Friends from College: The Engagement Party

January 14, 2019 3:31 PM - Season 2, Episode 1

The gang is forced to put on their happy faces and reconnect at Max's swanky engagement party, where "severe awkwardness" is everybody's plus-one.
posted by bunderful (2 comments total)

The episode opens with Max and Felix rehearsing a dance for their upcoming wedding, and with Max confiding to Felix that he's afraid that his friends from college, many of whom aren't speaking since the "epic shitshow" that occurred at Sam's 40th at the end of season 1, will ruin their engagement party.

I was shocked when this did not, in fact, happen. And kind of pleased. Other than Jon's remark to the guests at the engagement party that he hopes Max and Felix don't cheat on each other, the big drama is Sam getting sprayed by a skunk while trying to find cell phone reception. She stands quietly waiting for the skunk to move away on its own but Ethan sees it, starts yelling, and the alarmed skunk sprays. "You two are never going to get that stink off of you" says Marianne. (Important: this does not appear to impact the engagement party at all).

On the train home - having changed from her cocktail dress to an ugly teeshirt and sweats - Jon tells her he wants a divorce. Other passengers leave the area when she enters. Ethan - still in his suit - sees her, but ignores her. Clearly it's Sam who really carries the stink.

(When I've encountered skunks my instinct has always been to forking RUN and so far that's worked pretty well. The skunk never chases me down to spray me).

I liked Lisa's painful awkwardness - the new fella who might be just be a friend who came as a favor - the conversational catastrophe when she first encounters the group , her refusal to speak to Ethan alone, and I liked Marianne's attempt to make up with her, and their reconciliation. Also like Marianne's lipsync and eye rolls during Nick's conversation with another partygoer (Sarah Chalke).

I don't know what to say about Boy Horse.
posted by bunderful at 4:00 PM on January 14, 2019

Oh my goodness, I didn't know Season 2 was out - thanks for posting! On my list to watch soon. I really enjoyed the first season. It seemed to get crappy reviews but I thought the phenomenon the show was wrestling with -- people reverting to their childhood/college/immature selves when they're part of a certain group of people, and the tension between that and their "present day" selves, and the people their "present day" selves are in relationships with -- is so common, and so relatively unexplored in art and media. Yay!
posted by rogerroger at 5:04 PM on January 14, 2019 [1 favorite]