[7.0/10] This is the weakest episode of Black Monday so far in my book. The setups here made it feel more like a wacky sitcom than the more fleshed out and intricate show that the series has proven to be thus far.
I had very little interest in the B-story. Despite some rapid-fire exposition, it wasn’t necessarily clear what the hell the “LaGuardia play” was. And while I like the chain of irresponsibility causing the B-team to have to try to run things down, just watching Horatio Sans drink and bid farewell to his friends and family didn’t do much for me in the comedy department. I did appreciate how things bent back around with the Yakuza in the end, but that’s really the only great thing to come out of this one.
The A-story was better, but devolved into the aforementioned sitcom zaniness. Blair and Tiff trying to make one another jealous is actually a pretty hoary trope, but the show has fun with it. The swerve and unswerve with Blair hearing about Tiff’s love life is a nice comic setpiece, and Blair and Dawn actually getting along surprisingly well and earnestly is a twist I didn’t see coming, but which works. And the whole Manhattan Auction thing is a fun set piece for Don Cheadle to do his thing at.
But then we get into love triangle (quadrangle? pentagon?) territory, and the show completely loses me. This one leaned hard into the Mo/Dawn stuff that I would prefer be a slow burn, and the Dawn/Blair kiss seems to only exist to create drama, with super-convenient missed and made connections. At the same time, I guess we’re supposed to root for Dawn to divorce her husband and for Mo to break up her marriage because...her husband is fat? That’s it? I don’t know. The whole thing just seems weird and with its heart in the wrong place.
Overall, this one is a step down from the prior three episodes (even a solidly dark Mujahadeen running joke is nigh-ruined by the episode underlining the punchline), but there’s still plenty to like.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2019-03-07T23:39:19Z
[7.0/10] This is the weakest episode of Black Monday so far in my book. The setups here made it feel more like a wacky sitcom than the more fleshed out and intricate show that the series has proven to be thus far.
I had very little interest in the B-story. Despite some rapid-fire exposition, it wasn’t necessarily clear what the hell the “LaGuardia play” was. And while I like the chain of irresponsibility causing the B-team to have to try to run things down, just watching Horatio Sans drink and bid farewell to his friends and family didn’t do much for me in the comedy department. I did appreciate how things bent back around with the Yakuza in the end, but that’s really the only great thing to come out of this one.
The A-story was better, but devolved into the aforementioned sitcom zaniness. Blair and Tiff trying to make one another jealous is actually a pretty hoary trope, but the show has fun with it. The swerve and unswerve with Blair hearing about Tiff’s love life is a nice comic setpiece, and Blair and Dawn actually getting along surprisingly well and earnestly is a twist I didn’t see coming, but which works. And the whole Manhattan Auction thing is a fun set piece for Don Cheadle to do his thing at.
But then we get into love triangle (quadrangle? pentagon?) territory, and the show completely loses me. This one leaned hard into the Mo/Dawn stuff that I would prefer be a slow burn, and the Dawn/Blair kiss seems to only exist to create drama, with super-convenient missed and made connections. At the same time, I guess we’re supposed to root for Dawn to divorce her husband and for Mo to break up her marriage because...her husband is fat? That’s it? I don’t know. The whole thing just seems weird and with its heart in the wrong place.
Overall, this one is a step down from the prior three episodes (even a solidly dark Mujahadeen running joke is nigh-ruined by the episode underlining the punchline), but there’s still plenty to like.