So, based on last night, does anyone else think that Lenore might convince Jessica to use the Happiness Consultants for an evening, and that's when she'll find out about Ray?
Also, Jane Adams must be nommed for an Emmy next year. She simply must.
Posts: 3794 | Location: Earth | Registered: April 11, 2005
Great ep. Even the subplot with Ray's children was good. Patty's violent outburst in the women's room was pretty good. Tanya's seduction of Ray was great too. And this is the first time that Heche's part went well on the show. I loved the singing at the end of the ep.
EPISODE: " 'A D. and a Dream' or 'Fight the Honey' "
SYNOPSIS: "In the first-season finale, Tanya worries that Lenore may stage a coup for control of Ray, who is unnerved by rumors of layoffs at school. Meanwhile, Jessica looks for a way out of a marital rut, and Damon bonds with Darby over a souring relationship."
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Posts: 2726 | Location: Los Angeles, CA, USA | Registered: November 04, 2001
Wow, that was short, but they saved the best for last regarding Thomas Jane's material.
The hallway scene is his Emmy reel. Really great acting from him. Now Lenore's part of the team, YAY! But Tanya reading that book and smashing the fly signifies she'll get tough with Lenore, so more conflict there.
Does he regain his job, or is he a happiness consultant full time? Nice groundwork.
I expected an ironic, snarky comedy when this show premiered, and the Alexander Payne-directed pilot had a fairly cold tone, but what a big heart this show developed! Its surprising warmth and humane treatment of its characters made this one of the pleasant surprises of the summer. The friendship between Ray and Tanya is genuine. Ray's kids really care about him and each other. Even Jessica, whom I expected to be a miserable shrew all season, was allowed to take on some human color. I've greatly enjoyed the performance of Thomas Jane, but the highlight for me is the work by Jane Adams, a character actress who has deserved a starring role for a while. She plays Tanya's neurosis with such stubborn dignity and commitment that the show never condescends to her or makes fun of her. Like the rest of the show, she doesn't play the prostitution angle for absurd humor. She plays it as last-resort determination; like Ray says, it's the American dream -- not prostitution, per se, but finding your niche in a broken down economy and providing for yourself and your family. Ultimately, that's what the show is about, and that's what makes it so good. Eagerly anticipating season two.
"A movie is not good because it arrives at conclusions you share, or bad because it does not. A movie is not about what it is about. It is about how it is about it: about the way it considers its subject matter, and about how its real subject may be quite different from the one it seems to provide." - Roger Ebert, from the introduction to "Awake in the Dark" (2006)
