Episode 13 - Goodbye, My Friend
25 March 2012
Synopsis: While watching Harry and the Hendersons Jack and Frank bond over their absent fathers. The next day Jack offers Frank the chance to complete his law degree. Frank is happy but his mother Mrs Rossitano warns Jack off because Frank’s family were lawyers for the mafia. Channelling George Henderson, Jack sends Frank back to the writers’ room. Liz meets a pregnant girl while buying doughnuts and befriends her in case she can use this as a shortcut to adoption. Kenneth discovers that Tracy has never had a birthday and decides to turn Jenna’s birthday into a joint party.
The Good: There’s not too much wrong with the ideas behind these three stories. All three have a clear moral centre, at least in theory.
Jack and Frank’s story is the most interesting because it’s the first serious attempt to give Frank any real characterisation. The story doesn’t exactly make us look at Frank in a whole new way but basing the moral truth on a 1980s Big Foot movie is suitably obscure and amusing. Corporate capitalist Jack is well characterised as ever so referring to Harry the sasquatch as having a “dangerous message of environmentalism” is pretty funny. Jack’s conversation with Frank’s mother is also fun and has a really nice line in it (see Comic Highlight). Frank does look very different in a suit and slicked back hair.
Then there is Liz who tries to manipulate young Becca into giving her her baby but finally realises that she shouldn’t and encourages her to patch things up with her boyfriend. Sounds simple enough. Finally Kenneth goes all out as usual to do something nice for Tracy and winds Jenna up more and more. Jenna tries to get attention and sympathy anyway she can. I like her commitment to selfishness as she declares “I am so brave” from her wheelchair. In the end Tracy uses his birthday wish on Jenna which cheers her up a bit.
The Bad: Unfortunately the delivery of these stories isn’t particularly interesting or funny. We don’t really get a sense of who Frank is or why we should care about him. It’s not as if he talks about whether he would enjoy being a lawyer more than a writer or anything like that. The conclusion was a pretty straightforward re-enactment of Harry and the Hendersons with no twist to make it funnier.
Liz’ story is even simpler. She plans to do wrong to get what she wants (which is consistent: 211, 310) but then changes her mind. There is no reason for her to change her mind, her conscience just kicks in out of nowhere which is quite the anti-climax. Otherwise her story is just a bunch of pseudo-Juno jokes and isn’t-Liz-out-of-touch humour.
Finally Tracy’s selfless wish comes of nowhere too. The story is half about Jenna being annoying and half about Tracy learning how nice a birthday can be. On the one hand Jenna deserves some sympathy for having her birthday ruined but on the other her one-note joke gets annoying. Then there is Tracy who clearly doesn’t care about Jenna and whose selfless act doesn’t seem like him but just a random punchline for the story.
Comic Highlight: Frank’s mother is yelling at Jack for encouraging Frank to become a lawyer. She explains that his father and grandfather were mob lawyers (his roots are Sicilian) and so his life would be in danger. Jack is of course shocked and says “I had no idea!” In still lecturing tones Mrs Rossitano says “Well you should have guessed.” Jack thinks about this unlikely jump to a conclusion and replies “I don’t think I should have.”
The Bottom Line: There are probably just too many stories here for any of them to be memorable or develop properly. The humour is basic too without the usual ridiculousness which people seem to enjoy. Perhaps that’s a good thing.
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