“My Boys” — 110 Percent Solution + Rome, If You Want To
The gang gets some culture at the Art Institute.
In the first of Monday’s two finale episodes of My Boys, Andy buys a boat… and a book on knot-tying. He called the boat Metaphor. That is about as gold of a cold open as one could possibly desire. One of the structural flaws of the series (aside from the god-awful narration) is the sad reality that Andy, played by Jim Gaffigan, is arguably the funniest of all the characters, but also the one character intentionally built into the periphery of the series. You can have an entire episode of My Boys without him and it wouldn’t feel strange, so giving the guy a pretty great scene right off the bat speaks well for whatever was to come. More thoughts after the break…
The first episode’s main focus was PJ’s relationship with Evan. Of all of the guys she’s dated this season (each of whom came back in the next half hour as she debated who to take to Italy) Evan was the only one who acted the way most guys would act during a first date with a girl surrounded by so many guy-pals. Really, it isn’t even the fact that they’re all guys so much as the fact that PJ’s friends are incredibly close and don’t really need another body to get in the way.
This led to a hilarious line uttered by Mike during the ubiquitous poker game when Evan was attempting to tell a “One time I was…†story but ended up getting interrupted so Kenny could recall a classic story everyone had already heard. As a guy who has a bad habit of interrupting other people’s stories, I felt Evan’s pain. Still, you can’t compete with Mike saying, “I mean, throat blood is no big deal.†That’s funny, but maybe you had to be there.
I appreciated that both episodes last night utilized the series’ once-a-season Chicago location shoot. The first of which delivered a fairly meaty scene between PJ and Andy on his boat. Chicago is awesome. This whole series should be filmed on location – says Rick, the guy who doesn’t understand the production costs in shooting a basic cable sit-com outside of Los Angeles.
Speaking of Andy and his from-the-edges role on the show, here’s a teriffic exchange that capped off the first of the two episodes:
Andy: I sold the boat.
PJ: Are you kidding?
Bobby: Did you even go anywhere on it?
Mike: You told us we were going to sail to Sheboygan. Promises were made! Promises were made.
And what do you know… when all was said and done Andy decided to move back to the city from the suburbs so he could be around his friends more often. Clearly the producers are listening to my thoughts.
THE FINALE EPISODE
Hey, PJ has only three days to find a perfect date to take to Italy! How very season finale.
I love that a throwaway joke from a few weeks back (“Kenny, we hate it when you act like you’re on The Sopranosâ€) has become a legitimate plot point, first with Kenny’s very nuanced pronunciation of manicotti and then dressed as Silvio in PJ’s dream. Good stuff.
The “let’s see the sights of Chicago” was a fun B story (or was it the A story… it’s hard to say) if very Chicago 101 (says a guy whose maybe spent a sum total of 8 days in the town). Aside from the silly relationship stuff (and the “who could it be now†cliffhanger – which is probably ultra convenient as it allows the producers several months to figure out who they can get under contract for the next season) these last two episodes might have been two of the series strongest.
