2x12 Lawn Signs

[8.0/10] I liked both of the stories in this one. Each shows some emotional and professional growth on the part of members of the Rose family, and do so in amusing but also compelling ways.

My favorite of the two is Moira’s yard sign ploy both succeeding and backfiring. Call me a sucker, because when the yard signs went missing, I naturally assumed it was some bit of mishegoss involving Roland. But Moira stealing her own yard signs to cause a stir is subtly genius, particularly with the explanation that she chose to do it because she couldn’t compete with Jocelyn’s 200 yard countervailing yard signs. Causing a stink over the whole thing and casting a cloud over Jocelyn’s campaign is dirty-but-savvy politics, which befits Moira’s character.

But there’s something very “Dan Harmon Story Circle”-esque about what happens next, and I love it. It’s great that Moira effectively wins, putting enough pressure on Jocelyn through her stunt, and unwittingly stumbling upon Roland misusing his mayoral powers to help his wife, to the point that Jocelyn drops out. She’s secured her seat on the council as she hoped.

Only it’s not actually what she wanted. She never had much interest in the position, and as Johnny virtually confirms, the prospect of doing that job for four years and having to deal with Roland every day is not an appetizing prospect. What she wanted was to beat Jocelyn. Only now that she’s done it, she realizes it’s a hollow victory because Jocelyn is the kind of good person who has her students make replacement yard signs for Moira, feels bad about using the word “effing”, and drops out of the race due to the pressure. For once, Moira actually feels guilty about all of this, and Catherine O’Hara delivers the pain of that realization, mid-”It’s Raining Men”, beautifully. It’s a really interesting place to take what’s been a fairly lackluster election storyline, and almost justifies the thing.

On the other half of the show, I like the development that David’s remaking of the “Blouse Barn” to suit his modern fashion sensibilities in addition to his spendthrift ways has, in fact, bankrupted the business. It’s a logical result, and I’m glad the show doesn’t just make it magically a success. (I love Parks and Rec, but that feels like something Parks and Rec would do.)

Instead, David proves his value with a different sort of business acumen -- recognizing that the trademark situation with “Blouse Barn” and the AUstralian company planning a U.S. expansion is worth way more than the $10,000 that company is offering his boss. The negotiation isn’t the biggest laugh riot in the world (Alexis in particular is a little too broad for the moment), but it’s a great success for David. He puts in actual work to figure out the situation and, while applying strategies from The Good Wife, still manages to achieve the right result.

It’s not enough to save his job, but it is enough to get an incredibly generous $40,000 commission from his now ex-boss, to start whatever thing he thinks of next. The fact that he chooses to save the money, and convinces his family of the same, rather than blowing it on a trip, is a great sign of growth for him. Choosing manicures and scrimping is a nice brick in the wall of this riches to rags story changing the Roses for the better, all except for Johnny who seems to find himself increasingly useless.

Overall, there weren’t as many big laughs in this one as I might like from a comedy, but there’s some really great character work and storytelling, which more than makes up for that.