As I’ve mentioned before, Man Seeking Woman is completely reliant on how successful the integrated surreal sequences come across. While I’ve enjoyed every episode so far, it’s easy to tell when the episode is really on point or feeling less smooth. Each episode is trying to physically convey some type of experience people go through after dealing with a break up, or the exaggerated ways they feel people react and handle certain situations. Last night’s fourth episode, “Dram,” really hit the nail on the head with the messages it was conveying through the hilarious “dream” moments.
The show opens up with a hilarious PSA-type commercial featuring Josh’s sister, Liz, pleading for a girl to come along and “date her brother” because he and his life are falling apart without the touch of a woman. Josh is a slob who is completely letting himself go now that he has nobody to impress, and the episode immediately informs us as viewers that its one main focus is on the idea of how your family overly cares about you after going through a tough break-up. Although your family just wants to see your happy, it can sometimes feel like they care a little too much and are prying or pushing to a specific end goal. Josh clearly feels like he is fine and wants his sister to back off, but this was a hilarious display of an older sister trying to help her brother out.
It turns out Liz is having a dinner party and invites Josh, who shows up and notices that he is the lone single person in a sea of couples, but when he makes mention of this to his sister, there is a knock on the door and a single co-worker of Liz’s shows up. This continues the overly helping sister trend as Josh is being very uncomfortably set up here. The girl, Maude, and Josh are both thrown completely off by this but deal with it the best they can, despite the moment being killed by the couples loudly whispering as they look on from behind a painting with the eyes cut out.
The next sequence reminded me a lot of Hot Fuzz, because the couples all have this cult-like presence telling Josh and Maude that they need to “couple up” and stalk them like prey until the two make an escape. After a long and hilarious chase scene, they end up in Josh’s apartment to “just fool around,” which seems awesome for Josh (at first).
The surreal sequences then continue when Josh goes to get lunch with his mom, and she drugs him where he wakes up tied to a chair with electric car cables attached to his body like he’s James Bond. I absolutely loved this sequence because it stuck with the episode’s theme and really nailed the typical mom prying to know about who her son is seeing, while the father figure couldn’t care less and is watching golf. The scene was really well-executed and the quick cuts to the father saying things like “Honey, the cable is fizzing out” really made the situation perfect. It was even spot-on that Josh snuck out of the torture by putting the attention onto Liz and saying she was engaged, which is the only thing a mother would care more about.
However, the episode’s final sequence might be the best of them all. Josh is just hanging out with Mike and claims he’s getting a booty call from Maude, but in reality, they are just going on a full and long date. Josh looks doomed, already on the path into another long-term relationship without even realizing it. This is what Mike’s character is so great for, though; he is hilarious and the single male voice role model to keep Josh playing the field. He tells Josh to not text Maude back despite her non-stop string of texts, which are filled with couple emojis and horrible puns.
Josh is able to hold off until Maude shows up knocking on his door, causing Mike to spring into action once again and give Josh some “dram” to drink that he bought in a store next to the Jamba Juice. The “dram” will apparently make Josh appear dead for an extended period of time. After Mike proclaims to Maude that Josh has kicked the bucket, we cut to his funeral, where it seems like he is going to be out of the woods in a few short moments. He’ll have to explain the crazy plan to his parents and Liz, but Josh is near-free of Maude until his family calls to light the casket on fire and burn Josh’s body like a Viking-style ceremony. Mike is panicking and Josh starts freaking out in the casket until he has no other option than to jump up and save himself. Everyone is incredibly startled that he’s risen from the dead, and he tells Maude how he really feels.
It was nice to see a continuous episode of Man Seeking Woman like “Dram” last night, especially since most of the show’s scenes have share a common theme but not a common story, instead standing on their own for the most part. Last night was a constant string of surreal moments that all revolved around Josh’s family worrying about him being single. I thought it was another accurate and fantastic representation of how people view these situations as they go through them with the overly pestering parents and the extremely worried sister that feels obligated to set him up. Man Seeking Woman continues to hit the nail on the head with another well-put together episode that provided plenty of laughs and was easily relatable.
Two specific lines I thought were hilarious took place in the torture scene between Josh and his mom:
– “Well this is your old bedroom sweetie, we turned it into a torture chamber”
– “Show me how to sign into Facebook”
[Photo via FXX]
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Best line was “Don’t worry, once we bury you she’ll get it.”
So far I’ve enjoyed every episode. The show is a surreal look at what every single guy has to deal with at times. Sometimes the timing is off though. A few jokes lasted longer than they should. The troll joke and the war room scene come to mind. Overall though it’s a fun show.