them that happened this season would feel much too soon.
-The episode sets up that Jane has a gender bias because she tends to gravitate to female authority figures over male ones, which they back up by pointing out the large number of female mentors Jane has turned to over the course of the episode (Even though the episode starts with her taking Rafael's advice about writing again, proving that she doesn't only listen to women). This is a development that makes sense, considering Jane's upbringing in a household of strong women and then it's not really explored in any meaningful way apart from some choice narrator quips. Jane has Jeremy, a male editor for her book who seems like an obnoxious bro, but has genuine good advice and a desire to meaningfully engage with the material under his exterior. She also has Carly, a female aide for Mateo who seems perfect until it becomes apparent that she's a huge gossip who has no qualms with revealing sensitive information about kids and parents in addition to the disinterest and negligence Mateo reveals. Both these turn-arounds are easy to predict and while Jane recognizes by the end that she does engage in bias, at no point does the show attempt to dig into where this bias comes from or what it means on a deeper level, which seems like a big misstep. If you're going to introduce the idea of Jane being biased, at least be willing to explore it beyond the most surface level.
-Calling it now: Jane's first post-Michael love interest will be either Jeremy or this Alex, who's never seen but is set up tonight as the perfect aide for Mateo. Also at some point down the line, Jane's definitely going to have to change the ending of her book so that "Martin" dies.
-Somewhere between Jane writing her novel and Jane dealing with her biases is the plot of Jane accidentally yelling at the director of the preschool over a conversation with apparent mean girl mom Stacy that she misunderstood to be about Mateo's behavioral problems. It brings together both the idea of Jane losing her voice (Jane just can't find the right thing to say or action to show to this director to smooth this whole incident over, with everyone of Petra's ideas that she tries making it worse) and the idea of Jane having bias (Jane feels Stacy is just a mean girl, when Stacy turns out to have real problems of her own). In the end Jane is able to resolve both of these conflicts by being true to herself and coming through when it counts the most (Washing dishes at a school fundraiser when they're almost out and no one else is able to do it, firing Carly and reaching out to Stacy with empathy) making some new friends in the process. The Jane preschool stories are interesting because it's the rare environment where Jane can't seem to easily impress the people around her. Having her clash with both Stacy and the director though on top of the whole aide thing may have been too much for one episode though and added to the muddled feel.
-I've been pretty lukewarm on Bruce since he first showed up, but he won me over tonight with that sweetness the show keeps insisting he has. As he steps in to mediate the conflict between Xo and Ro, asks Jane and Alba for permission to propose and agrees to become Rogelio's new lawyer even though Rogelio has inadvertently interrupted his proposal, he does it with a patience and understanding that makes you see how he could be good for Xo. Based on the look on Rogelio's face when he proposes, it doesn't seem likely that Bruce and Xo will go off into the sunset together but I am more invested in Bruce than I am in other temporary love interests like Chuck or Abbey.
-Rogelio bursting in on Bruce's proposal and mistaking his careful planning for signs that Bruce is meant to be his lawyer alone makes this a good episode of "Jane", even if it's muddled. That scene was incredible.
-It was a little frustrating to see Rogelio and Xo have the exact same fight about Xo's portrayal in The Del La Vega Factor Factor that they've been having and resolving for three episodes now. Yes, Xo's anger is justified and this isn't something you get over right away, but it seemed unnecessary to venture into that territory yet again. Hopefully we're done with that for the time being and can move onto different things like how Rogelio feels about Xo and Bruce's engagement and his lawsuit.
-Danny Woodburn makes an appearance as a lawyer to the stars nicknamed "The Jaguar". He helps Rogelio by starting a smear campaign against the Del La Vega Factor, only to make things worse when his campaign is uncovered and Rogelio is in further breach of contract. It's an alright story but it feels like the majority of action in it occurs offscreen with us only getting updates from Rogelio or "The Lawyer" on how it's going so that we have more time for rehashing the Xo and Ro conflict.
-Rafael considers moving in with Abbey tonight and is ready to go through with it until reading the new version of Jane's novel reminds him of the passion he wants in a relationship that he doesn't feel with Abbey (Though we're led to believe he made his choice because of Petra's advice, as is Abbey). This shines a light on why Abbey is portrayed as being "just there" and is constantly forgotten by the narrator. It's an intentional show choice designed to show us how complacent and disconnected the relationship is in contrast to Rafael's relationship with Jane. She's intentionally unexciting and boring to get across what we haven't seen of the last year or so of her relationship with Rafael. It's an interesting choice but the result is there's zero emotional heft to Raf's relationship at all so why should we care about whether or not he moves in with her. We know she's not going to last so it makes the whole storyline feel slight (Though the end reveal helps a bit).
-Chuck isn't much better of a character than Abbey so far but at the least there's been a clear effort to dig into his and Petra's relationship and explain why she finds herself falling for him in spite of her better instincts. He's a gross caricature but he actually does care about Petra and wants a meaningful relationship that can actually be public. So when Petra comes clean with him about moving the bones (Something that's been gnawing at her all episode) and he rightfully breaks up with her over it, there's an actual emotional impact to the moment, unlike the Raf/Abbey break-up.
-Just when I assumed that Abbey was exactly as nice and forgettable as she seemed and the show was done with her for good, along came the reveal that she had assumed Rafael broke up with her over what Petra said, stole the book she saw Petra hid (Scott's burn book, which contains all of the secrets he has on people) and sent it to Dennis with the most incredible pop-up card I've ever seen. There's still a good chance we won't see more Abbey after this episode, and that "Jane" mostly wasted Minka Kelley's talents but this was a strong twist that manages to kick the murder story back into high gear. Also did the show came up with the idea for the greeting card first before settling on Abbey being a greeting card designer? I would not be surprised if they did.
-Ultimately even if this episode was kind of a misstep, there was still enough strong moments in there that I'm not worried that this is the beginning of some kind of decline for "Jane". Everyone's allowed to have an off week, especially with such a strong record of quality.
-Jane is taking a mini-break until March 20th. Agh, I don't know how I'll survive.
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