Take Three: Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll

Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll: Season 1, Episode 3 “Lust for Life” (B+)

I think what makes this show, and really anything created by Denis Leary, work best is when a character is backed into a corner and needs to fight to argue his way out (it’s almost always a male who needs to do the apologizing). When Johnny heard that there was a hoax going around that he had choked on a chicken bone and died, he initially was offended and then tried to spin it to his advantage by transforming the method of death into something more legendary. I love that all the good ways to die had already been taken, and instead it ended up just being a stunt and a way to get him to squirm through the accidental confession that he had once slept with Joan Jett. That celebrity guest star was used to very strong effect, appearing in just one scene with the hilarious revelation that Johnny had fallen asleep and they never actually had sex. Hitting on Ava was a bonus comedy moment, and her enthusiasm about Gigi’s future was a realistic occurrence that made sense given the music scene that exists on this show. I also enjoyed Johnny struggling to say that he loves Gigi and doing his best to defend her mother, and his reaction to Rehab showing up with a bouquet of flowers for Ava allegedly meant as a memorial consolation and not an attempt to sleep with the newly widowed woman who, over the course of the episode, didn’t have many strong feelings for her domestic partner.