Thursday, November 12, 2015

Catching up with You're the Worst

I just caught up with the most recent three episodes of You're the Worst, which has improved mightily over the course of season two. I attribute a lot of this improvement to creator Stephen Falk toning back the overly-broad sidekick characters (Lindsay and Edgar), and to his making the two leads Gretchen and Jimmy have things that they actually care about (and realistic problems).

A large part of my gripe with season one was that Lindsay and Edgar seemed like cartoons; they were too broad, and we were invited to laugh at their tired, sitcom trope problems, like Lindsay's crumbling marriage and Edgar's crush on Lindsay. This approach has largely disappeared in season two; now, their problems are taken more seriously, and we’re invited to celebrate with them during their moments of triumph rather than laugh at them for their failures. For instance, it's nice to see how proud Lindsay is when she gets her electricity turned back on (as meager an accomplishment as this might be), or to see Edgar’s PTSD no longer be a source of humor, but instead a source of sympathy for the character (although Jimmy and Gretchen are still amused by it, which is fine, as these two have little empathy for others).