Fine. I'm doing it. I'm going back and following my own rules and I'm writing again. (Not being able to sleep helps a lot with this. Also I care about you guys. That too.)
TV blogging. The masses have spoken and who am I to deny them?
The bad news is that I'm not going to talk about something you guys care about.
Because my favorite show of last year was "You're the Worst."
Not enough people I like are watching it, which is just flat-out unacceptable. The show's not even coming back until July. This is not a 'watch it now or you'll miss out' plea. This is a, 'good god guys, get your shit together and watch this thing because I'm sad you're not in on my favorite jokes' thing. There's less urgency, but more desperation behind it.
You see, "You're the Worst" is a love story, kinda.
No, sorry, that's wrong.
"You're the Worst" is a like story.
And that's way more impressive than a love story.
Love stories are easy. They're predictable. Two people find one another, realize that they're perfect for each other, and we get to go on with them on their journey toward mushy stuff and happily ever after.
Love stories in TV are harder. You've got to prolong the inevitable over time, and shows have developed a lot of conventions as a result of spreading these stories out over years and years of entertainment. There's the 'will they or won't they?' trope. The awful 'oh god couples are boring TV' fear. The even worse 'love/hate oh god who cares do me' trend that has plagued many a teen drama. (Not that I watch those. Because I'm dignified, dammit*.)
*I'm not dignified and yes I still watch teen dramas on Netflix. No I will not tell you which ones. You'll have to torture it out of me.
The point is, regardless of the grade of difficulty, love stories on TV are still predictable. There are trends and patterns that the relationships take that work out like clockwork, and that's the reason why those types of shows** are losing steam fast.
** I liked that one a bit. Please don't judge me.
But "You're the Worst" is different. It takes all those old tricks and somehow makes them new.
Case in point, the show's pilot.
Boy meets girl at a wedding.
Boy (Jimmy) is a published but wildly unsuccessful British novelist at the wedding of his ex (oh the cliches!). We meet boy as he's taking pictures of his junk on every single one of the disposable cameras at said wedding. Boy is clearly unapologetic about this.
Girl (Gretchen) is a talented publicist who frequently loses her phone, has a messy apartment and can't keep her shit together (hello again, yee olde manic pixie!). When we meet her she's stealing a blender from the same wedding. (She wanted a food processor and throws said stolen wedding gift into the bushes.)
Boy bums girl a cigarette to the reluctant tune of, "They're pretty expensive." There's also an abortion joke. And another about anal sex. This is all within the first five minutes of the show.
Boy and girl proceed to go back to his place and bang without much additional preamble.
Throughout said banging session, we hear the two talking about the awful things they've done (DUIs, reading significant other's emails, getting crabs from guidance councilors). It's horrifying and still, somehow, inexplicably, sweet.
It doesn't make any sense, and that's why it's brilliant.
Chris Geere (Jimmy) and Aya Cash (Gretchen) are charming enough on their own to make their characters somehow watchable. Jimmy's a narcissistic asshole with a heart of copper at best, and Gretchen is a selfish commitment-phobe with an ego, but it's impossible not to want to learn more about them, in spite of our better judgement.
Which is exactly how our protagonist feel about each other. Neither particularly wants to like the other person, but they're drawn to the unapologetic parts of their counterpart's horribleness. There's no sugar coating here. No one's sparing each other's feelings or trying to hide the worst parts of themselves. Instead there's something unheard of in the romantic comedy game - upfront honesty that's funny rather than 'revealing'. No one's going to share their childhood trauma and become a different person from being open about it. Instead, these two will tell each other how they acted out, laugh at the antics, and then bang some more after the fact.
That is a beautiful 'like' story. These are two people who are convinced that they don't care about anyone, but who actually enjoy each other and are deciding on whether or not they want to admit it. Those are the highest emotional stakes that this show gets to. No great declarations of love, no boom boxes outside windows, no standing out in the rain. Just two people who probably want to hang out after they have sex, but are super reluctant to own up to it. And that dynamic is an entirely unique, endearing and hilarious thing to watch.
The thing is - Jimmy and Gretchen aren't even my favorite parts of the show.
Edgar is Jimmy's roommate. If by roommate you mean someone who is living with you for free due to a long forgotten weed business and crippling PTSD that prevents one from functioning in the real world. So, yeah. Roommate.
It is really, really hard to make PTSD be simultaneously funny and heart-wrenching, but Desmin Borges manages through sheer force of magic. Edgar is probably the one, honest-to-god good person on the show, but he's going through the trauma of having lived through a war and of getting over a heroin addiction, and so he's out of the running for 'real human' status. As such, he bums around with Jimmy, trying to advise him on how to be a person with an actual soul and cooking for him so he doesn't starve to death.
And then there's Lindsay. A recently married woman who used to party hard with Gretchen, she is the absolute embodiment of dissatisfaction. She doesn't like or respect her husband, resents marrying him, and misses 'slutting around' like she did in the good old days. I may be the only person I know who loves this character, but I'm certainly not the only one who appreciates the tight-rope Kether Donohue walks while playing her. Deeply confused about what she wants, shameless, self-pitying... Lindsay should be straight up obnoxious. Instead she's absolutely hilarious thanks to the earnest commitment of Donohue.***
***Also probably still a little obnoxious. But I love it, dammit. Shamelessness goes a long way for lolz status. I don't care what anyone says.
These are the bit players. The people we get to see on the sidelines to the Jimmy and Gretchen show. And they are probably my favorite parts of this thing.
But, Edgar and Lindsay aren't why I fell in like with "You're the Worst." I like the show because Jimmy and Gretchen aren't bad people, not really. They're self-centered, oblivious and mean, but they aren't bad.
But they're never the kind of people who get love stories, which makes a lot of sense. These are not people who you typically sympathize with or care about. No one wants to root for the person who sets their school on fire to get out of a math test. (Who am I kidding. That's exactly who I want to root for.)
They're assholes. No one wants to hear about how those jerks finally find love - what in god's name have they done to deserve any sort of romantic fantasy?
But this isn't a love story. This is a like story. A like story that is probably the great beginning of something long, drawn out, ugly and messy. Which is just the sort of unforgiving, cynical and ultimately hilarious love characters like this deserve.
It's weird how good it is, guys.
Other thoughts:
- Sam is amazing. He cannot be explained, he can only be seen.
- This is the most LA show I've seen, and I mean that in an awesome way. (Which must be shocking to most, since my fear/terror/disregard of LA is well known throughout the land.) However, I'm saying this as someone who has never lived in LA. Please guide me, yee west coast folk.
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