[6.8/10] This wasn’t bad. Most of these episodes still suffer from the jumbledness of jumping around across fifteen different storylines that all take place across several years, but this one has more of a throughline than most. Maeby’s caustic wit remains a treat even when deployed in scenes so diffuse they feel out of context to one another. And the concept of her trying to hang onto her self-esteem at least provides something of a thematic spine to these events.
The season is also starting to pay off things set up earlier, like the destination of the check that’s been passed around, or various screams thought to be birds that are actually Maeby, or the shaman that Lindsay saw earlier. But few of these bits are actual jokes, just connections, which takes some of the wind out of their sails.
There were some funny bits though. Maeby’s conversation with Barry Zuckercorn, who’s surprisingly knowledgeable about how close adults can get to high school students, was a solid laugh, and Maeby’s “Nah, I’m gonna be fine” reaction to everything falling apart was an amusing swerve. There’s few laugh out loud funny moments, but some decent chuckles, which is more than a lot of season 4 episodes.
While Maeby having three jobs -- going to high school, promoting FakeBlock, and pimping out her mom -- gives Maeby plenty to do, it also makes the episode feel lumpy as we once again jump between storylines almost at random. The major throughlines are her unwittingly underage boyfriend and the internet company she gloms onto with George Michael to give herself something to do. Neither goes to great places out of the gate, but I do like the twist of her algebra teacher being an undercover cop, paying off that early setup and continuing with the adventures of the Richter quintuplets.
On the whole, this one still suffers from the problem most of season 4 has, but Maeby’s a fun character, so even with disconnected scenes and convoluted plotting, her misadventures are pretty entertaining.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2021-06-12T04:47:26Z
[6.8/10] This wasn’t bad. Most of these episodes still suffer from the jumbledness of jumping around across fifteen different storylines that all take place across several years, but this one has more of a throughline than most. Maeby’s caustic wit remains a treat even when deployed in scenes so diffuse they feel out of context to one another. And the concept of her trying to hang onto her self-esteem at least provides something of a thematic spine to these events.
The season is also starting to pay off things set up earlier, like the destination of the check that’s been passed around, or various screams thought to be birds that are actually Maeby, or the shaman that Lindsay saw earlier. But few of these bits are actual jokes, just connections, which takes some of the wind out of their sails.
There were some funny bits though. Maeby’s conversation with Barry Zuckercorn, who’s surprisingly knowledgeable about how close adults can get to high school students, was a solid laugh, and Maeby’s “Nah, I’m gonna be fine” reaction to everything falling apart was an amusing swerve. There’s few laugh out loud funny moments, but some decent chuckles, which is more than a lot of season 4 episodes.
While Maeby having three jobs -- going to high school, promoting FakeBlock, and pimping out her mom -- gives Maeby plenty to do, it also makes the episode feel lumpy as we once again jump between storylines almost at random. The major throughlines are her unwittingly underage boyfriend and the internet company she gloms onto with George Michael to give herself something to do. Neither goes to great places out of the gate, but I do like the twist of her algebra teacher being an undercover cop, paying off that early setup and continuing with the adventures of the Richter quintuplets.
On the whole, this one still suffers from the problem most of season 4 has, but Maeby’s a fun character, so even with disconnected scenes and convoluted plotting, her misadventures are pretty entertaining.