What I’m Watching: Suburgatory (Thanksgiving Episode #1)

Suburgatory: Season 2, Episode 5 “The Wishbone” (B+)

The major development of this episode was a long time coming, and it didn’t end up being a letdown. It was difficult to watch Tessa and her grandmother wait for her mother to show up when all evidence indicated that she wasn’t coming at all, and having her show up at George’s house in Chatswin and run in to hug Dalia was a real shake-up. Malin Akerman was a great choice to play Tessa’s mother Alex, who was exactly what was expected based on the descriptions Tessa had from finding her stuff and from George. Her pretending to fall asleep on the floor while Tessa was talking about her life was a highlight of their interactions, and it was good to see Tessa not letting her completely off the hook for being so absent from her life. It’s no surprise that their closeness bothers George, and I’m sure that her staying the night won’t lead to a serene morning. Dallas firing Alan because she wanted to cook dinner with George was entertaining, and I like how George ended up inviting him over and then having to hire him to help him. Events at the Shay household were rather dramatic, with Sheila inviting Malik and causing Lisa extreme agony. They got much worse when Sheila accidentally saw Malik naked and they both went to great lengths to justify its normalcy – my favorite was Malik’s defense, repeated by Fred, that he was born naked. It’s a shame that this incident seems to have caused the end of Lisa and Malik, but I’m hopeful that there’s plenty more sarcastic romance to come in their future.