Take Three: Suburgatory

Suburgatory: Season 1, Episode 3 “The Chatterer” (B+)

I’m delighted to report that this show is getting substantially better, episode by episode. This third half-hour is actually quite hilarious, and I laughed a number of times throughout at the plotlines surrounding both Tessa and George. Tessa’s search for an unpopular, unsupervised elective took her to a sensible place, the newspaper, and I enjoyed that it only had a brief incarnation as the Chatterer before going back once again to being the Chronicle, featuring breaking news about the lunch menu. The riffs on journalism are a bit painful, but I can’t speak much about my high school newspaper contributor experience since I was merely the entertainment critic. Some jokes still aren’t catching on, like the KKK from the drama club, but for the most part, the show is pretty funny. George joining the PTA to combat his new nemesis Sheila was fun, as he pointed out that the PTA is not a job but a club and promptly took charge upon Sheila’s departure. I was delighted to see Darlene Hunt, best known as family values advocate Marcia Langman on “Parks & Recreation,” as the PTA woman who had a psychotic break (and did you know Hunt is the creator of “The Big C”? I didn’t!). The use of a stripper pole at the PTA mixer to drive away George was an inspired idea, and this show seems to have no problems in the imagination department. I’m looking forward to future episodes of this show, and I’m glad that I stuck with it since it’s really growing on me.