Review: 'Suburgatory' - 'How to Be a Baby': I was maid to love you
Noah becomes obsessed with Carmen, Tessa helps Jill and Dahlia gets Mr. Wolf a makeover
Rex Lee and Carly Chaikin in "Suburgatory."
A quick review of last night's "Suburgatory" coming up just as soon as I write to your AOL address...
Somewhere along the way in season 2, "Suburgatory" went from a show I tried to write about every week to one where I let the episodes pile up on my DVR while I focus on other things. I think there have been some miscalculations in this season — notably in the George/Dallas relationship and the impact it's had on the structure of the show — but mostly it just feels like "Suburgatory" is what it is, and that it will occasionally knock an episode like "The Wishbone" or "Chinese Chicken" out of the park, but will for the most part be a stew of mismatched ingredients, some of them working much better than others.
Fienberg and I discussed the show a bit on this week's podcast, and one of the issues we've both had with the season is the way that George/Dallas has not only stripped away most of Dallas' likable qualities from the first season (the diva-to-sensible ratio is way out of whack), but has really minimized the number of George/Tessa scenes, when that relationship should always be the heart of the show. "How to Be a Baby" wasn't a great episode — it would be hard to be, when focusing so much on Noah and Jill, even though Noah is just silly and Jill is briefly humanized at the end — but at least it offered up that scene in the middle where father and daughter sat at the table and talked about what was going on in Tessa's life. More of that, please.
Beyond that, the only memorable part of "How to Be a Baby" was Dahlia's dry cry, which was another example (like her "Send in the Clowns" at Marty's memorial) of Carly Chaikin taking a joke that could have really gone anywhere and doing something really original and creepy and hilarious with it. Dalia's been backgrounded a bit this season with the ascendance of Ryan Shay, but I think she probably works better in small doses anyway, and often winds up delivering the biggest laugh of each episode.
What did everybody else think, both of last night's episode and of where the show stands creatively late in season 2?
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Comments
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Login or create a HitFix account Login SignupJim D
March 7, 2013 at 10:40AM EST Reply to CommentThis show could be great but it just seems off most of the time. It can't decide if it wants to be sly satire, over-the-top craziness or a sopa opera.
RockfordColumbo
March 7, 2013 at 10:54AM EST Reply to CommentI agree that Dallas has been irritating. However, the show has stayed funny. The goofiness helps and Dahlia steals every scene.
scoopie77
March 7, 2013 at 10:58AM EST Reply to CommentYou didn't even mention Noah and Carmen in the shower. I thought that was a fun send-up of every romantic comedy anywhere. Of course it was totally insane that Noah loved the nanny anyway...but he did have to stand on the toilet, so there's that.
This show is so great when it's great and just infuriating when it's not. I agree what you said on the podcast. We all expected it to be great, but maybe it's just a good show or a decent one after all.
franimaljones It was a great scene but I hated the bad editing with the suddenly dry shirt and hair after walking out of the shower, CUT! BREAK! - then talking to each other.
March 8, 2013 at 6:56PM ESTJoseph I'm fairly certain the suddenly dry hair and clothes was part of the joke.
March 11, 2013 at 11:59AM ESTM
March 7, 2013 at 11:51AM EST Reply to CommentI felt like last night's storyline with Dahlia and Mr. Wolfe was building to something that we never really got to see. I wonder if something got left on the cutting room floor or it was just really that under written.
JB There was a brief scene at the end with Mr. Wolfe and the hairdresser enjoying sushi while Mr. Wolfe's ex looked on in tears. So the new hair worked!
March 7, 2013 at 1:48PM ESTLJA
March 7, 2013 at 2:32PM EST Reply to CommentSuburgatory is purely hit and miss for me. I prefer episodes with the Shays and without Noah and family. Can't stand Dallas or Dahlia, although Dahlia coaching Lloyd on how to get his groove back wasn't a bad use for her, however, I found the dry cry irritating in the extreme and the opposite of funny. Sadly, though, I don't ever recommend this show to friends, and I wish I could. It's way too inconsistent.
Matt I totally agree about the cry. This episode was annoying me and my wife, but at this point, it was too much and we had to turn it off. Just horrible.
March 12, 2013 at 9:52AM ESTStormshadow4life
March 7, 2013 at 3:47PM EST Reply to CommentHaven't watched this ep yet....but as a whole, I haven't enjoyed this season as much as last year. I can't even pinpoint it...it's just not making me laugh as much.
Jeff
March 7, 2013 at 7:11PM EST Reply to CommentA few days ago I sat down and started thinking about the sitcoms/comedies I watch. I piled them up into different categories. Shows I love and watch on the same night (Cougar town, Parks and Rec, Archer and Community). Those that I watch out of habit even if it makes me cringe(HIMYM, Girls). And the shows that I like but let them pile up on the DVR and watch when I have nothing else to do (Raising Hope, Go On, Suburgatory). I realized that Suburgatory is BARELY on that last list and that at some point it became a chore to watch.
While great shows improve in the second season, this one has gotten worse and I don't see it improving anytime soon. It depends on ridiculous and cartoonish (albeit entertaining) characters to be funny and those tend to be the same characters whose charms wear off in later seasons (Kenneth on 30 Rock or Dwight from the office for example). This is what has happened to Dallas, this is what is happening with Ryan and this is what's gonne happen with Dalia. I like Tessa, I like George, I like Lisa and I like Malik(underused)... but I''m indifferent to the rest of the cast and unfortunately the other characters receive as much screen time as the ones I do like.
I know I'll never love this show, but it's failing in making me like it and they're on the verge of losing a viewer that has watched from the very beginning. It sucks too because Jeremy Sisto and Jane Levy are great in it.
Ken Raining
March 7, 2013 at 8:45PM EST Reply to CommentWell, I gave up a few weeks ago. I gave them one more chance, with the Chinese Chicken episode after I'd head such good things about it, but even that left me mostly cold. I couldn't remember the last time the show had really made me laugh, but I could remember several eye rolls, so that was it.
erika_herzog
March 7, 2013 at 9:27PM EST Reply to Commentthe dry cry was great... Carly Chaiken is like Molly Tarlov from AWKWARD. i always want more.
the show has sort of devolved, yes, and doesn't quite seem as fun as it once was. but i'd rather see this than lots of other stuff on TV. and Jane Levy and Cheryl Hines and Jeremy Sisto are actors i always enjoy so....
S
March 7, 2013 at 10:36PM EST Reply to CommentI think this show spends too much time on the secondary and tertiary characters that most stories don't amount to much. And the problem with those secondary and tertiary characters is that they are such cartoons that there is very little substance. Do we really need a story dedicated to Mr. Wolfe on top of a story between Noah and Carmen? George is basically just an outside character.
Kmarko
March 8, 2013 at 9:40AM EST Reply to CommentWhat kills me about this show is that if it just took George & Tessa and started from there, it could be great. There are some cartoony aspects I like--Ryan saying, "I think we both know the answer to that" last week when Tessa asked if he had done something stupid was great--but way too much I don't like and overall just too much of it.
Is it too late to ratchet down the cartoon stuff? Has a show ever made a significant change this late in the game for the better? I dunno.
Critic Levy's talent is wasted too often on the show
March 8, 2013 at 2:42PM ESTfranimaljones
March 8, 2013 at 6:55PM EST Reply to CommentMore Dahlia! I love when her offhanded humanity comes up via vengeance or victory. I think George is kind of boring so I like more Dallas and Tessa, but less him. And the Sheas make me smile.
ed w
March 11, 2013 at 3:57PM EST Reply to CommentEverything with the principal, not just in this episode, falls flat. Lately I sometimes end up fastforwarding through his scenes. And I'm not a fan of how Tessa is becoming more at home, and sometimes even popular, in the school. She was better as the alienated outsider/newcomer.
But Tudyk and Chaikin keep me from giving up on this series.
Starboots
April 5, 2013 at 6:37PM EST Reply to CommentI really wanted to see what you thought about Dahlia in this week's episode!