What I’m Watching: Life in Pieces

Life in Pieces: Season 3, Episode 16 “Pageant Bike Animals Jerky” (C)

It’s hard in a sense to grade episodes of this show since the first vignettes can vary so much in quality, and this one felt like a real letdown since only one of them – the last one – was moderately tolerable. The suspension of disbelief necessary on this show is often too much, and some characters get taken way too far in a manner that’s just not necessary since they’re already appealing and funny as they are. Colleen was the prime example in the first segment, playing dress-up with Lark and then somehow deciding that it was appropriate to sign her up for a pageant. Jen yelling at her only to apologize for referencing her real fertility struggles felt out of place since this show rarely does drama, and everything about the routine was a bit much to take. Greg, Matt, and Joan constantly forgetting Tim as they tried to get Joan’s stolen bike back was worthwhile only for the final moment of that segment, in which Tim suggested to the seller who was planning to hold him hostage in exchange for payment for the bike that he might want to try another approach. I hated everything about the musical vignette, and I’d really rather not say anything more about that. Clementine and Tyler are always fun to watch, though they weren’t all that into this whole jerky thing which they thought they could sell with John’s likeness on it for free. Rebranding it as dog food was clever, but also a fitting summary to an off-kilter and ineffective episode.