“My Boys” — Second Chances
Wow. You’re bearded and beautiful.
Jeremy Sisto guest starred this week as PJ’s old “summer flame.” People seem to love this guy. To me, he’s always been a poor man’s Liev Schreiber, but then again I never stuck with Six Feet Under. He could be the rich man’s Liev Schreiber for all I know, though I find that hard to believe due to one key fact: Sisto has not — to my knowledge — fathered a child with Naomi Watts. That’s worth a lot. Here, I always find PJ’s relationships (or potential relationships) to come off as unnatural and strained. I suspect this is because Jordanna Spiro is far superior at acting natural when in the company of her co-stars (which makes sense given the show’s log-line). When she’s asked to act “romantic” we can see the acting. This is problematic over the long-term as PJ’s character will eventually need a boyfriend — in theory, of course. Maybe the writers have a few tricks up their sleeve to keep this from happening. More after the break…
In one completely unnatural moment (where the fault should be directed at the writers, not Ms. Spiro) PJ and her recently surfaced old guy-pal name check Belle and Sebastian, Fountains of Wayne and the Flaming Lips over the course of two sentences. I hate these kinds of references because even if it makes sense for the characters to be talking about them, to me it just comes off as cool-kid pandering. Yeah, I listen to those bands too… it isn’t going to make me like your show more. Realism is always good, but only when it comes to human behavior. In most cases (there are obvious exceptions) I’d just as soon have the characters inhabit a universe that is just like ours but with completely different bands, brands, and icons. For whatever reason it seems far less weird for a character to drink from a can of “Coba-Cola” than a highly recognizable Coke. But maybe that’s just me.
This season has done a great job of building the characters beyond their type. Last week we learned that Bobby was rich. This week we learned that Kenny owns a baseball card shop, which is pretty cool and led to a great exchange between he and Mike, to whom he had generously given a job. Kenny explains his cataloging system using, as an example Milwaukee Brave Mel Roach causing Mike to respond, “Who would want a 1962 Mel Roach other than Mel Roach?†You have to love a well placed baseball card joke.
Elsewhere, Stephanie is still dead weight. That’s really all I have to say about that. Andy’s lawyering toward the end of the episode with Mike was highly entertaining, though I would have loved it if his briefcase could have fallen apart upon opening. That bit is comedy gold and should be used as often as possible — even to the detriment of continuity and general understanding of the plot structure. That’s how funny I thought it was last week.
August 21st, 2007 at 6:23 pm
” In most cases (there are obvious exceptions) I’d just as soon have the characters inhabit a universe that is just like ours but with completely different bands, brands, and icons. For whatever reason it seems far less weird for a character to drink from a can of “Coba-Cola†than a highly recognizable Coke. But maybe that’s just me.”
I always enjoy seeing fictional products and locations in use on TV shows as well, with always the hope that some other TV show uses it as well (like the country of Lichtenburg - not the South African city or the Nazi concentration camp!) which was used first in ‘The Odd Couple’ and then in ‘Saved By The Bell’).