About a Boy - Episode 1.11 - About a Birthday Party - Review

It’s Marcus’ 12th birthday and there will be no party. At least until Will gets involved after Marcus and Fiona barge unannounced into his kitchen while he tries to spend time with Dr. Sam. Although the birthday boy is content without a party, and Fiona is adamantly opposed based on horrible birthday parties past, Will insists on the occasion and decides to get involved. So the party’s on after all.

You’d think that with all Marcus’ past disastrous birthday parties Fiona would change her tactics vis-à-vis party activities. But a sitcom’s a sitcom and Fiona’s Fiona and she’s gonna do a non-toxic bubble wish activity if she wants to. While Fiona represents the side of being true to yourself, no matter what the social cost, Will is decidedly on the other side of that divide. He focuses on gimmicks to try and get Marcus to move up the social ladder, encouraging him at times not to be quite so himself.

Will seems a little more preoccupied with trying to get Marcus some friends and/or popularity than Marcus is. That kid seems pretty happy most of the time, especially when he can spend time with his best friends (Will and his mom). Although inviting cool-kid Jackson to the party is Will’s attempt to draw a crowd, Marcus doesn’t really seem to care too much whether Jackson’s there or not -- he’s just mad that Will abandoned him and left him with Andini, Master of Illusion. (Also, it makes a lot of sense that Laurie and Andy’s relationship was based not on love but instead on Laurie’s desire to help “Andini.” I do wish that Annie Mumolo would get to do something more interesting than controlling wife every once in a while, I mean, this is the woman that co-wrote Bridesmaids people!)

The idea that Will would agree to go to Dr. Sam’s hospital gala…gala…gala…(hmmm, that joke doesn’t really play textually…), and then of course realize it conflicted with Marcus’ birthday was fairly obvious from the beginning. The odd part was that he switched the date and then realized it after, which made the conflict feel a little silly -- he should have just checked with Fiona about the new date. But no matter. Either way Will was left to choose between “the girl of his dreams” as he’s called her, and the boy next door, who constantly barges into his house through the hole in the wall. And so he leaves the beautiful woman who was so excited that she finally had someone she cared enough about to bring to an important work function in order to go to Marcus’ super lame birthday party and get bitten by an angry rabbit-in-a-hat.

It’s nice that Dr. Sam swoops in with a spare ambulance to save the day and fulfill Marcus’ wish, though why she has to cater to her boyfriend’s neighbor’s needs in order to please him is a little odd. I’m curious to see if Will’s unlabeled relationship with Marcus will lead to any further drama between him and his new girlfriend, as she rightfully points out that he keeps leaving her behind to tend to his young neighbor. It seemed to be heading more in that direction until she showed up, emergency transport vehicle in tow.

A few random thoughts:
- Will should probably figure out a way to lock that adjoining dumbwaiter door, at least when he has Sam over. And maybe lock his front door as well -- there are Bowas coming in all over the place. (According to Wikipedia, Fiona and Marcus’ last name is Bowa. I’ve no clue how accurate that is.)
- Marcus trying to make the most of Will’s gift of a hammer, and then a pile of wood was sweet. It should be interesting to see how Will makes out with the tree house construction next week.
- I’d love for Marcus to make one friend outside of Will from around his age group. Not only would it give him someone to hang out with when Will’s busy, but it would give Will some potentially interesting competition.
- Will has definitely become part of Fiona and Marcus’ life now, to the point where it wasn’t weird that he decided to plan a birthday party with Fiona for Marcus. Could you imagine that at the start of the season? (Of course you could, that’s how the story would inevitably end up -- but you know what I mean).

What did you think of the episode? Do think Dr. Sam and Will are going to last? Or will his devotion to Marcus get in the way? Would you ever let Fiona plan your birthday party? And what would your bubble wish be? Let us know below!

About the Author - Kimberly

Kimberly is a college student studying Writing for Film & TV, and a big TV nerd - willing to talk any show, any time. Her tastes are various and sundry, but she’s got a soft spot for comedy. She currently writes the SpoilerTV reviews for Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and About a Boy.