None of the episodes of One Big Happy have been good so far, or even close to good, but this week’s episode was so painful it felt like a huge step back from the tiny amounts of progress the second and third episodes made.
By episode four, the show should be coming into its own and almost taking the premise for granted. Instead, this episode felt like a re-tread of the pilot as they emphasized again and again that we’re supposed to find this situation awkward. They still have entire lines of dialogue explaining that Prudence is Luke’s wife and Lizzy is his best friend who’s having his baby. Of course, that situation should always stay a part of the humor and story in the show, but they refuse to truly explore it and instead repeat the same beats of the situation being mildly awkward over and over. It’s frustrating to watch three adults who genuinely can’t figure out how to have more than one relationship in life.
The big set piece of Luke going cliff diving just felt like filler to eat up some screentime. It wasn’t played in a way that brought out real character conflict. Luke exposits that he’s worried Prudence will get bored of him and then later Prudence exposits that she won’t.
In addition to not expanding on the story whatsoever, this episode was completely devoid of laughs. The jokes were absolutely painful. At one point, Prudence says she was once accused of smuggling melons at a farmer’s market and there’s a huge pause for laughter. It also includes the perplexingly bad dialogue: “She makes you happy in ways that I’m guessing a lesbian friend can’t” “Technically, lesbians can they just don’t want to.” It also included bad gay jokes and some of the most poorly executed physical comedy I’ve ever seen.
Sure, you get to see Elisha Cuthbert being cute in overalls, but is it even worth it?
