Friends With Benefit--Episode 1.03--The Benefits of the Unspoken Dynamic--Review

I will have to be honest here--this show has reeled me in. I really do enjoy its quirkiness, and I definitely relate to the female lead, Sara Maxwell (Danneel Ackles). Each episode is smart, well written, with very clever editing and great comedic timing. Since I find I relate to Sara, I would say that I have in my life either found myself in similar situations she is in, or could see myself in similar situations, and dealing with those situations in essentially the same way. This episode was no exception.

As far as the episode itself, I even loved the “cliffie” beginning! This format is something that always reminds me of Hardy Boys novels, since that was the first place I ever saw it—well, read it anyway. But the technique is when you start with one of our “heroes” in immediate danger, and just when something terrible is about to happen, you are flashed back a certain amount of time and the episode builds to how our hero got into that situation and ends with the resolution of that situation. J.J. Abrams used, well in my opinion OVER used, that technique on Alias…It was used successfully on the X-Files--and in my opinion not so often as to be considered overused. Supernatural has used it in a few very inventive ways also.

So the episode starts with Ben (Ryan Hansen) in “peril”, holding a cement block, with Aaron (Zach Cregger) getting to chose whether Ben gets thrown into Davy Jones’ Locker, or lives. Side note, let me just say that the recurring theme of Hansen in some serious stage of undress pleases me….And we’re back…eight hours actually…as we flash to eight hours before and find out how it is that Ben got into this predicament. It all began with Aaron freaking out after he found out that the girl he was in love with for six years is now engaged to one of his friends from M.I.T.. All of a sudden, Aaron doesn’t feel good enough. This friend of his was one point better in every category than Aaron…So Ben and Fitz (Andre Holland) decide it is time to take Aaron out for a night of crazy drinking and hopefully crazy sex with a random hook up. Of course the waitress is into Ben, which is something that happens all the time in their group…and things just don’t go the way Aaron wants at all. Or how Ben and Fitz want the night to go either!

On the Sara front, I was glad we finally find out where she lives…because we only saw her at Ben’s when she was visiting. In this episode, we find out she and Riley (Jessica Lucas) are roomies. Sara is keeping her naked time with Ben secret from Riley. Because of Sara being secretive and never wanting to do anything with her, Riley thinks that Sara doesn’t like her much. Riley feels like Sara is totally together, and sees her as some frumpy barmaid whose life is all over the place. In an attempt to show Riley that she is open to things Riley is interested in too, Sara agrees to go to a retirement party for Riley’s pot dealer. As almost always what seems to be the case for “good” girls who really don’t belong in that life, there are comically disasterous results. Sara winds up toilet adjacent for a while, and has to buy dinner for a hobo to get her phone back.

As far as the dynamic is concerned, I think we all seem to find little nitches, or a certain personality type, within our circle of friends that we fall into. Maybe every once in a while we all get sick of being seen that certain way and try to be different. Maybe try to be the dangerous one, or the fun one, or the mischievous one. When we try to break from our "mold" or "type", something happens that makes us realize why we are that "type" in the first place. Ben tries purposely not to stand out. He wanted to try to let Aaron shine to help him with his lack of confidence, but yet Ben gets singled out anyway. The girls in the bathroom reinforce this idea when they are talking about the guys,calling them by their stereotypes: Ben is called the “blond douchebag” and Aaron the “rich nerd”. Fitz’s idea of sending them home and playing drunk Halo was probably the most ideal plan…Riley also talks about seeing Sara in a different light. She was glad to see Sara as less than perfect, more human.

I have enjoyed every episode so far! It really is too bad that the NBC changing of the “powers that be” shut down this show before it got off the ground…Let me know what you think of the ep!