What I’m Watching: Episodes

Episodes: Season 1, Episode 4 “Episode Four” (B)

We’re now officially past the halfway mark for this show’s debut season, which seems strange, mostly because the season is an unusually short seven episodes. This installment is without question the series’ weakest so far, though that’s hardly a condemnation. I think that setting almost the entire episode out of the studio might be too much of a risk, and even if it’s good to get a glimpse of Matt’s personal life as he wallows in (somewhat understandable) self-pity, it’s still just not quite as well-rounded an episode, mostly due to the lack of Carol and the other show-involved personalities. What I did like quite a bit about the episode was seeing the mutual dislike between Beverly (a.k.a. Betsy) and Matt truly manifest itself in outright conversations and interactions. I loved Matt’s reaction to seeing Beverly appear with Sean at the bar, and his delivery of “Why’d you bring her?” was spot-on. Of course, the best line, not to mention execution, of the episode was Matt’s rather crude remark to his ex-wife, “Just this once, don’t be a …” I enjoyed the fact that Beverly actually had to say to Sean that he should never, under any circumstances, try to use that line on her in the middle of an argument. I liked that the heartfelt bonding scene resulted in Matt actually throwing up on Beverly’s shoulder. I was surprised to see Brit Rachel Shelley from “The L Word” as Matt’s morning guest, and was mostly distracted by her American accent since she didn’t have all that much else to do.