2 Broke Girls: “And the Break-up Scene” Review
Gonna try and keep this review a quick one, as 2 Broke Girls is definitely not a plot-complex sitcom as yet.
In fact, that was my biggest gripe with the second episode. What was it about? I know the description the network put out said it was about Max and Caroline’s issues, after Caroline gave Robbie a big break up speech without Max being involved – but that happened in the last few minutes of the episode, and the girls’ big fight/split was fixed almost immediately.
Before that, it was basically a series of scenes of Max and Caroline bouncing off each other and others… and sometimes covered in horse s**t. Yeah, let’s talk about that. Last night, I saw many of my friendly fellow TV journalists saying, “I’m out” or such, when Caroline fell into horse S**t… and we actually saw her covered in the stuff.
Admittedly, this was not the height of nuanced comedy and it’s not that I’m offended, really, but I don’t know if we needed to see her in such a state… I already like Caroline. Let’s keep her without feces covering her dress, right?
That being said, look, I laughed at Caroline screaming, “What is that? A carrot?! There’s carrots in the mud?” It was very gross, very wrong, but to me, it was funny and Beth Behrs admirably went with it.
The supporting cast is still a mess on this show. Asian Manager Guy and Horny Russian Cook need to be upgraded quick – though Garrett Morris’ Earl is better, in the small doses we’ve seen him, maybe because hey, it’s Garrett Morris. And I liked his line, “That’s the exact same sentence that got me hooked on cocaine in the 80s,” when Max said she had something new for him to try. And to be fair, I did really enjoy one Oleg line (guess I just admitted I know his name), when he called Caroline a “hot blond giraffe.”
That’s the thing about 2 Broke Girls: I’m laughing. Not at every joke to be sure, but enough to keep me entertained. With Max, the writers are certainly embracing the “this girl will say anything!” nature of the character, sometimes trying too hard, but landing plenty of times –such as when she revealed she had a knife in bed and deadpanned (well, obviously), “It’s the only home security system I can afford… and I’m a cutter.”
So yeah, if you’re wondering, despite my criticisms, why I still gave this episode a 7, it’s for that reason: I was laughing pretty regularly. The show is willing to push the envelope, certainly, and sometimes that pays off, sometimes it doesn’t. But the jokes come fast enough that enough are working, at least at the momentm, to make for a fun 22 minutes. 2 Broke Girls will need to pick it up in the coming weeks to become something that really stands out in the sitcom world, but for now, yay for Kat Dennings making anal sex jokes!
