Imagine you were moving some expensive items from your house into your car, when all of a sudden a group of people jump you, grab one of your possessions, and dash down the street. You give chase, managing to catch them and retrieve your item. While making clear that had you not caught them they would have made off with your belonging, the group’s leader tells you that you look like someone they’d enjoy hanging out with. You trudge back to your house upset, only to find everything else you were moving has been stolen. What do you do?
If you said call the thieves whose actions started the ball rolling on the whole episode … well, you’d be as bad as Becca. That set-up is so not the only way the show could have introduced Ben (Michael Ealy) to Karen, and the fact that Becca seems to be okay with Pearl (Zoë Kravitz) and her thug crew is insulting to everyone who’s ever behaved like a human being. The only place the band should be playing a gig is in jail (or juvy).
Mia’s (Madeline Zima) a despicable person, and I’ve always felt she detracted from lots on the show, in particular my full enjoyment of Lew Ashby (Callum Keith Rennie). Can you explain to me why she had to be a part of that plot?
Anyway, I’m a happy camper every episode she’s missing, so you can only imagine what I thought last night. Hank needs to deal with what he did, both specifically by sleeping with Mia as well as to Karen — and Becca — when he did so. But she stole part of his being. The fact that he can waste a thought on her, let alone a breath, is beyond me. You’ll excuse my insensitivity, but Hank should have shoved Mia off that balcony ledge.
The flirting between Hank and his attorney Abby (Carla Gugino) is gross. All of his relationships don’t have to be sexual, and why try to establish a female Hank? Towards what end?
Becca can reject Hank — as much as she deserves to be grounded for the disrespectful manner in which she’s doing it — but Karen has a responsibility to ensure that Hank and Becca at least have the opportunity to be close. It was very small of Karen to tell Hank to consider himself lucky that she let him know about Becca’s concert. If Karen really wanted what was best for her daughter, she’d be pushing Becca to spend time with her father, even if Becca ended up giving Hank the silent treatment the entire time they were together. Grow up, Karen.
All of that said, here’s what I did love last night:
i was kind of disappointed with most of this episode until the spot with hank coaxing mia off the ledge. i felt that this was when the writing was strongest and was a moment i could point to and say this is why i love this show. i like when hank lets down his guard and acts like the writer everyone believes him to be.
*POST AUTHOR*
I thought that was a great part of the show, too … I just hate that, a) He has to waste it on Mia, and b) Hank keeps on getting sucked in by Mia. In a vacuum I agree that it was great.
I continue to be baffled as to why, excatly, the Runkles are on this show. They are nothing but annoying unless they are jumping in bed with Rick Springfield or Kathleen Turner. I much prefer Mia.
*POST AUTHOR*
I actually think Charlie’s existence makes more sense than Jeff’s on Curb. Hank is so the guy who would go Hollywood without ever going Hollywood, maintaining his old friends as his only friends. The agent who was with him when he was nothing is a perfect example. How Karen and Marcy are friends I have no idea. The writers should have let Marcy fly away with the divorce.
I’ve never been able to evaluate Mia unbiasedly because she’s sickened me from the moment she stole Hank’s work. She’s such a small person.