American Housewife - The Uprising - Review: "Growing Up"

Season 2 episode 3 of American Housewife tackles one of Katie's worst fears - her children growing up. What seems to be a pretty good day, with Katie even having time to go "to Target to sit on the lawn furniture," quickly turns disasterous for the Otto parents. In an attempt to fit in with her new friends, Taylor's dyed her hair blonde. Oliver got an erection in front of all the girls in his ballet class and has vowed to never go back. And Anna-Kat has been scared into going vegan by Tara Summers after going to her house for a play-date with Tara's daughter (and Eyo's younger sister) Autumn.

Katie and Greg decide to divide and conquer, with Greg trying to talk to Oliver, and Katie dealing with Taylor and Anna-Kat. Unsurprisingly, both parents epically fail. Greg tries to give Oliver a pep talk about how, as an Otto, he's genetically predisposed to humiliation, and how the Otto ancestors and relatives haven't let their own big humiliations define them. Except, as Oliver points out, they have, because those incidents are now the only things they're known for. Katie decides to take the Doris "school of hard-knocks" approach with Taylor and Anna-Kat. She turns off Taylor's cell phone, gets rid of all her furniture, stops cooking for her, and tells her that if she's old enough to dye her hair without asking, she's old enough to fend for herself. And then, while the rest of the family has Sloppy Joe's, she presents Anna-Kat with her new vegan food, a earthen looking mush aptly titled "Brown Loaf."

Unfortunately for Katie, Taylor outsmarts her and uses her birthday money to buy an air mattress and order a pizza. Oh, and Anna-Kat, she decides "Brown Loaf" is her new favorite meal.

So, Katie takes a play out of Angela's playbook, and attempts to talk to Taylor "as a person," not as her mom. This approach ends up working, Taylor apologizes, and Katie promises not to "automatically say no to things," as long as Taylor promises to talk to her first. (Although she's still making her dye her hair back!)

The solution to Anna-Kat's new diet actually ends up being much simpler. Katie just lies to her, convincing her that meat is actually made of veggies, because, in Katie's words, "Anna-Kat is eight. I don't have to treat her like a person. Lying to her works just fine."

As for Oliver, Katie decides the only way to show him public humiliation isn't the end of the world is for him to watch someone else be publicly humiliated. This is, of course, something she has no trouble accomplishing. She just pulls down Greg's now belt-less pants in the middle of his book-reading. ( Anna-Kat gave the belts a proper burial after finding out what they were made of!) Oliver decides to go back to ballet. He's just going to "triple-up" on tights!

Random Thoughts:

-Best quote goes to the generally sweet Greg after finding out his belt has been buried. "I will help you kill Tara Summers!"

-I love that Greg alludes to the fact that his grandfather was the inspiration for the Whoopee-Cushion!

-Katie rotates Targets! That's a pretty smart idea!

-Hans Gruber might just be my new favorite character.

What did you think of "The Uprising?" Let me know below!