11/6/13
View Logs: Hello Ladies S1 Episode 2
Episode Title: The Limo
I'm starting to get a little worried about Hello Ladies. Now to get this out of the way, I think the writing is still quite great. Stephen Merchant is still wonderful and there's still a lot of character put into these really quick moments. So... what I'm about to say I'm really unsure how to judge. It's either a personal preference or it's something ingrained in the way the writers approached the material. The former can be just shrugged off but the ladder would mean that there's some minor problems in the writing despite the great characters. But I guess I'll just describe my gripe.
Stephen Merchant is a total dick. But I know the show is meant to be that as there is never any real problematic moments throughout the episode. It's a little difficult to get into a comedy specifically about the gender gap without going into culture and the "male perspective" of things. And I know this type of conversation isn't fun but just bear with me. Whether you think this is a problem or not, you have to admit that so much of our media is from the male perspective and Hello Ladies doesn't try to hide that fact. It's titled Hello Ladies after all. But what I'm trying to get at is that there are certain things we men can take certain things about ourselves for granted and we can lose sight that a woman's subjectivity matters just as much as ours. I know it's frustrating to have the opposite gender generally view sex in a different way than us (and honestly that's not even an absolute) but it's unfair (and too easy) to assign blame to women in general for this culture gap.
Now, Stephen Merchant's character clearly doesn't care about the women he's trying to go out with. But here's the issue. The way he goes about it makes him a total dick. He's literally faking interest just to get with someone and the minute that avenue isn't open or he doesn't think you're "good enough for him" he will toss them out. This is clearly displayed in the final part of Episode 2. He snubbed a "regular looking" teacher for someone "hotter" despite the fact that the teacher had much more in common with him than the model he's hitting on... then when he realized she has a boyfriend he went crawling back to the teacher. It's good to see that the show doesn't reward this kind of behavior and I never for a second thought this show was sexist.
But at the same time... this wasn't funny this was just cringe-worthy to watch. I suppose the idea behind Stephen Merchant's character is that we're suppose to empathize with his situation without relating to his actions. And thus, this would make us laugh at him a little easier. It's a good idea on paper, but the way it was executed in Season 2 just made me want to see him be forever alone until he realizes how much of a dick he is. Which, again, isn't funny. Well... I suppose funny is subjective anyway. From a crafts perspective everything was well written and there was quite a bit of character involved so I guess I can't call this episode bad. I'll just hope the situations get funnier as the show goes along.
