What I’m Watching: Suburgatory

Suburgatory: Season 1, Episode 4 “Don’t Call Me Shirley” (B+)

Following up on last week’s surprisingly enjoying installment, this show continues to find its funk and establish its own distinctive voice. The theft of Sheila’s dolls provides a great impetus for Tessa to relentlessly mock the suburbs in voice-over, explaining just how ridiculous it is that dolls could drum up such a police presence. I’m always a sucker for instantly-made T-shirts trumpeting silly causes, and therefore seeing the Shay family members outfitted in shirts related to the missing dolls was quite amusing. Dallas and Dahlia moving in with George and Tessa for the night may have been extreme, but anything that gets Dahlia and Tessa to work together towards the same goal has to be worth watching. Their staged confrontation about the dolls didn’t immediately catch Mr. Wolfe’s attention, and he seemed all ready to send Tessa packing when he met with George. It makes perfect sense that Lisa was the one who took her mom’s dolls, and Allie Grant is playing even more of a punching bag here than she used to play on “Weeds.” Alan Tudyk gets a bit of screen time in this episode as Noah suggests that George build panic rooms for people after the break-in, but I do wish he could be given something more worthwhile to do. George and Tessa’s relationship provides the ultimate heart of the episode, as he is fully aware of what she’s been up to the entire episode and is only responding as he should to let her think that she’s been deceiving when the truth is just the opposite.