Take Three: Shrill

Shrill: Season 1, Episode 3 “Pencil” (B+)

As this show continues, what’s becoming clearest is that Annie is a great lead character. She has some idea of what she wants in life, and she’s getting better at thinking that maybe attaining it is possible. She knew that she wanted Ryan to come to her work event, and he did seem completely ready to do so when she called to tell him about it. His absolute failure to even acknowledge that she was upset when she walked in on his monumentally idiotic pencil competition prompted a courageous and strong response from her, though she didn’t last too long even after telling him never to talk to her again. I immediately recognized Esther Povitsky, who here played Kayla, Ryan’s other girlfriend, from her role as Maya on “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” and it appears that this part was equally miniscule in relation to the other characters. The most worthwhile new face was that of Lamar, who was quite charming and didn’t hesitate to finally admit his feelings for Annie, which led to their inevitable “smashing” done allegedly “just for the playlist.” Fran is a prankster, and something tells me she can dish it out before than she can take it, and she won’t be too happy to find out about this union, though maybe I’m wrong and she’ll be thrilled about two important people in her life getting together. The lingering annoyance of Annie’s troll is something that is going to eat away at her, and the complete lack of empathy expressed by Gabe isn’t going to help.