Well, alphaboi didn’t start a thread. Not sure if this is due to absence or, perish the though, lack of interest. Thought I’d give it a shot.
Interesting progress made between Wayne and Dahlia. The scene between them on the phone whilst conning Doug’s ex-wife to get her out of the picture was great … each character projecting their own emotion into a situation which they related to indirectly. Wayne continues to convince Dahlia to keep going with the con despite her reluctance. He thought he had her on the drug abuse problem, but the fact was that he was really to blame for it. Will she really learn to trust him now that they’ve buried the hatchet? I enjoyed Wayne’s defusal of the situation with the angry mob massing inside Panco’s office to protest development on land with abandoned live ordinance, but it seemed a bit flat compared to his other trials of baptism by fire so far.
Not much focus on Didi outside of re-establishing that she’s well-read compared to her peers, and Cael seems to be making friends pretty easily in all the wrong ways. Sam was nowhere to be seen. Maybe he’s on a field trip to the Louvre?
One bit of continuity that bothered me. Last week Dahlia told Sam he’s have to choose being a boy or girl at school, and I was under the impression that he chose boy. Yet he walked out of the house to go to school with his barrette firmly in place. Did someone forget that?
Great episode again. I thought the phone call business was very touching and a great performance from Eddie and Minnie. The neighbor is too cool!
I liked that Eddie and Minnie got to use something closer to their real accents for a little while. It made me realize that I’m starting to get used to Eddie’s attempt at an American accent.
I was hoping the Jewish thing would be dealt with more, but I guess it will be later.
Glad to see that the ex-wife has been dealt with, because I was not liking that little sub-plot, and I was touched by the back-and-forth between Wayne and Dahlia on the phone working that through. Not much with DiDi or Sam this week, but even the little bit with DiDi shows that she’s a pretty solid character.
I’m kind of sad to admit, though, that I’m not digging the bits where Wayne has to fast-talk his way out of something and he morphs back into Eddie Izzard. This is a guy who has had to bullshit his way through most of his life and has been slick enough not to get caught so far, but put him on the spot and the best he can manage is to babble enough nonsense that people end up just staring at him blankly. It’s funny as hell when Eddie does that in his stand-up, but it is really taking me out of the show when Wayne does it - not because it’s not funny, but because it seems to be out of character.
I was kind of sad to realize that Doug had kids- who could benefit from inherting any money, houses etc from this guys death. Also, how is visitation going to work- he’ll just keep not showing up?
I like the show more before I though “his” kids were getting screwed.
Yeah, I have to agree there. I thought it was more of a bitter ex whinging about being left for a trophy wife and wanting a buttload of alimony scenario. On the other hand, Cael pointed out to Tammy that they’ve “only been gone a week” and Doug’s ex-wife issues certainly predate that time period. Because it did bother me, I’m rationalizing it as Wayne making good on debts Doug racked up.
As much as I love the show, I’m forced to agree with you here. It’s not just Izzard’s character either. I found myself thinking of better lies than both him and Dahlia throughout the episode. For example, when she is questioned about her cross necklace by the Jewish wives, the easy explanation is that it’s a family heirloom from before someone converted.
So, yeah. Chalk it up to the characters being under stress, I suppose. I still like the show.
I thought of a better one, too, there. But I wasn’t drunk, stoned, and surprised.
They prep for their characters - we’ve seen them do it before “who are you? what do you want? what are your hobbies? where have you been? etc.” and she didn’t get to do that before answering the door.
I also noticed Sam’s barette - but he was mostly a boy.