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| Chris Geere and Ava Cash are funny, romantic and vulnerable in You're the Worst (FX) |
Out-and-out
sitcoms rarely gel from the start. If we’re speaking of the exemplary comedies
of the last decade or so – The Office,
30 Rock, Parks and Recreation, Curb
Your Enthusiasm, It’s Always Sunny In
Philadelphia, Community – cast
shake-ups, tonal shifts and general directional changes have been extraordinarily
typical.
This
is not to say that great comedies must go through this initiation
process – Arrested Development and Modern Family crackled from the start
(though the latter failed to grow, an inverse commonality some half-hours
share) – but promise in a pilot is worth a lot more than the appearance of perceived
quality. And, in the case of You’re the
Worst, a new FX sitcom that began as agreeable and occasionally funny but far
from great, the potential it exhibited paid off in dividends in its second half.
Mockumentary-stylings
aside, You’re the Worst strongly
echoes both Parks and Recreation and The Office in its blending of sharp-edged
cynicism with a big, sappy heart. Creator Stephen Falk (of Weeds) introduces a characteristic non-rom-com premise – C-list
novelist Jimmy (Chris Geere) and music publicist Gretchen (Ava Cash) begin a
relationship (though don’t let them catch you calling it that) after a familiar
“this doesn’t mean anything” one-night stand. They find comfort in each other’s
pessimism and harshly “realistic” views on life and love, and become
increasingly anxious and fearful as they begin to develop real, serious
feelings for one another.
Falk’s
characters are jaded and wry, but his opinion of them is the very opposite:
see, Falk likes Jimmy and Gretchen, appears appreciative of their take on life
and is principally interested in determining their capacity for happiness and to
fall in love. It’s an affection that, in the early-going mostly, has a tendency
to translate into humor that is both a tad too precious and strangely
underdeveloped. One of Worst’s
supporting characters is the perennial optimist with no reason to be so: Edgar
(Desmin Borges), a PTSD-plagued vet rooming with Jimmy. Initially, you could just feel Falk wanting to give Edgar a hug so badly. Borges demonstrated an exciting and bizarre
energy from moment one, but like the rest of the cast, his characters' flaws were predominantly mined for gentle laughs or, specifically in Edgar’s case, a collective “Aww!”
It’s
the kind of problem both The Office
and Parks and Rec ran into early and later in their runs, settling on a
pitch-perfect tone for a long stretch of time in-between. And it’s also why
comedies like Philadelphia and Curb have maintained their comedic bite
for so long (and how Seinfeld could,
through seven seasons): there’s a different kind of investment in character,
one that is less emotional and more introspective. All that said, there’s a
special power to the emotional and comedic intensity that a sitcom like The Office at its best can bring. It
inspires heavy fandom – the Jim and Pam saga, or in the decade before, Rachel
and Ross’ will-they-or-won’t-they – and evokes rich authenticity.
That
kind of potential is exactly what You’re
the Worst promised in its first few installments: leads with terrific
chemistry, a look and tone that isn’t totally nailed down but feels unique and welcoming,
and a point-of-view that, while not necessarily all that fresh, is specific and
consistent. It had a lot going for it, in actuality; Kether Donohue was a
wicked standout as Gretchen’s domesticity-laden best friend Lindsay, and pop
culture references cleanly cleared the very high bar set by the gone-too-soon
(and undeniably similar) Happy Endings.
What pushed me back initially was when Falk’s efforts felt like excessive
mimicry: its fifth episode, “Sunday Funday,” strained to be the Zeitgeist-probing,
event-centric episode done successfully by sitcoms including New Girl (the great “True American”) and
Community (the Paintball series, among
others). Much like Falk’s previous series Weeds,
You’re the Worst is mostly ill-served
by that type of high-concept broad shtick; its mini-universe of cynical
positivity could, in such moments, really grate.
But
again, it had potential, and sitcoms always need time to figure themselves out.
The first five episodes of The Office
and Parks and Recreation are
downright mediocre; assessing the quality of It’s Always Sunny or Curb
based on their initial five installments would arouse a big, collective “eh.”
And You’re the Worst absolutely
figures itself out, eventually breezing by at a speed no less than thrilling. Almost
instantaneously, the cast clicks, the comedy hits just the right beats, the
emotion is more thoroughly and effectively engrained, and that indescribable
sweet/salty sensation that comes from a perfect Office episode is tapped with fantastic consistency. By the end of
the tenth and final episode of the season, You’re
the Worst felt special, so special that it was actually quite difficult to
let go of.
Comedically,
Falk possesses a scintillating perceptiveness when it comes to pop culture –
jokes on everything from 12 Years a Slave
to Wes Anderson to the “new” gay stereotyping, and so many others, land hysterically
and unexpectedly – and to coupling. Lindsay’s mess of a domestic life – her
deviant scenes, whether cheating on her Roger Ebert-lookalike husband or
snorting a line of coke, are priceless, and frequent highlights – is contrasted
perfectly with the budding romance between cynics Jimmy and Gretchen. Falk sets
on a balance in the season’s closing chapters that is just neat enough and just
loose enough to bring episodes together nicely as a whole, while still allowing
individual stories to breathe and develop. Moreover, everything going on
between Jimmy/Gretchen, Edgar and Lindsay just starts to flow better; there’s a
holistic approach You’re the Worst
eventually employs that coincides with its improvement in quality.
But
ultimately, the secret ingredient here is what it always must be: character.
There’s an argument to be made that You’re
the Worst doesn’t really improve, per se; rather, its characters are
eventually defined and shaded with a level of complexity that renders their
mere presence more engaging. Jimmy and Gretchen are both broadly introduced as
seriously sarcastic, emotionally distant and not quite where they want to be. Ironically,
when Falk braves clichés – Jimmy wrongly suspecting that Gretchen wants to move
in, or Gretchen and Jimmy refusing to admit to one another that they want to be
exclusive – his character work really shines. By the time we’re at episode
eight, we know a lot. Episodes begin to provide an impermeable sense of
these characters’ many facets and quirks, and it comes through so naturally and
so gradually that it just, suddenly, pops. There are big things we understand better,
like Jimmy’s relationship to painful honesty and Gretchen’s to outright lying,
but also delightful, funny, illustrative little details like the fact that
Gretchen is a legitimate hoarder, or that Jimmy has a curious foot fetish. Even
down to peripherals, like Lindsay’s newly-married sister and former girlfriend
to Jimmy, there’s excellent character work being done on You’re the Worst in a way that is consistent and pays off superbly.
In the end, no character comes off as inauthentic; even those there mainly to
serve the comedy are fully integrated into Falk’s world, emerging completely
believable and intricately drawn.
And
it goes back to that idea of affection. Falk has a lot of love for his
characters and his world; an ostensible nastiness masks real tenderness and
vulnerability even though, after a few rocky outings, this is a sitcom that rarely delves
into sap. There’s such faith and trust in character that, eventually, there’s an
undeniable flow of bracing honesty. Jimmy and Gretchen bounce back and forth,
and it’s not hard to see when Gretchen will be intimidated by a gesture, or
Jimmy turn on the “emotionally distant” switch, but Falk’s depth of writing is
sufficient-enough where it doesn’t matter. Here is the proof that familiarity
can be neither good nor bad, but irrelevant. Here, it’s extraneous; there’s no
sense in fussing about a “been there, done that” tingling when the emotions of
Jimmy, Gretchen et al are handled with such sensitivity, with such honesty and
with such a perfect level of humor. You’re
the Worst presents characters and relationships to invest in, an
all-too-rare quality featured only among the past decade’s best comedies. Pay attention
to this new sitcom, then, because that’s a damn good omen.
Grade: B+
Episodes available via Amazon
Instant Video or iTunes