14x03 Dee Day

[6.1/10] This was a little disappointing and underwhelming compared to other recent episodes. There’s such potential in Dee being in charge for the day, but the show mostly sidelines it in favor of the rest of The Gang trying to pull off a miscellaneous scheme. And when we do get to see Dee in charge, it’s just her talking about her feelings (without us even getting to hear it) or reviving her various racist characters (which is something I’d be just as glad to see tossed into the dustbin f the show’s history.

I’ll admit, I did like the fact that she takes The Gang birdwatching, really straining their inability to call her a bird And the most brilliant thing in the episode is when she makes Dennis take off his makeup and all of his appliances. Kudos to the show’s makeup team, either for making Glenn Howerton look so put together each episode, or for managing to make him look like such a sunken droopy wreck here. His monstrously creepy attempt to ask out the councilwoman was the comic highlight of the episode.

And I’ll also admit that it’s nice to see Dee get the win here. The fact that she nigh-effortlessly achieved the result the rest of The Gang’s knuckleheads kept screwing up, and got herself another Dee Day in the process is good. It just feels like too little too late.

The rest of the group’s material in this episode was pretty tepid. I do appreciate the dynamic where Mac thinks Charlie is trying to steal Dennis’s affections from him, while Charlie just wants the candy that Dennis has in his pocket. And the group’s fascination with seafood is good for a larf initially. But then it turns into vomit humor and not especially humorous plans, and an overarching scheme whose punchline isn’t great enough to justify all the time we spend on it.

Overall, this one is still definitely watchable, but it feels like a missed opportunity for the show given how much more there is to do with the premise. (Though hey, maybe we’ll get that on another Dee Day.)