Marry Me - Move Me - Review: "The settlement process"

After a very strong first installment Marry Me was going to have some troubles going through episode 2; the bar was set too high by a series premiere that constantly pushed the funny buttons, and this episode has to go through a process every show goes through after the series premiere: the settlement. After the character, plot and world presentation comes a settlement of the dynamics we’ll see on a weekly basis, and Marry Me did a fair job at that, just not an outstanding.

So, as the episode title says it, “Move Me” is all about Jake moving in with Annie and how Annie starts to feel she needs her own space. It’s a classic comedy plot used by many sitcoms before, so we are not looking at innovation here, we are looking at execution, and well… it works at times and at some others it doesn’t work. It’s a bit weird.

At first it is understandable that Annie freaks out when she sees how her apartment is all full of boxes lying around, food, trash bags and Jake on underwears as if he didn’t give a damn- which could be also because he got fired last week, which doesn’t get mentioned at all. But then, later in the episode, when all is tidy and clean it becomes a little bit fuzzy and it’s not until even later in the epísode that Annie admits that she wasn’t just freaking out about sharing her space, but actually about the commitment.

Now, Casey Wilson and Ken Marino’s acting carry on most of the action on the episode, their faces, expressions and even some slapstick moments make some of the dull or awkward moments during the episode funny, but the lines are weird at times and when they are weird the fast pace of the show goes against it and makes all the more confusing.

That being said, there’s a lot of goodwill thrown in the mix: all the moments Annie spent on the car were hilarious! From ordering take out food and finding out it’s almost as common for delivery to go to cars as apartments, to that glorious scene near the end where the whole gang gets into the car, which was the biggest laugh of the episode- we’ll get there in a minute.

Most of the episode both Annie and Jake are advised what to do to go through their issues. Annie’s lunch meeting with his dads was pretty funny, the dynamic among Annie and Kevin 1 and 2 (her dads, if you didn’t know by know they are both named Kevin) is pretty strong and gets lots of laughs. Jake gets his advices from Gil, and though not much worth mentioning there, there is a powerful self realizing moment for Gil when he tells Jake he should have never took his advice in the first place because he was a loser; it felt like a very important moment since the show could have easily gone past whatever Gil is going through right now.

Gil has a storyline of his own this week regarding staying 29 straight hours on a 24 hours all you can eat buffet. It starts a little bit lame, but it gathers momentum as it goes on, mostly due to his fun feud with one of the buffet employees, Chad. It comes with some funny lines and a soup dance montage at the end that was both awkward and funny.

Dennah has this week’s weakest storyline as she is just worrying about her look, which proves what I said on my advance preview about her being the airhead, but the redeeming factor is that she usually let her own issues slide whenever she saw some of their friends having it worse, so at least she is considerate and that cuts her some slack, but I still couldn’t care less about what was going on with her. However, I did laugh a lot with everyone’s reactions to her face when they saw her in the car.

So we circle all the way back to our main storyline. Annie went full crazy on her own hang out/happy place: her car. After taking it too far, one by one, her friends and her dads get into her car to call her out for her craziness, while delivering great funny lines. Here is when the fast paced nature of the show comes best as everything becomes chaotic so quickly and yet every line is said loud, clearly and in a clear order, making the scene funnier as it goes through.

Then Annie gets out of her car and things become a little bit stale; there’s an easy resolution, and Annie just says that she was freaking out about the commitment as she never really thought about it before; it’s a legitimate concern, but the episode mostly played it as Annie needing some space, so this issue stroke me as undeveloped even though it clearly was developed through the episode, it’s just that the execution was quite messy.

In the end I enjoyed the episode, it’s just that it felt like there was more work to be done here: there are plenty of kinks to work out, but it’s far from being a train wreck. There are plenty funny moments and laughs, but it comes together weird. It is necessary that the show regains some focus so that the execution comes off better.

Grade: B-

Stray Observations:

-Trying out something new: I’ll be sticking the grade on the first image so you all know it before handed. Let me know if you like it!

-Each week the opening credits change songs. Bit of a shame, “Home” was a perfect song, but this week’s song wasn’t too shabby either. By the way, anyone knows what song it is? I tried to use Shazam like 3 times and nothing.

-Chad: “You have to leave sometime.”
Gil: “I’ll leave when you close.”
Chad: “But we are open 24 hours.”
Gil: “Bingo tu madre.”

-Gil did look like a garbage person this week when he stayed on the dinner for 29 hours. I still found pretty funny as stated above, but I hope he doesn’t stay like this for the rest of the show.

-Annie: “Everyone’s gotta have their escape. Would you rather I drink or smoke or crack smoke or shoplift yoga legs to feel alive?!”
Kevin 2: “Those are our choices?”

-Jake needs to have more presence on the show; he is there, but he felt more like a decoration or plot device this week than anything else.Hopefully, it’s just this week.

-I got a screener for next week’s episode “Scary Me” and I can tell you it’s a good one; starts a bit slow, but then gets quite funny and charming. Look out for that Advance Preview!

About the Author - Pablo

I'm currently studying Psychology while also writing fantasy books (one already published in my home country, Chile, you can check it out on the facebook icon). I watch many different types of shows, including my favorites Revenge, Game of Thrones, Once Upon a Time and about 23 more. Currently writing reviews for Once Upon a Time, The 100, Community and Marry Me

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