As Man Seeking Woman nears the close of its successful first season, it’s pretty up in the air how things are going to end. If Josh ends up in a long-term relationship then it probably won’t survive through the off-season because where’s the fun in that? Either way, the show has been great at finding unique ways to personify the perspective of how men feel about situations relating to relationships and trying to attract women. Unfortunately, this approach can sometimes seem sexist, as it assumes what women are thinking and claims things are “easy” for them. However, Season 1’s penultimate episode, “Teacup,” allowed for Man Seeking Woman to do a role reversal of sorts, focusing on Liz, who had just broken up with her longtime boyfriend, Leo, instead of Josh and giving us one of the best episodes of the series yet.
The episode opens with Josh making a generic male claim that women have it easy and can walk outside and immediately attract tons of men. He calls Liz to get advice on if he should contact a girl, but she ignores the call because she is dealing with the sad breakup of her lengthy relationship. She plays it cool and claims she’s okay, but the episode instantly unfolds personifying her feelings and thoughts with a personal rain turned hail storm over her head, while Crystal Castles and Robert Smith’s “Not in Love” begins to play.
Liz heads to a friend’s house for some comfort and continues to play it off like everything is cool. The friend’s daughter is having a tea party with her fellow second grade friends, and when Liz goes outside to talk with them, she notices that the seven year olds are actually married and have real wedding rings. To Liz, all she can visualize is that other girls are getting married younger and younger, while she is already 29 and her relationship just fell apart. In her eyes, everyone around her is either in a relationship or married young with everything she’s ever wanted. One of the girls starts passive aggressively listing off the biological timeline that Liz has, which freaks her out because she might not have everything as together as she had hoped.
After a long day at the office, Liz ends up going out to the club with two girls from work because her schedule has recently become wide open. Plenty of guys are interested in Liz, but she conveniently finds something wrong with all of them and has specifically high specifications that they have to meet. When the work girls hit Liz with the reality that her perfect man won’t ever exist, she decides to create him like Frankenstein. With the brain of Steve Jobs, the heart of Nelson Mandela, the fingers of Jimi Hendrix, and the skin of Patrick Swayze, Liz’s creation comes to life; however, the perfect man ends up being gay and not attracted to her.
After failing some more, Liz can’t stop looking ahead on her busy calendar at her upcoming 30th birthday. The little girls’ words from the birthday party continue to rattle her mentally, so she agrees to a date with her mom’s friend’s son, Chip. Here the show parallels Liz to Josh in the first episode, when she set him up with a coworker who happened to be a troll. Liz’s mom says all these great things about how Chip is a catch and a great guy who’s changed over the years but is smart and successful; yet, he just turns out to be a robot. She goes out with him and it’s the same date she’s been on 100 times or more at this point. Chip only talks about three topics that every guy brings up with hopes of showing off that they are well-versed in culture and that they are sophisticated. In the end, everything is just boring, unoriginal, and literally, robotic. Liz has a horrible time until Chip starts saying some of the right things.
Chip still represents the typical guy by talking the entire night only to apologize and say or do some nice things to woo the woman back to having interest in him; he compliments her work success and touches on the unique color of her eyes only to physically display that he can cook when he uses his hand’s flamethrower to cook her steak to be more well-done. After Chip reminisces with Liz about their time together at camp and giving her more compliments, she is ready to go home with Chip for the night to sleep with him; however, after they (very quickly) sleep together, Chip gets up and leave, becoming the true manifestation of a typical robotic man who says the right things only to have a one night stand.
Chip’s behavior sends Liz back into a sad state when Josh finally shows up. This is really Josh’s time to shine because we know how kind-hearted and genuine of a person he is. If anyone is going to be able to really pick Liz back up, it’s her brother. Josh reflects on how smart and strong Liz is and that he needs her because she’s the better sibling. It definitely cheers her up, and the two realize they will always have each other to make life alright.
I think this might have been my favorite episode of the season. While “Teacup” might not have been the most outright funny episode, I thought it offered viewers a much needed perspective. I’ve really loved Liz’s character, but she’s only popped up here and there throughout the first season. It was amazing to focus on her, and Britt Lower did a phenomenal job as the parallel female lead for this episode. Man Seeking Woman has been completely accurate in its portrayal of how men think when it comes to women and relationships, but last night’s episode displayed that they can play it both ways and also totally nail the female dynamic while keeping it honest. The show’s main character is a male, but everyone deals with dating and relationship problems, and the true focus of Man Seeking Woman is to personify how love and attraction is one of life’s most complicated mysteries, which “Teacup” did perfectly.
[Photo via FXX]
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