What I’m Watching: The Conners

The Conners: Season 1, Episode 10 “Don’t Shoot the Piano Teacher” (B+)

Darlene is an extremely sarcastic person, and it makes a lot of sense that both of her children would have inherited some of that. Harris displays it in a relatively unfriendly way, grilling her about having slept with other men they didn’t meet, while Mark was evidently corrupted to pretend to have a tantrum just to mess with his mother. Ben went over well with Dan, even though he caught on right away that Darlene was trying to test him by agreeing to Ben’s suggestion of giving her son piano lessons. Making Mark cry seemed like an unproductive development for their relationship, especially given the way Ben responded when Darlene confronted him, but she’s trying something new by dating someone who is going to challenge her rather than just take what she says, which led to a humorous attempt to have Mark get Ben to come back without implicating her actions in the situation. Ben inviting Darlene and the kids to move in with him was a surprise, and I’m sure there’s going to be some drama if that actually happens. Becky having a baby shower just for the gifts after Blue suggested it was funny, though Jackie got her more upset by inviting Emilio to show his own contribution for the baby. Dan hiring Emilio to do work for him was a sweet gesture, one that hopefully won’t backfire either if he fails to live up to his expectations of a hard worker or, worse, proves less than sincere in his desire to be a part of his future child’s life.