1x06 Couples Therapy (Naked & Afraid)

Okay so let's talk about episodes 5 and 6.

Ron Pearlmen was an utter delight. I can't not say that. He always is. Just is. Even here in this lackluster role. That said the second half of the season is a noticeable upswing. I really like even this episode and what it's doing character-wise. Plot-wise it was nonsense but it's not like it's going anywhere anyway at least now I'm starting to enjoy the ride. The interplay between our leads is interesting even if the again the fact that they are spies is not. What I find fascinating is that there's more narrative flow and consistency in the titles and descriptions than there is in the show. It's like they prepared the show with the titles and synopsis long before they started filming. Because this

Couples Therapy (Naked & Afraid) - Oh, John. Oh, Jane. Our pair have been oh so bad at sharing and caring. Time to call in help -- John and Jane, get ready for: COUPLES THERAPY, what a gas!

Is an entire different level than what even this episode is. This is fun and goofy and comical in a way that not even at it's best the show is. Maybe on a scene by scene basis you might find something worthy of the type of gassing in the title/synopsis but most of it is very different. It's lazier, more laid back, less invested. Which to say yet again I don't put on Maya and Donald. They're solid but the writing and directing just don't care. It's weird to look at this show and say "Well at least True Lies the TV Show tried." I mean the True Lies show bombed like 70-80% of it's run time but at least they were going for something. The jokes were sometimes dumb but they came (a little too) consistently.

As for episode 6? Well honestly it's my favorite episode so far. It's fun in a way that few episodes have been until now. Holy snap it just occurred to me. Part of it is the missing intrigue. As I've said before this is a show with zero guile. I mean they're spies but spies in this world is a gig job. Anyone signs up anyone gets in and the AI runs you like an uber app. It's dumb and boring and uninteresting. But here... here they have to lie. They have to explain translate and keep things up in front of a therapist who, imo, Sarah Paulson made utterly adorable "Yeah! Whatever DID happen to Mya?" I died. She was hilarious. It's amazing how just getting the formula right finally lets everything shine. The spycraft is minimized but it doesn't matter because I'm having a ball watching Maya and Donald rehash their relationship. A relationship I actually care about this episode. "The therapist episode" shows the potential of this series.

There is a lot to like about this episode but I faded out a bit for a while (maybe because I'm a little tired). I commented after episode 5 that they hadn't given much of a sense of time passing so the storyline had seemed a bit too soon. In may be because they felt the need to do that storyline that they kept this one for a little later but they could have used a similar mechanism as this episode to make it seem like they had been together for many months, it's really not that hard to do. Unless I missed it, they could have just made a few mentions of the many missions they had done off camera.

This episode (or something like it as this storyline only makes sense after they have established their relationship enough) might have also set the tone early on in the series. If done earlier it could have better set the tone with the whole spy caper just being a background to set their relationship against. With all the artificial restrictions it puts on them as two strangers who willingly accept an arranged marriage, while working together in a high stress job.

Now that the show has set the stage they can pretty much get into what the show will be going forward, if picked up for another season.