[6.8/10] There’s good ideas here. I like the major throughline that Johnny is in an unusual and, frankly clueless position where he needs money and help but has either too much pride or no idea how to ask for either. Him having to humble himself and accept his own limitations to get what he needs is a good idea.
But maaaan, there’s a lot of Roland in this one, and a lot of Johnny being a real jerk to boot. Roland continues to be the show’s most annoying character, and I get that it’s deliberate, but I just don’t want him on my TV screen. There is definitely something decent about him saving Jhonny’s behind at the unemployment office, but his pestering Johnny before and after, and uncomfortably flirting with his high school sweetheart despite being married make him really irksome as a regular presence.
By the same token, Johnny taking advantage of Bob’s kindness and being a jerk to Marnie at the office is pretty unpleasant. At least in the latter case, it speaks to a certain Karen-ness present in Johnny, where he doesn’t know or understand this system but demands that it bend to his needs and raises a stink when it doesn’t. The optics of the situation aren’t lost on me. The show just can’t wring many laughs out of the lead-up, climax, or aftermath of the situation.
The Allez Vous cosmetics subplot does better in the laughs department. MLMs are easy targets, but I got a big kick out of Moira and David’s efforts to make a grand sales pitch seem like a casual event. Their dialogue where they endeavor to make discussion of these “quality products” seem like an accident is amusingly stilted. And I particularly love the punchline, where everyone in Schitt’s Creek has already done it, replete with amusingly byzantine titles.
Yet again, though, the Alexis-focused portions of the episode are a real drag. Her ragging on Ted for being “too nice” isn’t the worst idea, and the show occasionally gets at something with the idea that her family taught her to view niceness as a weakness. But the episode just doesn’t do anything with it, beyond use it for more unpleasant attempts to flirt with Mutt and a punchline where Ted criticizes Alexis that doesn’t go as far as it needs to.
Overall, this is a weaker episode that could have been a better one if they’d capitalized on the solid ideas at the center of the episode.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2020-06-07T18:17:56Z
[6.8/10] There’s good ideas here. I like the major throughline that Johnny is in an unusual and, frankly clueless position where he needs money and help but has either too much pride or no idea how to ask for either. Him having to humble himself and accept his own limitations to get what he needs is a good idea.
But maaaan, there’s a lot of Roland in this one, and a lot of Johnny being a real jerk to boot. Roland continues to be the show’s most annoying character, and I get that it’s deliberate, but I just don’t want him on my TV screen. There is definitely something decent about him saving Jhonny’s behind at the unemployment office, but his pestering Johnny before and after, and uncomfortably flirting with his high school sweetheart despite being married make him really irksome as a regular presence.
By the same token, Johnny taking advantage of Bob’s kindness and being a jerk to Marnie at the office is pretty unpleasant. At least in the latter case, it speaks to a certain Karen-ness present in Johnny, where he doesn’t know or understand this system but demands that it bend to his needs and raises a stink when it doesn’t. The optics of the situation aren’t lost on me. The show just can’t wring many laughs out of the lead-up, climax, or aftermath of the situation.
The Allez Vous cosmetics subplot does better in the laughs department. MLMs are easy targets, but I got a big kick out of Moira and David’s efforts to make a grand sales pitch seem like a casual event. Their dialogue where they endeavor to make discussion of these “quality products” seem like an accident is amusingly stilted. And I particularly love the punchline, where everyone in Schitt’s Creek has already done it, replete with amusingly byzantine titles.
Yet again, though, the Alexis-focused portions of the episode are a real drag. Her ragging on Ted for being “too nice” isn’t the worst idea, and the show occasionally gets at something with the idea that her family taught her to view niceness as a weakness. But the episode just doesn’t do anything with it, beyond use it for more unpleasant attempts to flirt with Mutt and a punchline where Ted criticizes Alexis that doesn’t go as far as it needs to.
Overall, this is a weaker episode that could have been a better one if they’d capitalized on the solid ideas at the center of the episode.