I’m just having a good time here. So far this season, there doesn’t appear to be too much in the way of intricate secret plots with lots of wheels in motion, but who’s to say there’s aren’t? The episode titles are clearly counting down to something, and there’s no telling what Mo, Dawn, or Blair might reveal to have had up their sleeve. But in the meantime, I’m just enjoying the ride.
After partying with his inexhaustible new young client, Mo is forced to reckon with not being as young as he used to be, but not before he enlists Dawn to try and help him hide that fact. Keith’s attempts to keep Tiff from using her company as her own personal piggy bank come to a head, and Blair needs an incredibly-tall favor from Corky, Roger’s wife.
The “older guy hobbles himself trying to keep up with the young folks” routine is an old saw, but the show does well with it. Mo has always been a character whose illusion of invincibility is hanging by a thread, and it’s fun to see that play out here in a more personal/physical way. His efforts to hide his ever-worsening injuries are hilarious, and Dawn is a nice mix of supportive friend, mercilessly-teasing friend, tough-love friend, and had-it-up-to-here friend.
Over on the other side of the plot, we’re treated to plenty of the show’s penchant for using the 1980s to comment on the 2020s. In season 2, Roger and Corky were so much the Pences that it got distracting at times (although worth it just for Blair and Dawn’s reactions to hearing them call each other “Mother” and “Father,”) and in this episode, we go hard in on the tropes around Corky’s filthy-rich televangelist father, whose tastes are a potent mix of trashy-exorbitant, hyper-patriotic, and lip-service religious. While I’m sure plenty of these guys ape a similar style, there’s a definite Trump flavor to the way it’s depicted here. One impeccable laugh-out-loud line is a reference to having sold “everything that’s not nailed down, which is why we still have Jesus’s hands and feet.” Also? I love everything about Keith, who’s Jewish, struggling to interact with the intensely-Christian Corky.
Blair gets into the action on this side of things, and again, we get to see both comedy and a little drama from Andrew Rannells, tinged with those edges of darkness that have been steadily growing in Blair. I get a kick out of him transparently fishing for favors from Tiff and announcing that he’s awarding a congressional medal to a police dog (who was the only officer on the force “that they could prove wasn’t a white supremacist,”) and he has a strong scene with Corky.
He’s also really great in a one-on-one scene with Keith, which has a completely-different vibe than how they interacted last week – a fact Blair notes with the brilliantly-tossed-out line, “Oh yeah, I can’t keep track of all these shifting dynamics.” Blair and Keith had a bit of a thing back in season 1, with Blair knowing Keith was closeted and Keith being the one who spurred Blair to realize he was gay, but then they didn’t have many scenes together in season 2 until near the end. This season has been highlighting them more (which is nice, since Blair’s been mostly out of Dawn and Mo’s orbit,) and it’s reminding me how good they can be together.
No comments:
Post a Comment