We’re moving in the right direction, because I do think this episode is probably my favorite of the three Andrew Rannells is in. Girls5eva still doesn’t match the quality of some of the excellent shows I’ve watched this past year, but at least it seems to be gelling better.
The group heads to Tampa for A.I.R.P.I.G., an annual DJ conference, in a bid to get their new music on the radio. While Dawn, Wickie, and Gloria scheme to attract the attention of a bigtime agent, Summer’s attempt to spend time with Kev on his home turf hits a few snags.
Despite some stronger language and more adult references, I’ve realized that this show has the sensibilities of a network sitcom from more than a decade ago. It’s something in the cadence of the humor, the over-the-top quality of the flashbacks, and the on-the-nose absurdity that feels kind of regressive. It’s sophisticated in some ways, like the reasonably-casual LGBTQ inclusion and the ongoing thread of the women continuing to unpack the sexual exploitation they experienced as teenage pop stars, but its basic template looks and feels more like a sitcom from the mid-to-late 2000s. The easiest demonstration of this, for me, is the way most of Girls5eva’s music is made up of very obvious joke songs that clearly would’ve never been real pop hits. I compare these songs with the music from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which created banger after banger that were smart, catchy, and hilarious, and there’s no contest.
While I feel like those qualities will likely keep the show from ever feeling truly great to me, I do appreciate its good points. The cast chemistry continues to be one of the show’s best strengths, and there are some fun one-liners in this episode. When Wickie overpromises to a DJ to a ridiculous degree, she snaps at the others, “A lie is just the truth on a deadline!” As Wickie, Dawn, and Gloria brainstorm ways to get on mega-agent Nance Trace’s radar, Gloria offers, “Ladies, not for nothing, but I did not watch all this true-crime TV and not learn how to kidnap someone.” And when they do finally meet Nance (played by guest star Vanessa Williams,) a lot of the advice she gives them is both funny and on point.
As for Summer and Kev’s plot, there’s still some awkward humor here, but for the most part I enjoy it. When Summer excitedly calls up Kev to let him know she’ll be in town – “Babe, where do we live?” she asks – his discomfort is palpable, and once she arrives in Tampa, he’s dropping “Kev is being dishonest to you, Summer” red flags all over the place. There’s an amusing bit featuring Kev struggling to keep ahead of Gloria scrutinizing his suspiciously-bare apartment, and there are some fun details here that entertain me.
The best part of Kev, though, is definitely Andrew Rannells’s performance. Much like my go-to word for Tony Leung Chiu-wai’s acting is “soulful,” the first adjective that pops into my head when I watch Rannells is often “effortless.” Even when the comedic dialogue can get labored, he delivers it so well it hardly matters, and the breeziness with which he snaps off a neutral line can make it funny. I like his excuse about why Summer can’t visit him at work, saying, “I don’t know, babe, I think I’d be too in my head if you were there. It’s like how 95% of plane crashes happen because the pilot’s spouse was watching.” And the way he responds to an absurd accusation from Summer is just perfectly pitched.
We also get a bit of more genuine singing from Rannells in this episode (he sings a tiny bit in episode 4, but it’s very deliberately over-the-top.) It’s the first time we see an archive-footage-style clip of an old Boys Next Door music video, a la the ones we get for Girls5eva each episode, and while the song is dumb, Rannells’s singing is not.
This is Rannells’s last appearance of season 1, but season 2 of the series drops next month. Based on Kev’s plot in this episode, I certainly expect him to pop up again, but we’ll see what the next season holds. For now, though, here are my wrap-up thoughts on Girls5eva:
Recommend?
In General – A soft maybe. It’s not nearly as strong as it could be, but it has some good stuff going for it.
Andrew Rannells – I would. Rannells makes the ridiculous bits work, and he and Busy Philipps are clearly having a lot of fun together.
Warnings
Language, sexual references, drinking/drug references, a little comic violence, and thematic elements (including sexual harassment.)
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