Over the weekend, my wife got the opportunity to preview tonight’s episode of Men of a Certain Age. And when she finished watching, she turned to me and asked what I’d meant in my series preview when I said that episode two was the beginning of the real show. “What’s the difference?”
And I’ll answer any of you who may be wondering the same just as I answered her: tonight’s episode was short an “incident.” Not that Owen (Andre Braugher) fainting last week was the overriding theme, but the pilot utilized an incident to help mold its story. Not tonight … tonight was as vanilla as things get. And you know what? This show’s awesome.
Is it because it’s simple? Or is it complicated without seeming heavy? Could be either one, or likely somewhere in between. But what is evident is how wonderfully amazing these three guys are when working together.
I’m glad that Terry (Scott Bakula) and Annie (Carla Gallo) appear to have at least made a connection. And I appreciate that, instead of being jealous, the guys made fun of him for dating someone so young (“You’re going to have to see all the Twilight movies.”). And what was with Terry’s crazy joyride in that guy’s car (or how the guy kept up with the car on foot)? I think Terry’s being positioned to explode from frustration soon, and a lot of that will stem from his day job coworkers looking to him as “Mr. Cool,” which is not the guy he wants to be. He just wants to act.
Owen has it tough, and it’s only going to get harder as long as Melissa (Lisa Gay Hamilton) is blind to just how miserable he is. I know that seems like a strange statement, but why didn’t she suggest last week that he start looking for something else to do instead of working at the car lot? Leaving his job doesn’t mean not working, it just means not working for his father. Does Melissa lack faith in Owen? Maybe. Maybe she doesn’t think he can succeed without his father’s handouts. Talk about potentially kicking a man when he’s already down.
And Joe (Ray Romano), meanwhile, is also very much in a place he doesn’t want to be. The sheer anger radiating off of him in waves as the guys sat and watched the game … although I hope we’re not meant to believe that he’s throwing caution to the wind in his gambling because his ex told him he was now free to date. Owen and Terry are too close to Joe to not know that that’s just another crutch to enable him to continue to self-destruct. And I’m guessing self-destruct he will, as the bottom is likely where he’s meant to be heading this season. Was it wise, then, for the show to make Bert Manfro (Jon Manfrellotti) such a gentle bookie?
I mentioned before that this show is either simple or cleverly heavy. I think that it actually approaches softly, but with heavy footfalls. These are real, serious, emotional issues that Terry, Owen, and Joe are going to experience on MOCA. But that’s not to say that anything about it is just for the ladies, because these guys are three old friends who can express themselves without actively doing so. And yeah, they’ll also joke around like Terry and give out group hugs (which I think had a deeper meaning to it, too), but when it comes to cutting through the noise and getting to the heart of the matter, they’re doing it just as well as middle-aged women on TV do. They’re just coming at it from a different angle.
I really like their angle.
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Dec 14, 2009 @ 23:00 EST5EDT
