Speechless - L-O-N– LONDON (Part 1) - Advance Preview

This Friday sees Speechless return to our screens with the first of a two-parter called L-O-N-- LONDON Part One.

The season two finale saw the DiMeo’s lose their home. Season 3 picks up with the families housing situation still very much up in the air. A kind soul offers them a temporary roof over their heads, and that results in an extremely humorous cold open that reminded me a lot of the musical sequence done last season.

Whilst it’s all fun and games at first, the families temporary stay proves to be anything but temporary, and everyone is at their wits end. The family are soon discussing breaking up, with Jimmy and Maya staying at a hotel, JJ staying with Kenneth, Dylan staying at a friends house and Ray staying with his friend. That last one is greeted with a lot of scepticism from the family and Kenneth, who don’t actually believe Ray has a friend.

All of this of course leads to the family taking a trip to London to visit Maya’s father Martin, who is played by comedy legend John Cleese. He’s absolutely perfectly cast in this role, and from his first appearance on screen, we can most definitely see where Maya gets her fiery nature from. There are quite a few comedic sequences between the two characters, and even a shout out to Harry Potter as Martin vents his frustration at a tour bus.

In between the family reunion is of course some exploring of London. You cannot have a show shoot on location and not include some tourist action. Ray gets mistaken for being a Californian and whilst at first he enjoys the attention, and goes to extreme measures to look the part, it does all eventually become too much for him. JJ finds himself frustrated by how inaccessible London is to a disabled person, and Jimmy goes above and beyond to try and perk up his son’s spirits and distract himself from the family’s woes. Dylan ends up revealing a rather interesting secret about herself, and there’s a bit of Royal talk.

Given this is a two-parter stretching over 2 weeks, the episode does end on a cliffhanger as Maya finds herself in a surprising situation.

I’ll admit that at points last season, I was fearful that season 2 of Speechless would end up being the final one so I was overjoyed when the renewal news came through. It’s one of my favourite family comedies and “L-O-N– LONDON” (Part 1)” is another fantastic episode. Great family moments, on point humour, never misses a beat, uses John Cleese extremely well and it feels as though the DiMeo’s were never away.

You can catch the Speechless Season 3 Premiere this Friday at 8:30pm on ABC.