Fourteen months after airing a charming freshman season finale, Playing House‘s improbable, social-media driven second season finally debuted on USA Network (and various VOD services) this week. The long hiatus and short episode order hasn’t changed the show one bit: “Hello, Old Friend” and “Sleepless in Pinebrook” both are equally familiar and new, trading in pregnancy jokes for infancy humor, reminding us in nearly every scene why Lennon Parham and Jessica St. Clair are the most fun comedy duo on cable television this side of Key and Peele (one of whom is a regular on Playing House, so there).
“Hello, Old Friend” and “Sleepless in Pinebrook” are impressive in how effortlessly they usher us back into the world of Maggie and Emma. Picking up four months after “Bugs In Your Eyes,” “Hello, Old Friend” is like slipping into a fun, slightly absurd pair of shoes: from Emma’s utter inability to make a correct movie reference to Maggie’s penchant for nicknames and hilarious voices, Playing House‘s second season picks up neatly in rhythm with its first season, as if there was never a year-plus break between producing episodes of the show. And while they’re both quite familiar when it comes to dialogue and structure, the first two episodes of Season 2 aren’t just empty-headed “fun.” Though it would be an entertaining show in its own right that way, Playing House is about something more than just two women having fun raising a child together; it’s a story about love and family, and the conflicts that arise from such strong relationships existing in close proximity to each other.
Where Season 1 was about Maggie and Emma adjusting to each other’s adult lives, Season 2 is more about everyone adjusting to Charlotte, and it affects the fabric of the show in intriguing, endearing ways. Some of this comes from small moments (Mark’s constant desire to pinch Charlotte’s adorable cheeks), but there are larger things at play here: “Old Friend” introduces some nuance when Mark and Tina admit they’ve been having problems since before Emma came home, and “Sleepless” brings Bruce back into the fold in a major way, showing that divorce doesn’t have to be some super dramatic, ugly thing.
These two elements, while they seem inconsequential, are important to the philosophy of Playing House; that is, that time heals all wounds and allows us to come home again. Bruce may never be married to Maggie again, but he’s cool with babysitting for her so she can go speed dating (with Darius Rucker!), and he can bond with his child. And that leads to hilarious moments like him falling asleep to the first page of Moby Dick (which Maggie’s brother Zach insists on reading to her; “I refuse to talk down to her,” he tells Bruce), or Zach and Bruce both freaking out when little Charlotte has an unfortunate accident in the tub. More importantly, though, it breeds this aura of forgiveness and acceptance that comes with the responsibility of guiding a new generation: like death, birth brings a family closer, and Playing House‘s second season awesomely reflects that.
Will Playing House live beyond this season? That’s the question that remains to be answered – Benched wasn’t able to get a second series order, and with attention shifting to dramatic series like Mr. Robot, the writing may be on the wall for USA’s unlikely little hit. While it lasts, however, it’s one of the most endearing comedies on television, arguably the truest “buddy comedy” there is today. And with an increased sense of pathos in the beginning of Season 2, Playing House appears only to be getting better its second (and hopefully not final) time around.
[Photo via USA Network]
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