What I’m Watching: The Conners

The Conners: Season 2, Episode 5 “Nightmare on Lunch Box Street” (B)

I was just talking to someone who said that they were also watching this show and weren’t exactly sure why, and I still wonder whether I should be continuing with it or not since it’s far from essential viewing. I watched the new season of “Roseanne” when it premiered because I expected it to earn Emmy nominations (which it did for Laurie Metcalf), and now I’ve become only moderately attached to some of the characters. I continue to find Sara Gilbert to be the strongest member of the ensemble, and she was firing on all cylinders in this half-hour as she first acknowledged Ben’s unsubtle attempts to make her feel less valued at work and then returned with a bold gesture that just ended up being two unfortunate revelations about her not having been divorced and David having dumped her. I like that the Halloween aspects of this episode were in the background, relegated to a few comments, like Darlene dressing up as Becky before she had the baby, and of course as the setup for a more dramatic subplot with the rarely-seen Mary, who had a sweet bonding moment with her cousin Mark about not being accepted. Jackie looking to buy the Lunch Box and discovering that her mother apparently still owns it after all these years seemed to come from out of nowhere. I don’t know what’s going to happen with that or if we’ll see the lawyer played by Patrick Fabian from “Better Call Saul” again, but the idea of a baby acting as a hostess is indeed entertaining.