What age are the fathers of Men of a Certain Age?

Okay, bad joke, but I think you get my point. With last night’s episode of Men of a Certain Age focusing on the fathers of middle-aged men, you’ve got to wonder how they aren’t more like Frank Barone and his lodge buddies. Older, retired guys who complain about aches and swim naked.

Instead, Owen’s dad Owen Sr. (Richard Gant), and Joe’s father Artie (great turn by Robert Loggia) have enough in them to both work and make their sons irritable and frustrated. You certainly have to respect a man who won’t give up working just to save up his energy to harass his kid. Plus when that guy’s Feech La Manna (Loggia on The Sopranos)?…

I will let you in on a little secret: I don’t really like Owen Sr. I know we’re probably not supposed to, but I mean as an aspect of the show I don’t like him. In a way I think it might be because Owen has not only him, but also Melissa to deal with. I find her to be an incredibly selfish and unsupportive wife, and for Owen to have to deal with her at home and then face his father at work? It seems like he has a little too much piled on his plate to keep smiling that wide smile.

And I have another secret too, but this one is episode specific: I was disappointed with the relationship between Joe and his father. Don’t get me wrong, I think the acting and the story were great. But there was something off about the father-son vibe between Romano and Loggia, something that I’m thinking maybe had more to do with the actors and less to do with anything else. Whereas I always saw Frank as Ray’s father, Artie seemed more like a close friend of Joe’s dad than anything else.

Terry’s father we did not meet. Instead, we watched as Terry tried to become a father, or at least the part of fathers that makes us mentors to our kids (we hope). I find it a bit unfathomable that he’d be rejected by the Big Brothers, a far-fetched set-up for his plot. However, he played it brilliantly, showing a side of himself that was raw, touching, and extremely engaging. And that was before the end of the episode when we saw him with Owen’s kids. Speaking of, did that mean that Terry was up at 8AM?

But the best part of the episode for me came during Terry’s and Owen’s breakfast at the diner. As I watched the scene, I was a bit bothered by the fact that the three pals seem to do less and less together, at times only checking in with one another after-the-fact. What I’m referring to specifically is my surprise at hearing Owen ask about the Big Brother situation after having seen Terry go through all of it so extensively the day before. I hadn’t even imagined that Owen and Joe wouldn’t have known about Terry’s rejection.

And then Terry asked Owen if he was a bad guy. The moment that they shared together, when Owen was honestly and purely puzzled by the question, is exactly what the entire show is about. It’s about those friendships that we sometimes get lucky enough to form, between us and our real, lifelong friends. Because Owen wasn’t just bucking Terry up … his innate rejection of the entire supposition was so natural that we saw just how much these guys love one another.

I just wish Joe had been there too.

And congrats to Men of a Certain Age on its second season renewal! Good move TNT!

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Jan 26, 2010 @ 00:00 EST5EDT