11/11/13
View Logs: Hello Ladies S1 Episode 4
Episode Title: The DinnerMy jaw dropped within the first 30 seconds of this episode. I... won't be able to do it justice describing it but I need to describe it. Jessica is going out dressing well, Stuart comments on it and asks where she's going. Jessica says she and a few of her actress friends are going out to a gay club because they don't want the hassle of being hit on by men all night. Stuart instantly thinks that he would have no competition at the place and RUSHES TO TAG ALONG.
My. Jaw. Dropped. Stuart... this is a new low point for you.
But... this episode is a high point for the show so far. You already know about the cringe-worthy moments at this point. The Office and Curb Your Enthusiasm hasn't prepared you for anything in this show. It is sincerely and surprisingly a whole new level of awkwardness. Larry David has nothing on Stephen Merchant's Stuart Pritchard. But really I think it, the heavy amounts of awkward moments kinda ruin the show a little. Especially given this episode's quality. The horrifically awkward moments are kept to two major plot points rather than the entire episode like in episode 3. Even the side plot of Wade and Kives actually fed directly into the overarching story really nicely when the two accidentally come across a to do list that revealed something about Stuart's character.
Now, I still think Stuart is a horrible douche. But atleast I can start to understand why he tries so hard given this episode's revelation. It's interesting that Jessica and Stuart are actually so alike for vastly different reasons. Stuart is so socially inept that I do sometimes wonder if the character has some form of autism. He has a massively hard time reading social situations and anytime he does something that gets some form of approval he feels like he needs to just repeat that over again and to a much larger extent each time. The moment where Stuart had to look up "gay jokes" is a good example. When I first saw that he was looking up "gay jokes" on the internet I started bracing for impact.
But surprisingly the script threw me a curveball and the jokes he told was well received by those at the dinner party. Then he feels like he needs to just repeat the same types of jokes over and over again until he eventually goes a little too far and used the word "faggot" in a bad joke. I don't even actually get what was supposed to be funny about the specific joke in the episode but suffice it to say, he ended up offending everyone and it was all because he just kept pushing it.
Jessica is the same way but she only does it to people who could potentially get her a job (which is far more understandable in my opinion). Her impromptu tap dancing as a desperate attempt to get the attention of a Variety writer pulled some giggles of disbelief out of me. The episode ended with the two musing over their own failings together. I wonder if the two would actually get together by the end of the show. I'm starting to see a bit of a relationship here and I don't think this is by accident. Either way it's good to see these characters actually grow as that's one of the main things writers forget about comedies. Laughs are great, but characters still need to grow and develop and it's nice to see Hello Ladies getting better with that. I'm now looking forward to the next episode, even to Stuart, because I'm now curious to see how these characters will develop in the long run.
Good work Hello Ladies... you've now got me a bit interested in Stuart... I never thought I'd be saying that after ranting about him in the previous view log. I can safely say this show is "good" for now.
