[7.2/10] This one goes off the rails in parts, but it’s a little more sure of itself, a little better at managing cause and effect than the usual episode of the show, and I have to admit, I liked it!
The big winner in this one is the storyline that revolves around Emma, the plastic surgery patient. Pete engages in some of his usual underhanded jerkiness when he makes a point to pursue her when she’s under bandages, knowing based on Andre’s before/after pictures that she’ll be gorgeous when she’s unwrapped, and aiming to get the credit for his attention to a “first claim on the waiver wire.” But I enjoy the fact that the whole thing comes back to bite him with Andre getting in his head over admiring his work on her face and body. Sure, it gets a little over the top with Andre waxing rhapsodic in grand detail to Pete, and Pete seeing images of Andre on her chest, but it’s an amusing enough reversal that goes to some weird but funny places, which I can appreciate.
I was a bit less-enamored with the guys trying to get Russell hooked back on his prior addiction to thwart him from winning the league. But again, I’ll admit that while the latest incursion at the EBDbBnB was ridiculous, and the scope of Russell’s recidivist debauchery was especially outsized, I like how Emma’s self-perception thanks to Pete’s complex plays into it, the way she accidentally sets Russell off after the guys tried and failed to do it deliberately, and how it leads to Andre making the finals thanks to Russell’s pre-established kicker strategy.
And as loony as it got, I also enjoyed the grand, final set piece with Andre running around at his restaurant opening like a chicken with his head cut off. He and Trixie are surprisingly sweet in their reunion (even if it’s predictably doomed), and him trying to manage his “idiot friends”, describe wines he knows nothing about (resorting to his cajun shrimp boat captain impression), and wrangle a brain-addled Taco and hump-obsessed Russell makes for some good chaos.
Overall, this isn’t exactly the Mona Lisa of sitcom episodes, but it’s funny and out there enough to work.
Shout by TheLazyReviewerBlockedParent2023-12-08T20:23:34Z
The EBDB crap somehow keeps getting worse and worse. Also surely Andre is bi. I know he's just misunderstood but it's getting too much at this stage.