Happy Endings - Season 3 Episode 2 - Recap and Review - Sabado Free-Gante
Happy Endings doesn't try to top last year's Halloween special, though I sort of wish they'd tried. That said, "Sabado Free-Gante" is still tremendous in its own right. The opening sight gag of the gang dressed as the Jackson 5 is great, even if it doesn't advance any of the plot threads that were established in last week's opener (though we'll get to the romance at the episode's center, soon enough). Happy Endings continues to succeed by positioning itself as a show will a high level of joke output, but couching each joke in terms of character, and how each character reacts to their increasingly ridiculous situations.
First and foremost, the episode's strongest (well, funniest) storyline, as Max (Adam Pally) teaches Brad (Damon Wayans, Jr.), who's once again unemployed, how to live frugally. The progressing series of absurd activities Max utilizes in training Brad to live his hobo-esque lifestyle earn consistent laughs. In particular, Max snatching free food by attending a variety of support groups throughout the city. There's also a hell of an extended setpiece involving an unbreakable pinata, which shouldn't have been anywhere near as funny as it was, but worked thanks to Adam Pally really going for broke. It's not exactly a plot that's layered with comments on the recession, or on the tenuous nature of employment in 2012. Brad is a man who's established to thrive on working, and so this is new territory for him. It's a fittingly challenging development for such wonderfully static characters, and Damon Wayans, Jr. does a terrific job selling the material. He's relatively unflappable, in many respects, but adapting to living like Max, who's broke and has all his rent paid by Dave, is a struggle. Immediately, it's a situation that challenges our characters to dig deeper, and the comedy issues from those prompts.
Similarly challenging is the business with Penny (Casey Wilson) and Jane (Eliza Coupe). Penny wants to buy a car, and tries to hide this fact from Jane, fearing that the eldest Kerkovich sister will interfere with Penny's shopping trip. Which is exactly what she does, because, well, she's Jane. What follows is Jane trying to mold Penny into a take-no-prisoners potential buyer, and the storyline is successful in how it fuses Penny's gullibility with Jane's well-intentioned yet domineering personality. Casey Wilson continues to be a champ when it comes to physical comedy, as Penny's fall through a plate-glass window still elicits laughs, even after being spoiled by about a thousand different airings in the season three commercial. Even better is Jane's interaction with the oft-mentioned Car Czar, who appears in the episode tag to try and lure Jane into a career as the dealership's top negotiator. Rob Corddry is good in just about everything he does, so I hope this wasn't simply a one-off appearance. Even without Corddry, the story still works, as its foundation is rooted in Jane's desire to do what's best for Penny, and Penny asserting her own independence and adulthood. It's poignant, in a certain way, even if it trades on Jane being occasionally irritating in her assertiveness.
Credit: ABC
Which brings us to Dave (Zachary Knighton) and Alex (Elisha Cuthbert), who are resolved to moving in with each other, following off of last week's episode-ending revelation. They search for apartments in the neighborhood via guest star Rachael Harris, who plays a high-strung Realtor whose patience for the couple wears thin. I'm not sure if the episode intends for us to identify with Harris in finding the couple as annoying as they are. That said, I still feel it's best for the comedic potential of the show to just put Alex and Dave back together for good, in order to minimize their affect on the storylines of the other characters, even though they occasionally provide decent comedic support to the group. The show has been better over the last year in giving Dave and Alex distinct traits of their own, with Dave's overly toolish tendencies (such as his addiction to V-necks), and Alex with her "adorkable" ditziness. Put together in these more refined personas, they have a very manic energy that works a lot better than I expected it to. However, it's a lot like alcohol: each viewer will have his or her own level of tolerance where Dave/Alex are concerned. The writers really can't satisfy everybody, but for now, the pairing is just enough on the right side of goofy to work, without getting overtly annoying.
"Sabado Free-Gante" is solid TV, and furthers Happy Ending's reputation as one of TV's richest comedies.
Credit: ABC