What I’m Watching: Better With You

Better With You: Season 1, Episode 18 “Better with Lying” (B+)

Here we have a great conventional episode which is one of the defining elements of the traditional sitcom. While not flat-out hilarious throughout, it’s a strong example of using something that’s been done before and making it work in a new setting. What makes it most effective here is the characters, who are incredibly fun. The image of Ben and Casey sharing a bed is humorous enough, mostly for the looks on their faces. It became clear about halfway through the episode where it was that the two of them had ended up, and I enjoyed that particular twist as it was revealed. I was impressed by Ben’s detective skills, and equally so by Casey’s, in throwing a considerable pin in the first meeting stories told over and over by Mia and Maddie, respectively. Mia and Casey going into so much detail about their real experiences was appropriately embarrassing and over-the-top, and the ending scene provided a great corny flashback to the 1978 swingers party at which Vicky and Joel, as it turns out, actually met. I was a big fan of two of Casey’s lines: “Why would you think I would leave a piece of floss for you” and “This room knows exactly what you don’t want and it gives it to you,” both perfectly delivered by the token oddball. Of course, the single greatest line of the episode is uttered, as usual, by Ben, in his ill-fated attempt at making a chess metaphor, referencing “the horsey piece and the tall one.”