This was an interesting episode. It managed to keep the
momentum of last week’s great Marilyn-centric episode, while at the same time
doing quite a lot of work towards making episode three’s less than stellar plot
twists feel a bit more integrated into the story. It wasn’t necessarily a
successful pursuit all of the time, but for better or worse those twists are
here to stay now. The episode gets most of it’s plot points rolling in one
scene within the first few minutes. One of this show’s great virtues when it
comes to plot is that everyone’s always in a rush, there’s not much dithering
going on here! In one fell swoop we get
to see that Eileen has some worries about material for the show, specifically
that there’s not enough of it, we find out that Tom is having second thoughts
about his date, because he’s a lawyer who says ‘wow’ a lot, and worryingly we
discover that Julia’s husband is conveniently out of town and Michael wants to
talk. Strictly about the musical of course, but we all know where that’s going.
Most interestingly the scene seems to set up a switching of allegiances of sorts
in Derek, from Ivy to Karen, which continues throughout the episode and provides
the most interesting thread of the week in an episode that’s positively fit to
burst.
No, really, I mean it, fit to burst. There’s so much going
on in this episode, and at an alarming pace occasionally, but the show manages
to juggle it all with a fair amount of grace. A very awkward date between Tom
and the lawyer who says ‘wow’ too much, is thankfully interrupted when Julia’s
son ,Leo, is forced to call Tom from a police station, because his mother is busy
being a little too flirty with Michael. Of course with a lawyer on hand the
matter is resolved swiftly, which is apparently enough to impress Tom into
wanting another date. We also meet a somewhat pointless rival for Karen, a
colleague of Dev’s who is too attractive for Karen’s liking. It’s an odd
development, and in an episode so jam-packed with other more interesting
content it never really feels like it’s of any real importance, but one of the
major themes of the episode involves Karen discovering her sex appeal. I’m not
sure why, she’s not exactly been a wallflower in the first 4 episodes, but
apparently it was important for her to go full-on sexpot this week. In a couple
more odd scenes we see Ellis lend a helping hand to Eileen, which seemingly
forges a new ‘friendship’ between the two. Sneaky little Ellis is easily my
least favourite aspect of the show right now, so seeing him get chummy with one
of my favourite characters is a little disappointing. I just don’t see an
endgame for his story arc that won’t be completely dumb, but I’ll be glad to be
proven wrong on that front! Then Sam and Tom are introduced to each other in a
weird fleeting scene that felt like it was maybe supposed to be introducing
some kind of tension but fell a bit flat. Later it comes out that Sam is also
gay, so I wonder if there’ll be a sexual storyline there somewhere, especially
after seeing that ultra-weird scene where Tom and lawyer guy laugh it up over
the terrible sex they just had.
Thankfully we’re back to that most intriguing plotline once
again after all of that, when Derek asks Karen to show Ivy how to ‘do’ Marilyn’s
voice in front of the entire ensemble. After last week’s epic bitch-a-thon Ivy
really needed to get taken down a peg or seventeen this week, and it felt great
to see Karen get the group really excited with a snippet of ‘Happy Birthday’
while Ivy sat and sulked. When Derek asks Karen to help Ivy on the singing we get
to see that rivalry start boiling over, and the claws really come out. It’s a
shame in a way that Ivy’s not much like the character she started off as
anymore, and in a way it’s sort of nice to see her break down during a
performance in the workshop, as it’s a reminder of that girl from the first two
episodes, who was just desperate for a part. I can see why the transformation
happened and it makes sense that a character in her place, getting a major role
after ten years of being in the background, might get a bit too big for her
boots. In the series’ first truly
show-stopping scene, a fully staged and acted performance of the episodes
titular song, ‘Let’s Be Bad’, we get to see just how amazing Ivy is as Marilyn.
It was great to see a proper musical number, rather than a workshop scene punctuated
with fantasy-like glimpses of the real musical. The song itself is another gem.
The original songs in this show really are what keep me coming back, they’ve so
far been fantastic and ‘Let’s Be Bad’ is right up there with the best, and the
performance is just electrifying, it’s an absolute joy to watch.
Ivy in full Marilyn mode during 'Let's Be Bad', easily the highlight of the episode.
Karen’s somewhat random performance of ‘It’s A Man’s Man’s
Man’s World’ doesn’t quite have the same impact unfortunately. I mean, I’m sure
we’ve all had a bit of a sing-song/striptease while getting ready to go and wow
our partner’s work associates… oh, we haven’t? Never mind then. This was a
slightly too obvious continuation of Karen’s sexpot storyline of the week,
which ended with Karen inadvertently discovering the identity of Dev’s rival
job applicant with her new found womanly wiles, and it felt a little gimmicky
to be honest. If I were Karen I would’ve left when Dev expected me to sit at a separate
table from him at an event I was only at thanks to him, rather than romp with
him in the backseat of their car while the driver watches. That’s just plain
rude Dev, be nicer! The ambiguity then gets thrown back into Derek and Ivy’s…
whatever that is, before a nauseating finale courtesy of Julia and Michael.
Michael gets a little drunk and ends up at Julia’s, and then after all that
resisting we discover that all it really needed for Julia to fall back in love was
a bit of a serenade on her doorstep. The pair end up in a very passionate and
public kiss that is quite predictably spotted by Julia’s son. It was obvious,
but it does at least mean that this probably won’t be going on much longer. I
like Julia, she’s a great character, but for her to lecture her (16 year old?! Yeah,
right.) son on how his actions could affect their adoption, only to then give
in to Michael’s advances was just not very classy. She’s a smart lady, we’ve
seen enough to know that, but she’s not acting like one anymore and it’s a
little sad to see her being written that way.
This episode presents a mixed bag then, with one of the
shows strongest, most memorable sequences so far standing proud alongside some
less dazzling story development. But at least there is development, things are
constantly in motion on this show and that can only be a good thing, and now
that Michael and Julia’s affair is out in the open proper it can hopefully only be a matter
of time before it’s all over again.
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