Look, I'm uniquely up for a riff on Encyclopedia Brown with a twist of religious satire, but this was pretty weak. There's something clever in the premise that Orel is ultimately swayed because he trusts a clear bad person obeying the letter of biblical law over a clearly good person obeying the spirit of it, but the show spends a decent amount of time spinning its wheels trying to get there. Then it has an awkward transition to Orel thinking his mom is a bigamist. There's some legitimate pathos for Orel when he's under that misconception, and I don't necessarily have a big problem with the weirdness of the whole swinging reveal, but it's an odd fit for the episode writ large, which then tries to revert back to the usual "see you in my study" blueprint to diminishing returns. Not one of my favorites.
Shout by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2016-04-28T15:58:54Z
Look, I'm uniquely up for a riff on Encyclopedia Brown with a twist of religious satire, but this was pretty weak. There's something clever in the premise that Orel is ultimately swayed because he trusts a clear bad person obeying the letter of biblical law over a clearly good person obeying the spirit of it, but the show spends a decent amount of time spinning its wheels trying to get there. Then it has an awkward transition to Orel thinking his mom is a bigamist. There's some legitimate pathos for Orel when he's under that misconception, and I don't necessarily have a big problem with the weirdness of the whole swinging reveal, but it's an odd fit for the episode writ large, which then tries to revert back to the usual "see you in my study" blueprint to diminishing returns. Not one of my favorites.