*A few spoilers for episode 1.*
This is a strong episode, a good mix of hilarity and honest drama. It’s great to see how our characters respond to their new setting and how they navigate the new challenges they face.
Otis is having trouble getting his new clinic off the ground at Cavendish. Not only did he embarrass himself in front of the whole college, but the school already has a sex therapist, O. She has a polished online presence and a packed calendar, and Otis flounders to try and figure out how to carve out a space for himself. But an opportunity may have presented itself: the school’s It Couple are fighting, and it’s pointed out to Otis that helping them could be his in. We also see some of the other kids exploring new friendships, Maeve struggling when her writing teacher doesn’t like her work, and Adam learning the ropes at a new internship.
It's amusing to see just how deeply invested the Cavendish students are in the fight between Abbi and Roman, two of the most popular kids in school—at one point, there is an honest-to-god candlelight vigil. Ruby, who’s thrown off by the different way popularity works here, thinks she can steer Otis to help repair their relationship and put in a good word for her. Naturally, Otis finds this idea distasteful, but he’s also increasingly frazzled by his fruitless attempts to compete with O. One thing I appreciate, though, is that his actual therapy doesn’t suffer in the midst of this. We see him talking with a couple different students in this episode, and each time, he puts his own concerns aside and is able to focus entirely on them and their difficulties.
I feel apprehensive about Maeve’s storyline here. It bugs me that her teacher’s biggest criticism is that her chapter feels like a copout because it’s not personal enough. It feels like this is a common theme in depictions of writers—they’re often urged to “write what they know” pretty literally. and I know that writers often put a lot of ourselves into our work, but there are numerous ways to do that that don’t just boil down to writing directly about our own experiences. We’ll see where this plot goes as the season progresses.
Lots of little plots about various characters. Jean is in no way equipped to be starting her new job, but she’s still upset that Otis called her sister to help with the baby. Jackson and Viv continue to have one of the best friendships on the show—in this episode, Jackson urges the academically-focused Viv to allow herself to spend time with the guy she likes, while Viv encourages Jackson to be honest about his lingering feelings for Cal. After a pretty awkward encounter in the season premiere, Aimee tries to make a fresh start in fostering a friendship with Isaac, which is nice to see. And Adam, who didn’t go with the others to Cavendish, has an internship working on a farm—it turns out to be very different than he expected but he’s determined to make it work, not wanting to give his dad ammunition for yet another thing he couldn’t see through.
By the way, we see another example of how Cavendish, the bastion of enlightenment and inclusion, is letting down its disabled students. Aisha, another one of the popular kids, is Deaf and uses auxiliary aids (I haven’t looked closely enough to see if they’re hearing aids or Cochlear implants.) There’s a scene where a teacher stands in front of her, holds her lapel mic centimeters from her mouth, and shouts in Aisha’s face. Yeesh.
Meanwhile, Eric is having a pretty good time at Cavendish. He’s gotten in good with Abbi, Roman, and Aisha. The kids from his old school probably think it defies all odds, but in a colorful, queer-friendly place like this, it makes sense that people would think he’s cool. Eric is clearly loving this, and two episodes in, we’ve already seen him bonding in one-on-one encounters with both Abbi and Aisha—Abbi relates to him over a private issue he has going on, while he and Aisha relish in their shared love of gossip under Abbi’s nose (she’s something of a queen bee, and she’s strictly anti-gossip.) At the moment, Eric’s biggest difficulty at school is trying to balance his new and old friends, like when Otis approaches him about leveraging his friendship with the cool kids to score points for the clinic.
It looks like another big plot for Eric this season is shaping up to be his relationship with God and his family church. His mom has been guilt-tripping him about getting baptized, and he’s finally agreed to go to a baptismal class. But understandably, church can be a fraught place for Eric. I like how the episode plays this—it’s less a “condemnation and slurs” situation and more “don’t ask, don’t tell,” which may be less openly dramatic but is still deeply hurtful. As Eric points out to Otis, church is pretty much the only place where he’s still closeted, and he struggles emotionally with having to hide himself in his place of worship.
Ncuti Gatwa is great throughout. I like how he plays Eric’s unbridled excitement at being one of the cool kids and his careful sensitivity in a scene with his pastor. But as is often the case, his single best line readings are reserved for his best-friend scenes with Otis. I’m not sure why that is—maybe because Eric and Otis have such different energies, which makes their interactions even more fun? In this episode, Otis confesses that he’s worried about one of Maeve’s male classmates in America and shows Eric pictures on social media. Eric bellows, “Oh my god, he is hot!!!” before badly recovering with, “…and so are you, in a quiet and soft, intelligent way.” Utterly fabulous delivery, so good I had to rewind that moment and watch it again!
No comments:
Post a Comment