You're the Worst (Season Five & Series Review)

Season Four of You're the Worst was its weakest, and the fourth season is where many shows lose their footing and can't maintain the quality demonstrated by its earlier seasons. Sometimes, the show never recovers (The Office) and sometimes they come roaring right back in Season Five (The Sopranos). Fortunately, You're the Worst was able to stick the landing after it looked like it was losing its grip.

Much of the season centers around the buildup to Jimmy and Gretchen's wedding, including the first episode, which focuses on Jimmy and Gretchen meeting a wedding planner. They invent this whole backstory about how they met. The scenes of this story are played out by different actors in the first 10-15 minutes of the premiere, and I got sucked into it pretty good. The whole time I was also just wondering whether I was even watching the correct show, since Stephen Falk made the interesting choice for his main characters to not appear until about halfway through the episode.

Another standout episode was "Zero Eggplants", which was You're the Worst's sweet spot between comedy and drama. Jimmy and Gretchen actually meet another couple that they don't hate and really get along with. They get close, but the woman in the couple, Rachel, utters the quote:

“Here’s how it is with me. I don’t let just anyone in, but I don’t lose people. So once you’re in, you’re in for life.”

Predictably, that's too much for Gretchen, who immediately sabotages the friendship. Gretchen's commitment issues are well-documented (hell, they're a healthy part of the rationale for the show's theme song), but even the lack of surprise can't stop her actions from being gut-wrenching to watch.

That was quite the emotional contrast to one of the series' funniest scenes earlier in the episode. Jimmy embarks on a quest to fellate another man in an effort to make things up with Gretchen (incidentally, she was sort of joking about that, which makes the whole thing all the more crazy). Jimmy finds a man on an online dating app, but his efforts to be sexy fall woefully short, and he spends most of the encounter spitting obnoxious intellectual blather, which earns him some pretty swift rejection.

Another unforgettable episode was "Bachelor/Bachelorette Party Sunday Funday", in which the gang busts Sunday Funday out of retirement for an insane episode with a thrilling sequence that involves Vernon getting stabbed by a deranged Paul F. Tompkins, and then Tompkins getting shot by Jimmy in defense of Edgar. The whole thing was staged, which was great not only because Jimmy and Gretchen got goofed, but also because we finally got some payoff out of Edgar's comedy writing career, which had been a consistent weak point of the series over these last couple seasons.

The last thing to discuss is the finale and the ultimate closure of the arcs for all of these characters. I found the finale somewhat odd, even if the conclusion of Jimmy and Gretchen's storyline makes sense. The show foreshadowed the commitment issues of each, and sure enough, they bail on the wedding. However, they make a resolution while eating pancakes at a breakfast restaurant to choose each other every day. It makes sense, because each one has only been able to function in the relationship as long as they know they can have one foot out the door at any given time. Without the specter and formality of a marriage hanging over them, they're able to pursue their love in a way that makes sense for what we know about the way Jimmy and Gretchen operate.

The conclusions for the rest of the cast are hit-or-miss. Vernon and Becca (who, by the way, is the actual worst, if we're keeping score) seem to move past many of their issues, and Vernon starts to get back on his feet financially. Edgar gets his clean break from Jimmy (after telling Jimmy not to marry Gretchen, in one of the series' most shocking moments) and has come a long enough way to pursue his career successfully.

Other stories didn't work as well. I actually thought that Paul's storyline came to a natural, if weird conclusion in "The Pillars of Creation", in which he gets intimate with Vernon and Becca. The three seem almost like a family afterwards, but the show has other ideas down the stretch and pairs him back up with Lindsay, who re-marries him. That didn't make a lick of sense to me, as the pair couldn't be worse for one another and the last time they were together, Lindsay stabbed him with an actual knife, in what looked like a possible shark-jump for the series. This all comes after Lindsay's random two-episode stint as a lesbian, which she seemed to shrug off as quickly as the show did. I was disappointed in Lindsay's arc all season long after she practically carried the show in Season Four, and You're the Worst seemed to have no clue how her story should end.

Those blips aside, Season Five of You're the Worst had some of the series' best episodes and found its peak form for extended stretches. Falk & co. went out strong in their final season of a show that was bursting with humor, creativity, and feeling. They took a show about two cynical, selfish jerks and turned it into easily the most unconventional romantic comedy I've ever seen. It's not part of the inner circle of the best shows of all-time, but it's practically a lock to go down as one of the greatest hidden gems of the Golden Age of Television.

Episode Grades

1. "The Intransigence of Love": A
2. "The Pin in My Grenade": B
3. "The One Thing We Don't Talk About": B-
4. "What Money?": A-
5. "A Very Good Boy": B
6. "This Brief Fermata:": B+
7. "Zero Eggplants": A
8. "The Pillars of Creation": A-
9. "Bachelor/Bachelorette Sunday Funday": A
10. "Magical Thinking": C+
11. "Four Goddamn More Days": B
12. "We Were Having Such a Nice Day": A-
13. "Pancakes": B+

Season Five Grade: A-

Series Grade: A-

You're the Worst, Season Four

First off, this is a standard review. It is not part of my Top 5 Viewing Experiences of 2017.

Also, there's probably mild spoilers and stuff.

You're the Worst is one of the most refreshingly entertaining comedies I've ever picked up and the first three seasons were side-splitting, heartfelt, and totally great. However, much like other memorable comedies before it (The Office, Archer), Season Four is when the cracks start to show. Comedies don't typically build out deep ensembles and once a story with huge plot moments plays itself out (think about the big Jim/Pam moments from Seasons Two and Three of The Office, Archer's breast cancer arc in Season Two, and space-marooning of Barry in Season Three), it's hard for the show to ascend to greater heights or even equal those that were already achieved.

Still, You're the Worst was able to fight regression better than either of the two aforementioned shows, and though there were problems with Season Four, it still delivered a reasonably entertaining string of episodes. With Jimmy having run away from Gretchen after proposing to her, the series' big moment has essentially passed and we're left to deal with the falling action. Unfortunately, the falling action involved the four main characters (Jimmy, Gretchen, Edgar, and Lindsay) largely going their separate ways and rarely winding up in the same place together. You're the Worst works the best when these four (along with Vernon) are in the same place and can play off of each other. The tangent storylines had, at best, mixed results.

Lindsay embarks on a career as a fashion consultant and actually seems to have her shit together for the first time in the series. At times, it can be hard to reconcile Lindsay's occasional perceptiveness in Season Four with how unrealistically stupid she's been in previous seasons, but I guess I can't blame the show for wanting to push her growth. She comes to realize that none of her new co-workers particularly like her (which makes sense) and, unrelatedly, that her mother is the reason that her and Becca (who's been a very weak character this season) are so screwed up. By the end of the season, she commits herself to helping other people and actually sort of succeeds at it. Even if she's always going to be "the stupid one", at least it seems Lindsay is moving away from being the actual worst on a show called You're the Worst.

In complete contrast to Season Three, the Edgar plotlines were boring and terrible. It was evident from the very start that his comedy buddy Max was a piece of garbage, and it was totally unappealing to have jerkish tendencies develop in the man who was previously the show's most likable person. His relationship with Lindsay made sense and was enjoyable, but that aside, nothing made me want to check out more this season than an Edgar story. At the very least, they ended Edgar's season-long arc on a good note. The scenes between him and Jimmy in the finale were great, and the moments of mutual respect between the two seemed earned after all they've been through, both with each other and elsewhere.

Gretchen got a ton of focus this season and much like for the character, the viewing experience was a set of major peaks and valleys. We've already seen Gretchen depressed before, and while her Season Four spiral makes complete sense given what Jimmy did to her, it doesn't feel fresh or interesting. Her relationship with Boone was largely "meh" because Boone wasn't a very interesting character. However, it did lead to the pretty great episode in which she meets Boone's ex-wife. Gretchen's trip to her hometown and re-connection with her old friend Heidi was also stellar, as it became further fleshed out what a trainwreck she is and always has been (and man, those poor high school kids are scarred for life). The best version of Gretchen is when she's with Jimmy. As was shown by the excellent movie theater scene, Jimmy needs her as another voice when chewing out random strangers (honestly, I will never get sick of watching Jimmy and Gretchen simultaneously tell off the people who are unfortunate enough to cross their path). They were apart far too much this season.

Finally we come to Jimmy. I honestly couldn't care less about Jimmy's writing career and I feel like too much of the last two seasons has focused on that. The season premiere, however, in which Jimmy was living in the trailer park community and hanging out with Bert (who might as well have been labeled "The Ghost of Jimmy Future") was truly great. He spent much of the rest of the season working on moving on from Gretchen and his isolation from the rest of the cast didn't serve the show well. Chris Geere is both hysterical and somehow amazing at getting us to feel for such an asshole of a character, but he's at his best when put in situations where he can play off of the other leads. We didn't get enough of that.

Bullet Points

• Poor Killian. Guy can't catch a break in life.

• Vernon was in the background too much this season. Season Three's "The Seventh Layer" is still one of my favorite episodes of the series. I get that his act could wear thin if over-exposed, but in semi-regular doses, he's close to the best character on the show

• Ummm...why is Honey Nutz gone?

• Lindsay popping out of a garbage can a-la-Oscar-the-Grouch was one of the best gags of the season

Season Grade: B+

Television Review - 2016 (Part 4): #3 TV Experience of the Year - You're the Worst (Seasons One, Two, and Three)

3) You're the Worst (Seasons One, Two, and Three)

I'm not sure what else I have to add here, as I've already covered the first three seasons of You're the Worst in more detail here. I'd say just click that if you're interested in a broader recap of what the show's all about and why I think it's so great.  I'll instead use this space for some member berries that should amuse those who've watched it already.

• Vernon: "The popcorn is trash juice. Pass it on."

• Paul: "I can finally say it. You are so stupid! Why does no one talk about how dumb she is? She's like the dumbest person on the planet! 50 years ago, she would be sterilized for the good of evolution."
• Lindsay: "I'm not so stupid that I couldn't get you to let me bone another guy in front of you and make you think it was for our marriage."

• "Sunday Funday! Better than a Monday! Can only do it one way! And that is the drunk way!"

• Edgar: "Sorry Jimmy, I can't come. My car broke down."
• Jimmy: "Oh, well, that's not a surprise. Piece of shit with no auxiliary plug or car booze."

• Lindsay: I hope she gets pregnancy 'roids and they leave her bed-ridden and I have to raise her baby myself. I'd parent the shit out of her. "Wear that skirt. Don't blow that boy. This is pizza."

• Lindsay: You can't leave! I love you.
• Paul: Do you even know what love means?
• Lindsay: Yeah, it's like, "Hey, I love you," smooch smooch, "Now go make me some bagel bites."
• Paul: Love isn't about having somebody to get you things. Love is putting someone else's feelings above your own. Do you think you could ever do that? Honestly?
• Lindsay: EW!

• Lindsay: Ooh, another dick pic! And forwarded. Online dating is so fun.
• Gretchen: Who are you forwarding them to?
• Lindsay: This gay porn site pays me ten bucks a dick. I have a job!

• Jimmy: The problem is death doesn’t bother me. I’m not upset by the inevitable. It’s like being upset by the weather, or an Irishman proving to be untrustworthy.

• Killian: Hi.
• Jimmy: What?
• Killian: I just moved in... over there.
• Jimmy: Of course you did.
• Killian: Why do you say that?
• Jimmy: Because the death of any interesting neighborhood is the influx of white procreators.
• Killian: Oh, that's cool. My nutritionist is gay, too.
• Jimmy: I'm not gay. I'm English.

Yeah I ran out of steam with looking up quotes. Just watch this show if you haven't. It's hilarious, interesting, and addictive.

You're the Worst (Seasons 1-3)

I've been curious about You're the Worst pretty much since FX and its related networks began running commercials for it. After a couple recommendations from friends and a clutch Twitter suggestion regarding how to watch it on the cheap (read: free), I was set to binge the first couple seasons and catch up to the third, which just wrapped up last week. I've had mixed reactions to the shows I've decided to pick up on a whim this year, but You're the Worst was a thoroughly rewarding experience.

You're the Worst is set in Los Angeles and follows Jimmy Shive-Overly (Chris Geere), a British writer whose arrogance and self-serving behavior would be downright horrible to encounter in real life, but is thoroughly amusing to watch on screen. In the first episode, Jimmy encounters a kindred spirit in Gretchen Cutler (Aya Cash) after being thrown out of a wedding. On the surface, the two are a near-perfect match in their crass dealings with other human beings. They wind up hooking up repeatedly and at least initially insist to one another that they have no desire for a relationship; each supposedly always has "one foot out the door". Fittingly, the only lyric of the show's theme song is "I'm gonna leave you anyway."

Jimmy lives with Edgar Quintero (Desmin Borges), the only of the four main characters who seems like anything resembling a good person. He's a war veteran but doesn't have much of a means to support himself, so he lives with Jimmy and repays him by performing household tasks. The core cast is rounded out by Gretchen's best friend Lindsay Jillian (Kether Donohue), an intellectually-challenged woman who's married to her nerdy husband Paul. Lindsay is dissatisfied with her marriage and spends most of the show oscillating between half-trying to be happy with Paul and seeking out sex with other men. Jimmy and Gretchen are the oft-selfish assholes from whom the show's title was coined, but Lindsay might really be "the worst".

At first, the show's humor is built around Jimmy and Gretchen's complete disregard for social convention and courtesy. It's a lot of fun to watch them troll around Los Angeles and be truly awful to everyone they encounter (Geere's British accent greatly enhances the comedic effect). However, it's tough to get three seasons of a good show out of just that premise, so You're the Worst is most effective when it begins to delve into the show's interpersonal relationships and serious issues that face the characters. If we've learned anything from the movies No Strings Attached and Friends with Benefits (which were both released in 2011 and are the same movie), it's that it's difficult for fictional characters to continually hook up with one another without emotional attachment. Yes, Jimmy and Gretchen grow closer and develop a need for each other's emotional support, but that development is more complex than the predictable "happily ever after" from the Kutcher/Portman and Timberlake/Kunis relationships. These are two deeply screwed up individuals and even though each learns to (sometimes) put the other person before themselves, you rarely get the sense that they're on solid footing because of everything that's happened in their lives and who they are at their cores.

Much of You're the Worst is lighthearted fun, but the show also tackles serious issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder (the "Edgar episode" in Season Three is fantastic), depression, and the fallout of awful parental relationships. I think that BoJack Horseman is probably the closest comparable show I can think of in terms of quick wit meeting dark emotions. Much like the animated show I've spilled far too many words reviewing, You're the Worst sucks you in with lighter episodes with clever banter before bringing out all the feels. Yet no matter how serious the subject matter gets, the show never loses its sense of humor.

Part of that sense of humor are the show's excellent running gags, which are used sparingly and subtly enough to avoid feeling gimmicky. For those who have seen the show already, Vernon's trash juice (Vernon is the stealth MVP of the show) and Jimmy stealing alcohol are two of my favorites. While not technically a running gag, I chuckle on the inside whenever I think of Jimmy's obsession with his "car booze" and "bed booze".

I've heard friends of mine say that Season Three is "over the top" and that the show loses itself, but I fully disagree with that, despite a shark-jumpy moment that takes place early in the season. "Twenty Two", "Seventh Layer" and "The Inherent, Unsullied, Qualitative Value of Anything" (penultimate episodes rule) are three of the series' best installments. If you called it quits early in Season Three, keep going. It's worth it.

There's so much more to discuss about this show, but I don't want to spoil anything in an overview post. I may have to write another at some point discussing the Season Three finale because there was just so much to take in. For those who haven't seen it, this is a really easy show to get into. Give it a try. Since you're reading this, I know you're not doing anything else important, so you don't have much of an excuse.

Season One Grade: A-
Season Two Grade: A
Season Three Grade: A