Monsters of Television

Wow, these titles really are going to rhyme, aren’t they.

I don’t know if I’m just suffering from a Chuck hangover, but this episode did, in fact, step up a little more than the other ones have. Maybe because they focused on one problem throughout the episode rather than stretch the empathy over a hundred mini-moments with zero stakes. Tonight it felt more cohesive, more true to its theme. It seems like it has direction. Sort of.

I think my big problem that is that it wraps up in a pretty bow at the end of this episode. There is certainly going to be a lingering dysfunctional hangover as everyone (grandparents, parents, Lux, her friends) all try to create one big happy but it seems like everyone’s natural walls of mistrust, anguish, disappointment, self-preservation, etc, etc, all melt away with a couple bats of Lux’s baby blues. It all seems too easy. They struggle a little through the episode but they tackle years of family drama in 45 minutes. Seems a little speedy.

But maybe that’s the aim of the show. The writer creates his or her ideal world and, in this world, problems of intolerance are easily solved, everyone wants to be open-minded but needs to be shown the way, and even gang violence can be a minor footnote in a saccharine world where birth parents get a second chance to raise the mature, tempered product of the foster care system. She’s like a blonde Annie, minus the dog but supplemented by tattooed boyfriend named Bug. Not that Annie’s dog and Bug are the same. Though, right now, their roles carry about equal weight in their individual productions.

Maybe that’s the nature of the show, that the world can be a better place and the hardships we try to surmount can be conquered organically with a little bit of compassion and a lot of understanding. This isn’t SVU or Southland; it doesn’t strive for nor does it have to pass a test of absolute realism. But it’s walking a fine line.