What I’m Watching: Avenue 5

Avenue 5: Season 1, Episode 5 “He's Only There to Stop His Skeleton from Falling Over” (B)

It shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that HBO has renewed this show for a second season, exciting news that assures more wackiness in space to come for a while. This episode wasn’t nearly as funny as the previous installment, but it did show the danger of the mob mentality that is only going to get worse as time goes on and these people are trapped in close quarters. There are many things that the senior staff can’t control, like being knocked off-course, but it seems absurd that they should continue to have events programmed like the halfway home party when they’re actually only 1/46th of the way home, sure to anger anyone who has momentarily forgotten the extreme extension of their trajectory. The comedian bombed in a big way, and that whole situation got way out of control when everyone wanted to shoot poor Frank out the airlock as punishment for pushing the button that they believe caused a good deal of their misery. Sarah is acting a bit too much, discussing a romantic history with Ryan and trying to distract from other conversation, and it’s a good thing that Ryan was able to take charge again and convince the mob not to jettison the innocent Frank, who of course believes that Ryan is trying to take his wife from him. Billie feeling like she’s too much out of the spotlight isn’t good for anyone since she’s one of the only people who actually knows how to do anything, and hopefully her jealousy won’t get the best of her. Mia and Doug really are desperate to make each other miserable, and their antics in this episode were vicious.