What I’m Watching: Married (Season Finale)

Married: Season 2, Episodes 12 and 13 “Gymnastics” and “The Waiter” (B-)

These two episodes feel strange as a farewell to what I’ve found to be a very underwhelming sophomore season, though fortunately they were better than some of the installments leading up to this point. A double-decker finale could have worked to the show’s advantage, especially if it had reached some dramatic epiphany, but instead it served as a major buildup to the realization of the Farmer Todd storyline, something I wish had never materialized because of how negatively it and A.J. affected the show. I’m still also bitter about Jess being written out of the show, regardless of whether Jenny Slate wanted to leave, and the only positive to go come out of it is the strengthening of Shep’s character. Having him go out on a date with a book publisher played by none other than Andrea Savage, an AFT Award nominee this past year for her season-long stint on “Episodes,” was a treat, but then he had to ruin it by sharing the details of why it wasn’t a home run with A.J. and Bernie. John Hodgman’s Bernie has always been a random contributor to this show, and to have him end up playing Farmer Todd and then have unreasonable demands that caused him to walk out of a children’s production was puzzling and unfunny. Russ showing up drunk was out of character, but I suppose that worked okay. His dreams were intriguing, coupled with his bizarre sleep eating and his belief that Miranda was in love with him. His attempt to apologize to Christy for blowing her off rather than breaking up with her went a bit far but was the type of just cringe-worthy enough material suitable for this show, something I wish this season had demonstrated much more often.

Season grade: B-
Season MVP: Sarah Burns as Abby