[5.8/10] Ugh, what are you doing, Black Monday? Taking tired sitcom clichés and raunching them up doesn’t suddenly make them better. Blair doing a demented twist on “The boss is coming to visit and dinner’s not ready!” shtick is not funny or clever. The same goes for Keith’s “I have to impress my date at the same time I’m fulfilling my work obligations!” hackery. Injecting sex/drugs/homosexuality into these hoary tropes doesn’t make them new or any less lazy. The whole deal is one big eye-roll.
(That said, I’ll cop to chuckling at Blair and Tiff’s “This is a minor inconvenience to me” reaction to the Nasdaq lady dying. Sometimes their self-centeredness is worth a laugh.)
The Grammy-centered part of the episode wasn’t much better. Mo and Yasser trying to sneak into the Grammy party is more wacky sitcom-style hijinks. And the clash between Mo’s “I want to make real music” perspective versus Dawn “I want to make what sells” is yet another tired cliché. The same goes for the clearly unscrupulous rival label head who offers to poach Dawn and Nomi and feels like a villain in a teen comedy about selling out.
The thing that elevates it slightly above the Blair/Keith bit is that there’s a touch of realness to this one. Dawn deciding not to go with the new guy because she doesn’t want to screw over Mo, and Mo tearing up Dawn and Nomi’s contracts because he wants what’s best for them is something at least. As is finding a small group who appreciates his music and would rather make pure stuff with him than more popular stuff with someone else. But it’s thin gruel in an overall weak episode.
All-in-all, just when Black Monday won me back over with the ambition of the last episode, the show leaves me grumbling with this hacky nonsense.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2021-08-30T02:27:41Z
[5.8/10] Ugh, what are you doing, Black Monday? Taking tired sitcom clichés and raunching them up doesn’t suddenly make them better. Blair doing a demented twist on “The boss is coming to visit and dinner’s not ready!” shtick is not funny or clever. The same goes for Keith’s “I have to impress my date at the same time I’m fulfilling my work obligations!” hackery. Injecting sex/drugs/homosexuality into these hoary tropes doesn’t make them new or any less lazy. The whole deal is one big eye-roll.
(That said, I’ll cop to chuckling at Blair and Tiff’s “This is a minor inconvenience to me” reaction to the Nasdaq lady dying. Sometimes their self-centeredness is worth a laugh.)
The Grammy-centered part of the episode wasn’t much better. Mo and Yasser trying to sneak into the Grammy party is more wacky sitcom-style hijinks. And the clash between Mo’s “I want to make real music” perspective versus Dawn “I want to make what sells” is yet another tired cliché. The same goes for the clearly unscrupulous rival label head who offers to poach Dawn and Nomi and feels like a villain in a teen comedy about selling out.
The thing that elevates it slightly above the Blair/Keith bit is that there’s a touch of realness to this one. Dawn deciding not to go with the new guy because she doesn’t want to screw over Mo, and Mo tearing up Dawn and Nomi’s contracts because he wants what’s best for them is something at least. As is finding a small group who appreciates his music and would rather make pure stuff with him than more popular stuff with someone else. But it’s thin gruel in an overall weak episode.
All-in-all, just when Black Monday won me back over with the ambition of the last episode, the show leaves me grumbling with this hacky nonsense.