Happy Endings - "Blax, Snake, Home"

Season 2, Episode 1

A strong premiere that could still stand to shed a few things

I can’t stop being surprised at how much Happy Endings grew in its twelve-episode first season. Okay, actually, there were thirteen episodes made, and that last one (which was actually production code 106) was burned off in last August. But that only helps to serve my point. With those twelve episodes airing over seven weeks, and completely out of production order (seriously, the continuity was awful) this was not a show that exuded the greatest confidence. It also didn’t help that the basic premise – a Runaway Bride type setup lead into a show that often feels like a retread of Friends – wasn’t exactly original, nor were the show’s repeated attempts to keep bringing up the broken almost-nuptials all that interesting.

But around this, the rest of the show became much stronger, turning into what I like to refer to as a “hangout sitcom”.  The original premise slipped away, and the show came to be about a group of friends hanging out in the city. Now admittedly that’s a premise that also isn’t all that original, but hangouts sitcoms don’t really have to be. The show rightly keeps the action mostly in the core group, and any outsiders don’t intrude on the action as much as they did on say, Friends. The stories are kept low-key (I doubt we’ll ever have a real romance plot), and they usually wrap up by the end of the episode. It’s the kind of show that people watch for the characters, not the stories, and I think it’s stronger for that.

So perhaps I was a bit reviled by the opening scene, which saw the group celebrating the one-year anniversary of that failed wedding day. I can understand the general need of a show to retell it’s premise, especially when it’s renewal was based on a not-that-spectacular-in-the-ratings seven week run, but this is a premise that is in no way necessary to understanding the show in its current form. (Also, I like the dark aspect to this humor, but good humor doesn’t excuse poor storytelling.)

Or maybe it is. I understand that that the wedding is key to understanding Alex and Dave’s antagonistic relationship, and that to just ignore that going forward would be a disservice to the characters/story, which is frankly one of my pet peeves when it comes to television. But the show tends to waffle on whether or not Alex and Dave are friends anyways, and in my view, a year seems like enough time to get over most if not all of the anger associated with that nasty incident. The show seems like it’s in the position that it can decide these two are actually friends now and nobody would even notice.

Their actual plot tonight didn’t make a case for keeping the premise either. The idea of having them two of them finally being honest with each other seems like something that should have happened earlier in their relationship, and a lot of the lies that they told to each other weren’t all that original or funny. There was also a lot of unevenness to the story, as it felt like Dave getting to live out his frolfing, sock-shoe wearing, terrible song performing dreams was just inherently funnier than Alex making lots of jambalaya and watching Richard Gere movies. (It also doesn’t help that Elisha Cuthbert really isn’t that funny.) Luckily the plot was saved by Eliza Coupe, whose probably best known for being the saving grace in most instance of terrible television. (*cough*Scrubs, season nine*cough*)

Unsurprisingly, everything around this plot was much better, and the second half of the episode, which dealt less with Dave and Alex and more with Penny, Max and Brad, was much better for it. Penny’s cursed apartment had the usual surreal-ish quality that most Penny plots do, and between all the mysterious cats and the omnipresent half-eaten pints of ice cream, it was a real winner. Even stronger was the Max/Brad story, and not just because Maz is my favorite character. The show has had a lot of fun with Max being a non-traditional gay guy, and I was glad that they brought that keen eye to his biracial friendship with Brad.

In short, “Blax, Snake, Home” may have made a strong case for why people should leave their TVs on after Modern Family (while tonight’s MF episode made a case of people should turn their TVs on just for Happy Endings), but the show still has a ways to go before it can enter the current pantheon of comedic greats.

Quotes, Etc:

“Should we order a movie?….Lincoln Lawyer, I love these opening credits.”

“What? Oh now a brother can’t twirl?”

“What a delicious fax machine!”

“Welcome, you’re my first gentleman caller. That made me sound like a prostitute, I’m not a prostitute.”

“Should I get an AOL email address? What’s wrong with me?”

“Nice socks, you look like a gay ninja.”

“Really, women are going crazy for trying on clothes and eating spicy seafood soup?”

“You’re a lawyer and a dentist?” “I like cleaning teeth, sue me.”

“Crap dammit, I am white Daryl.”

“Why is the DVR filled with The Good Wife and The View? I didn’t record these. These are for lonely women who talk to themselves.”

“You don’t polish china.”

“Let’s go talk about gay stuff.”

“On a scale of fur to scales, I prefer scales.”

“Gays inside, go.”

“The song is so sad. The root of love is love.”