Monsters of Television

“You never touch a cop.”

Unfortunately, this is the voice of reason on this show being ignored.

Now they’re just getting lazy with the titles. Slant rhyme? Come on.

In my earlier reviews of this show, I fretted over them burning through so much material in the first three episodes, worrying that they would hit a wall and thin out their story with cheap melodrama tricks and, eventually, one of them was going to have to be bitten by a radioactive spider. I thought this thing was heading for One Tree Hill territory any week now. But, once Lux offered Baze’s place up for a party to her school chums in “Turtle Undefeated,” a light bulb came on. This show is never going to run out of material; it has 50+ years of stuff to work with.

You see, the underlying story for each episode, beyond the character arcs and interaction, is just a manipulation of common sit-com tropes. With the wisened daughter coming into the realm of immature adults (and thus becoming slightly stupider by association), all this show has to do is break out the elements of the typical sit-com themes and apply them to different parties within the cast.

For example, we have “Turtle Undefeated,” an episode where Lux offers her father’s loft to throw a party. In a traditional sit-com, the story would run with the daughter throwing a party without her parents knowing, the party getting out of hand, the parents finding out (sometimes through police involvement), and the daughter learning a valuable lesson. Here, Baze always knows the party is going on, never goes to check on them, the party does get out of hand even though Cate is there (playing beer pong), and the parents get arrested. Crazy! But then it all comes together in that sickening taking-turns-apologizing sort of way that sit-coms love so much. “Oh, have you apologized? I think it’s my turn.” “It’s my fault.” “No, it’s my fault.” You’re all idiots and you’ve spread your dumb germs to poor little Lux.

“It’s like sea gulls fighting over a cheese sandwich.”

It’s less pronounced in “Truth Unrevealed” since they still deal with the fallout from the previous episode. But the trope of the wackier of characters introducing himself into the ordered work life of the organized character is evident here as Baze is commanded by radio station corporate to cohost Cate and Ryan’s show. Also, in the B-story, Lux is involved in a tinkle-tinkle contest between Bug (her boyfriend with the dumb tattoos) and Jones (the star quarterback at Lux’s school). When a jerk background character demands something outlandish from an adoring couple at the risk of the relationship, sit-com rules state that the couple will relinquish that object, after a struggle to keep it, in order to return to stasis. But because this is crazy town, Bug relinquishes the object (his motorcycle) early on and even finds it returned only to the demise of the relationship. It’s nutty!

One of the things starting to get my attention on this show: Bug until this last episode and a half had been a relatively good guy, maybe a bit angry at all things status quo and identifiable within established institutions (understandably). He and Tash have been sage souls, part of the Wise-Before-Your-Age Collective Lux defected from to be part of Team Crazy (Cate and Baze). Suddenly, the writers play the Erratic Behavior cards (Lux two weeks ago, Bug in these past two episodes). They’re becoming actual people something closer to reality. Lux has some actual drama. The Cate-Baze-Ryan situation is finally becoming an issue. The ending this week didn’t wrap up like a neat little present. Is this what Maureen Ryan told me to wait for?

The show is still saccharine. The fact that these people are hitting on all cylinders as well as they are is an ideological vision of how this situation would probably play out. But some of the flaws in these characters are starting to show cracks in their relationships. Finally Ryan is staying something about the lot he’s stuck with. Cate’s unresolved issues are surfacing. Baze is multi-dimensional. It’s not to say that this show is good or even better. I’m not even sure if I can say this show has potential. But this was a step in the right direction.

Some thoughts I couldn’t work in:

• Please don’t tell me Lux is going to fall in love with Jones and they’re going to get pregnant. I don’t think I can take that. Especially since I totally see a scenario like that being possible with Chuck.
• Does anyone else notice that Tash is the last remaining touchstone to reality on this show? Who touches a cop while he’s arresting someone?
• Bug stealing a car was a little — fabricated. I’m not sure who he was besting in that scenario. But I’ll chalk that up to Erratic Behavior.
• Um — it’s only been a month in Life Unexpected time? Man. It feels like time passes faster on Lost.
• I’m really glad no one offered Baze a job at the radio station, even though he probably did a better job DJing than Ryan has in the last four episodes.
• When is Kerr Smith going to play a character that isn’t marginalized for the slowly-building (or already constructed) romance? He’s like the James Marsden of television.