Season 2, Episode 3
Do you like Megan
Mullally? Cause you got her comin’ at ya!
My relationship with Megan Mullally is somewhat
complicated. For the longest time, I couldn’t stand her based solely on the
fact that she played Karen on Will &
Grace, where she was a one-note character on a one-note show. (Also, I
found Karen to be particularly grating, but it was mostly that one-note thing.)
But in the past few years, as I saw her play The Chief on Childrens Hospital and Tammy II on Parks and Recreation, I began to see what the big deal was, and why
so many people held her in high regards. (Also, why a man as awesome as Nick
Offerman would marry her.) Mullally is a fantastic comedic actress, and when
she’s given the right material, she tends to be the standout of whatever she’s
in. As such, I was really excited for her appearance in tonight’s episode of Happy Endings.
Unfortunately, I was a bit let down, but not it wasn’t Mullally’s
fault; it was the character she played that I had problems with. As soon as it
was determined that A) Penny’s mom Dana was always an upbeat person and B) she
was married to a man who wasn’t with her, it became clear that C) Dana had just
gotten a divorce, which would lead to D) Penny trying to bring Dana to reality and
thusly make her a deeply cynical person for about a third of the episode. It’s
the kind of stock character that we’ve seen many times before, and it’s the
kind of thing that I frankly expected HE
to be above.
But as a performance, Mullally was on fire, and it did
manage to lessen the character’s drag on the episode. She was on fire tonight in
the line-delivery department, with her best scene coming towards the end of the
episode as she took to insulting every single member of the group. And even if having
her be as upbeat and fond of song as Penny is, Mullally sold it, and it nicely
fits into the “children ape their parents” theme that the show started last
year when Damon Wayans guested as, who else, Brad’s father. It might seem easy
to match kids up with the parents, but considering how often we’ve seen the “parents
are the complete opposite of their kids!” approach, it’s almost refreshing for
the show to take this angle. (Besides, if anybody is going to be the complete
opposite of their parents, it’s going to be Jane, right?)
The rest of the episode, however, was much better, and more
or less made up for any failings in the A-plot. Jane and Brad’s foray in couple’s
improve class was exactly the kind of annoyingly cutesy thing these two would
have done, and though it was the kind of thing that would have gotten old
quickly, the show avoided this trap by paring their story up with Max’s
makeshift limo tours of the city. Happy
Endings hasn’t really done ongoing storylines before (expect for the Alex
and Dave’s reconciliation, but I like to pretend that didn’t happen), and while
I think a fully formed serialized story would work against the show’s mellow
vibe, I am interested in what other limo-based stories the writers have up
their sleeves.
Alex and Dave were relegated to runners this week, but
considering that there are my least two favorite performances/characters, I actually
found this to be an agreeable move. Not only did it stop the episode from
feeling overstuffed, but it also proved Elisha Cuthbert’s particular niche at
comedy, which frankly surprised me that she had such a niche. Having her do a
bunch of quick physical gags made me laugh more than she had in the entirety of
the show before this episode. Dave’s story about being 1/16th Navajo
wasn’t quite as funny, as it mostly contained jokes that we heard elsewhere,
but it nicely played up Dave’s inner douche.
Quotes, Etc:
I have absolutely no proof of this, but I like to pretend
that it was Bob Odenkirk doing the voice of Chris, Dana’s ex, on Penny’s
answering machine. The man’s got to do something when not working on Breaking Bad (and considering his
marginal role, that’s a lot of the time), and I smell a recurring character…
I totally forgot that this show took place in Chicago,
until the characters needlessly name-dropped Time Out Chicago. Someone should probably tell the show that nobody
really cares what city it takes place in, and making these kind of
overly-obvious name checks is just annoying.
Apparently it’s spelled “Hartz”. Who knew?
“Tourists ruin everything. This place, the Vatican…”
“I love my mom. We’re just like the Gilmore Girls, except
we came first so we’re better.”
“You can’t have pork and steak at the same time. You’re
not the King of England.”
“Like the ad says, ‘You’ve got to neck yourself before
you wreck yourself’.”
“That’s three beyond the G-Spot, so you do the math.”
“But another city had that name, so, thanks a lot, Omaha.”
“I haven’t thought about how my boat will have a mahogany
steering wheel and be called ‘Yeah, buoy’.”
“Did you find your J-Spot? Did you use a bite stick?
Because they were very specific about that in the article.”
“It’s like you the time you told me we were camping, when
really we had just gotten evicted.” “But you learned how to make trashcan fire,
and not every nine-year-old can do that.”
“I mean, you’re my Wayne Brady…Jane.”
“So now you get to perform for people and boats.”
“Mommy’s got to skedattle. She’s got some boat enthusiast
to underwhelm.”
“Dave, you are 1/16th Navajo. Don’t let that
white woman get you down.”
“Talk about boats!” “We’re all alone!”
“You want dueling Kennedys, you’ve got dueling Kennedys!”
“Martha’s Vineyard!” “Cuba!”
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