GCB’s second episode manages to keep all of the bitchy charm that made the opening episode so enjoyable, and also developed a few more tantalising story-lines along the way. Perhaps not as many as I'd have liked, and a couple of elements fell a bit flat this week, but the show remains engaging and fun regardless. Kristin Chenoweth steals every scene she’s in yet again as the delightfully vicious Carlene Cockburn, but the rest of the cast are more than able to keep up, and it was nice to see a few characters get a little more fleshed out this week. This series had a lot going for it after it’s first episode, the comedy was spot on, the cast were all great, and the plot was intriguing, if not gripping. Thankfully ‘Hell Hath No Fury’ proved that the season-opener was anything but a fluke.
This week’s episode opens on a disgraced Carlene, who is
contemplating not going to church for fear of being judged. They've nailed the hypocrisy
of Carlene’s character, and Kristin really rolls with it, it’s just so much fun
to watch. Of course, as soon as Cricket threatens to sing Carlene’s solo in her
place Carlene is straight out of bed and on her way to church. I thought this suggestion
of competition between the two characters, especially watching Cricket sing
along and glare in the background during Carlene’s song, was a nice little hint
that even in our core group of ladies, who have put up a united front until
now, there’s no love lost. Soon we get to the main focus of the episode, the
tradition of labelling girls as Foxes or Javelinas at the local high school. This
is a tradition created by Amanda back in her Queen Bee high school days. But of
course, now that it’s her own daughter who is at risk of being publicly
humiliated things seem very different. Yep, there’s that hypocrisy again, let
it never be said that the show isn't balanced!
"Maybe you'd like to come over for a little prayer, some devotional, a sticky bun?"
Not to be outdone by the high school girls our grown up
bitches have some humiliating plans of their own when they discover that Gigi
is throwing a luncheon to welcome Amanda back into the community, and instantly
set about making sure nobody goes. All except Heather that is, who apparently
hasn’t fully switched sides yet and so puts up with this plotting despite being
close to Gigi herself, and even helping to plan the luncheon. I get that
Carlene has some power over her professionally, but she seems to put up with a
little too much bitchiness during this episode. We do get to see a more human
side of Cricket during this episode, but she’s still very clearly one of
Carlene’s sheep. That’s clearly no longer the case with Heather, but at the
same time I think some distinction needs to be made as the character seems to
be a bit of a loose end at the moment. Carlene also attempts to clean up
Boobylicious this week, which provides some of the episodes big laughs (Carlene’s
personal charity ‘For Children With Something’ was just perfect!) but it isn’t
the most compelling storyline. It was pretty easy to predict that all would end
up as it was at Boobylicious by the end of the episode so this little thread
lacked any real punch, besides providing an outlet for all of Carlene’s
self-righteousness.
So, we return to the central high-school plotline, as Amanda
discovers that her daughter has been ‘marked’ to become a Javelina and decides
to confront Carlene about it. The scene between Amanda and Carlene that follows
was really quite interesting as, up until the last moments at least, I actually
felt a bit of sympathy for Carlene, a former Javelina herself, who was
tormented at the hands of Amanda during high school. For a brief moment at least,
I kind of understood why Carlene is being such a mega-bitch. Then she proceeds
to abandon Amanda in the middle of nowhere and that little bit of perspective
is lost once again. To make matters worse Amanda makes a garbled phone call to
her daughter and discovers that her own vicious plans to humiliate Carlene
years ago are now playing out against her own daughter, or so she thinks. After
a mad dash to the school we instead discover that she has in fact been made a
Fox, admittedly only so the ladies of Dallas can try and find out more about
the Vaughn family, but it’s still better than getting covered in mud! Amanda’s disapproval
lasts all of ten minutes before she apologises in time for the end of the
episode, as well as simultaneously realising that she wasn’t an ideal daughter.
This felt a little cheesy to be honest, but then the scene where Gigi held her
luncheon at Boobylicious came along and managed to actually be rather sweet. But
the real payoff for me came from the revelation that Cricket is actually fully
aware that her husband is gay. This really took me by surprise, as of all the storylines
explored in the opening episode I thought that one was going to be the most
predictable, but now I find myself looking forward to seeing where that thread
will be going now. Sharon on the other hand had little to do in this episode, besides be hilarious, which she does very well, and eventually find out that her husband and Amanda had supposedly been spotted kissing, which was not really all that interesting to be honest.
GCB manages to maintain it’s fun and quirky style with
it’s second episode. A little more substance wouldn’t go amiss, but this show
has already managed to become a firm favourite for me regardless. I think there
could be a lot of life in this series if it’s done right, and I’d like to see
that happen. For now though I’ll just keep eagerly awaiting my weekly visits to
Dallas and all of the bitchiness that comes with it.
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