1x08 The Diamond Dogs

[7.2/10] The fundamentals of this one are good, but the execution of it left me a bit cold.

For instance, I love the idea that Roy is upset about the fact that Keeley slept with Jamie, only to have the “Diamond Dogs” tell him that he needs to grow up and get over it. When Keeley initially apologized to him over it, especially when he’d been aloof and silent in response to her invitations, I was ready to throw up my hands with the whole thing. But rather than diving into a stupid love triangle, Ted and the boys basically tell him to be ana dult about it, and eh does! That's great!

I’m just not that invested in Roy and Keeley. So their relationship drama doesn’t move me. Keeley’s little gaux press conference representing the “independent woman” isn’t cute. And the little scene we get of their date isn’t a s sweet or charming as the show means for it to be. The bones of this one are strong, but the characters just don’t do much for me as a couple, so It’s hard to take too much from it.

The same goes for the scenes where Ted defends Rebecca’s honor at the bar when Rupert shows up. I love Anthony Stewart Head, and his oily performance is still great. But Rupert’s such a mustache-twirling villain at this point. Him rubbing his new young fiance in Rebecca’s f ace is such cad behavior, and the vindictiveness of his plan to get back in the owner’s box is cartoonish in its villainy. At the same time, while I dig Ted’s speech about taking a Walt Whitman-esque “be curious, not judgmental” approach to life, him being a secret dart savant and hustling Rupert into wagering that he won’t show up in the owner’s box is so contrived and cliched. The sentiment is nice, but the execution is really broad.

All of that said, I like where it ends. For one thing, I love that Higgins has had his fill when Rebecca’s willing to sell seats to opposing fans, knowing it will undermine the club, because it’ll hurt Rupert. He finds his spine and recognizes the wrongness of it. And Rebecca rightfully retorts that he didn’t have that spine when he was covering for Ruperty’s infidelity nand pretending to be her friend. Ther’s valid bombs lobbed on both sides, and it makes for a complexity that's missing in the rest of the episode.

Likewise, I appreciate that Keeley finds out about Rebecca’s attempted paparazzi sabotage earlier in the season. Frankly, I figured the show had just dropped that storyline entirely. So having it come back now, with the legitimate cleverness of it coming up because Roy nicks a paparazzo’s sd card, to blow up Rebecca and Keeley’s budding friendship, is a canny bit of season arc writing. The fact that it also threatens to wreck Rebecca and Ted’s dynamic, at a time when he’s at the peak of supporting her, adds to the juice of the whole thing.

Overall, the first twenty five minutes of this episode is pretty standard sitcom stuff, without much to recommend it. But the last few minutes, replete with Ted’s “Hi Boss” human letters, gives this episode something extra and more real in its final moments.