[7.3/10] What the fuck. Why is Joel still a major character on this show? Do people like him? Are people wanting more time with him and Midge? Do they want something other than the two of them remaining amicable but both moving on? I just don’t get it.
Joel flying out to Vegas to see Midge? Weird, but whatever. Midge and Joel sleeping together? Ugh, dumb, but fine. But them getting remarried while drunk? What the damn hell. This feels like a cheesy sitcom plot point.
Most charitably, you can imagine how after two people have been married for several years and have two kdis that it might be hard to quit one another cold turkey. Backlsiding is natural, especially at a time when Midge is on the road and feeling a little lonely. In concept, you can kind of see it.
But the chemistry just isn’t there. The show writes cutesy romcom dialogue for them and the dynamic just isn’t believable. They don’t actually seem comfortable with one another most of the time. (Unlike, to be frank, Midge and Benjamin on the one hand and Joel and May on the other). It just doesn’t feel plausible that they would fall back into this. They just don’t seem that natural of a couple.
Nevermind the hokeyness of the cliché of them getting trashed and eventually hitched at a Vegas chapel. There’s some decent humor in the morning after with Midge’s sarcasm over it, and her stung reaction when she finds out that Joel has a quasi-girlfriend is good. Likewise, Joel kicking himself over potentially messing things up with May and having to deal with the headache of lawyers again is a good beat. But the path to get there is just so baffling and unlikely.
Despite that, the other major components of the episode work. It’s broad humor (hello Daniel Palladino!), but I like Abe and Rose and Zelda being ofrced to contend with the eccentricities and...well...volume of Moishe and Shirely. The three Weissmans (hah!) dealing with the tumult and insanity downstairs and then sulking upstairs gives the actors some great opportunities to emote and play off one another. It’s a wacky setup, but what can I say, it works on me.
Even better, I love Susie’s hustling here. Again, there’s some broad material for her here too, but I can’t help but enjoy it, from her squeamishness with Angie after she sees him and his boys roughing somebody up, or when she goes from not understanding how to plays craps to yelling at newbies for messing things up at the table.
But most of all, I love her getting things together for Sophie’s dream play. Her Kathryn Hepburn impression to get some big time Broadway producers to meet with her is a fun ruse, and her pitch that Sophie has an established audience and solid credentials is a practical and ocnvincing one. Their coaxing her to land a big name male lead to get them on board makes for a good next step, and her conversation with the serious thespian (Cary Elwes!) is a hoot! Then there’s the perfect punchline to everything, with Susie having moved heaven and earth to make this work, only for Sophie to express doubts with her co-star over sexual attraction, while being bathed surrounded by her staff and pets no less. There’s a nice progression and sense of humor through it all.
That said, I didn’t love the scene between Joel and May. They still have good chemistry, but the two dancing to a jukebox songs in front of their friends just feels too much like a romcom-y unbelievable trope. Still, there was some fun to be had with Shy and the group drag-racing, especially with folks making fun of Reggie for his stick-in-the-mud qualities.
(Crazy theory: Are Shy and Reggie secretly an item?)
That’s the thing. There’s a lot of good material in this episode on a scene-to-scene basis. There continues to be a fun “strange new frontiers” vibe to everything going on right now. But the terrible plot decision to put Joel and Midge back together, even for a night, let alone with a ring involved, casts a pall over everything else.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2020-12-31T20:54:05Z
[7.3/10] What the fuck. Why is Joel still a major character on this show? Do people like him? Are people wanting more time with him and Midge? Do they want something other than the two of them remaining amicable but both moving on? I just don’t get it.
Joel flying out to Vegas to see Midge? Weird, but whatever. Midge and Joel sleeping together? Ugh, dumb, but fine. But them getting remarried while drunk? What the damn hell. This feels like a cheesy sitcom plot point.
Most charitably, you can imagine how after two people have been married for several years and have two kdis that it might be hard to quit one another cold turkey. Backlsiding is natural, especially at a time when Midge is on the road and feeling a little lonely. In concept, you can kind of see it.
But the chemistry just isn’t there. The show writes cutesy romcom dialogue for them and the dynamic just isn’t believable. They don’t actually seem comfortable with one another most of the time. (Unlike, to be frank, Midge and Benjamin on the one hand and Joel and May on the other). It just doesn’t feel plausible that they would fall back into this. They just don’t seem that natural of a couple.
Nevermind the hokeyness of the cliché of them getting trashed and eventually hitched at a Vegas chapel. There’s some decent humor in the morning after with Midge’s sarcasm over it, and her stung reaction when she finds out that Joel has a quasi-girlfriend is good. Likewise, Joel kicking himself over potentially messing things up with May and having to deal with the headache of lawyers again is a good beat. But the path to get there is just so baffling and unlikely.
Despite that, the other major components of the episode work. It’s broad humor (hello Daniel Palladino!), but I like Abe and Rose and Zelda being ofrced to contend with the eccentricities and...well...volume of Moishe and Shirely. The three Weissmans (hah!) dealing with the tumult and insanity downstairs and then sulking upstairs gives the actors some great opportunities to emote and play off one another. It’s a wacky setup, but what can I say, it works on me.
Even better, I love Susie’s hustling here. Again, there’s some broad material for her here too, but I can’t help but enjoy it, from her squeamishness with Angie after she sees him and his boys roughing somebody up, or when she goes from not understanding how to plays craps to yelling at newbies for messing things up at the table.
But most of all, I love her getting things together for Sophie’s dream play. Her Kathryn Hepburn impression to get some big time Broadway producers to meet with her is a fun ruse, and her pitch that Sophie has an established audience and solid credentials is a practical and ocnvincing one. Their coaxing her to land a big name male lead to get them on board makes for a good next step, and her conversation with the serious thespian (Cary Elwes!) is a hoot! Then there’s the perfect punchline to everything, with Susie having moved heaven and earth to make this work, only for Sophie to express doubts with her co-star over sexual attraction, while being bathed surrounded by her staff and pets no less. There’s a nice progression and sense of humor through it all.
That said, I didn’t love the scene between Joel and May. They still have good chemistry, but the two dancing to a jukebox songs in front of their friends just feels too much like a romcom-y unbelievable trope. Still, there was some fun to be had with Shy and the group drag-racing, especially with folks making fun of Reggie for his stick-in-the-mud qualities.
(Crazy theory: Are Shy and Reggie secretly an item?)
That’s the thing. There’s a lot of good material in this episode on a scene-to-scene basis. There continues to be a fun “strange new frontiers” vibe to everything going on right now. But the terrible plot decision to put Joel and Midge back together, even for a night, let alone with a ring involved, casts a pall over everything else.