Go On - Season 1 Episode 4 - Recap and Review - Bench-Clearing Bawl
I've said before that I thought Go On is a show with a lot of promise, and "Bench-Clearing Bawl" shows that the creative forces behind the scenes are at least aware of some of the problems the show has that are keeping it from fully realizing its potential. Front-and-center, for me, has been the character of Lauren (Laura Benanti), who is presented as a sympathetic figure near the center of the ensemble, but who actually comes across as emotionally-manipulative. More often than not, it feels like she's seeking personal validation through the pain of the charges in her group. It's part of her job to see that these people confront their emotions and cycle through the grieving process, but her dealings with Ryan (Matthew Perry) paint her in a bad light. Lauren doesn't seem to want to allow the process to happen organically, and so we have plots like tonight, where she spends the episode trying to "get the cry" from Ryan, seeing him as a challenge to overcome. That said, the creative forces utilized tonight's episode to lampshade the Lauren problem, drawing attention to this grief-seeking facet of her personality and addressing how, maybe, it's not that healthy to force the issue before the person is ready to confront it.
"Bench-Clearing Bawl" is a solid episode that's part of a pattern in which each episode seems to develop Ryan's relationship with one of his fellow grievers from the group. In this case, it's Anne (Julie White), who has been invited to a friend's wedding. Anne is understandably skittish about attending, since she hasn't been to a wedding since her partner died; besides, she can't imagine who she'd take as her +1. Enter Ryan, who, himself, hasn't been to a wedding since Janie died, much less a lesbian wedding. He agrees to go with her, and the episode charts the growth of Anne's friendship with Ryan.
The wedding reception is interesting in that it establishes the episode's most confounding running gag: Lesbians mistaking Ryan for Rachel Maddow. It doesn't seem very topical, or even terribly accurate. How anyone could actually confuse Matthew Perry for Rachel Maddow is beyond me. It smacks of the kind of joke developed because someone at the office thought, "Hey, your hair today makes you look like Rachel Maddow," and it trickled down to the writer's room. It's not that the gag of starstruck lesbians fawning over Ryan isn't amusing - it's just sort of a random joke to make, given that it basically collapses under the weight of Matthew Perry and Rachel Maddow hardly looking a thing like each other.
But that's a stupid thing for me to nitpick, since the rest of the episode is pretty good. Ryan gives away Janie's old sewing machine to Sonia (Sarah Baker), and Lauren insists that Ryan will regret giving away her things without carefully considering the emotional implications first. He accuses her of simply "going for the cry," which is her knack for eliciting tears from each person she treats. Her effectiveness is rooted in the "heart hand," the gentle touch she places on a person's heart while consoling them for tears they've yet to cry. It doesn't work on Ryan, however, so Lauren sets about trying to get the cry out of Ryan through a collage assignment that seems like more homework than a grief support group should be required to do. She ultimately succeeds by forwarding him Sonia's online photo collage, which features a photo of Janie's old sewing machine. Unfortunately, Ryan's breakdown happens while he's live on the air.
Credit: NBC
Ryan's breakthrough happens concurrently with Anne's, who is gradually realizing that it's time for her to get back on the market. An admirer from the wedding forces the issue, causing Anne to seek refuge with Ryan. In the episode's most surprising turn, she kisses Ryan to get the first kiss out of the way, so that she can finally start seeing new people without all the baggage of being unprepared for that first kiss back on the market. It's a sweet little story, with Ryan's issues dovetailing nicely with Anne's, her breakthrough giving him the motivation to complete his collage and come to terms with his own grief, hugging Lauren and acknowledging that it actually feels good to "get the cry." Sure, it's a bit corny, but it comes from an honest place for these characters, and the performances reflect that, as Matthew Perry seems to have found a comfortable niche for Ryan King, tipping heavier towards sentimentality than the typical Matthew Perry-style abrasiveness. In addition, Julie White does some stellar work with the Anne character, developing the dichotomy between her public and private facades, and how paper-thin the separation between them happens to be. She's easily the most interesting among the ancillary characters in the group, rivaled only by Owen (Tyler James Williams), who gets little and less to do each week, it seems. But I'm certain there will be more forthcoming with him, as Go On follows its prescribed "one new friendship developed each week" formula.
The episode's other storyline features former NHL star Jeremy Roenick (playing himself). Steven is able to score Ryan an invite to Roenick's pickup games by playing the sympathy card, portraying Ryan as being unmanned by his grief, which leads to the men taking it easy on Ryan out on the ice. Of course, once Ryan finds out they've been handling him with kid gloves, he demands they stop holding back, triggering Ryan receiving the beating of seven lifetimes. It's a lightweight arc, but it generates laughs nonetheless, just from the physical comedy involved in Ryan getting pounded mercilessly.
Go On is still working out the kinks, but it's proving to be a better show than the commercials would have you believe. At the very least, it's far more substantive. And now that they've seemed to have addressed the problem of Lauren's prodding personality, maybe the show can begin moving forward and exploring more nuanced stories. Or perhaps they'll find away to take that character trait and turn it into a nuanced story all its own. For that to work, the writing will need to be uniformly strong. Right now, it's just mostly strong. However, in a freshman comedy, that's already a minor miracle, so I'll take the wins where I can get'em.
