What I’m Watching: Suburgatory

Suburgatory: Season 1, Episode 11 “Out in the Burbs” (B+)

This show could well have faltered with an episode like this, having an undercover cop show up at the school. Fortunately, Dan Byrd of “Cougar Town” was a fun choice to play the overenthusiastic, very obvious Josh, who still managed to fool everyone in school. The most entertaining result of his visit was Lisa’s extensive efforts to attract him, dressing up as a man in an ill-fated attempt to turn him into a straight gay. Tessa’s self-congratulatory identification of Josh’s gaydar was way off, but the double speak that she totally misunderstood was decently amusing. Mr. Wolf’s excitement at the reason for Josh’s presence at the school was a lot of fun, and it’s nice that, as Tessa said, something productive did come out of the whole thing, which was Mr. Wolf being able to come out in the middle of a lunchroom announcement to the school. Dalia’s unsolicited comment about laxatives not being illegal was random but relatively hilarious. George’s concern about Dallas showing such affection for him worked so well because of Cheryl Hines’ total commitment to making Dallas as naively flirtatious as possible. Explaining that the kiss between them had nothing to do with George was a good defense, and I’m glad that George is able to reaffirm his friendship with Dallas since the two do make a good pair, even if it’s never going to lead to anything romantic. I do have to say that those 3-D paperweights seem incredibly cool, and I hope that Dallas’ idea takes off in real life.