What I’m Watching: Casual

Casual: Season 1, Episode 9 “Mars” (B+)

While some things, like Laura’s obsessive crush on her photography teacher, don’t move too fast on this show, others do, like the nuptials of the forever unwed parents of Valerie and Alex. It was so interesting and entertaining to see how they both went in with a certain attitude set on wreaking havoc and destroying their happiness, and instead found different ways to deal with the situation. Alex folded surprisingly quickly when Charles asked him to be his best man, and he managed to create a toast with an entirely different ending while still starting it on the same miserable note. Charles coming to him afterwards to ask him to pay for the entire wedding was an unfortunate coda since it negates all of the bonding that occurred by painting his actions as motivated by something entirely not genuine. Valerie accepting Emmy’s offer to do ecstasy did bring them closer but also ended in a very unexpected and awful place, cleverly conveyed with her inappropriate dream involving showing Alex what Emmy did and then finding her in bed naked next to a similarly naked Emmy. Betraying Laura was something she couldn’t have prevented because she didn’t know, but sleeping with Emmy is going to be much harder to atone for. Michael was quite harsh to Laura, but it seems that nothing is shaking her feelings for him and the aggressive way that she tries to encourage others to do things they shouldn’t with her just because she doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with it.