Happy Endings, Season 3, Episode 3: “Boys II Menorah”
Written by Dan Rubin and Lon Zimmet
Directed by Eric Appel
Airs Tuesdays at 9pm ET on ABC
Max probably takes on one of his funniest and probably most fun job that we’ve seen in the past two seasons. An emcee for bar mitzvahs. The episode with the group watching Max’s entertaining show, after a few laughs from him and Penny; Alex quickly comes in a steals the scene away with her absurd eating habits. Declaring to everyone that she is “keeping it kosh” from now on. Elisha Cuthbert has always been able to pull off the crazy eating Alex persona and she does it flawlessly here. Props need to be given to the writers in the fact that they’ve now kept this gag going for three seasons, starting in season one when Alex downed several ribs while she was drunk. They also give Cuthbert to dive into Alex’s not so bright side when she declares that she will put bacon on the blintz. Enter Dave, Jane and Penny trying to inform her that she can’t keep it kosh and have bacon at the same time. Not even bacon bits.
After the brief, but hilarious opening thanks in a large part to Cuthbert, the episode gets underway with basically two storylines. One focusing on Brad and Max, together again, the other dealing with Dave and Alex getting to comfortable with each other. And Jane, of course, volunteering to help them out, because Jane can fix anything.
The Brad/Max arc places the two buddies working together, with some tension coming through as Brad succeeds in the entertaining emcee business. Seeing Damon Wayans Jr. out of a suit and a tie is nice. He is by far the craziest out of the guys on the show and it’s great to watching him be able to cut lose. He not only steals the emcee show, but Wayans Jr. and his crazy, dancing antics also steal the story arc focus away from Max. Hopefully the writers won’t give Brad a new suit wearing job anytime soon. It’s refreshing to see him let his hair down, even more so than normal.
The episode parts that focus on Dave and Alex primarily touch upon their relationship. Although it is good to see that the writer’s haven’t clipped Cuthbert’s wings. She is still the same dumb, lovable Alex that we came to know in Season Two. Everything that she does to get Dave to be more romantic is absolutely priceless. All the way down to the fact that she believes Jane’s fake airplane ticket is an actual ticket and ends up getting arrested. “But I am being whisked away on love airlines! Ohhh, there it is.”
All in the entire episode kept the laughs coming with both storylines. The only let down was that Penny was forced into more of a background companion for Max and Brad. As Jane put it when talking to Dave, “I don’t know. They got their own thing going on this week.” The writers are definitely not switching how they go about things. They are keeping what worked with Season Two and just expanding on that. Continuing to make us be BFFs with this wacky group!
The MVP of the week easily is given to Elisha Cuthbert. Her crazy ideas for Dave, her eating habits and her not so smart moments were perfectly played out this week. Only three episodes into the third season and the girls are winning the MVP race; with Wilson, Coupe and Cuthbert now each with one to their name. The only question left in the balance is if they guys are going to step up their game next week? Or are they going to let the girls dominate this season? Guess we will just wait and see, until then let’s take a trip on love airlines, courtesy of Jane Kerkovich-Williams.
-Josh Bouye