Season finale review - 'Suburgatory': 'The Motherload': Find 100 ways
Mother's Day in Chatswin raises complicated emotions for Tessa and Lisa
Dalls (Cheryl Hines) goes for a "Suburgatory" run.
A review of the "Suburgatory" season finale coming up just as soon as I club a stuffed seal...
"The Motherload" featured a bunch of things about the show that have frustrated me throughout the season, but it also featured some of the things that made "Suburgatory" one of the TV's best new shows. It wasn't a perfect finale, but it was an excellent summation of what this show has done this year.
I've never enjoyed the cartoonish excesses of Chatswin nearly as much as Emily Kapnek does, unfortunately. It's worked with Dallas, who manages to be simultaneously oblivious and empathetic, but Noah and Jill, and to a lesser extent the adult Shays, tend to come across as sociopaths. So when you add that horror-show nursery to all the over-the-top Mother's Day celebrations(*), then throw the grating Eden into the mix, you've got an episode where I was cringing much more than I should have.
(*) Though the reveal about why Sheila is such a big James Ingram fan was funny.
And yet Jane Levy and Allie Grant were so excellent in their various emotional moments — Tessa getting rejected by the Village Voice, Lisa figuring out that Ryan is the adopted one, and then Tessa finally dealing with her mother's absence from her life (and contemplating the idea that her mother might also be her ticket out of this stupid town) — that the good ultimately outweighed the bad with this one. "Suburgatory" at its best finds a way to blend honest emotion with smart comedy. "The Motherload" didn't do a whole lot of that, as most of the jokes were in the far more problematic adult half of the show, but it demonstrated once again how well the show has drawn these kids.
Hopefully, the show returns in the fall with enough of a time jump that Eden will have returned to Montana, and I wouldn't exactly object to Noah and Jill joining her on that bus out of town. At a minimum, if the show wants to make a creative leap from season one to season two, it has to figure out how to make its adult characters as human as the high schoolers.
What did everybody else think?
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Login or create a HitFix account Login SignupMorahan
May 17, 2012 at 9:43AM EST Reply to CommentKinda strange that it never crossed Lisa's mind that Ryan may be the adopted one, considering he is the eldest child and The Body.
Ken Raining It's been obvious to me at least for three weeks now that Ryan's the adopted one, so yeah, kinda strange.
May 17, 2012 at 1:20PM ESTbad dad And that Allie Grant LOOKS like she could be the child of Ana Gastayer and Chris Parnell. The body? Not so much.
May 17, 2012 at 2:13PM ESTBrittany It doesn't at ALL make me wonder. Lisa feels like an outsider in her own home and all she wants is to either feel accepted by her parents or for them to leave her be so she can be happy. She didn't let herself think that it was Ryan because they ADORE Ryan. They worship the ground he walks on.
May 17, 2012 at 3:44PM ESTHow is she going to handle the fact that the adopted child is the one treated more favorably than the actual biological child. It's going to make for something interesting next season.
Sully I think the Shays favor Ryan way more than Lisa precisely because of the fact that he is adopted. They are overcompensating, perhaps out of guilt, perhaps because they see him as superior since he doesn't have their mediocre genes. I like that they took the favoritism seriously and gave it a backstory and dealt with its impact rather than just play it as a goof like Friends did with Monica and Ross.
May 17, 2012 at 7:24PM ESTCharles "Lisa figuring out that Ryan is the adopted one"
May 17, 2012 at 8:35PM ESTOr is he? Fred's AB+, so he couldn't possibly father an 0+ child. But Sheila's B-, and might be heterozygous (i.e. BO), so she *could* be the mother....
Yeah, I know, WAY too technical for a show like this, but still....
Louie This one reason ryans dad said that he cant do what ryan can sports thats why they adore him it makes them feel proud because they cant do what ryan can and ignoring liza because they knew it is their genes and feel insecure to the fact that they dreamt about with ryan.
July 12, 2012 at 8:29AM ESTKai
May 17, 2012 at 9:51AM EST Reply to CommentYeah, that whole nursery scene had me cringing.
sangs
May 17, 2012 at 9:56AM EST Reply to CommentIt's never surprising to see baby plots ruin perfectly good shows, I've just never seen it happen so quickly. Hopefully, that's the end of it. If this is dragged into next season, uggh.
John
May 17, 2012 at 10:26AM EST Reply to CommentI didn't mind the Shays, but you're right that was mainly becuase of Allie Grant (and Parker Young). Eden and Noah are awful as usual. But I did like the literal clubbing of a baby seal joke.
I do think that Jane Levy knocked it out of the park in her emotional seasons. But while Allie Grant is always good, I'm not sure I completely bought Lisa's desperation.
In some ways, even though this show's average is better than "New Girl"'s I think it has a lot more work to do over the summer.
sepinwall Yeah, New Girl mostly figured itself out by the end (even if it's finale wasn't that great), where there are parts of this show that never worked right at any point.
May 17, 2012 at 10:42AM ESTmp
May 17, 2012 at 11:05AM EST Reply to CommentAt the end as Tessa was contemplating her "escape" I was caught thinking that I just don't buy that she's so unhappy (even if Chatswain is a disfunctional suburban nightmare) *because* she's not in NYC.
The early visit to the city with Dallas and the Village Voice job was an attempt to make it more specific. The visit touched on surface level convenience/joy from living in the city (a homeless lady and pizza, were what I remember from that visit...Note to Tessa - New Haven's not that far away, try the pizza there).
But I've been left thinking she was lonely in NYC and likely just as miserable a person. Where are the friends she left behind? How did George possibly cut her from contacting them? She didn't have contact with her mom or grandmother, so no change there.
Ken Raining Ah, the pizza in New Haven's overrated.
May 17, 2012 at 1:22PM ESTDonBoy I'm hung up on the idea that the Voice would, in 2012, reject a summer intern by US Mail, as opposed to email/phone/text or Twitter for all I know.
May 17, 2012 at 1:41PM ESTCuba Chatswin's near New Haven? I guess I haven't been paying that much attention because I didn't even know for certain that it was in Connecticut.
May 17, 2012 at 10:47PM ESTCuba I would have guessed it's in Westchester, which is a lot closer to NYC than New Haven.
May 17, 2012 at 10:51PM ESTshadowplay
May 17, 2012 at 11:27AM EST Reply to CommentI agree with your review here. The cartoonish 'Adult" world was a bit too much, and the Eden plot is just horrible. But the emotional bits were amazing.
Jim
May 17, 2012 at 11:28AM EST Reply to CommentJane Levy and Cheryl Hines are great together....plus they are hot as hell. Not sure how their characters will be after the inevitable George and Dallas hook up.
srpad
May 17, 2012 at 11:57AM EST Reply to CommentI think there is such a thing as anti-chemistry and both Eden in this show and Nora in HIMYM have it. If we could harness that power maybe we can use it for good instead of evil.
Tanya
May 17, 2012 at 12:23PM EST Reply to CommentI agree -the emotional bits with Tessa made the finale. I enjoyed the initial visit by Alicia Silverstone because as a kid I loved Clueless. But her character Eden is incredibly annoying. And Noah and his wife are just as bad. And it kills me because Alan Tudyk is a great actor. Dallas come a long way and I really do find her amusing. I'm hoping they can workout the kinks before next season. This show has such potential.
Haik Mendelovich
May 17, 2012 at 12:51PM EST Reply to CommentSuburgatory has become an odd show. We started with characters and a skewed suburban landscape that looked to be one town over from Pushing Daisies' Coeur d'Coeur.
Now we've had a whole season of really great character development among the teens, but character stasis or regression among most of the adults. With associated comedy and lack therof along the way.
That last scene with Tessa would have fit into a far more serious show, and Levy acted the whee out of it. I'd sure like to see more of that.
Overall, I'm not quite sure where Suburgatory should go next, but I'm sure of one thing - The Baby Incubator has ~gotta~ go
Ken Raining
May 17, 2012 at 1:28PM EST Reply to CommentI only started watching this show a few weeks ago, but I started on one of (I'd say) stronger episodes, where George goes to Atlantic City (though it's Chris Parnell that really carries that one). I'm not sure I'd have stayed if I started watching from the beginning. I don't agree with you completely about Noah, but that's probably more because I like Alan Tudyk than anthing about the character. But yes, the show's much more successful when it follows Tessa then George. I could see it making a big leap in season 2, or really regressing.
M
May 17, 2012 at 1:38PM EST Reply to CommentI agree the show has a better handle on the kids (Dalia is somewhat cartoony, but Carly Chaikin so nails it that it works) but I think the problem with most of the adults is the clash in tones whenever they interact with the Altmans. For example, I think the Shays are much funnier in their own family-centric storylines and I think Noah became funny once we got to see him interact with Jill whom I generally find amusing (I laughed out loud when she clubbed the stuffed seal.) But whenever they're on screen with George or Tessa the show seems to want us to laugh at them and not with them and that's when it starts to stumble.
Also, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the "cliffhanger" aspect of the finale, Alan. Apparently Emily Kapnek left things hanging in order to force ABC's hand into renewing the show. Personally, I don't think it's that big of a cliffhanger. But, more importantly, when has a cliffhanger EVER actually forced a network into renewing a show? I don't even work in TV and I know that's not how these things work. So it kind of annoys me that a showrunner could be both that naive about how these things work and that willing to anger the show's fans in the event they weren't renewed.
kaid
May 17, 2012 at 1:52PM EST Reply to CommentHere's an easy way to make this show better and less cartoony: more Malik, less everything else.
LJA
May 17, 2012 at 2:25PM EST Reply to CommentI'm totally with you. The exits of Eden, Noah, and his wife would improve the show tremendously. I don't mind the Shays as they are, I think they're pretty funny. They also need to rewrite Lloyd (whatever his name is here), he's nowhere near as entertaining on this show as he was on Entourage, and that seems like a shame.
Jane Levy has a very promising career ahead of her. I think she's terrific.
Brubarian
May 17, 2012 at 3:34PM EST Reply to CommentI gave this show 2 chances. 1st time I got about 45 seconds into the pilot. 2nd time, several months later, I reached about 2 minutes. I think that's about all I can give it.
Jim Cool story.
May 19, 2012 at 4:23AM ESTDr. Gross
May 17, 2012 at 4:51PM EST Reply to CommentDoes anyone know why they used a different version of the theme song last night?
RP12 Reply to comment...
May 17, 2012 at 5:59PM ESTRP12 I'm glad someone else noticed it. It seemed like a much darker version than normal.
May 17, 2012 at 6:00PM ESTGup I think it was just to note that it was the season finale.
May 17, 2012 at 10:55PM ESTHatfield
May 17, 2012 at 5:27PM EST Reply to CommentI agree that the Eden storyline has been a drag, but I'm glad I seem to enjoy the show more as a whole than you and others here. It makes me laugh a lot, and I've even come to enjoy someone like Gasteyer who always bugged me in the past. I do hope they find some new combinations of characters, but in general I loved this first season.
Casey
May 17, 2012 at 9:49PM EST Reply to CommentI swear I thought the nursery scene was going to be Eden's dream sequence. I was stunned when it wasn't.
Greg
May 17, 2012 at 11:56PM EST Reply to CommentI agree with everything you just. Hopefully, when Eden asks George to come to her room, she'll thank him for his hospitality and leave Chatswin for good.
I wasn't as annoyed with the Werners as you were, but good God, that whole arc made them really look like obnoxious people. I wouldn't miss them at all.
geoff_rose
May 18, 2012 at 12:55AM EST Reply to CommentYup, other than Dallas, Tessa and Lisa's stories, everything was quite horrific. I don't even remember much about Noah's wife before the episode that focused on their near divorce, but I thought the idea was she *wasn't* like Dallas and the rest of Chatswin before trying on the lifestyle (for that episode). Now she's just a cartoonish harpy.
erika_herzog
May 19, 2012 at 9:17PM EST Reply to Commenti started out deeply skeptical of SUBURGATORY but the show has surprised me -- and i have grown to love many of the characters. i look forward to the show every week.
you are right, except for Dallas and George the adults are deeply problematic -- and unlikeable. not just unlikeable in a "the character is doing something unlikeable but i can still watch" but unlikeable when i'm having to restrain myself from fast forwarding through their scenes (i.e., Eden, Noah & Jill Werner).
there's not enough Dahlia for me, and the whole crystal shoppe thing is pretty much brilliant. i know the conceit of the mother is a plot point but it seems overly plotty and sort of a disservice to Tessa's story. i think it would've been more interesting if Tessa's mom was dead and she was dealing (or not) with that. probably heresy to say that but do with that what you will.
the big glaring issue is the whole NYC vs. Chatswin thing. they have never resolved / addressed this issue to my liking -- and this is the conceit upon which the show is built, so that needs to improve or it will continue to weigh things down.
my unasked for two cents of course...
i will be watching next season for sure for the morsels of fun with the characters i like, but the other glaring issue is the whole NYC vs. Chatswin thing
May 19, 2012 at 9:19PM ESTdreadpirate82
May 21, 2012 at 11:58AM EST Reply to CommentWhat I don't understand is how are George and Noah friends? It just doesn't make sense.
I still like the show, but that kinda bugs me.
nicole
May 22, 2012 at 9:15PM EST Reply to CommentDoes anyone know the Artist and name of the song that played at the end when Tessa was contemplating her "escape"?
Schmye Bubbula "Possibility" by Lykke Li
May 24, 2012 at 9:18PM ESThttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvMeOllo_Vo
Hauntingly reminiscent of Julee Cruise singing at the roadhouse on Twin Peaks.
Schmye Bubbula http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SSApYvnTUQ
May 24, 2012 at 9:21PM EST