USOT Recap: Beautiful, Magical

Adieu Gregsons!

"When you get to Boston, don't let 'em pull out all the good parts."     -- Marshall

And that's all she wrote, friends. Tara is now off into the magical unknown, hoping against hope to find help and answers with the Boston psychiatrist of Hattaras's recommendation, Max, as always, in her tow. Except this week Max earned his dues as a full-fledged character independent of his troubled wife. I'm referring, of course, to his moments of extreme inner turmoil and despair, which ultimately culminated in the mother of all uncomfortable dinner table outbursts. That poor turducken never even saw it coming. The fact that three distinct birds had to die in order to bring about John Corbett's best acting on this program only makes that moment more dramatic somehow, and being able to see Max finally lose his cool in such an achingly honest, frustrated, loving way (after three seasons of being a glorified straight man) almost makes up for the premature demise of this show.

But temper showcases and midnight guitar solos aside, Max had some typical knight-in-shining armor moments, too, what with saving Tara from drowning and all. Luckily, her attempted suicide managed to only take out Bryce, but not before the two engaged in a final confrontation, replete with desperation (on Tara's part) and aloof skeeviness and foreboding on Bryce's ("You have no idea how much crazy is bouncing around that lopsided skull of yours." Yeesh!) Besides Bryce's drowning, the only other alter sighting takes place at the very end of the episode, when Tara catches a glimpse of the original three looking a little worse for wear, almost as a quiet reminder to the viewer that Tara's DID will never truly go away despite her success in banishing Bryce.

With Max and Tara on their way to Boston and Charmaine and Neil moving to Houston and getting engaged (she proposed this time, so we know she's no longer as self-sabotagey as before. Growth!), it really looked like Kate would take Evan up on his suggestion that she move to St. Louis to be closer to him. And yet, twist! She loves Evan, but Marshall needs her. It's interesting that, like her mother before her, Kate ended up falling for a stable, almost staid, kind of man, yet in doing so (like her father before her) she is also embarking on a romantic adventure that comes with some collateral baggage she did not initially bargain for. She is another character who underwent tremendous growth this season, now stepping voluntarily into a maternal role with both Evan's son and Marshall, who spent the majority of the episode being justifiably angry at Tara and releasing an uncharacteristic torrent of snark at her. He is still reeling from the altercation with Bryce as well as Lionel's death, so it's understandable that he would regress into egocentric teenager mode for an episode. In fact, it's all too easy to forget how young and fragile Marshall actually is beneath those wise eyes and verbal eloquence, but he pulls it together in time to see his mom off to the "loony bin" with appropriate Moosh-esque knows-just-what-to-say flair.

As much as I loved the hopeful note the show ended on, with a serene-looking Tara letting the sunlight wash over her face and entrusting herself to the road ahead (a scene fittingly scored by Supertramp's "Logical Song," the same tune Bryce was singing in the episode's beginning) it's difficult to completely banish the resentment I feel at being unable to know what might have come next for this family, especially after such a stellar season. I've talked before about how USOT evolved from a quirky comedy to a layered almost-drama from inception to conclusion. Well, I dig that, even though it probably alienated a lot of viewers. I will take development and fluidity over wheel-spinning and repetition every time, even if the elements being repeated happened to be strong at the outset -- eventually, even caviar gets boring. The downside of this, of course, is that the evolution of a TV show often takes place at the cost of its characters growing less sympathetic as new complexities are added, yet I still prefer to frequently and vigorously shake my head at Nancy Botwin's latest sin than watch a show that, six seasons later, still had her in Agrestic, combating newer and meaner antagonists just for the freedom to peddle dime bags to bored suburbanites.

So perhaps it's preferable that Tara ended when it did, after creating three dynamic seasons but before getting the chance to subject us to hypotheticals like the Max/Tara split or Marshall turning tricks to pay for NYU film school. As for closure, accidental though it was, "The Good Parts" may seem like a poor substitute for a proper series finale, but it actually gave us as decent a resolution as the fans could have hoped for; the tragicomedy of this show is that there's just no curing Tara, and the ambiguity surrounding her future would have featured prominently in any deliberately plotted finale the writers may have produced. And at this point, I have no other choice but to look on the bright side, namely that this finale ultimately made for a cathartic and satisfying-enough conclusion to a gem of a show I got to enjoy for three seasons. But I"ll sure as hell miss it.

USOT Recap: Back to School

Favorite line: "Ah, Ms. Gregson. Quite a tour de force yesterday. I was dragged kicking and screaming to rehab for behavior less strange." —Dr. Hattaras

"Crackerjack" kicks off with some "raw" footage of the Gregsons through Marshall's new camera. He really seems to be hitting this documentary filmmaking thing hard, capturing some casual-yet-telling reactions from his family members in the first scene of the episode. In one fell swoop we are treated to Tara's back-to-school jitters as well as Max's increasing frustration with his landscaping business (or lack thereof).

From there, it doesn't take Tara long to realize university campuses are not kind to students of a certain age, and her anxiety reaches new heights upon stepping into the classroom—a sprawling, auditorium-style affair—causing her to transition into Shoshanna and pretend to be the substitute psychology professor. Naturally, Dr. Hattaras (Eddie Izzard, who is staying sardonically English in this role, thank the Queen) is none too happy and proceeds to use Tara's condition as a humiliating topic of discourse in the class. This wouldn't be quite so bad if he weren't so utterly disdainful of the validity of her disorder. His skepticism does, however, catalyze an appearance by T, which is always a joyous occasion, speaking strictly as a viewer.

The rest of the men this week saw varying degrees of personal success, the highest being Max's somewhat-forced decision to sell his business to the big dog Orgalawn. Unfortunately, this sale is leaving Neil in quite the lurch, job-wise, but I am excited to see what his next move will be. Hopefully something that will make him significantly more attractive to Charmaine. Or as she put it, "you weren't planning on being a gardener your whole life, were you?" Ouch.

Marshall and Lionel are excited about their film class but disappointed to be thrust into an almost entirely gay group, under their teacher's misguided hope that they will create "something deeper, more emotional... a little more razzmatazz." Still, I appreciated seeing Lionel's more vulnerable side as he asked Marshall if they were together out of love or sheer proximity. Blondie cares, y'all!

As for Kate, after an unfortunate run-in with a particularly coital Neil and Charmaine, her goal du jour has become the quick and thorough escape from her family. The solution? Move to Japan to teach English. I love it when shows incorporate real trends into their stories. And it will be interesting to see Kate completely out of her element, and I really hope the writers are able to pull off sequestering one of the main characters from their main Kansas setting. That is, if Kate ends up going at all, which is still unclear at this point. My guess is that it will happen, because not only is Kate behaving much more responsibly, but it also seems like the show is actively trying to make her seem that way with older-looking makeup and hair. Though Brie Larson was 20 when the show debuted, she's always been very convincing as a 15/16-year-old in demeanor and facial expression, but this season I am getting a marked sense of maturity from her, and that has to be deliberate, because Larson is a terrific actress.

It appears I totally called it last week insofar as the Charmaine/Neil dynamic, as Sweet Moment #1 made itself known almost immediately during the course of this episode, with Charmy declaring that the father of her child is a better man than her dream guy. And the "Awww" moments didn't stop there. I'm referring, of course, to the Marshall/Kate interaction in the empty lot... thing. Brother/sister scenes on comedies, especially those involving teenagers, tend to have an undertone of cattiness and competition, so I find it nice to be able to count on the Gregson siblings to always have each other's backs, no matter what. But even that moment was nothing compared to the touching scene at the end of the episode, involving Tara and Kate and a poignant mother-daughter role reversal that gave Tara a new understanding of her eldest child.

And speaking of mothers, it looks like next week will usher in Max's own (Frances Conroy of Six Feet Under!), and she appears to be a pretty severe hoarder, in light of which it really seems like Max was somewhat predisposed to falling for a psychologically disturbed woman. Thoughts?

Primetime Emmy Nominations: After the Aftermath

 

This post is late. Let’s just get that out of the way. In my defense, I think my first post has already indicated that I may not be the timeliest blogger ever, and righteous indignation is timeless, after all.

Moving right past the obvious dominators this year—congratulations Mad Men, Glee, Breaking Bad, 30 Rock—I will admit that the initial joy I felt over some of the more surprising nominations momentarily overshadowed the disappointments—acting noms for virtually the entire cast of Modern Family and Chris Colfer from Glee; Conan honored over Leno, yippee! However, on second pass, the disappointments were really bloody grand, especially considering the personal relationships I had developed with some of the unchosen this year.

First of all, House left out of the Outstanding Drama Series category? Seriously? Since when do we snub the one show that has consistently gotten better in each subsequent season? Does the Academy not realize how rare that is? (No offense Damages, I still like you, but you peaked in your first year.) But yeah, OK, there has been a lot of good TV this year, so it must have been a really hard decis—wait, The Good Wife got nominated? Damages is better than that show—hold the phone, for real, Lost? TRUE BLOOD??? After an unsurpassable track record penning American Beauty and bringing Six Feet Under to HBO, I too am wondering what the hell Alan Ball could have been thinking in creating a show (mediocre) around the vampire fad (tiresome); I too want to believe that he knows what he is doing, that he has a master plan he will one day gloriously reveal to all the unbelievers, but an Emmy nomination is not going to “inspire” this guilty pleasure slash thinly veiled social commentary into getting any less ridiculous, people! What do you think this is, the Norwegian Nobel Committee? These awards matter! I’m pretty sure the word “achievement” is somewhere in the descriptions.

And whom, pray tell, does Courteney Cox have to sleep with to get some freaking recognition around here? Isn’t it bad enough that in ten years, she was the only friend not to have been nominated for a single Emmy? What, was she not as charming as Jennifer Aniston? Not as funny as Lisa Kudrow? And in spite of her awesome leading lady work on Cougar Town, she is snubbed yet again. You guys know this show was made for her, right? She is a “cougar.” Whatever, Emmys.

Perhaps the biggest personal disappointment was seeing such puny representation for The United States of Tara. Yes, Toni Colette is super good at playing a bunch of different characters, whoop-de-freaking-do, but this entire show has reached new creative heights this year and still manages to treat a serious psychiatric condition with sensitivity, grace, and humor. And come on: it’s way more endearing than that soulless Nurse Jackie.

But in the end, the Most Disappointing (But Predictable) Emmy Snub 2010 goes to… Rosemarie DeWitt for her perfectly balanced supporting work as Tara’s envious yet loyal Charmaine—the sister lucky in mental health and unlucky in everything else.  By turns narcissistic and self-loathing, Charmaine would not be portrayed quite as brilliantly by a lesser actress. I just hope DeWitt is not the Academy’s choice to fulfill the role of perennial loser the new Courteney Cox.

These were only a few of the Emmy oversights that stuck most uncomfortably in my craw this year. Share yours in the comments section.