Life On Mars has Trevor start at Broken Arrow Elementary, and as a part of this both Sadie and Floyd are invited to a parents orientation and family picnic in order to settle in. Floyd still doesn't agree with the school, especially when the headteacher has expectations of his income of contributions to the school. Peter and Amy are once again on hand and ready to sing Floyd's praises, but Sadie quickly becomes suspicious of the way Floyd and Amy act around each other.
Sure enough, as soon as Amy can get a spare moment with Floyd, she's on him, and goes as far as to deprive a disabled child of a bathroom, but anything is fair game when it comes to comedy on
White Famous.
Peter and Amy's daughter and Trevor are also introduced in this episode, and quickly find themselves in trouble, but as to be expected, Trevor is the one who actually ends up getting into more trouble. Whilst discussing the matter, Peter suggests that they were too hasty in recommending Trevor a place at Broken Arrow, and that's when Floyd says that everything is being blown out of proportion because Trevor is black. It probably is the case, but everyone in the room who isn't Floyd or Sadie (aka everyone who is white) vehemently denies it. Tensions are high, and it's revealed to everyone that Floyd and Amy have slept together, which of course Peter isn't entirely upset at. Their daughter confesses, which I think the audience always knew that she would, and I think her character is an interesting mic of both Amy and Peter. She's definitely the offspring of her parents and it would be interesting to see her pop up again in the future.
I was honestly fully expecting this episode to just be about the school, just like last episode was largely about the dinner party, so the last five minutes and the shutting down of
Angry Black caught me completely off guard. I still don't like Teddy Snow as a character, and think that what he perceives as his passion for his project comes across as irritating at times, but his phone call with Peter was actually a pretty interesting monologue. I'm surprised that the show has essentially hit reset and that Floyd has lost all of the commercial progress he's made over the last five episodes, but if he manages to do something different for the back half of the season then it could hopefully make for some compelling television.
This show is definitely clicking with me more a bit comedically, but this episode was definitely more dramatic than past episodes have been.
White Famnous still hasn't found it's groove tonally for me and it's frustrating when we're halfway through the season and I can't pinpoint whether it's a comedy like I originally thought, or whether it's more of a dramedy. Maybe it's just a show that doesn't want to be confined by labels.
What did you think of Life On Mars? Let me know in the comments.
