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

Thursday, July 9, 2020

The Book of Rannells: Black Monday: Season 2, Episode 8 – “Lucky Shoes” (2020)


Oh man, this show just goes for all the things. You wouldn’t necessarily think so on the face of it, but this is a packed episode – I’m guessing that, with the way the season was split, these back four are just going to keep ramping up.

Mo and Dawn find themselves on a fraught double date, with spinning plates of secrets wobbling from every side. Tiff decides she wants to have a baby, but Blair is more interested in Roger and his campaign as election night arrives.

I know that episode summary doesn’t sound all that exciting, but that’s because there are a lot of details left out for spoiler reasons. We’ll start with Tiff, who handles the broader comedy and action – she agrees to Blair’s terms that she “try out” parenting first by babysitting, and it goes as well as you expect. This is, after all, the woman who promises Blair that she’ll “do all the work of hiring the people to do all the work” when it comes to child-rearing. Plenty of laughs in this plot, featuring a pitch-perfect capper at the end that’s well-foreshadowed without being overly predictable.

Meanwhile, Mo and Dawn’s whole plot is filled with moments of gold. The interactions between the characters – Mo, Dawn, Connie, and Marcus, with a bonus appearance from a fifth character – are great throughout. We get good continuity references, effortless comedic chemistry, and a nice reeling out of the tension. I don’t know if this technically counts as present-day commentary, since I’m sure this conversation has been going on for centuries, but the plot also features a debate on whether civil rights call for “civility” – I know the episode was obviously written and shot before the current protests, but my mind immediately flashed to the bad-faith arguments that protesters are “going about it the wrong way” and “hurting their cause.”

The Blair stuff is topnotch too. Again, you wouldn’t necessarily think it from reading the description in the summary, but it’s great. First, Andrew Rannells is hilarious as Blair and Tiff discuss children, especially his disgusted entreaty for her not to “infantilize” the semen cup she wants him to use. Meanwhile, the election stuff features really strong scenes between Blair and Roger, as well as Blair and Keith. Blair and Roger’s relationship is so interesting. Neither of them are good people and they’re both using each other, but at the same time, both do genuinely care for each other. This episode continues Blair’s reckoning from last week (and, I suppose, earlier in the season too) about just where he and Roger stand. Not that there isn’t comedy as well – there’s also a fun appearance from “the big man in the sky,” a.k.a. Roger’s father-in-law.

Even though Rannells can always bring the comedy, I love it when we get to see his more dramatic chops too, and that’s exactly what this episode offers. We see Blair in some vulnerable moments, as well as moments of him lashing out and being ruthless in an attempt to cover his vulnerability. Rannells does tremendous work with just his facial expressions.

I won’t say much about it here, but the very end of the episode is a disappointment to me. I feel like the show thinks it’s a shocking cliffhanger, but in truth, it’s more a cliché “faux-shocker.” For a show that pulls a lot of great surprises, that’s a bummer.

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