Monday, July 20, 2015

What I'm Watching: Married (Season Premiere)


Married: Season 2, Episode 1 “Thanksgiving” (B+)

This was one of my favorite new comedies last year, and I'm very happy to have it back for season two. This wasn't a hilarious episode but still served as a good reintroduction to these characters thanks to a field trip and a misguided admissions process. Starting the episode with Russ and Lina trying unsubtly to tell their daughter that she wasn't dressed appropriately paved the way for a much larger and more mature conversation about sex more towards the end of life. Lina's mother and stepfather were played by two familiar TV faces, Frances Conroy, who used to star on “Six Feet Under,” and M.C. Gainey, who I remember best as Tom Friendly on “Lost” and Bo Crowder on “Justified.” Discussing the fact that she believed her mother was being raped in front of the abundantly helpful facility employee didn't work out so well as their September Thanksgiving dinner was interrupted by an evaluator from the community, but, aside from their young daughter overhearing the word rape and asking about it, that whole mess seems to have worked itself out. Jess' biggest problem going in to her preschool interview at first appeared to be the fact that she was overcompensating for people perceiving her as a trophy wife and pushing too hard against those who weren't asking any questions. Ultimately, however, it was her dismissal of A.J. as a put-together person that nearly did her in, and I love that A.J.'s revenge was to pretend not to know them when he knew it would help them while he had actually already taken care of the recommendation without telling them so that he could make them sweat.

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