You're the Worst: Bad News: Dude's Dead

September 15, 2016 12:21 PM - Season 3, Episode 3

Gretchen grabs some coffee. Everyone gets together to give Jimmy some news. Gretchen and Lindsay shop for snacks.
posted by Thorzdad (11 comments total)

That was one damned weird interlude. Fun, though.
posted by Thorzdad at 12:23 PM on September 15, 2016

Super oblique ending. What was Jimmy thinking/feeling? What was Gretchen doing?
posted by unliteral at 4:41 PM on September 15, 2016

I took it as Jimmy being overcome/frozen by some very unfamiliar feelings, and Gretchen, who all through the episode kept saying she didn't want to see Jimmy's vulnerable side, comforted him in the only way she felt comfortable...giving him a blowjob. These are two very broken people, afterall.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:10 PM on September 15, 2016

For a show that got so much praise for handling mental illness well in season 2, I think they're not doing great with the therapy side of things and I'm worried it's going to just be a string of wacky encounters.
posted by bjrn at 11:38 AM on September 16, 2016

Yeah, I wouldn't mind a little more pushback from the therapist.

"This thing? This thing you're doing right now? This is part of your problem, Gretchen. Take a fucking breath, go back home, and come to your goddamn appointment tomorrow."
posted by Etrigan at 11:47 AM on September 16, 2016

I have a really hard time grokking the tone of this show, I think. I'm an occasional viewer who thinks it's funny, but stuff like the grotesque other couple seems very slapstick and broad, and the sitcom plot of not telling the dude his father is dead is also pretty standard banal sitcom, but the ending of the episode has a surprising power that resonates, I think, with anyone who has ever used sex as a band-aid for dysfunctionality in a relationship. But like. On the other hand...this was all set in motion by a pretty dumb sitcom plot that, were I personally the victim of it IRL, would end in an immediate and final breakup. The over-the-top parts and the realistic parts don't seem to take place in the same universe at all, and when they mesh, it's hard for me to figure out what the show is doing, exactly. It's difficult for me to take the serious stuff as seriously as I think the show wants me to take it, because it (the show) wants to reserve the right to be a Fox comedy from the '90s whenever it feels like it, too. Is this just me?
posted by kittens for breakfast at 4:01 PM on September 17, 2016

Even though this show is a comedy, it really doesn't reward the occasional viewer. It should be watched in order.
posted by zutalors! at 7:53 AM on September 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

It didn't seem that deep to me. Maybe I just don't like it very much.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 12:01 PM on September 19, 2016

ok maybe not!
posted by zutalors! at 12:57 PM on September 19, 2016

They've had two full seasons to establish characters and now in season 3 almost every one of them is behaving uncharacteristically. I would have sworn they got new writers for this season but Wiki tells me that's not the case.
The biggest example of this is the new arc with Lindsay and Paul. Where are they going with this? The two simply don't work together as a couple and as a result there's very little comedy to be mined from the arc. It seems entirely contrived just to keep Allan McLeod and his massively unlikable character in the cast.
posted by rocket88 at 8:13 AM on September 23, 2016

I'm still really iffy about this season but I liked Lindsay and Paul this episode, and actually like the idea that she's trying to make it work with him in her own weird way. I also think Paul is a great character.
posted by zutalors! at 5:56 PM on September 28, 2016