I enjoy this episode, and I like how it explores a kid questioning his sexuality, but as a Book of Rannells entry, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. While it definitely features more of Andrew Rannells’s Matthew than than the first two episodes, I wish that an episode about LGBTQ stuff would be more about the LGBTQ character.
After watching a titillating trailer involving Dwayne Johnson as a sexy Paul Bunyan, Andrew gets a surprise boner and starts to wonder/worry about the possibility of being gay (he makes no mention of how hard-up he’s been and continues to be for girls, and Matthew is the only one who, at the very end of the episode, brings up the idea of sexuality as a spectrum – realistic maybe, but boo for bi erasure.) Consulting Matthew as his gay guru, along with some extra insight from the ghost of Duke Ellington in Nick’s attic – just go with it – Andrew attempts to 1) figure himself out and 2) decide how to proceed once he thinks he has that sorted. Meanwhile, Nick and Jessi have a hard time navigating the choppy waters of their relationship.
As always, some good stuff here. I enjoy the appearance of some surprise ghosts brought in by Duke, and the whole thing with the Paul Bunyan trailer itself is really funny. When it comes to Andrew’s storyline, I get a kick out the “gay” eye exam the Hormone Monster gives him, and the plot is pretty well done when it comes to Andrew’s interactions with his friends. I really like the scene where Nick and Jay (not knowing what Andrew’s been dealing with) stumble into a “not that there’s anything wrong with that”-style discussion about whether it would bother them if someone thought they were gay; Jay, no surprise, is wildly ill-informed about the whole subject. I’ve definitely experienced those kinds of conversations, where the people talking have no idea just how relevant what they’re saying is to my sexuality. However, I dislike how Matthew is just a prop in Andrew’s story, his Magical Gay to provide bitchy guidance. I won’t get into it all here, as I’m sitting on a write-up with some more thoughts on Matthew and how the show uses him that I’ll post after I get through all my season 1 write-ups.
On the plus side, Matthew has quite a bit of screentime in this episode, and he’s pretty awesome throughout. He gets plenty of hilarious lines – I especially love his dig to Andrew, “Oh look, the lost and found became a person” – and others that, like his little speech from the pilot, aren’t that spectacular in and of themselves but get turned into gold by Rannells’s delivery – I just adore his, “Look at you: walking into rooms, declaring things…” He also has a fantastic strings of short jokes re: Nick and, in one scene, comes to school in an unexpectedly-apropos cowboy outfit. Lastly, I like that we do at least get to see him treat himself to the homoerotic Paul Bunyan movie, a much-needed acknowledgement by the show that it isn’t just Matthew’s fashion sense, mannerisms, and catty remarks that make him gay.
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