I liked the second episode better than the pilot, although I found it as equally unfunny. On the plus side, Georgia King seems like she's doing less of an impersonation of Emma on Glee come the second episode, although she seemed a lot more shaky on keeping her real accent at bay.
The rest is just ... eh. Andrew Rannells reminds me so much of Jack from Will and Grace, in that we're supposed to listen to his nastiness for 30 minutes but find him hilarious as well as "awww" at the gooey core he's supposed to have as well. I think it would be radical to have a prissy tv gay who looks like he's dressed by the spirit of Ann-Margrock every morning that
wasn't brittle and caustic on the outside, all the while hiding his warm, gooey inside. I can't wait for him to start calling bone-thin people fat!
Like I said about the pilot, I think Ellen Barkin's character exists to simply place whatever ridiculous/offensive/ stereotype-wielding nonsense they can think of. I just don't see a reality in which these people would tolerate her, especially considering they are paying her granddaughter $35,000 to carry her child. I would think that wildly unsupportive grandmother would have been red flag to the surrogate agency, but then again, these are the people that gave them that cartoon Leslie Grossman was playing and made it up to the couple by matching them up with someone who literally just walked in off the street.
And Nene Lekes (who's positive notices mystify me, since everything she says sounds sing-songy and recited) seems to exist to let Ellen Barkin make black jokes.
To Eric's question, I'm thinking they sort of made it clear in this ep that Goldie was married to that guy and that he's Shania's father. I mean, I know we're supposed to think he's awful, but that's still an awfully big decision for Goldie to make, taking his child halfway across the country. Yes, I know we saw him cheat. Yes, I know he must have been equally horrible the past eight years, but that has to make one question why she let him stick around, anyway, what with living with her grandmother and all.
And Goldie's big decision to stand on her own (with treacly music and all) just rang false to me, too. Again, she's being paid a huge sum of money to carry their kid, a decision she seemingly made overnight. If she's serious about law school (and I'm guessing she never went to college, but that won't be much of an issue, I'm sure), wouldn't it make more sense to be able to live cheaply and not have to eat away at the money she's getting from them until she finds a (presumably, as set up by the conceits of the show) low-paying job that's beneath her to get by? But if she lives in a bad neighborhood that should give us some much-needed Mexican jokes from Nana, right?
Apropos of nothing, I'm curious about the way Ryan Murphy writes and casts gay relationships. Between this, Glee and American Horror Story, it seems as though there always has to be a pretty rigid adherence to heternormative gender roles and the femme is ALWAYS played by a gay actor, and the other character isn't.
But, like I said about the pilot, despite what I or any other naysayers say, I bet this thing runs forever.
Updated On: 9/12/12 at 01:27 PM
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