What I’m Watching: You’re the Worst

You’re the Worst: Season 3, Episode 9 “The Seventh Layer” (B+)

This show, which was recently renewed for a fourth season by FXX, has been experiencing a really great third year in which it’s returned to its solidly funny roots while occasionally spotlighting supporting characters and their more dramatic problems. Who better to spotlight than Vernon and Paul, two dopey husbands who are eternally stepped on by their wives in completely different ways? Vernon is an absurd character in so many ways, calling shotgun when he’s the only passenger and referencing how he pretends to scrub up as a doctor even though, as Paul pointed out, it’s actually done to protect the patient. Paul’s inability to communicate with his wife, who didn’t even realize he was gone, is probably more miserable than Vernon’s money spending cap, which was his own fault to begin with. Vernon purposely putting diesel in the tank just to spend more time away from his wife was simplistic but logical, and it’s a good thing he didn’t actually catch that ride to San Diego to abandon his family. The two of them masturbating into the fire together was definitely weird, but these guys do what they can given their situations. What really made the episode work was the hilarity of Paul’s Uncle Nephew who was six years older than him and pretty much raised him and Paul’s lashing out at Vernon for him and Lindsay being bad people, to which Vernon shot back that Paul’s wife stabbed him. This was fun entertainment, and I’m eager to see the two of them return to the rest of our depraved, complicated characters.