Speechless: N-E--NEW A-I--AIDE

September 28, 2016 6:43 PM - Season 1, Episode 2

Maya has second thoughts about Kenneth being JJ's full-time aide, especially after her son ditches a physical therapy appointment. Meanwhile, Jimmy tries to teach Dylan to be a bad neighbor, and Ray tries to find a window in Jillian's school schedule.
posted by oh yeah! (5 comments total)

The hijinks were a little more traditionally sitcommy this week. Still some nice moments.

In particular, Jimmy's speeches about lowering expectations with their neighbors were altogether funnier, better observed, and more nuanced than the actual pranks-on-the-squares execution. I'd have rather seen bits that showed Jimmy teaching his daughter to modulate their expectations downward with subtle tricks, ending with them pleased to overhear their family being called idiots, than to go with the stupid sitcom blowup we saw. That was a missed opportunity.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:12 AM on September 29, 2016 [2 favorites]

I think my least favorite moment of the episode was the chest-hair pulling joke in the end. Like, I think it was meant to get a 'so wrong it's funny' kind of laugh, but it didn't work on me. It just stayed in the 'so wrong' space for me.

Not thrilled with Ray's semi-stalking either. Reminds me of the 'Fresh Off The Boat' subplot of Eddie's crush on his neighbor. It was cute how the glow worm line actually worked, but I still hope Ray gets some other running joke than just crushing on Jillian.

But altogether, another good episode.
posted by oh yeah! at 8:52 AM on September 29, 2016 [1 favorite]

The bit with Ray getting PT as a lark only to find out he walks wrong was hilarious. The child actor did a shaky job on his revised walk, but the gag was still clever and funny.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:20 AM on September 29, 2016

There's a really surprising amount of subtext going on in the show as a whole ... The thing with keeping up the property to suburban standards is: it had a particularly resonant meaning for myself as someone who's lived with the experience of being a family with a disabled family member who requires a lot of care. And I'm pretty sure this applies more generally. There legitimately isn't enough time to do everything when you're also e.g. keeping weekly doctors appointments; the exterior of the house is the lowest priority; but more than that, you're always cognizant of having this commitment on your time that most of your neighbors don't have. It feels unfair sometimes, and it feels unfair to be held to the same standard. Sometimes, the emotional weight of it, the grief or the worry, makes you think of the yard and the exterior as superficial and unimportant. The dad said "We're lazy idiots" but he also said "We have a lot going on in our life" and one of those sounded like a joke, and the other was something I've said out of my own mouth.

I was thinking something similar last week, about the family dynamics with Ray and Maya.

Anyway: Ratings this week were 90% of last week, which is considered good, and they got the go-ahead for the second half of the season.
posted by Rainbo Vagrant at 10:59 AM on September 30, 2016 [2 favorites]

Yeah, wow, I really disliked this one compared to the pilot. The Jimmy-Dylan storyline was way too forced, and Kenneth seemed just a skoonch too "Hey I don't know what I'm doing here".

I liked it well enough, but that was more based on the fact that these characters were pretty good last week. I hope it picks back up to that level.
posted by Etrigan at 7:57 PM on October 1, 2016