[5.8/10] This was abjectly dumb most of the way through. It seemed like each story was trying to top itself in idiocy.
Let’s go with the easiest. “Oh no! It’s the wedding day, and I’ve lost the ring!” What a stupid cliched farce. The payoff is pleasant enough, with Mrs. Hall providing some twine a la her story to Helen about her own wedding. But the shell game of who has the ring, including Clancy the dog seeming to have swallowed it and needing to throw it up was the absolute pits. Nothing but painful cheap seats humor.
I also low-key loathed James nearly missing his wedding so he could look after his cow. We get it. James cares about animals and feels he has an obligation. But doing this himself rather than calling up Tristan or someone and saying, “Could you take over while I prepare for my wedding?” feels like it veers away from “I’m very committed to my cause” to “I’m a cartoonish ninny who makes choices no actual human would.” We’ve spent two seasons on how much he loves Helen, and it seems out of step, at a minimum, to see him risk their big day when easy alternatives to the cow problem are available.
But I guess we’re setting up the new big dilemma for this season, which is “James is torn between duty and love,” which, sure, I guess. This is a dumb way to dramatize it, but you could see him feeling compelled to protect the people he loves at a time of war.
Except we just spent a whole season on how being with Helen is too important to him to go elsewhere and how Darby and this practice are the life he was meant to lead. There’s no setup for the idea that he would leave that all behind, seemingly on a whim, when spying a recruiter, but that’s what the show seems to want us to believe. I get that James has a sense of duty, but he’s never seemed particularly patriotic or anything, so just throwing in that he’s ostensibly ready to throw it all away right after his fricking honeymoon feels out of character. At a minimum, you would need to do more setup for why this responsibility hits so close to home for him.
The one thing I did like in the episode was the “end of an era” reflections among the Aldersons. Helen and Jenny’s fond farewell about Helen having been another mom to Jenny is very heartwarming. The gag about Helen pulling one over on her dad is a sweet laugh. Even the moment with Mrs. Hall reveling in getting to do up Helen’s hair after not having daughters of her own is touching.
There’s other nice enough moments. The cinematography for the wedding is outstanding, with bright colors and well-composed shots. Siegfried putting James’ name on the door and making him a partner is nice.
But on the whole, this is one of the hokiest, most sitcom-esque episodes of the show there’s been, that seems to give up even the pretense that it’s grounded in real human experience. It’s not a promising sign for a season poised to address the Second World War, but hopefully this is an aberration and not the tone-setting for what’s to come.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2023-06-06T00:26:49Z
[5.8/10] This was abjectly dumb most of the way through. It seemed like each story was trying to top itself in idiocy.
Let’s go with the easiest. “Oh no! It’s the wedding day, and I’ve lost the ring!” What a stupid cliched farce. The payoff is pleasant enough, with Mrs. Hall providing some twine a la her story to Helen about her own wedding. But the shell game of who has the ring, including Clancy the dog seeming to have swallowed it and needing to throw it up was the absolute pits. Nothing but painful cheap seats humor.
I also low-key loathed James nearly missing his wedding so he could look after his cow. We get it. James cares about animals and feels he has an obligation. But doing this himself rather than calling up Tristan or someone and saying, “Could you take over while I prepare for my wedding?” feels like it veers away from “I’m very committed to my cause” to “I’m a cartoonish ninny who makes choices no actual human would.” We’ve spent two seasons on how much he loves Helen, and it seems out of step, at a minimum, to see him risk their big day when easy alternatives to the cow problem are available.
But I guess we’re setting up the new big dilemma for this season, which is “James is torn between duty and love,” which, sure, I guess. This is a dumb way to dramatize it, but you could see him feeling compelled to protect the people he loves at a time of war.
Except we just spent a whole season on how being with Helen is too important to him to go elsewhere and how Darby and this practice are the life he was meant to lead. There’s no setup for the idea that he would leave that all behind, seemingly on a whim, when spying a recruiter, but that’s what the show seems to want us to believe. I get that James has a sense of duty, but he’s never seemed particularly patriotic or anything, so just throwing in that he’s ostensibly ready to throw it all away right after his fricking honeymoon feels out of character. At a minimum, you would need to do more setup for why this responsibility hits so close to home for him.
The one thing I did like in the episode was the “end of an era” reflections among the Aldersons. Helen and Jenny’s fond farewell about Helen having been another mom to Jenny is very heartwarming. The gag about Helen pulling one over on her dad is a sweet laugh. Even the moment with Mrs. Hall reveling in getting to do up Helen’s hair after not having daughters of her own is touching.
There’s other nice enough moments. The cinematography for the wedding is outstanding, with bright colors and well-composed shots. Siegfried putting James’ name on the door and making him a partner is nice.
But on the whole, this is one of the hokiest, most sitcom-esque episodes of the show there’s been, that seems to give up even the pretense that it’s grounded in real human experience. It’s not a promising sign for a season poised to address the Second World War, but hopefully this is an aberration and not the tone-setting for what’s to come.