[7.2/10] One of the ways this show was pitched to me is that it’s about four truly terrible people. This episode really doubles down on that, and if nothing else, I appreciate the audacity of it. It’s really a parade of people topping one another with how terrible they can be. For the most part, it’s Dennis in the driver seat of awfulness. First, his ditching Charlie to play basketball after he confesses he has cancer is terrible. Trying to get someone to sleep with Charlie because he has cancer is terrible. Volunteering your friend to get punched in the face in that effort is terrible. Giving that up in exchange for getting a hot bartender is terrible. Paying the person your friend has a crush on to sleep with them is terrible, and then sleeping with them yourself is even worse, as is asking for the money back when they don’t actually go through with it. It’s a parade of terribleness.
And then, somehow, it gets topped, with Charlie admitting he doesn’t have cancer and the whole thing was an elaborate ploy to get the waitress to sleep with him. The conversation between Charlie and Dennis over the whole thing is the comedic highlight, with an abusrd but amusing comic rhythm that carries the day.
I’m less on board with Mac’s storyline given the transphobia that’s baked into it, but it’s almost a sweet story of how Mac actually likes this girl despite his prejudice. And as uncomfortable a laugh it is, the whole “sneak up on me/punch in the face” routine is well set up. The fact that he’s excoriated for punching a girl, protests that she’s really a guy, and then gets chased for committing a hate crime is a bit uncomfortable, but again, pretty audacious and funny.
The only story I didn’t really like was Artemis’s. The whole overwrought actor thing has been done, and the punchline that Dennis didn’t realize she wouldn’t look like one of the girls from Coyote Ugly is fairly weak.
Still, it’s an exaggerated episode with some uncomfortable stuff, but with some cleverness and good humor in there too.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2017-03-03T19:25:37Z
[7.2/10] One of the ways this show was pitched to me is that it’s about four truly terrible people. This episode really doubles down on that, and if nothing else, I appreciate the audacity of it. It’s really a parade of people topping one another with how terrible they can be.
For the most part, it’s Dennis in the driver seat of awfulness. First, his ditching Charlie to play basketball after he confesses he has cancer is terrible. Trying to get someone to sleep with Charlie because he has cancer is terrible. Volunteering your friend to get punched in the face in that effort is terrible. Giving that up in exchange for getting a hot bartender is terrible. Paying the person your friend has a crush on to sleep with them is terrible, and then sleeping with them yourself is even worse, as is asking for the money back when they don’t actually go through with it. It’s a parade of terribleness.
And then, somehow, it gets topped, with Charlie admitting he doesn’t have cancer and the whole thing was an elaborate ploy to get the waitress to sleep with him. The conversation between Charlie and Dennis over the whole thing is the comedic highlight, with an abusrd but amusing comic rhythm that carries the day.
I’m less on board with Mac’s storyline given the transphobia that’s baked into it, but it’s almost a sweet story of how Mac actually likes this girl despite his prejudice. And as uncomfortable a laugh it is, the whole “sneak up on me/punch in the face” routine is well set up. The fact that he’s excoriated for punching a girl, protests that she’s really a guy, and then gets chased for committing a hate crime is a bit uncomfortable, but again, pretty audacious and funny.
The only story I didn’t really like was Artemis’s. The whole overwrought actor thing has been done, and the punchline that Dennis didn’t realize she wouldn’t look like one of the girls from Coyote Ugly is fairly weak.
Still, it’s an exaggerated episode with some uncomfortable stuff, but with some cleverness and good humor in there too.