I still
wince a little when I watch this show, because it could’ve been a lot better
than it was. As it is, it’s uneven –
sometimes cute, sometimes awkward, sometimes grating, sometimes
magnificent. Still, watching it again
reminds of how much potential it really had.
Bryan
shocks his partner David by coming home one day and announcing he wants them to
have a baby. The two guys mull over the
issue, especially David, even as they begin moving forward and making
plans. As they’re in the process of
figuring out how to create a family, fate brings them into contact with Goldie,
a young single mother from Ohio who’s ready to change her and her daughter’s
life, which she’d be able to do with the money she’d get from being a surrogate
for David and Bryan. Matters get
complicated when Jane, Goldie’s bigoted nana, arrives on the scene spouting
homophobic venom, but the little clan forges ahead.
I already
did a write-up of this show as a whole, and many of the issues I pegged there
hold particularly true in the pilot.
There’s an off-kilter tone as the show veers from Jane’s pointedly-cruel
offensiveness to other moments so sweet they could induce a toothache. Also, there’s some general sloppiness. Bryan’s “let’s have kids!” epiphany goes from
0 to 60 in about two seconds, and it’s unclear how long the guys spend working
towards things before they meet Goldie and co. – there are a few indicators
that a decent length of time is going by, but at other times, it feels like no
more than a few days.
But
there’s great stuff, too, of both the humorous and the heartening variety. I like Bryan and David’s sweet chemistry
together, especially the scenes of them talking cozily in bed, and there are some
pretty funny one-liners. Justin Bartha
is terrific as solid, good-guy David, and Georgia King brings a soft
earnestness to Goldie.
As Bryan,
Andrew Rannells is already at work breathing much more life into this character
than he might have had. Bryan has a
moderate case of pilot characterization and hasn’t quite settled into who he’s
going to be yet – the episode leans fairly hard into his
materialistic/frivolous side, with things like thinking he can order up “a
skinny blond child who never cries.” Not
that Bryan can’t be materialistic or frivolous – because he is, certainly – but
the pilot turns the dial a little too far in that direction.
But even
here, Rannells is mining Bryan for all he’s worth. He plays the sillier stuff to perfection – I
find that he has a talent for selling utterly-ridiculous lines with complete
sincerity, and in this episode, he pulls that off with the excellent phrase
“womb terrorist” and the confession, “I faint at the sight of vaginas; they’re
like tarantula faces.” He plays Bryan’s
vanity and shallowness as well as his heart and sensitivity, allowing room for
Bryan to be all of that. Watching as his
face as he imagines his child calling him “daddy” is a genuine pleasure.
Recommend?
In
General
– A cautious maybe. I feel like, if you
go in knowing it’s uneven, you can still appreciate it for its truly-good
parts.
Andrew
Rannells
– Yes. Rannells does a great job here,
where Bryan’s characterization is still a little wonky, and this is one
instance where I’ll jump ahead a bit and I say I know it gets even better from
here.
Warnings
Language
(including homophobic/racist insults,) sexual content, drinking/smoking, and
thematic elements.
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