Craig Reviews GCB: Love Is Patient

*SPOILER WARNING*


This episode felt a lot more focused than the first two episodes of the series, which I think the show really needed after two episodes that, while very much enjoyable, were quite tightly packed in terms of plot. This is a much more relaxed episode, in that there's not a a whole lot of plot going on, but that's not to say it was boring. There was a lot more humour in this episode, making for the funniest episode so far, and getting to know a bit more about the not-so-private lives of Carlene, Sharon and Cricket remains as enjoyable as it was for the first two episodes. The episode did admittedly leave me craving more story development once it had finished, but I guess we've always got next week for that.

 'Love Is Patient' is almost exclusively based around the marital problems of Carlene, Sharon and Cricket, as they somewhat ironically host a rather unique seminar on relationships for the church singles group, including the group's newest members Amanda and Heather. The episode opens on Ripp and Carlene having some issues in the bedroom, namely Ripp failing to rise to the occasion, leaving Carlene a horny wreck for most of the episode, which is as hilarious as it sounds. It becomes apparent that Ripp is preoccupied with finding out what happened to Amanda’s deceased husband, and more importantly his money. I’d actually forgotten that this was implied briefly in the first episode, but it turns out that Ripp was tied up in Bill’s illegal activities himself and has lost a lot of money now that Bill has gone.  Cricket also briefly stops getting any this week, when her personal trainer, who it turns does a lot more than training, tells her they can’t have sex anymore because he’s engaged. I couldn’t help but ponder on this a bit. Presumably he’d been in a long-term committed relationship with this fiancée of his for a while before being engaged, during which time he must’ve been sleeping with Cricket. In which case I found it a bit odd that he stopped once he had a ring on his finger, since he’s clearly a scumbag, but he got the job done of letting us know where Cricket was getting it, and it was a very brief scene so I can let it slide. Cricket quickly reunites with a former trainer, and suggests that Carlene go see him too, in order to relieve some of her tension, with hilarious results.

"Thank you Texas Chili Council. Thank you."

Sharon, who is fast becoming my favourite character, gets a lot more to do in this episode after all but disappearing during the second episode. She initially confronts Amanda about the supposed kiss between her and Sharon’s husband, Zach, but comes to accept that maybe it’s her husband who is the problem after a call to the Texas Chilli Council (yes, really) yields some helpful advice. Meanwhile Gigi’s attempts at setting Amanda up with every eligible bachelor, as well as an unexpected package from her now dead husband, lead her to the singles group with Heather, who has her eye on her new client, the ex-high school nerd who is back in town after becoming filthy rich. And then the stage is finally set as Carlene and Ripp, Cricket and Blake and Sharon and Zach show up to teach our singles everything they’re doing wrong. It’s undoubtedly a slightly heavy-handed brand of hypocrisy, but it works and the laughs keep coming as Ripp tries to manipulate his group of singles in an attempt to get secrets out of Amanda, Cricket and Blake attempt to restore some virginity and Sharon and Zach finally address their issues in the kitchen. Carlene meanwhile attempts to deflect all of her own issues by meddling in the marriages of her friends, and after getting an eyeful from Cricket’s personal trainer she confronts Blake, Who in turn takes it out on Cricket, blaming her for almost outing him. This strange relationship is one of the more interesting aspects of the show, and it was great to see Cricket show a bit of emotion when Blake started telling her to be more careful.  I’m not sure where they’ll go with the storyline on this one though, it’s interesting for now but I can see it getting drawn out quickly so personally I’d like to see Blake outed fairly soon., if only because it makes me a little sad that neither of the characters are getting to lead the lives they want to.

The episode ends in much the same place that it began for most everyone except Sharon this week. Amanda gets some closure, but it didn’t really seem all that important to begin with, before discovering that someone else has the secrets she wrote down at the seminar, while Ripp tells Carlene what’s been on his mind, with the pair coming to the slightly ridiculous, but not quite far-fetched enough that it couldn’t end up being true, conclusion that Bill is still alive before they get back to bonking. Cricket and Blake wind up snuggling in a scene that seemed to suggest that their current storyline will indeed be a prolonged one, and Heather bagged her man, not that anyone really cared. For Sharon though the episode ends in an interesting place, with her not quite forgiving Zach and vowing to make sure that her glory days are ahead of her. Hopefully this will bring Sharon to the forefront a bit, she’s consistently one of the funniest characters on the show and is sort of likable even when she’s being a bitch, so the more we see of her the better. This was a very fun episode, and it was actually a relief to not be bogged down with so much drama this week. The show does funny very well and this episode’s humour really shines. Having said that, I am hoping for some more plot development from the next episode. I don’t think the show has quite found the perfect balance between it’s comedy and drama halves yet, and that’s something it needs to do soon. But as long as the show stays this entertaining I don’t think it’s going to have any problems.