Happy Endings – “Baby Steps”
Okay, “Baby Steps” provides a perfect example of why I love Happy Endings. This episode has three storylines (showcasing the comedic ability of each of the six cast members) that have totally been done before on other shows. Plot 1: Adult women who were unpopular in high school get second chance to be popular. Plot 2: Down-on-his-luck friends gets job working for (comparatively) more successful friend. Conflict ensues. Plot 3: Woman who donated an egg decides to track down “daughter.” (Normally this plot is 1) done with adoption and 2) Played a lot more seriously). All three of these plots have popped up on other shows but they all go through a prism of weird rapid-fire insanity on this show. The show doesn’t get laughs out of going too far like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and it doesn’t particularly deconstruct the conventions of a sitcom like Community. It just has its own voice, and I really respond to that voice. Lines like “I was gone 24 hours and you turned my room into a German sex hostel?” or the sight of Damon Wayans Jr. unapologetically wearing a shirt dress get laughs from me, as does the show’s self-assured tone. Eliza Coupe’s freakish intensity while parenting her egg-child from afar (culminating in a “get in my van” misunderstanding) showcases an actress who (between this and the last couple seasons of Scrubs) deserves to become a lot more well-known. Happy Endings isn’t a deconstruction or a commentary on the sitcom form, just one of the better examples on TV right now of what that form can yield.
Persistence of Vision 