[6.5/10] Here’s the weird thing about this episode. I really enjoyed it when it was just “Tobias tries to stage a Fantastic Four musical in rehab.” Watching him try to sit in a chair in a hip way, convince Tommy Tune to put on the show with him, and critique/support Mark Cherry as his director/therapist is a blast. Maria Bamford continues to give this show her all (more reason to check out Lady Dynamite), and the absurdity of a low-budget superhero musical put on by patients and managed by an obliviously untalented registered sex offender carries the day.
But “Smashed” dies when it runs headlong into the rest of the season’s storylines. Why Tobias needs to be swallowed up by the god awful Michael/Rebel Alley/Ron Howard storyline is beyond me. The entire scene with Howard’s “hat haircut” and Michael figuring that Rebel is Ron’s daughter is unbelievably awkward, and not in a funny way. Likewise, the obvious efforts to get him caught up in the Cinco de Quatro festivities are contrived, and the whole rights-getting errands aren’t nearly as amusing as watching Tobias interact with his patients.
It’s more evidence that this show can still work when it buckles down and tells one individual story, and starts to crumple when it tries to tie a season’s worth of disconnected plots together in ways that are occasionally clever, but also convoluted as hell, leaving most episodes feeling disjointed and cumbersome.
I did enjoy the callbacks here. Blurring Andy Richter playing his brother “Emmet” is a good gag, as is Tommy Tune getting the “Mista F” sting. Plus, while we haven’t gotten a full Lucille episode yet, I do like her finding her calling by using DeBrie as someone to “mother.” There’s some classic Lucille burns and the dark humor of it spurring DeBrie to relapse feels true to the show’s original run.
I don’t know. The most frustrating thing about this one is that, in brief stretches, you can see glimpses of the brilliant show that was canceled prematurely. But then it quickly devolves into the same jumbled up mess so much of season 4 has succumbed to. What can you do?
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2021-06-03T00:42:36Z
[6.5/10] Here’s the weird thing about this episode. I really enjoyed it when it was just “Tobias tries to stage a Fantastic Four musical in rehab.” Watching him try to sit in a chair in a hip way, convince Tommy Tune to put on the show with him, and critique/support Mark Cherry as his director/therapist is a blast. Maria Bamford continues to give this show her all (more reason to check out Lady Dynamite), and the absurdity of a low-budget superhero musical put on by patients and managed by an obliviously untalented registered sex offender carries the day.
But “Smashed” dies when it runs headlong into the rest of the season’s storylines. Why Tobias needs to be swallowed up by the god awful Michael/Rebel Alley/Ron Howard storyline is beyond me. The entire scene with Howard’s “hat haircut” and Michael figuring that Rebel is Ron’s daughter is unbelievably awkward, and not in a funny way. Likewise, the obvious efforts to get him caught up in the Cinco de Quatro festivities are contrived, and the whole rights-getting errands aren’t nearly as amusing as watching Tobias interact with his patients.
It’s more evidence that this show can still work when it buckles down and tells one individual story, and starts to crumple when it tries to tie a season’s worth of disconnected plots together in ways that are occasionally clever, but also convoluted as hell, leaving most episodes feeling disjointed and cumbersome.
I did enjoy the callbacks here. Blurring Andy Richter playing his brother “Emmet” is a good gag, as is Tommy Tune getting the “Mista F” sting. Plus, while we haven’t gotten a full Lucille episode yet, I do like her finding her calling by using DeBrie as someone to “mother.” There’s some classic Lucille burns and the dark humor of it spurring DeBrie to relapse feels true to the show’s original run.
I don’t know. The most frustrating thing about this one is that, in brief stretches, you can see glimpses of the brilliant show that was canceled prematurely. But then it quickly devolves into the same jumbled up mess so much of season 4 has succumbed to. What can you do?