"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Thursday, December 27, 2018

The Book of Rannells: The New Normal: Season 1, Episode 15 – “Dairy Queen” (2013)


Definitely not one of my favorites, this episode suffers from a severe case of “Brought to you by the letter ‘B’ for ‘breast milk.’”  Not that it’s bad of the show to have a storyline about nursing, but we’re talking three significant story threads about nursing with a few smaller points thrown in as well.  When Jane’s plot, the only part of the episode not to revolve around breastfeeding, feels like a refreshing change of pace, you know something’s off.

While out with a pair of friends and their newborn, David and Bryan start to think about breast milk.  They can ask Goldie to pump for the nutrients that will benefit their baby, but Bryan wants to find a male equivalent for the bonding a mother experiences while breastfeeding her child.  Additionally, hearing that their friend was kicked out of a restaurant for nursing her baby, Bryan takes it upon himself to help her and a gaggle of other mothers stage an eye-catching protest of the place.  In the midst of all this conversation, Shania finds out that Goldie didn’t breastfeed her and becomes obsessed with the benefits she missed out on.  On a different note, Jane broaches the possibility of a relationship with Bryce.

Holy breastfeeding, Batman!  I’ll start with the easy target:  the “Milk Man” product Bryan discovers does look silly.  While it seems there are (a very few) similarly-themed items on the market, most of them don’t look so much like a man strapping a pair of breasts to his chest.  I get that the visual is for “comedy,” but you’d think that any product designed to encourage men to “nurse” their child would be sensitive to the fact that a lot of men would be against the idea just because of how the product looks.  As a result, the effect is dumb, not funny.  (Side note:  not that there aren’t cisgender men who’d be comfortable wearing fake breasts – I’m just thinking of the majority, and I’d imagine that a product catering to men would mainly be thinking about the majority as well.)

And just in general, I find it to be too much harping on the subject.  I could’ve maybe gotten behind having both the protest (which, for the most part, is fun, and it’s sweet that Bryan wants to make the world a little more welcoming to nursing moms) and Bryan’s mission to replicate that bonding/closeness if Shania and Goldie had a different plot, but as it is, I’m on breast milk overload.  One bit I do enjoy however, is the guys’ other friend (the husband) admitting to David how sick he is of breasts and David’s wry response, “I’ve been telling you that for years.”

This is another instance where Bryan is the one shouldering a lot of the episode’s weaknesses (and again, it’s more the tripling- and quadrupling-down on the subject than the subject itself.)  There’s just enough self-awareness, Bryan admitting that he knows it sounds/looks silly but still pursuing it, that I think it’s probably salvaged overall, though not by much.  The episode’s best moment for Andrew Rannells is a scene in which Bryan opens up to David about his fears about bonding with their child, based on his past with his mother.  While, for my money, not as memorable as his speech about his dad in “The XY Factor,” this is a pretty good scene, too, and Rannells plays it for all it’s worth.  Even when the show isn’t at its best, I’ll appreciate it for recognizing that 1) Bryan can be both ridiculous and poignant in the same episode and 2) given the opportunity to perform it, Rannells is just as good as drama as he is at comedy.

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