I really enjoyed this episode. Up till now, the series has mostly split aspects of puberty along gendered lines – sex drive for the boys, periods/mood swings for the girls. This episode changes things up, letting the girls get “in on the action,” as it were.
When the kids are assigned book reports on historical fiction, more and more of the girls start reading The Rock of Gibraltar, a sexual-tension-filled story about a forbidden romance between a Catholic man-turned horse (just go with it) and a Moor. In his attempt to understand why all the girls are obsessed with the book, Nick is rocking by the revelation that, as per the episode title, “girls are horny too.” Meanwhile, Jessi (with aid of her Hormone Monstress) campaigns to her mother for a better bra.
I like everything about the Rock of Gibraltar stuff. The whole “their love can never be” thing is dead on, especially with the added wrinkle that Gustavo is transformed into a horse so he and Fatima can see each other in secret. Missy, a very excitable nerdy girl at the school, is hilarious in her utter thirstiness for the book. Additionally, Nick’s older sister Leah has a great scene explaining it all to him, the notion that sometimes no sex is even sexier than sex itself. And the guys’ bewilderment is hilarious, particularly Jay’s obsessive, convoluted flow charts trying to make sense of it.
On the whole, the episode gets into some neat things: how girls are perceived based on the way they dress, how troubling it can be when a guy uses “signals” to assume what a girls wants instead of actively seeking consent, and even common misconceptions girls have about their own anatomies. Really great.
What this episode doesn’t have is much Andrew Rannells. Matthew is only in one scene, making a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance in a crowd scene at the school. Only one line, so very little Matthew today.
No comments:
Post a Comment