What I’m Watching: The Kominsky Method

The Kominsky Method: Season 1, Episode 5 “Chapter 5: An Agent Crowns” (B+)

We didn’t spend as much time in the bathroom with Sandy as in previous episodes, but he did get a relatively alarming if still hilarious call from Dr. Wexler telling that something else would kill him before his prostate. Going to a park and getting looked at like he was a pedophile didn’t do much to up his confidence, but he followed that up with a far more successful visit to Lisa’s home in which he managed to make a great case for a relationship and have some apparently decent sex. Even listing the many, many medications that he was taking didn’t kill the mood. Doing a reverse mortgage commercial wasn’t ever going to go well, and Norman calling to tell him the news about Phoebe was just a helpful way to get him out of there after his ethical objections to the copy were handily rejected. I liked getting to see what Norman is like at work, pretty much just as sarcastic as he is with Sandy but considered to be very important even if people think that he’s ready to be pushed out. Whispering to the woman next to him that she’d fill him in later was an entertaining dynamic, and everyone groaning when he asked for a part for Sandy was indicative that perhaps Norman really has been doing his best to get Sandy work even if he hasn’t been successful. I’m always happy to see Elliott Gould, and his “One Foot in the Grave” script about a character suffering from dementia who forgets everything except justice sounded like a disaster. Seeing him take over for Sandy in the commercial was a fitting sendoff. Not much came of it, but watching Mindy do her one-woman show with alcohol in hand when she was subbing for Sandy helps to explain just what kind of parent he was.