About a Boy - Episode 2.01 - About a Vasectomy - Review

The dumbwaiter door is open, and we are back in business for another season! Let’s do this.
First things first, let’s all congratulate David Walton on making to a second season of a show! Way to go, man! You’ve broken the curse!

Now onto the show itself -- About a Boy. Or, if Will makes the shocking decision to sell his house in San Francisco and move to NYC forever, About a Will, Who’s Nowhere the Boy. Since Will’s never-ending royalties from his ever-popular Christmas song have suddenly and mysteriously stopped, Will’s mostly likely going to be facing some big changes in the upcoming season. Does he sell his San Fran house to get rid of his money woes, at the cost of leaving his makeshift family behind? (No way.) Does he move back to his house and out of the multimillion dollar apartment which he shares with Dr. Sam in New York? (Very possibly.) Does he *gasp* get a JOB? (Probably, at least for one episode.) Hopefully Will’s newfound money problems will give him a little more purpose in his life, so he doesn’t have to spend the next three months searching for the perfect everything bagel or something. (Honestly though, I’d love to ask him to send me one of those asiago bagels right about now…)

In this second season premiere, Will returns to San Fran for a couple days and tries to insert himself right back in with Fiona and Marcus, though it doesn’t work out the way he hoped. Fiona rightly calls him an “arsonist firefighter,” referring to his desire to cause trouble in order for him to save the day and become a hero. On the other hand, Marcus’ “friends” are clearly giving him a rough time of it, and Will sees that where Fiona doesn’t. It would be nice this season to see Fiona really come through for her son without Will. Obviously the show focuses on Will and Marcus’ relationship, but Fiona has parented Marcus a lot longer than Will has “parented” him, and it would be nice to see her get a real victory on that front.

Part of Will’s slowly developing maturity is on display in Andy’s storyline this episode, where Will helps break the news to Annie that she’s pregnant. Of course, that was a little bit his fault, what with him dissuading his best friend from getting the vasectomy that Andy’s wife thought he got. Not much else to say about this storyline, except that maybe giving Andy and Laurie a little bit of an arc will help integrate them further into the show? At the very least they’ll have some more stories with Fiona, who has found her calling (again), this time as a doula. Though I’m not sure if that birth reenactment really qualifies her to deliver babies…

On the Marcus front things are a bit overcast. He’s got new “friends,” and even though he knows they’re not really his friends, sometimes it’s better in middle school to have a buffer of acquaintances than no one at all. The good news is that Will did help him reclaim his tree house. Now hopefully he can help him find some actual friends -- even if they aren’t the “cool kids” that Will always tries to recruit for Marcus.

It looks like the next couple episodes will revolve around Will’s decisions regarding San Francisco/New York, and his stale relationship with Dr. Sam. She didn’t mind his extended trip to the west coast, and he spent three months in New York with her, looking for the perfect bagel alone. It feels like maybe their relationship cooled off a bit, and there’s bound to be some drama there in the near future.

All in all the premiere this season set up a couple solid storylines to follow through at least the next few episodes, and was full of the weird sort of humor that About a Boy revels in -- birth reenactments, bagel quests (with Rob Reiner!), hostile treehouse takeovers with preteens, etc. A solid start to the second season -- welcome back About a Boy!

What did you think of the episode? Are you excited for the second season? Do you have as much fun listening to Minnie Driver say…well, anything, as I do? Let us know below!

About the Author - Kimberly

Kimberly is 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.

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