Man Seeking Woman returns for its second season after a bizarre and fun previous year. The show ended pretty absurdly and has decided to just move onto what comes next rather than acknowledge anything of the past, which is a great decision. This show definitely shows seasonal story progression, but is more about the fun ways they can analyze aspects of a relationship from episode to episode. Man Seeking Woman really did a great job with its first season and portrayed the different parts of a relationship near perfectly while come up with fantastic analogies for the different types of situations that arise. This season kicks off no differently with a great take on trying to force yourself into a girl’s life after giving up everything for her, but this normally doesn’t have a good end result.
It turns out Josh has a new girlfriend named Kelly, and he is slowly giving up all of his time, family and friends to be with her. Josh’s problem is that he wants a girlfriend so badly that he’s willing to go all in on the first girl he meets. His need and want to find someone is understandable, but it’s never good to throw all of your eggs into one basket so quickly. Mike attempts to keep up their friendship by schedule time well into the future for them to relax and hang, but Josh’s addiction gets worse each day. Relationships require an important balance of time because both people still have to be individuals and have certain things to do on their own.
When entering into a new relationship, it’s easy to take your friends for granted and assumed they will always be there for you with an understanding that you want to give a relationship a chance. Yet, you can’t completely ignore them and expect the friendship to hold up. Without individual friendships, Josh goes into panic mode when he finds out Kelly is going to see her high school friends for the weekend. He essentially invites himself by borderline forcing her to ask if he wants to come. This is a clear recipe for disaster for anyone who has experienced the situation before.
The way the show chose to personify being the odd man out was amazing. Going to a cabin where Kelly and her high school friends are characters straight out of a horror movie who did something wrong in their past is perfect. Josh immediately realizes that he doesn’t fully fit in and during his entire time there he has no grasp for inside jokes or references from the group’s past experiences with one another. It’s a tough situation to be in, because as a significant other, you want to learn and know about the person you’re in a relationship with, but you can’t force it. Josh tries to make the best out of his situation, but gives up to put together a puzzle while Kelly and her friends deal with the zombie lumberjack they killed or left for dead at some point in their past. My favorite moment of the episode might have even been when the lumberjack walks in on Josh, asks him who he is, realizes he has nothing to do with the revenge story, and leaves him alone.
The only thing that this type of a situation will lead to is fighting. Kelly and Josh eventually become frustrated with each other’s company because Josh feels like he isn’t getting enough time with his girlfriend while she feels as though Josh is invading and taking away from her time with a group of friends she doesn’t get to see often. She even says she thought it was weird how he gave everything up and didn’t ever want to hang with his own friends. No surprise, they break up.
At this point, Josh is left with one option, which is to crawl back to his friends and family, hoping they will accept him. Mike has pretty much moved on at this point, and he even finished the Blade trilogy without Josh. Their own relationship has been pretty damaged at this point that Josh pretty much is a parent who walked out. Relationships are always two sided, and people need to learn how to fairly balance their time. A good friend wouldn’t ever abandon you, but there are plenty of reasons a relationship could possibly never be the same if one person feels abandoned or taken for granted.
In the end, Josh is lucky that Mike cares about him so much and was willing to let everything go. Josh needs to realize that he can’t sacrifice who he is as an individual just to make a relationship work. When you force something like that, too many bad things come out of it. Eventually, the friends repair their relationship and Josh realizes his mistakes, but the question is will he remember them the next time this happens? Every relationship is a balance and when you’re with the right person, they will be understanding if you want to go spend time with your friends. You can’t sacrifice your individuality in a relationship, otherwise the relationship becomes all you have.
Other thoughts:
- “Chupacabra’s Nightmare”
- “First he cuts our hours, then whoops, we’re part-time”
- The workers union scenes were pretty funny, especially when they all abandon the picket. I thought they gave Mike solid scenes to return with.
[Photo credit: Michael Gibson/FX]
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