What I’m Watching: The Great Indoors

The Great Indoors: Season 1, Episode 12 “Paul’s Surprise” (B+)

So, twelve episodes in, we finally got to meet Paul, who it turns out is very real. I like that, stupid as it may seem, this show is committed to making Paul seem like a cat, giving Jack enormous uncontrollable satisfaction for having a joke he made actually come true. Paul was definitely very annoying, cracking unfunny jokes one after another and then saying “gotcha” to prove that he had absolutely no sense of comic timing. Being asked to read Roland’s incredibly long toast with an intermission was an unfortunate development that Jack probably would have been smart to turn down, and instead he managed to get all three of his adoring underlings to not talk to him since they truly couldn’t believe how mean he had been. Even Esther wouldn’t overshare with Jack because she was so mad at him. The interpretation of Jack as an emotional otter seemed appropriate, and his enthusiasm for apologies was, as Eddie pointed out, proof that he wasn’t doing it right. Having the millennials prepare a very weird version of New Orleans was a sweet way of making up for his behavior, and getting them a ride on a private jet to the real thing was even more selfless and kind. I enjoyed the subplot of Clark, Mason, and Emma trying to figure out which one of them was in charge, leading to their eventual discovery, as summed up by Clark, that they were part of a “rock paper scissors management style” that actually proved to be quite effective.