What I’m Watching: Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll (Season Finale)

Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll: Season 2, Episode 10 “Bang Bang” (B+)

This was a great end to the season, but I’m concerned because there’s been no news about a third season yet. Maybe that’s not a problem since the show was only renewed for a second season a week after its first cycle ended, so there could still be time. Either way, this show is very deserving of more episodes, especially since it took itself in a new direction this season with the breakup of its major couples because Ava and Flash were sleeping together and decided they should be with each other instead. That didn’t play out so well in this episode for Flash, who wasn’t smart enough to realize that having ringtones for ex-girlfriends and not one for his current live-in flame probably wasn’t the brightest idea. Ava was pretty mad, and it’s going to be hard for him to charm his way out of this one. Cat has quite the effect on Johnny, and he really did give it all up just to keep the sex going, fully aware that she was using him to come back to a good financial place just like she was trying to use Gigi to get herself back on top. Though she’s the subject of a lot of other people’s meddling, Gigi did actually end up doing well for herself, the star of a hot band and ready to flash a suggestive look at the camera for the closing shot of the season. We didn’t get any update about Rehab or Bam Bam and where their careers are headed now, but let’s save for that for season three, which I hope will exist and will be as good as seasons one and two.

Season grade: B+
Season MVP: Elizabeth Gillies as Gigi

What I’m Watching: Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll

Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll: Season 2, Episode 9 “Rolling in the Deep” (B+)

Right before I watched this episode, I was deciding a few of my AFT Awards categories to be posted soon and (spoiler alert) Callie Thorne is my winner for Best Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, and therefore it’s a real treat to have her back again to help close out this season of the show. She and Johnny sure are feeling cozy, and they’re not mincing any words when it comes to filling their daughter in on all their sexual interactions. She hasn’t set a great precedent of boundaries with Ava, but walking in on her mom pretending to be looking for something on the floor by her dad’s feet was undeniably awkward. Like on “Rescue Me,” Thorne’s character is a whole lot of crazy, proclaiming that she’s in love with Johnny when he very vocally denies that it’s anything serious like that. Ava and Flash were rightly suspicious of her motives, but having someone to throw money at a problem and sponsor a recording session when every member of the band is at everyone else’s throats may actually be the most productive thing right now. In the latest “Feast” drama, it turns out that Campbell isn’t the principled artist he claimed to be, and now Rehab is back on top with a creator credit and plenty of liberty to pursue his photography. Bam Bam breaking his camera was an unfortunate development that wasn’t entirely unwarranted, and it was just one of the many humorous infantile interactions that took place at the end of the episode, paving the way for a tempestuous and surely entertaining season finale.

What I’m Watching: Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll

Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll: Season 2, Episode 8 “Ghosts of Skibbereen” (B+)

Johnny managed to take the high road for a good portion of this episode, but the moment that he saw Ava and Flash together, he lost all sense of composure and reverted completely to the selfish and immature child that he is inside. Gigi also did her best to move on, pursuing her relationship with Davvy in a more serious way, and the idea to set Johnny up with a 26-year-old probably wasn’t too well thought-out from the start. The biggest issue wasn’t her age or her physical features but rather her embodiment of everything that Johnny is against, namely antique instruments and recreations of music scenes from the 1800s, but also her immediate identification of his hairstyle. That Davvy and his date ended up together was ironic and also inevitable, showing that Gigi and Johnny can try to act as if they’ve moved on when it’s very clear that their newfound romances are just shams, while Ava’s appreciation of Flash’s property might be more substantial and enduring. I love that Campbell, seconds from going on stage to perform, proudly recognized Johnny as Willem Dafoe and wouldn’t stand for Johnny’s insistence that he wasn’t actually Willem. “Feast” was quite the production, and eating tree bark and elderberries for weeks to mimic food availability during the time in which the play was set seemed like a miserable ordeal. Bam Bam’s casual reveal of his flavored pretzels was pretty entertaining. This may be the last we see of “Feast” but something tells me that Bam Bam will remain a changed man and his future, coupled with Rehab’s, is far from set.

What I’m Watching: Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll

Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll: Season 2, Episode 7 “Tramps Like Us” (B+)

It turns out that this little affair between Flash and Ava, casual as it may have seemed, is going to have disastrous implications on the health of the band. Ava initially telling Flash that he was going to have to be the one to tell Gigi and Johnny led to Griffin Dunne’s peacemaker being there, which made it all seem like a much more sterile and official meeting than two breakups rolled into one. Flash and Ava are probably a better couple with a greater chance of lasting than the two pairings that existed at the start of this episode, though I’ve learned not to rely on the events of just one episode to chart the course of this whole series. Gigi bringing Johnny to the studio under the guise of meeting Springsteen helped to strengthen their connection, and they both did an incredible job of keeping their cool when they were hit with the news. Johnny has never been the voice of reason, and for him to do that was just a sign that something worse was to come later, which led Gigi indulge in some good revenge against Flash. Watching father and daughter wallowing with ice cream and television was a fun finale. Rehab really missed the boat in terms of credit with “Feast,” and it seems like tanking the project is the only way that he’s going to end up as anything more than a footnote on the show whose idea he originated long before Campbell Scott was interested.

What I’m Watching: Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll

Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll: Season 2, Episode 6 “Rock This Bitch Till the Wheels Fall Off” (B+)

It’s nice to think that, every once in a while, the members of the band can come together and just do something kindhearted for someone else. Tenika was a fantastic impetus for them to do that, especially with Johnny, who offered repeatedly to sit down and write songs with her anytime she wanted. As Ava got more and more popular and Johnny tried again to be a part of it, we got confirmation of something I didn’t even think was happening, which his that, as their significant others have started to suspect, Flash and Ava are in fact sleeping together. All this business about Flash doing her hair seemed legitimate, but it turned out just to be a front for an affair that’s likely to have more lasting implications than all the temporary drama that feels fleeting after initially seeming like it will be permanent. It was about time that Rehab hitched himself back to the massive success that Campbell is producing with Bam Bam, and their latest interaction was full a completely made-up speech by the truly crazy Campbell. His story about the origins of Bam Bam’s scarf was particularly off-kilter, and it’s clear that he doesn’t have muh of a tether to reality. Still, his rapping does have a certain appeal, and I think that, while it won’t be able to achieve the success of “Hamilton,” this show might actually make it big and offer Rehab and Bam Bam the chance to be famous in their own right.

What I’m Watching: Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll

Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll: Season 2, Episode 5 “And She Was” (B+)

After last week’s big blow-up, I had anticipated lots of drama and resentment from Johnny for being kicked out of the band whose members he had managed to so alienate by trying to steal the spotlight. There was a similarly stomach-churning ending to this installment, but everything that led up to it was considerably tamer than I had expected. Johnny trying to be supportive didn’t turn out to be the carte blanche he thought it would, mainly because his “yes man” attitude was completely transparent and not genuine. Ava not getting the usual feedback from him threw her off, and calling him on it when he was approving a dress she would never wear is what set the latest blow-up in motion. Johnny being jealous that everyone else in the band was headed somewhere but him was equally understandable and petty, and I think she’s had it at this point with being put second. Gigi has been talking about getting married and starting a family a lot lately, and Flash had the perfect cover with a story about meeting Lady Gaga for lunch to take her to the land he bought to deliver a decent proposal with no ring. I fear that his heartfelt actions may have been taken the wrong way if her immediate freakout is any indication, and the only comfort to take from that is that she obviously bounces from idea to idea very quickly without putting much weight in any of them, meaning that she should be able to recover from this momentous shock to her system without needing too much time.

What I’m Watching: Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll

Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll: Season 2, Episode 4 “Bad Blood” (B+)

It’s nice to see an episode with a bit more of a dramatic kick than the usual admittedly entertaining silliness of threesomes and all that. What was crucial about this episode was that it demonstrated how self-involved Johnny is, but, more importantly, that he has absolutely no sense of that. Piping up in the meeting to speak for Ava instead of letting her talk for herself was just the tip of the iceberg, and it says something that Ava didn’t even bring it up to him and instead had Gigi do it for her. As his daughter, Gigi possesses a lot of the same gusto and unfiltered energy as Johnny, but she’s able to perceive how what she does affects others. Telling him that he’s being fired wasn’t easy for her, but when he reacted in the way that he did, she had no trouble going in for the kill. Ava defiantly refusing to listen to him was telling, and it’s not going to get better anytime soon. Things started off on a less serious note with Flash trying to figure out why Gigi got him this ruby-filled tongue and whether she was seriously thinking about getting married and spending the rest of her life with him. But even that conversation had Flash confronting Johnny about the way that he was talking about his daughter, not confident that any of the women in his life that he’s supposed to be holding dear can actually accomplish success on their own. It’s a real shame, and I hope he’ll be able to come back from it.

What I’m Watching: Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll

Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll: Season 2, Episode 3 “Cool for the Summer” (B+)

This show is proving most serial in format than it was last year, and I think that’s a great thing. In this installment, we get a direct continuation of the threesomes plotline from last week, with both Gigi and Ava ensuring that the things they learned during their experiences inviting women into their bedrooms are imparted on the men with whom they share their lives. Flash’s concern about not being a good kisser shouldn’t have been such a big deal, but he let it get the best of him and overwhelm his every thought. Ava’s offer to help him was probably a bad idea given that it’s going to rekindle some of their old passion, but when has this crew ever been compelled to only take action on good ideas? Johnny was understandably distraught by Ava’s criticism of a particular set of his abilities in the bedroom. The best part of the whole episode was that the solution was for Johnny to turn to Gigi’s new fake girlfriend Davvy for advice on how to improve in that area, something that couldn’t possibly be more awkward given that she’s shared such intimate details with his daughter. I hope that Davvy will continue to be a part of this show for the foreseeable future since she definitely adds a lot and helps every other member of the cast with whom she interacts step up their game a little bit. I’m not overly fond of the subplot involving Rehab, Bambam, and their new side career, but it does have its entertaining moments.

What I’m Watching: Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll

Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll: Season 2, Episode 2 “Rebel Rebel” (B+)

I’m honestly surprised that it took this show this long to get to the topic of threesomes and just how casually all of its characters treat the idea of inviting an extra person into their bedrooms. I love that Johnny was the one who suggested couples therapy and Ava overruled him, citing her desire for a threesome. Of course everyone in the group would be well aware of Flash’s inability to contain his excitement during a threesome decades earlier, and this would be normal breakfast table conversation for this crew. Gigi’s view that it would be helpful to have someone else there to take over if she got distracted by her phone was pretty hilarious. Her awkward behavior when she went after the girl Flash found, singer Davvy, who was fantastically played by Rebecca Naomi Jones, was even more entertaining, and I enjoyed the way that it progressed and nearly fizzled out until they got some inspiration from Ava’s experience. Johnny brushing his teeth and drinking gallons of mouthwash while the girls were getting started without him was funny, and then he ruined the moment by getting excited too quickly, but they didn’t mind and just kept going without him, exiling him to the kitchen where he in turn got asked to leave the apartment so that Gigi could have some fun. This episode was best summed up by the line, “Don’t want to die monogamous, right?” Only this show could pull it off like this, and what a spectacular job it did without being too explicit.

What I’m Watching: Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll (Season Premiere)

Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll: Season 2, Episode 1 “All That Glitters is Gold” (B+)

I totally forgot this show was coming back, and I’m so glad it’s returned. I wasn’t sure who had died at the start of this episode and if I had just forgotten that it happened, but then I realized it didn’t matter. The funeral was just a way for the band to realize that they aren’t going to live forever and for them to move almost immediately to commenting about the aesthetics of the very showy funeral. Ava trying to find a good picture of herself so that she’d have it ready in case she died was a fun start, and things got much more dramatic when Gigi rushed to watch the footage which showed that Ava had quite the relationship with Flash which neither of them bothered to tell anyone about. Johnny being upset that it was a yearlong affair and not just sex was about as legitimate as his frustration that he couldn’t afford to smash Flash’s guitars. The band processing what happened was actually therapeutic – and quite enjoyable – and now it seems like they’re moving past it in the way that only a rock band could. Putting Mickey’s ashes in the maracas was a wonderfully twisted solution, and Bam Bam’s pep talk was pretty great too. My favorite part was Ava acknowledging the incomparable awkwardness of the situation in her pep talk to Gigi, coaching her ex-boyfriend’s daughter on why she should be with the man with whom they both slept. This show is wild and unique, and I’m pumped for this season.

What I’m Watching: Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll (Season Finale)

Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll: Season 1, Episode 10 “Because We’re Legion” (B+)

I was expecting this episode to feel much more like a season finale, perhaps even more so since, as far as I know, this show hasn’t yet been renewed for a second season. I sincerely hope it will since I do enjoy it a lot, and I think that the cast works very well together. Rob Morrow’s JP showed up to shake things up after the mess last week, and Gigi flirting with him like crazy was probably harmless and designed just to make her ex-boyfriend Flash jealous. JP whispering infuriating things into each band member’s ear just before they started playing and recording was a productive trick, it turned out, since it just encouraged them to give it their all rather than try to kill each other. The revelation that Flash and Ava slept together years ago was almost inconsequential, though it did create a few moments of amusing awkwardness between them and Gigi. Passing around the blame at the beginning of the episode was entertaining, especially watching Johnny and Flash each delight in being the good guy for a moment and Ava and Gigi yelling at them no matter who was in more trouble. A successful recording session was a promising way to end, though of course it all fell apart because, as part of the deal that Johnny hastily made to get Rehab and Bam Bam back in the band, they sold a version of the song that made their take completely unsellable. Oh well – that’s the world of rock and roll. Let’s hope for season two soon; this was a blast.

Season grade: B+
Season MVP: Elizabeth Gillies as Gigi

What I’m Watching: Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll

Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll: Season 1, Episode 9 “Take My Picture by the Pool” (B+)

It’s great to see any one of these band members go off on each other, but it’s even better when they come together to deliver a biting speech and give someone else the collective middle finger. The sudden news that Gigi had a shot at making it big but had to essentially leave the rest of the band behind was major but destined to fail eventually. It was pretty clear right off the bat that her new producer wasn’t much interested in her but rather the sexual vibe she could give off, and Flash’s blind support of the new direction just showed how uncomfortable Gigi was with it. Johnny realizing that he got a makeover to look just like Jon Bon Jovi his hilarious, and that of course was the final straw that made him explode and tell the producer with the fake accent that they wouldn’t sell out like this. His return to grab a few bottles of high-end liquor was funny and very much in character, and I love that he and Gigi got to walk out triumphantly together just before that. Nearly as entertaining was the new DJ duo composed of Bam Bam and Rehab, whose conversations about their new career included talk of cheesecake cheetahs, DJ Whale Earnhardt Jr., spank banks, and visors that hid their ages and sizes from the people around them. The band is destined to reunite, but I’d be happy to see more of this side gig any time the opportunity presents itself.

What I’m Watching: Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll

Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll: Season 1, Episode 8 “Hard Out Here for a Pimp” (B+)

There are times when I’m watching shows or movies and I wonder if people actually talk like their characters in real life. I sincerely doubt that a young woman would really speak to the longtime sexual partner of her father about their shared sexual experiences in such blunt and brutal detail, but I enjoy seeing just how much Gigi and Ava love making Johnny squirm by talking about how good Ava is at a certain skill and that both women know exactly what they’re giving the men in their lives to test whether they’re really worth going the distance. Johnny’s attempt to get Gigi to be less interested in Flash by turning her on to a young “normcore” rocker was funniest not for the image of him acting just like Johnny but far more for the insults he hurled at him when Johnny encouraged him to pretend he didn’t like him. That Johnny had to come and ask Flash to date his daughter was also very entertaining. The best part of Bam Bam and Rehab’s effort to get a fairer piece of the action was that they couldn’t remember the names of those band members in U2 whose roles they were interested were so crucial. I’m not sure what to say about the music that they did make during their duo effort, but I definitely like the idea of them being spotlighted and given more to do since they’re supporting players on this show but often among the most fun elements of it.

What I’m Watching: Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll

Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll: Season 1, Episode 7 “Supercalifragilisticjuliefriggingandrews” (B+)

As if Johnny and Gigi weren’t complicated enough in terms of their own relationship, it’s abundantly clear that there’s much more drama in the extended family. After Gigi’s mother showed up last week, now we get to meet both of Johnny’s parents who are truly a handful. Johnny’s mother, played by Kelly Bishop from “Gilmore Girls,” is remarkably similar to her son in that she continues to thrive on a fame that could have been, citing her pregnancy with him as the reason she lost out on the starring role in “Mary Poppins” and missed out on a career of stardom. Pretending to have cancer and flouting her engagement to a very gay man played by Roger Bart were behaviors extremely typical of rock stars, and she didn’t even try to bolster up her son in any way, even ignoring him in her scheduled interviews. Johnny’s father, played by Peter Riegert, on the other hand, is firmly against the music industry and life, abandoning it for a medical career and disapproving of both his son and granddaughter for their choices. Throughout the episode, I enjoyed Johnny’s mother calling Ava by the wrong name consistently, and then arguing her point further when she was finally corrected, and Bam Bam discussing the things he would be okay doing to have taste some truly terrific ribs. Everyone in this band has their standards and limits, but a bit of free stuff or a shot at immortal fame won’t stop them from compromising on anything and everything.

What I’m Watching: Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll

Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll: Season 1, Episode 6 “Tattoo You” (B+)

There has never been an instance of more perfect casting than having Callie Thorne play Gigi’s mother. While Thorne earned a Golden Globe nomination for her USA series “Necessary Roughness,” it was her work as Sheila on “Rescue Me” that truly astounded me, and she’s an obvious choice for Leary’s latest show, the first major player from that series to show up here in a big role. She toned down the crazy and upped the flirtation factor, largely ignoring Johnny but trying to tempt Flash with her sex appeal to end his relationship with Gigi, which she saw as misguided and ill-advised. There was a lot of explicit talk about vaginas in this episode, but that seems to be par for the course for this foul-mouthed crew, getting away with as much as they can say on FX and bleeping out the rest. I loved the conversations between Cat and Ava in which they complimented each other’s styles and bodies before getting down to real words and insults, ultimately emerging with a more serious and better understanding of where they were both coming from. Flash admitting that Gigi seems like a younger version of her mom and that maybe he was too old for her was definitely honest but also prompted an honest reaction from her in the form of his destroyed guitar. The line of the half-hour, from Flash, was “I’m 50, but my balls are 17,” a truly off-putting and odd sentiment only this show could pull off. More Callie Thorne in the future, please!

What I’m Watching: Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll

Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll: Season 1, Episode 5 “Doctor Doctor” (B+)

This episode reminded me very much of a memorable “Rescue Me” season two episode, “Sensitivity,” in which the firehouse crew is assigned mandatory sensitivity training and spend the entirety of it being as offensive as possible, destroying their instructor and the program in the process. This episode was extremely similar, even if it started out from a less serious standpoint. At the beginning, I wasn’t sure that it was going to be as effective, but this episode demonstrated that the writing on this show really is terrific, enabling every minor character to contribute in some way to the conversation, a perfect thing to illustrate in an installment highlighting those who aren’t usually part of the conversation, like Bam Bam and his drumsong and Ava and her ukulele. Getting Griffin Dunne’s doctor to declare that they were the most messed up band in history was a badge of honor, and the scenes that precipitated that were truly hilarious. I especially enjoyed Gigi and Johnny competing to name celebrities, with Gigi identifying George Harrison and then the two arguing over who Steve McQueen was when, in fact, both photos were of people who have that name. The setup of this episode provided a fantastic framework to showcase all the characters and give them the opportunity to speak up, most often with selfish and absurd sentiments, but that’s the beauty of this show and its title. The band didn’t do much making music, but they did accomplish a whole lot by completing eviscerating the bold doctor who deemed himself worthy to try to fix them.

What I’m Watching: Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll

Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll: Season 1, Episode 4 “What You Like Is in the Limo” (B+)

This episode was fun for a few reasons, mainly because it gave the group the opportunity to fly to a foreign country and demand absurd perks that exist only in the wild dreams of those who feel that they have the chance to ask for anything. The more dramatic backdrop of the episode was Gigi’s subtle maneuvering of the band and its priorities to include her at the forefront, initially insisting on not opening for the Heathens and then reclaiming and renaming the band as her own when the rest of them wanted to boot Johnny. Somehow she used the negative energy aimed at one member and harnessed it to her advantage, making her quite a threat, though her best interests are currently tied in with the best interests of the band. I like how Johnny still tries to have fatherly moments with her, talking about stardom and what it means to truly be a rock star, and that Ava has her own opinions about Johnny’s career and what he should be realistically shooting for at this point in his life. This show has done a good job thus far of portraying a situation in which the Heathens are able to command large paychecks and be popular in a perfect niche that makes it so that they’re comfortable enough to continue to fight internally and think of new ways to be self-destructive. They’re doing a good job so far, snake hallucinations and drum solos notwithstanding, and they’re sure to implode and then be reborn again soon.

Take Three: Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll

Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll: Season 1, Episode 3 “Lust for Life” (B+)

I think what makes this show, and really anything created by Denis Leary, work best is when a character is backed into a corner and needs to fight to argue his way out (it’s almost always a male who needs to do the apologizing). When Johnny heard that there was a hoax going around that he had choked on a chicken bone and died, he initially was offended and then tried to spin it to his advantage by transforming the method of death into something more legendary. I love that all the good ways to die had already been taken, and instead it ended up just being a stunt and a way to get him to squirm through the accidental confession that he had once slept with Joan Jett. That celebrity guest star was used to very strong effect, appearing in just one scene with the hilarious revelation that Johnny had fallen asleep and they never actually had sex. Hitting on Ava was a bonus comedy moment, and her enthusiasm about Gigi’s future was a realistic occurrence that made sense given the music scene that exists on this show. I also enjoyed Johnny struggling to say that he loves Gigi and doing his best to defend her mother, and his reaction to Rehab showing up with a bouquet of flowers for Ava allegedly meant as a memorial consolation and not an attempt to sleep with the newly widowed woman who, over the course of the episode, didn’t have many strong feelings for her domestic partner.

Round Two: Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll

Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll: Season 1, Episode 2 “Clean Rockin Daddy” (B)

I want to like this show a lot, and I’ll still plan to watch it, but I didn’t find this episode to be all that engaging. The show does still have a compelling tone and supremely entertaining dialogue, and that’s something to celebrate. Johnny’s constant references to rock and roll idols far more famous and successful than he don’t seem to be landing too well with his bandmates, and that was pretty much his main argument for why he should continue doing drugs, because so many great songs were written by icons under the influence. The hilarious logic of rehab being too expensive so his contract instead stipulated that he had to go clean and sober cold turkey for thirty days and churn out songs was quite entertaining, and Johnny doesn’t even seem to fight most of these on solid ground, just pushes back because he doesn’t want to do them even though he understands that he’s required to. Writing a song that didn’t impress everyone else in order to trick them into having him start getting high again was sly, and it seems like just the sort of behavior we can expect on a regular basis from Johnny. What I would like to see is more of the ensemble cast, particularly Gigi, who I think has much more to her than we’ve seen so far. This show feels a lot like “Californication,” with a central magnetic mess and a whole horde of interesting people around him just waiting to take the spotlight and shine.

Pilot Review: Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll

Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll (FX)
Premiered July 16 at 10pm

I've been seeing ads all over for this show for months now, and it's finally here. I wasn't particularly excited about it, but I was a big fan of Denis Leary's last show in which he starred, “Rescue Me,” which also aired on FX. I'm pleased to report that this is predictably depraved and should end up being a lot of fun. I'm not too interested in the music scene, but I think this show will ultimately be about the people involved and what the culture creates. Johnny being asked “Are you anybody?” is a perfect encapsulation of that, and this episode was full of that. I enjoyed the introduction to the Heathens and to Johnny Rock, who was accused of sleeping with his bandmate's fiance and another's wife and tried to defend himself by claiming ignorance and that they didn't actually sleep together. Finding out that he has a daughter by trying to make out with her in a bar and getting slapped was a terrific introduction to a character who seems to be just as fiery as her father, and quite talented to boot. I love that she overheard the whole conversation about what to call all of her body parents between her father and his reunited bandmates and that she even contributed to it. Johnny yelling at the paparazzi for taking pictures of random people is exactly the same kind of defiant grandstanding and speechmaking that made “Rescue Me” so great, and I hope that this show, in a half-hour format, will be similarly entertaining.

How will it work as a series? The band's back together but there are definitely plenty of issues, and $200,000 won't take them nearly as far as they think it will. Watching them interact with each other should be well worth it and I think that the cast is more than up for the task of creating a hilarious dynamic that should prove immensely watchable.
How long will it last? The ratings were far from spectacular, but I think that Leary's reputation might be enough for FX to give him a shot and let the show run for a bit. At this point I would expect a renewal even if FX's newest comedies aren't performing nearly as well as they might like.

Pilot grade: B