Grid Effect

Maybe it is because this episode was on the heels of such a great Sunday night of television, but this felt like a disappointment from top to bottom. That’s no excuse really, every episode they have from here on out will follow at least Mad Men and for another month Generation Kill as well, so Jenji and her gang of peaceniks better get used to it.

Thematically it was alright. Doug and Andy took the next step in their coyote business. Nancy managed to finagle her way back into selling weed again. Mainly wholesale to all her former minions back in majestic. But there was just one too many failed comedy bits that consisted of nothing more than Celia or Nancy complaining about something. And it was always something petty, like a personal bathroom or having to actually parent.

So, was it always the same Olsen twin last season or did the switch them in and out like they did on "Full House"?

The story structure with Nancy was just bad, and something that was resolved too quickly. It was Entourage for the most part. And I imagine the people who created and who watch this series can’t fucking stand Entourage. Nancy needs money for her own bathroom, she goes to her immediate superior, he says no. She goes to his superior, he spanks her repeatedly out of aggravation, then at the end of the episode mails her 300 pounds of marijuana. See? It all works out. And in only an episode’s time.

The Silas storyline is just dull, basically. People who watch and are ardent defenders of this series realize the entire three and a half seasons has taken place over the course of maybe three months, right? And Silas has gone from sleeping with a deaf high school girl to a hot mom and looking like Mathew McConaughey in those three months? I just don’t understand the rush to turn him from a semi-bashful fuck-up into the James Bond of growers in that span of time. It would actually be more plausible if they threw a DeLorean into the mix and had the Botwin’s travel into the future.

The other half of the Botwin brothers isn’t adjusting so smoothly, however. And nor should he, as Shane has always been a little disturbed. And three months from the start date, he should still be at least a little eccentric. I just don’t know what’s being accomplished by having him beat off to archived photos of his mother. I guess it is funny, in an unsubtle Freudian way. But we would like to see some residual effect from him seeing his dead father at the end of the third season. Maybe him masturbating to his mom is part of that? I don’t know, this whole topic feels inappropriate. Even for pay cable.

Anyhow, it seems like the redeemable episodes are fewer and further between, and if you look at this grouping system, “Yes I Can” definitively falls into group 2. Still, we are willing to ride out the rest of this season to see where it takes us and if there is a larger narrative that warrants attention. But right now, this show is on notice.

We’ll try to come back with some links later today, the way work is piling up we doubt that happens though.