Up All Night - 1x10 - Week Off

My recording of this week's ep got a little FUBAR'ed so it took me a little longer than usual to get around to watching it (thank you, Hulu!). Luckily, it was a relatively mellow episode, not great, but not bad either. A catastrophic pipe leakage/bursting issue in the floor above the Ava offices shuts down operations for a week giving everyone seven days to stretch their characters in fresh new directions. We get to see Reagan/Christina Applegate indulge her batshit crazy side without ever losing respect for her (like in Cool Neighbors), which I thought was pretty sweet. We got to see Ava show her sweet side again (not coincidentally due to Jason Lee returning). And to top it all off, we got to see Chris dip his toe back in lawyer infested waters, and thrive in his previous element.

I really hate that ratings bug sometimes.

So first off, we had the return of Jason Lee, which is not only awesome in and of itself, but it means that we also get the return of Cool Ava, who we first saw back in "First Night Away". Cool Ava means we get to watch Maya Rudolph straddle that line between Maroney-esque absurdity and genuine sweetness that I really think is the key to making Ava work. I have no idea how, but with just her facial expressions, Maya Rudolph managed to evoke genuine sympathy over the fact that McKenna did not find the Hall of Billboard-Sized Ava Portraits at all intresting. I can't really blame McKenna, though Getting Real portrait ("I was thinking of the Middle East.") was definately good for a least a chuckle. Thanks to Reagan's  manipulations   prodding  advice, Ava volunteers to help McKenna with a song she wants to sing at her school's talent show. To the surprise of absolutely none of the sitcom watching public, Ava and McKenna manage to bond over the "mentoring". What was a surprise was that we got to see another installment in what must be an entire sub-genre YouTube: Ava's embarrassing public moments. Apparently Ava got up in front of a large group of people and completely mangled Luck Be A Lady, forgetting the words and basically making up hilarious gibberish. You know, as much as I'm a big fan of subtlety, I was actually disappointed they didn't go all out on this little flashback and tease it out longer, and maybe even had it be a Star Search performance. Duly energized, McKenna goes up on stage and gives an ...equally horrendous rendition of the same song. I kind of half wondered if it wasn't some post-ironic re-enactment or something, but if it was, no one gets it, because the only person to clap (at least at first) is Ava, giving the poor girl the validation she deserves.

Okay there are apparently only four videos, including this one...

I'm starting to wonder if her mom was onto something with
the whole "maybe don't smother the baby in pink just
because she's a girl" thing...

Reagan doesn't end up dealing with her week off nearly as well. Going absolutely stir crazy in the house she ends up rearranging everything to be "better". The junk drawer, the furniture, even the cabling in the back of the tv. Chris doesn't find her Monk-esque insistence that everything is "better this way" all that charming, and pleads with her to stop. After a couple of fights on the matter (which is seriously, the most serious the fights on this show have gotten), she finally relents. But not before she tries to surreptiously whack a few of her crazy old neighbor's weeds. I gotta say, the visual of Reagan pulling out a giant hedge trimmer from one of the baby carriage's storage spots is pure (frightening) gold, and a great example of what I mentioned earlier. This ep we got to see Reagan go a little balls out crazy, but you never really felt embarrassed for her or like you respect her less. Whenever the show tries to get Reagan and Chris to straddle the same buffoonish line Cool Ava does, it tends to fail miserably. Even in the otherwise awesome "First Night Away", I kept fast forwarding through that whole bit with the hotel clerk. But here, I don't know, it works. Maybe because here, her deal isn't acting like an idiot. It's acting really, really smart and efficient. Just completely oblivious. But still, you kind of end up admiring how she tamed that junk drawer.

Tamed it with prejudice!

I also really liked that aforementioned fight between her and Chris. I can't really put my finger on it, but it seemed like this was the first time they seemed like a real married couple and not a couple of love birds still in the honeymoon phase of their relationship. Chris' acidic "Oh, is it nicer? Okay..." was a beautiful, natural touch, and probably the first time all season that he seemed like he was actually standing up for himself. That's not to say either of them was being a jerk about it. Reagan was clearly stepping over some lines, or at least being insensitive about them, but neither of them really came off like assholes, and it still felt like a real fight. Which is nice to see in network comedy, where one person typically has to turn into an outright douchenozzle for the sake of the plot.

"Oh real mature, using your mutant power of static cling."

"My...those briefs are something thick..."

Chris keeps escaping Reagan's insanity by ducking out to meet with an old buddy from his law firm. I'm kind of surprised it wasn't Douche Boy from "The Birth", but whatever. Somehow, he ends up doing his homework for him or something, writing the dudes briefs, laying out strategy, I don't know, I lost track of lawyer talk and because I kept giggling because I heard "riding your briefs". I'm a child. Anyway, even though he's thiss close to being tempted to come back, he decides against it, saying that he's decided that being a Stay at Home Dad is his Thing now, and he really needs Reagan to let him have that identity. Ohkay. I mean, I don't see anything wrong with that. I've been a huge fan of this show's portraying Chris' decision to stay home as just another normal thing. But that wording of it being his identity seemed... uncomfortable. If the show was turned around and it was about Reagan declaring being a mom her "identity", it would definately set off a few squick-alerts. Then again, different historical contexts and all. On a lighter note, Will Arnett and Jason Lee have a talking like this contest and it's the second best such contest ever.

And with that, we're off for the winter break. I swear I'll use that time to start catching up on normal shows.