The Book of Rannells: The New Normal: Season 1, Episode 22 – “The Big Day” (2013)

Here’s the season-finale-turned-series-finale.  The show was smart to close the season as it did – while it would’ve of course been nice to see more of Bryan and David’s adventures into parenthood, this is a nice resolution that leaves room for more to come without going out on a cliffhanger or something, as too many canceled shows have done.  And besides, if The New Normal had continued, we’d have gotten less Elijah on Girls, and with a full-season network-sitcom schedule, Rannels might’ve been able to do even less Broadway than he did with a ten-episode-season cable-dramedy schedule (one rather obvious spoiler.)

The day of the wedding has arrived, and despite David and Bryan’s mantra of “our day, our way,” people (particularly the guys’ mothers) keep foisting different “please, for me” stuff on them.  It wouldn’t be a sitcom wedding without things spiraling out of control, right?  And since it’s also a sitcom wedding involving one very heavily-pregnant attendee, you can guess what happens.

Bryan and David’s hijacked wedding reminds me a lot of Lily and Marshall’s on How I Met Your Mother – it even resolves in a similar fashion, albeit after a different, much more welcome interruption – although I’m sure there are plenty of other examples.  There’s no especially new ground trod here, although it is interesting that some of the traditions their moms insist on are very heteronormative.  It does seem weird to me that so many of these things would be sprung on the guys right before the wedding, but that might be more realistic than I assume.  Luckily, I have no experience on that subject and so cannot verify.

Also very well-worn is Goldie going into labor during the ceremony, but even though it’s blindingly predictable, the delivery montage that follows is just wonderful.  All set to “Beautiful Boy,” it really reflects how all these characters have come together over the course of the season and the different, overlapping families they’ve formed.

Rannells is of course as funny as always – I get a kick out of his reaction to seeing David in the family tux he’s talked into wearing, as well as blaming his own unwanted concession seconds before walking down the aisle on the death of his dad (which happened years before) – but I especially love him here in the more tender scenes, the delivery and the closing scene.  He radiates warmth throughout, which some might say is uncharacteristic for Bryan, but even though Bryan can be vain and shallow, he also has a huge heart that reveals itself numerous times throughout the season.  Besides, in Rannells’s hands, there’s no doubt that the birth of his son is transformative for Bryan; the look on his face as he holds his baby is perfect.

So, that’s The New Normal!  Not always as good as I wanted it to be, but to me, still a special moment in television.

Recommend?

In General – I think so.  Go in knowing that the episodes can be really inconsistent, and I think you’ll still be able to appreciate its good qualities.

Andrew Rannells – Definitely.  Whatever the show’s faults, Rannells is fabulous here, funny and moving in equal measure.

Warnings

Language (including racist and homophobic insults,) sexual content, a little violence here and there, drinking/a few drug references, and thematic elements.

The Book of Rannells: The New Normal: Season 1, Episode 21 – “Finding Name-o” (2013)

I like this one, but it is kind of uneven.  There are places where it leans in too hard and undermines itself.  By the same token, though, it also has some really excellent scenes and is a nice showcase for Andrew Rannells.

With their wedding and the birth of their son both fast approaching, Bryan and David are struggling to agree on various wedding decisions, as well as their baby’s name.  This becomes especially difficult when, at David’s urging, Bryan invites his quasi-estranged mom into town before the wedding and she starts in on the, “Tsk, tsk, you boys just can’t agree on anything, can you?”  And because it’s this show and we can’t have only one name-related conflict going on at once, Shania decides to change her name after hearing the less-than-inspiring story of how her parents chose it and Goldie’s ex is upset to hear Goldie is planning on going back to her maiden name.

Not much to stay about the Goldie-Shania plots, although I like the early-2000s jokes surrounding the story of Shania’s name:  “A few minutes later, and your name would’ve been Chumbawumba!”  I also enjoy Shania’s foray into longing for the anonymity of normality, wishing she could be any of the five Sarahs in her class.

But of course, the main attraction here is the stuff with Bryan’s mom.  Like his difficulties in an earlier episode with David’s mom (the point is that Bryan just can’t win with moms,) the show is almost surprisingly-effective at how it shows her getting under Bryan’s skin.  Mary Kay Place is the queen of friendly-and-passive-aggressive, and she does a great job of cheerfully throwing in these constant little digs at Bryan’s clothes, his career, his choices (re:  the wedding and the baby name,) and pretty much everything else.  When they ultimately get to their big confrontation and she defends herself with, “Do you know how hard I tried with you, Bryan?” – that implication that she should get full credit because he was just “so difficult” to deal with – my heart breaks for Bryan.  While I do think the confrontation does pull its punches a little, that moment is 100% effective.

What works less in this plotline is how it exaggerates the more comic elements.  The whole “wedding decisions” thing starts out well, with both guys having strong opinions but Bryan being his usual bossy self, and they tentatively begin to find ways to compromise until Bryan’s mom shows up and forces the issue, pushing Bryan into a near-meltdown – all that works for me.  It loses me, though, when David’s choices become increasingly ridiculous.  Bryan is both shallow and particular enough that anyone else’s ideas are almost sure to appall him, but about halfway through the episode, David’s picks morph into ideas that would appall anyone, and that’s not necessary for the story.  It’s certainly not funny enough to be worth the suggestion that David would actually want such a tacky, absurd wedding.

While that’s a fairly big mark against the episode, it still makes it into the win category overall, with a sweet resolution and, like I said, great work from Rannells.  He’s funny in the scenes with the wedding planner, Bryan doing Bryan, and as soon as the subject of his mom comes up – long before she actually gets there – you can see him go on edge.  He’s bristling the entire time, always on guard for the next cheery little insult or criticism.  At first, he’s in full-on damage-control mode, insisting to David that they present a united front, but it’s not long before he’s snapping off sharp comebacks and getting increasingly agitated, trying to pretend he’s holding it together but heading for a detonation.  And Rannells is just wonderful in the confrontation; he’s really good at playing someone trying to keep from crying, and as Bryan’s mom talks, you can see his face just dissolve.  I know I’ve said it before, but thanks so much to creators like Ryan Murphy or Lena Dunham who recognize all that Rannells can do and give him material he can shine with.

The Book of Rannells: The New Normal: Season 1, Episode 20 – “About a Boy Scout” (2013)

Now that season 1 of Black Monday has finished and I’ve reviewed Too Much is Not Enough, we’re (finally) back to the last few episodes of The New Normal.  Before I jump into it, though, let me just say:  Ryan Murphy is reuniting the Broadway cast of The Boys in the Band to film an adaptation for Netflix.  That’s happening.  Yesssss!!!  And now, back to your regularly-scheduled programming.

This episode is rooted in a similar idea as “The XY Factor” – a friend of David’s invites him to come along and help with a typical “boy” activity, which David is super-excited about, Bryan less so – but the two stories really are quite different in terms of theme and execution.  I’ll admit to liking “The XY Factor” better, both for the strong dramatic scenes and for what I think is a more creative resolution, but I do appreciate that this episode doesn’t feature David displaying any of the gender essentialist BS he did there.

David is ecstatic be to invited to help out on a Boy Scout camping trip.  An Eagle Scout himself, he looks back on his scouting boyhood fondly and looks forward to their son someday joining the Scouts too.  Bryan is more skeptical – aside from his feelings about going to the bathroom outdoors, he’s wary of the organization’s discriminatory policies and doesn’t see why David would want to be a part of that.  Meanwhile, Rocky learns some troubling news about Bryce and isn’t sure what to do about it.

This is the first we’ve heard about David being really into scouting, but it does fit in well with his established character – a good combination of physically demanding and nerdy, both of which are right in his wheelhouse.  The montage of him “suiting up” is delightfully, proudly dorky, but I like that, once the show actually puts him within the context of a Boy Scout troop, the framing changes and he becomes a Scout Master rock star instead of a grown man in a neckerchief.

The issue of discrimination in the Boy Scouts is treated a bit heavyhandedly, but it’s not too bad.  The episode gets into shades of homophobia beyond the classic “I hate the gays” knuckle-dragging, showing that less “overt” hatred is no less hurtful, and I also like the exploration of David wavering over whether or not to come out to the troop, as Bryan challenges him to do.  The execution is a little wobbly, maybe, but I like how it touches on the notion that you’re never really done coming out.  A person can be out professionally, socially, personally, walking around in public, but then put them in a certain place, and they’re closeted all over again.  Societal conditioning that sets heteronormativitiy as a “default” makes it easier for someone like David to hide if he wants to (as opposed to Bryan, who’s likely pegged as gay wherever he goes,) and despite his cavalier insistence that the Scouts don’t really enforce those outdated rules of theirs, he balks at the idea of being open in that setting.

                                               

It’s really David’s story, so Bryan is in more of a supporting role, but Andrew Rannells still has plenty to do.  The episode has him teasing David over the nerdiness of scoutdom, which is very in character for him – he has wry little remarks about David’s uniform and strong feelings about “[pooping] in the woods like animals” – but despite Bryan’s obvious dislike for it, his teasing is light and loving.  He’s more forceful in his arguments about the organization’s homophobia.  He’s opposed to the idea of their son joining a group that would discriminate against his family, and he all but dares David to tell the boys and the Scout Masters that he’s gay.  However, even though Bryan has no love for what the Boy Scouts do or the “values” they promote, and even though he takes issue with David’s support of it, he doesn’t exactly begrudge David his love for it.  Ultimately, Bryan sees that it makes David happy and wouldn’t want that taken away from him; he wants David to come out so he can be comfortable with himself in a place that he loves, rather than so Bryan can prove a point about homophobia.  These are several different directions for Bryan’s character all at the same time, but Rannells makes them work and feel consistent with one another.

Also, it’s a brief scene, but I like when Rocky comes to Bryan for advice on her Bryce dilemma.  Rocky poses her problem hypothetically (“should you be honest about…, even though it might…?”, that kind of thing,) and Bryan’s first reaction is a dismayed, “You think I’m fat.”  When he finds out that’s not it, his second guess is, “You think David is fat – you have to tell him!”  Then, finding out it’s nothing to do with him or David, he admits, “I’m less interested.”  Hee!  Never change, Bryan.