Happy Endings - "Meat the Parrots"

Season 3, Episode 11 

After last week's unexpected turn into serialized, and frankly more conventional, storytelling, there was a good deal of anticipation of what this episode of Happy Endings might bring, and what that may mean for the show from here on out. Surprisingly, the show didn't continue with the will-they-or-won't-they arc introduced last week, but they did keep the more conventional storytelling, once again to the show's detriment.

Much like “The Code War”, “Meat the Parrots” broke the episode and the group into two distinct stories, but the stories in this episodes were fortunately better plotted. The trade-off was that for the second week in the row, we got some more well-tread premises that the show didn't manage to elevate above anything we've seen before. Now, just so we're clear, this was a funny episode, and there were plenty of jokes that worked, but so much was tied up into traditional plotting, that the show couldn't become as zany and fast-paced as I would have liked.

The real trouble spot was the Dave/Penny storyline, for a number of reasons. The major one was of course that the whole “one friend's parent dates the parent of another friend” trope has been done so many times before that the show couldn't really escape the plot even if it tried. And boy, did it try. Making Penny excited for the relationship between Big Dave and her mom was a nice touch, as it allowed for their to be yet another thorn in Dave's side in regards to this development, and putting Dave in a hole like that always makes for good comedy. I also appreciated how the show turned this plotline into Dave's still unresolved feelings over his parent's divorce, because as someone's whose own parents got divorced when I was twenty, I think adult children of divorce is a story subgenre that not enough shows and movies explore, and “Meat” proved that there is significant dramatic weight there.

However, that didn't stop a large section of the story from devolving into “dad's new girlfriend is changing him” jokes and “an adults starts acting like a teenager gag”, both of which felt below the kind of jokes this show normally hits, and that was hindered by the similarly low-hanging fruit that was the hippie culture jokes. (Though the montage of Dave saying things were stupid at the convention was funnier than it had any right to be.)

But I think that the show missed out on a golden opportunity to play off of the developments of last week's episode by not somehow finding a way to merge Dave and Penny's newfound (?) feelings for one another with their sudden forced sibling bonds. I know it's standard for most comedies to weave in and out of serialized plots like this because they tend not to be held up to the same standards as drama, so I can't say I'm exactly surprised that this didn't come up (and who knows when these two episode were conceived/written in relation to one another), but I feel like adding that element of creepiness might have made things funnier and stopped the A-plot from repeating a lot of the same beats. (Not to mention, in a post-Arrested Development world, we really should be holding comedies to a higher standards, not just because we know they can do better, but out of respect for the medium. It's hard to get society at large to see comedies and dramas a equals if we keep using an outdated double standard.) 

The better of the two plots was Alex, Brad and Max's investigation into the Chinese restaurant across the street from her shop. For starters, it's exactly what I look for in a Happy Endings plot, as it was a simple and allowed the three actors to just bounce off of one another for most of the time. Secondly, it took what was up to this point a running gag – the fact that Alex's shop seeing so few customers – and turned it into a salient plot point/character beat, which could hopefully be used in the future. Third, the ending where Alex decides to let the ESL class use her shop on Sundays was quite sweet, and holds it own comedic potential like Max's limo did earlier this season. And fourth, there was a racist, homophobic parrot involved, and wasn't that just hilarious?

Quotes and Other Thoughts:

A quick programming note for all of you faithful fans out there: Happy Endings will wrap up this season on April 11th in order to make way for Don't Trust the B---- in Apt. 23. This means that the show, which has a full 22 episode order, will either air some episodes on the weeks when the other comedies are in repeats, or that some will be burned off this summer. I can't be certain, but the former seem more likely, so make sure to check your listings/the internet regularly, and I'll try to stay on top of it and warn you as well. 

There wasn't a whole lot of Jane tonight, which makes me sad since there's nothing that can't be made better with more Eliza Coupe, and the little runner about who spilled the Yoohoo in the back seat of Big Dave's car came to a fairly predictable end, twice over.

The Ed Begley Jr cameo, however, was just fantastic, even if it was a bunch of simple “playing off his public image” gags, mostly because of how dryly Begley delivered his lines. 

“I liked by pie crusty....”

“He hates me for no reason.” “YOU LEFT DAVE AT THE ALTAR.”

“Second year, bangs. My dad got bangs.”

“I went to third base with Peter Wong in that rec room. I still smile every time I see wood paneling. Or Peter Wong.”

“Me, Hitler, Carmen Electra – Tauruses, yo.”

“Yeah, well saying 'Just like on Blue Bloods' just doesn't have the same pop.”

“YOU TELL US WHERE THE WHORES ARE AT.”

“I just got a coupon for a tantric workshop taught my Dr. Sexenstien. I don't think that's his real name...”

“Ed Begley Jr. is stupid.” “I've got nine kids man, just buy something.”

“Okay, this might be a bad time to tell you guys that I've never actually seen The Wire.”

“What is that on your shirt?” “I don't know Penny. I don't have time to read everything that's stuck to me.”

“Can I Skype with your grandma?” 

“Bird, you trippin'.”