What I’m Watching: Life in Pieces

Life in Pieces: Season 1, Episode 20 “Puppy Prank Gum Assistant” (B)

It’s not a surprise that Tim is prone to childish tendencies, and it’s a real treat to see every once in a while that Heather can be equally immature. Deciding to rearrange the letters on the marquee at Tyler’s high school was a relatively harmless prank, and it proved much more difficult for them to take responsibility for it than they would have thought. Tyler being frustrated with his parents for their idiotic actions and subsequent meddling is entertaining, and that bled in to the third segment of this episode, which found Joan trying to cover up the fact that she let her granddaughters eat anything they want, namely candy and other unhealthy things, when they came over to her house. Everyone is keeping secrets from everyone else, and they’re all in cahoots with someone else about something. The notion of grandparents getting to spoil their grandchildren the way that they couldn’t hope to do with their own children was definitely on display here, and I think that’s a very relatable concept. Jen not telling Greg about her hot new assistant didn’t lead to him being angry or anything, but rather going off the deep end trying to dress cool and impress his top competition, which didn’t go so well after he threw his back out almost instantly. Greg’s immediate excitement at the idea of getting a hot new assistant of his own ended that whole plotline pretty quickly. As I’ve written before, I’m never so enthralled by John-centric plotlines, and the best part was yet another chance to see Colleen still in the show and getting back to a good place with Matt.