Take Three: Making History

Making History: Season 1, Episode 3 “The Boyfriend Experience” (B+)

This show continues to be a lot of fun going into episode three, and it didn’t take long for some of Dan’s lies about all the things from the future that he invented to come back to haunt him. It’s funny that he was surprised that Deborah was listening so closely to him while he was yammering on about everything that existed in the future, and watching her react to the wonder of Dan’s brilliance was very entertaining. She’s not nearly as clueless as she often seems, as her rejection of Chris’ assertion that there are different kinds of smart indicated. It’s totally true that dressing up as someone whose appearance she wasn’t familiar with as a romantic gesture was hopelessly misguided, but at least it managed to impress her enough after he fell into one of her traps and apparently drank his own fake breast milk to survive the hour or two that he spent in there. My favorite line of the episode, highlighted by exceptional delivery, was Dan’s reply of “Yon woods?” Chris fighting for tenure does seem to be a little more intense of a battle in a literal way than you’d expect, but it appears that he’s forever tethered to his good friend Dan, which is all but guaranteed to keep his academic future from being too bright. I like that Dan went back to the past to get some sage advice from his friends, who were supportive of his plan but not appreciative of the fact that he didn’t ask them anything about how their revolution was going.

What I’m Watching: Grandfathered

Grandfathered: Season 1, Episode 17 “The Boyfriend Experience” (B)

We’ve known for some time that Jimmy is still very much attracted to Sara, and it’s great to see him try so hard and then end up being the sympathetic jilted romantic interest for once. I like how he tried to overdo it by getting into character, a process that was highlighted by his truly awful attempt at a mixed accent. It was hilarious that Jimmy didn’t recognize someone he had sex with a year earlier and then had his cover blown because the nice girl felt the need to break the news to Sara that her perfect boyfriend had cheated on her. I guess we had to expect that Sara would end up exploring a relationship with Craig, played by Michael Trucco from “Battlestar Galactica,” just as Jimmy was about to make his move. I wasn’t quite as fond as the other focus of the episode, which was Gerald and Vanessa trying to be figure out why Edie kept flushing all of their things down the toilet, a plotline that worked better when they were able to connect with her than when Ravi was narrating the camera-captured saga of Vanessa rushing out of the tub to stop Edie from throwing Gerald’s hard drive into the toilet. It’s good to see Gerald and Vanessa doing well as business partners even if they can’t quite figure out a way to balance their time and be with Edie enough, and I wouldn’t mind seeing them attempt to rekindle their romance in the process.