Round Two: Perfect Harmony

Perfect Harmony: Season 1, Episode 2 “Fork Fest” (C+)

I had hoped that this show might demonstrate dramatic improvement in its second outing, but it really didn’t. Bradley Whitford definitely has an appeal as an actor, but lately he’s been doing this bit where he’s just too annoyed to be anywhere, and that only works to a certain degree. In the case of his Emmy-winning turn on “The Handmaid’s Tale,” it’s perfect, because he’s dealing with a dystopia that he helped to create and existing as one of the only non-fanatics with a considerable amount of power. Here, he’s not responsible for any of it, and he couldn’t seem more irritated at every turn. Evidently, he’s going to have to grow each week, and after his simple conversational charm was negated by his immediate use of hand sanitizer to cleanse himself of his meeting with the hog farmer, he had to get down and dirty in the literal mud to prove that he doesn’t take himself too seriously. It was growth, but also quite predictable. Everyone believing that Ginny was the one who cheated on Wayne because she didn’t want to badmouth him in front of their son felt more than a little ridiculous, though not quite as much as the widespread rumor, discussed even by Ginny herself, that Adams had killed her late husband. Exaggerating and making fun of Southern culture is only so funny, and I think I preferred the setting and characters on “Trial and Error” to this. I won’t be checking back in again, unless I hear news of a crossover with that cancelled series!