Courtesy of CBS
This week we focus on Simon (Robin Williams) and Sidney (Sarah Michelle Gellar) as they both deal with insecurity issues and amazingly they both come out of it losers. But hey, they’ve got each other.
Let’s bitch…
Simon gets nominated for a big advertising award, which is great news. Unfortunately he also starts to feel insecure about his age and what he has to offer. Nothing like praise from your peers to make you feel like you might be losing your touch. It certainly doesn’t help that Zach (James Wolk) and Andrew (Hamish Linklater) both make fun of his manhood when trying to find a pitch for the new viagra-like pill. Will the award restore Simon’s manhood? Do we care? I, for one, don’t. It’s just not very compelling and the whole premise isn’t sold well enough. I mean, this is a guy who is supposed to be one of the best advertisers in the world. One joke about needing help in the bedroom and it’s all over?
This storyline also suffers from being presented in such a hurried manner that we hardly have time to figure out what’s going on. The whole episode kind of operates like this. We go from penile dysfunction to proving your manhood to being happy because he has his daughter and that’s all he needs…I seriously have whiplash from all of this. While all these ideas connect in some way, it’s very loosely linked.
Courtesy of CBS
Meanwhile Sidney relives her high school days when her former school crush is nominated alongside her father for the advertising award. In her attempt to honor her father she sets up a party for all the nominees (way to use your father’s honor to try to get laid – Sidney is my kind of girl). The plan works, they start to see each other, he steals her father’s idea about campaigning, she breaks it off, yadda yadda yadda. It’s a sweet storyline but much like Simon’s storyline, this suffers from being rushed. One minute they’re dancing, the next they’re seeing each other and they’ve binge watched Bones – Buffy and Angel forever!
Ultimately Sidney ends up still being single and Simon loses the award. They celebrate at a bar and recreate Sidney’s snow globe fantasy – complete with a serenade from Zach and Lauren (Amanda Setton) throwing fake snow all over them. It’s a sweet moment and Simon looks on proudly.
All of this makes for an episode that feels a little mismatched. While there are moments that I enjoyed, when the episode finished I was left scratching my head. The show hasn’t done a great job at presenting these characters in a way that allows us to invest in them yet. They are still one-dimensional and while the stakes are high for the characters in terms of landing contracts, for us this doesn’t really translate, and neither does winning or losing an award.
Other observations:
- Did anyone else hope that Sidney would go all Buffy on the assistant who was trying to block her from entering the office?
- The snow globe playing Eternal Flame – hilarious! Where can I get one?
- Snaps to Lauren for pitching an idea that’s actually used (and then stolen). I knew there was more to this girl than simply being a hover craft! Will she become more of a team player? Will she stage a coup? How awesome would that be? Maybe go all The Good Wife next season? Just thinking out loud here.
- Being serenaded and dancing with Zach? Totally not a fantasy of mine…<sarcasm>
What did everyone else think? Were you invested in Simon’s manhood (gross)? Did you find the story lines rushed? Would you also love to be serenaded by Zach? Were you happy to see Lauren contributing ideas? Sound off below!
The Crazy Ones airs Thursday nights at 9pm EST on CBS