2x06 The Gang Gives Back

[5.4/10] This one didn’t really do it for me. I like the stories in principle. Mac, Dee, and Dennis having to coach a youth basketball team is rife for comedy. Charlie going to AA and gaining The Waitress as a sponsor has potential. And Frank turning a kids’ basketball game into a gambling opportunity with Vietnamese businessmen is a loony enough wildcard to throw into the mix. The results were just underwhelming.

The basketball stuff had a lot of generic jokes. There’s some humor in how these terrible people would naturally be awful when it comes to teaching kids, but its predictable awfulness rather than anything really funny or unique. By the same token, Charlie creeping out on The Waitress gets repetitive and not particularly interesting quickly too. There’s some humor from the fact that she’s still stuck on Dennis, but eh.

The best part of the episode is where all these elements get smashed together, with the ensuing chaos of the whole gang at the game misbehaving and goading the kids into committing fouls, as it all slowly devolves into a shitshow. But it’s a dull path to get there. It’s all perfectly watchable, the laughs are just few and far between.