Hawkeye (2021) s01e06 – So This Is Christmas?

After three episodes away, Rhys Thomas is back directing this episode of “Hawkeye” for the grand finale, and… well, I wish they’d let Bert & Bertie do it. Thomas’s fight scenes aren’t any better than the previous directors’ fight scenes, and he doesn’t have the same light touch with the characters. It’s fine. It’s a successful conclusion to the series, but it’s checking boxes successfully, not ambitious and then succeeding in realizing those ambitions. Because there’s just too much to be done.

Last episode, we discovered not only is Vera Farmiga a villain, but she’s also a villain whose been working with big reveal Vincent D’Onofrio. D’Onofrio’s from Netflix’s “Marvel’s Daredevil” and his appearance last episode is the first confirmation those Netflix shows are in some kind of continuity, even if it’s just cast continuity (in the week in between that episode and this one, D’Onofrio’s “Daredevil” costar, Charlie Cox, reprised the role in Spider-Man 3). But this episode isn’t D’Onofrio just doing a stunt cameo; he’s got a whole arc. No post-Blip recap at the beginning, which seems like a miss given both Alaqua Cox and Florence Pugh got them, but the episode’s so way too full already.

Despite hiring Julia Louis-Dreyfus (who doesn’t appear) to assassinate Jeremy Renner because he’s too good an influence on daughter Hailee Steinfeld, Farmiga’s done with the international crime syndicate lifestyle, and she’s quitting whether D’Onofrio likes it or not.

D’Onofrio doesn’t like it, and he tells Fra Fee to kill Farmiga. Meanwhile, Cox has realized D’Onofrio had her father killed, and she’s trying to get away from him. Alaqua Cox, not Charlie Cox. Charlie Cox isn’t in this episode.

Just realized how confusing writing these posts will be if Alaqua Cox’s “Echo” spin-off involves Daredevil Charlie Cox.

Renner and Steinfeld figure out D’Onofrio’s going after Farmiga—but don’t ever imagine he’d have a Fee snipe her, which seems like an oversight—so if they’re going to save her, they’ll have to do it at a ritzy Christmas Eve party at Rockefeller Center. The Christmas tree and the ice skating will both be things; I’m pretty sure they were spots on Renner’s tourist list when he was showing his kids New York City at Christmas in the first episode, but everyone seems to have forgotten. I’m blaming director Thomas. It’s probably not his fault, but I’m blaming Thomas for not making sure the echoes—no pun—reverberated.

The episode’s going to be a series of middling fight scenes with good banter, starting with Steinfeld and Pugh (Pugh’s the assassin Louis-Dreyfus hired to kill Renner in the post-credits scene in Black Widow). It’s an under-choreographed but energetic fight, with Steinfeld and Pugh’s delightful chemistry driving the whole thing.

Oh, wait—also important, Renner tells Steinfeld she’s his partner earlier, and it’s a whole touching bonding moment even though the episode never gives it enough time.

Pugh’s eager to kill Renner because she’s convinced Renner killed Scarlett Johansson in Avengers 4. But she’s still just in it for the job, which is another miss.

After their (relative to the rest in the episode) excellent fight scene, Renner’s going to fight Fee, Cox is going to fight Fee, Renner and Steinfeld are going to fight the Tracksuit Mafia, Steinfeld’s going to fight D’Onofrio, and Renner and Pugh will have their showdown.

The Renner and Steinfeld team-up fight scene is the best of those sequences, then probably the Cox and Fee one because there’s some gravitas to it. The fight between Renner and Pugh can’t possibly deliver all it needs to deliver; there’s just not enough time for the character development (Pugh’s Renner’s best friend’s kid sister, and it ought to be about their shared loss, but it’s not). It doesn’t flop, which is about the best it can ever hope for.

Similarly, Steinfeld’s fighting D’Onofrio—who apparently got his hands on some super-soldier serum between “Daredevil: Season Three” and “Hawkeye,” which is fine and could’ve easily been explained—is just to keep D’Onofrio from killing Farmiga. Except Farmiga and Steinfeld’s mother and daughter arc completely fizzles.

Though nothing would’ve made me happy with it other than Steinfeld telling Farmiga it’s not “Mare of Easttown,” so she’s not covering for her being a murderer and what not.

The episode’s most successful for Steinfeld, Renner, and Cox, with Tony Dalton getting an honorable mention. He’s got a very fun little arc. And there’s some nice stuff with the larpers, just not enough. Farmiga, Fee, D’Onofrio? Eh. It’s all fine and with more time would’ve been better, but they don’t get more time. Pugh’s good but too much a guest star. It’s almost like they could’ve used another episode.

And then the final “twist” for Renner and wife Linda Cardellini… it’s a little forced and a little slight. Another episode would’ve helped it too.

But as far as ushering Kate Bishop into the MCU and setting up a good dynamic for Steinfeld and Renner? “Hawkeye” succeeds. Though Bert & Bertie probably would’ve directed the packed script better.

There’s a hilarious joke at the MCU franchise’s expense for the post-credits scene. It’s good, and it’s nice they can laugh at themselves, but seriously, we just got done with Kate Bishop’s first adventure—the critical question is, when will she be back? And do they understand they need to bring Pugh along with Steinfeld for it?

As for Renner… if he could do this MCU dad bit so well, why didn’t they have him doing it from the start instead of being the franchise’s most useless major participant? The way they’re able to juxtapose the friendship between Renner and Steinfeld with the never explored one between Renner and ScarJo is some deft work too.

“Hawkeye”’s not a home run, but it’s decidedly a win.

Hawkeye (2021) s01e05 – Ronin

Okay, now I’m “worried.” They’ve only got one episode left, they just introduced the big bad, and it’s a surprise reveal for… streaming media rights disputes geeks (like myself), but otherwise, it’s just a Marvel property. I’d seen the rumors, and then this episode, there are some big hints, but it turns out the villain is someone Jeremy Renner knows, and there’s a big back story he hasn’t been telling anyone about.

And it sets up Alaqua Cox’s “Echo” spin-off for next year or whatever, but it does absolutely nothing for “Hawkeye,” which isn’t great since “Hawkeye” just got a lot fuller this episode. With only one more to go.

The episode opens with Florence Pugh’s post-Black Widow catch-up. Kind of like how Cox got one, but with more jokes, the Blip, and less actual content. Because Pugh’s catch-up is set before Widow’s end titles scene, then when Pugh’s in the actual episode proper, it was obviously shot a lot later.

Pugh’s only in the episode proper to hang out with Hailee Steinfeld, which is simultaneously wonderful and promises of excellent New Avengers interactions. Still, it’s also kind of rushed and shoehorned. There’s only one episode left; any further bonding with Pugh and Steinfeld clearly isn’t happening on “Hawkeye.” But Pugh reveals who hired her to kill Renner—it’s not actually her life’s goal since she thinks he killed ScarJo in Endgame. She’s just in it for the money (in this case, funneled from this series’s surprise villain in the cast to the cameo villain to Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s character from “Falcon and the Winter Soldier”). It kind of ruins Pugh’s motivations, but hopefully, they’ll somehow get her set for her next appearance in the one hour they have left.

This episode’s only forty minutes (nothing pads end titles like CGI credits and dubbing credits), so unless the next one is seventy, there’s going to be something lost in the shuffle. And it seems very much like it’s going to be Renner and Steinfeld’s relationship. They start the episode broken up but get back together after Steinfeld’s run-in with Pugh and Renner donning his ninja assassin outfit to threaten Cox and give her some information for the next episode and her spin-off.

Linda Cardellini appears for a phone call, but it’s not about family stuff; it’s hinting at more reveals. Potentially very cool reveals, just ones the show doesn’t seem to have time to address appropriately. Not when they’re doing double major twists in the last few minutes.

Otherwise, of course, it’s a pretty great episode. The fight scene between Renner and Cox is wanting in terms of choreography, but directors Bert & Bertie are very enthusiastic about the setting. There’s this weird disconnect where they’re clearly trying with shooting the fight but not the fight itself.

Larper, firefighter, and fun sidekick Clayton English is back for a bit. Enough time to showcase how he should’ve been in the show more, or they really should’ve gone eight episodes. Vera Farmiga and Tony Dalton both have good scenes; Fra Fee’s got a good scene—it’s Cox’s best episode too. Lots of good acting. Even when it’s silly like Renner talking to ScarJo beyond the grave (I mean, she doesn’t respond), which Renner nails, but the show hasn’t established and should have.

Steinfeld’s able to keep up with Pugh, who realizes the potential for the Russian super-assassin in the world of Marvel Superheroes like none other.

Some wonderful Christmas music choices, funny moments with the Tracksuit Mafia, and so on… but there’s so much to resolve and still keep it Steinfeld and Renner’s show. They seem more concerned about setting up spin-offs than completing this story.

Fingers, toes, and nose crossed they do right by Kate Bishop.

Hawkeye (2021) s01e04 – Partners, Am I Right?

It’s a shorter episode, but a lot is going on. Especially since it’s often a bridging episode setting up the rest of the season, which is only two more episodes, which is frankly terrifying given all they’ve got to do.

But more on that bit later (I’ve been thinking “Hawkeye” ran eight, not six, so I wasn’t thinking about it while watching).

The episode opens with a quick resolve of Tony Dalton discovering Jeremy Renner snooping around his apartment and quickly gets into an awkward introduction scene for Renner and Hailee Steinfeld’s family. Complete with Vera Farmiga being very suspicious (after asking Renner to finish his case without Steinfeld’s help). Then Renner immediately finds out Dalton’s laundering money for the Tracksuit Mafia. So lots of potential drama.

For later. Because then there’s this lovely scene with Steinfeld getting to see what mom Farmiga sees in Dalton, and it’s this touching Christmas family scene.

That touching Christmas family scene gives way to Steinfeld crashing Renner’s night—spent sitting around by himself covered in ice packs. He has a family phone call—Linda Cardellini gets her cameo—but then he’s sad and solo. Until new best friend Steinfeld arrives and they have a fun night.

The show’s doing a fantastic job with their character relationship, mixing in Renner’s Black Widow-related regrets (though not missing the solo movie), and setting up an echo—no pun intended—for later in the episode. It’s a pronounced echo, but a very good one.

After some amusing scenes with Renner threatening bad guy Fra Fee and Steinfeld hanging out with the larpers from before (and introducing something for later), they’re back on assignment. There’s a Rolex MacGuffin from Avengers mansion—sorry, sorry, Avengers tower—which could give away the location of a hidden Avenger or something. It’s going to be one of the later reveals, which they only have two episodes for.

There are also two more reveals coming up for Renner because it turns out villain Alaqua Cox is stalking his family, and there’s a very special guest star hunting him down on the rooftops. On Steinfeld’s side, the hard truths about Farmiga and Dalton are coming up. I don’t think she’s got anything else outstanding.

So they’ve got four to six plot threads to resolve—let’s not forget Renner’s still got to make it home for Christmas—in two episodes. I really hope they pull it off.

Very nice work from Steinfeld and Renner this episode. Since Farmiga and Dalton are suspicious more than anything else, there’s only so much they can do. If it ends well, “Hawkeye”’s going to rewatch spectacularly. Especially as a Christmas-time binge watch. If they don’t at least make it a great Christmas story….

The big fight scene is the only thing wrong with the episode—outside it potentially setting up the series to stumble. It’s a complicated New York rooftop fight, full of laughs and action, and directors Bert & Bertie do a fine job shooting it… but they don’t care at all about the fight choreography. Yes, “Hawkeye”’s a show about archers and arrows, but if they’re going to do fisticuffs, make the fisticuffs interesting to look at. Unfortunately, it’s almost like they’re doing an anti-Netflix Marvel show with their aversion to good fight choreography.

I really hope they pull this one off. Steinfeld and Renner deserve it.

As do Kate Bishop fans.

Hawkeye (2021) s01e02 – Hide and Seek

So, the last episode established post-Endgame Jeremy Renner and introduced Hailee Steinfeld, but this episode’s got to bring them together. It would be entirely possible—albeit improbable—for them not to have any chemistry once the Hawkeye(s) get together. Worse, what if it’s just a surrogate father thing since Steinfeld lost her dad during the Avengers’s Battle of New York and stepdad-to-be Tony Dalton is at best a broke narcissist. But Renner’s already got a family; his whole thing is about trying to reconnect with the kids (Ava Russo, Ben Sakamoto, and Cade Woodward in truly thankless roles) after playing ninja Punisher for five years and traveling the globe to thin out the criminals who survived Thanos’s snap.

Real quick aside, so I don’t forget. Apparently, Renner told wife Linda Cardellini all about it because she’s aware of the bad guys of this episode, which wouldn’t make any sense if he hadn’t told her about his one-man killing spree. It’s kind of unfair Frank Castle never got to heal through talk therapy.

The show—writer credit to Elisa Lomnitz Climent—does an excellent job establishing the rapport between Renner and Steinfeld. He’s momentarily bewildered by her but then tries to make sure she doesn’t suffer for unknowingly donning the aforementioned ninja Punisher outfit and drawing the attention of the Tracksuit Mafia. The Tracksuit Mafia’s from the comic and the show plays them less dangerous and more amusing, which is good. I couldn’t believe they were going to use them, but toning it down works.

Another layer to the Steinfeld and Renner relationship is her read on his discomfort being a world-famous superhero. He’s just trying to be a dad, sad about Scarlett Johansson dying, regretful about the ninja Punisher stuff (but really, they were all guilty, right), not trying to be a hero. Except he’s a hero no matter what. Renner does a surprisingly good job with it, especially since Hawkeye’s always been a Marvel movie tack-on. Starting with his first appearance in a nighttime rainstorm long shot in Thor, then when he was brainwashed for half the first Avengers movie. The show seems to be giving him a chance to turn it into a substantial role.

Especially since part of his quest to get the suit back involves a LARP event in Central Park.

While Renner’s playing with NerfⓇ swords, Steinfeld’s sussing out the new family situation and keeping a low profile. Stepdad-to-be Dalton is trying hard under mom Vera Farmiga’s watchful eye, and Steinfeld’s taken aback at Mom’s inability to see through him.

We also find out this episode Farmiga runs a security company; I can’t remember if that detail’s comic accurate, but since “Batwoman”’s done it in-between, it seems a little contrived. Though it does explain how Steinfeld can play private investigator, so it’s okay. As long as they address Farmiga not running a background check on Dalton at some point.

There’s an entertaining cliffhanger setup with Renner trying to outwit the Tracksuit Mafia and Steinfeld trying too hard to help him, leading into the ominous introduction of a series villain. Again, it feels very “East Coast MCU” (i.e., Netflix’s Marvel shows), possibly because the series villain’s from Daredevil.

But the show’s good. Like, it’s getting better as it goes. The fight scenes aren’t particularly great at this point, of course, but there’s time. Also the music, by Christophe Beck and Michael Paraskevas, is fantastic.

Hawkeye (2021) s01e01 – Never Meet Your Heroes

Outside wistfully hoping Edward Norton would bring art-house sensibilities to the mainstream, “Hawkeye” is the first official MCU property I’ve ever been emotionally invested in. I mean, obviously, East Coast “MCU” (the Netflix series) were a thing—and “Hawkeye” reminds of them immensely—but in the straight Disney-for-teens MCU? “Hawkeye” ’s it. Go read the Matt Fraction and David Aja comic. Their new Hawkeye, Kate Bishop, is genuinely marvelous. So I really want this show to succeed.

Now, the show is very much not the comic—Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye is a dad trying to bond with his kids after spending five years murdering gangsters before he got the chance at redemption in Avengers: Endgame not the dopey beefcake Hawkeye of the comics, and Hailee Steinfeld’s Kate Bishop is… entirely MCU in her origin. The episode starts with young Kate (an almost eerily well-cast as young Steinfeld Clara Stack) living through the Battle of New York from the first Avengers movie. Who saves her as she watches the destruction from her Manhattan high rise? Archer Renner, leading her to take up the bow. It’s kind of like that old Earth-3 Batman story where the parents don’t die, and Bruce becomes Batman because he helps people.

Anyway.

The opening titles, which are very Aja-influenced (making it very MCU they didn’t pay or even acknowledge Aja), and recount Stack’s journey from kid to archer, martial artist, and so on. They catch us up to Steinfeld in the present, a college student whose reckless behavior (she’s rich, young, and accomplished) lands her in some amusing trouble. I had been a little worried the show would emphasize Renner too much, but it’s definitely Steinfeld’s show. It’s a baton-passer. It better be.

After meeting Steinfeld, the action cuts to Renner in New York for Christmas with his kids, sometime after Endgame. There’s been enough time for the world to put together a Captain America Broadway show for Renner to cringe through, except when the Black Widow is on stage, which brings up lots of feels for Renner. While he’s not a buffoon and instead does a working-class guy stuck with celebrity (“Hawkeye” is basically Kate Bishop meets Die Hard meets Planes, Trains, and Automobiles), his kids still have to stay attuned to his moods and be his support network. Kind of inglorious because his kids are background, kind of like “guest star” Linda Cardellini as his wife. She isn’t on the trip with them but gets to make reassuring phone calls.

Renner’s part of the episode is some Endgame postscript, leaving the rising action to Steinfeld.

She’s stuck going to a charity ball with rich lady mom Vera Farmiga and her new fiancé Tony Dalton. Dalton’s a skeezy blue blood without much cash in the bank; he’s just waiting to inherit it from rich uncle Simon Callow. Callow gets to be a delight in a small part, filling Steinfeld in on what she’s missed while away at school, while Dalton and Farmiga have to play it straight and slightly mysterious. It’s the first episode, after all.

Steinfeld inserts herself into one of the mysterious situations and pretty soon has to don Renner’s Endgame Ronin costume to save the day, not realizing all the bad guys left in the world want Ronin dead. Luckily, she gets caught on camera (saving an adorable dog), so Renner and family see her on the news, contriving a reason to bring the characters together.

Steinfeld’s fantastic, Renner’s solid, the New York Christmas time thing is perfect. The “Children of the MCU”—the people growing up in this brave new world—are really working out. At least here.

“Hawkeye” isn’t exactly what I was hoping for, but everything I was hoping for it seems to be delivering.

Dead to Me (2019) s02e10 – Where Do We Go From Here

How’s “Dead to Me” going to finish up its second season? How’s it going to resolve all the dangerous situations its characters have put themselves in? With one deus ex machina after another. One could say it’s lazy, but given how hard the show tried to be more than an easy black comedy the first season, it’s kind of nice for it to acknowledge it’s not going to clear any high bars.

And this episode does give cop Diana Maria Riva some good material. It really does. Does it make up for her basically being a lazy Latinx the first season? No. And the second season also just has Brandon Scott around to get racist shit from Jere Burns so its inclusivity is… well, it’s actually not suspect because you wouldn’t expect anything different. So Riva getting good material is a surprise.

She’s helping Christina Applegate tie up her arc, which is one or two of the deuses ex; there’s no point in counting them. Much like the earlier Tell-Tale Heart, you get the feeling “Dead to Me” would be lucky if had heard of deus ex machina from anything but a video game.

Everything gets wrapped up in a nice bow, even after things should get more complicated—including the finale, which sets up another season but also doesn’t have a cliffhanger. It could wrap up in a dark but accurate bow, but doesn’t—though based on the shot and the audio… it’s possible they were at least thinking about it. Maybe “Dead to Me” got saved in post, who knows.

There’s a shot or two of Telma Hopkins, who’s back for one of the strands in the bow wrap-up, and Valerie Mahaffey puts in an appearance for one of the deus ex machinas. Sadly Suzy Nakamura has a cameo too. And gets mocked. Because “Dead to Me” goes for cheap laughs.

The show ends as a full-on comedy, so if there is another season and they keep with it… it’ll probably be better? Like, Applegate and Cardellini are great as wine mom Kate & Allie or whatever. The dramatics… not so much.

Hopefully annoying teenage son Sam McCarthy will be off to college by then.

But until then… there are probably better James Marsden and Natalie Morales performances out there to watch. Ones in much better productions.

Dead to Me (2019) s02e09 – It’s Not You, It’s Me

The episode opens with some post-morning sex freaking out for Christina Applegate while Linda Cardellini is off to the big house. The show’s real cheap about the Cardellini thing, making me think I missed something in the previous episode, but she’s really there to see mom Katey Sagal, who’s not dead, but in prison. Again.

I mean, cool to have the “Married with Children” reunion but not with the actors actually having a reunion… Sagal’s great, even if she’s a stunt cast and even if its poorly written.

Back to Applegate, she’s breaking it off with new James Marsden, who’s so happy after the sex he wants to dance with her. But he’s got to go.

On his way out, he runs into Sam McCarthy, who’s sad and confused to see him go. It’s all a lead-up to Applegate getting a letter from the city saying her stop sign proposal has been rejected.

Now, most episodes of “Dead to Me” this season have started immediately following the previous one, meaning Applegate hadn’t even submitted the proposal in the previous one. But somehow city government answered her in a day—so she storms down to city hall where the zoning commission is always in session so she can yell at them.

It’s a fine enough scene, with a returning appearance from first season attempted rapist Rick Holmes, who’s still a great creep, but “Dead to Me”’s plotting is dismal.

At least the direction—from Silver Tree—isn’t terrible.

Cardellini goes to the cops, where she’s surprised to see Brandon Scott, and Diana Maria Riva threatens to arrest McCarthy for old Marsden’s disappearance and blah blah blah. There’s a cheap cliffhanger as to how Cardellini is going to react but then she’s back home to argue with Applegate about everything.

During the argument, Applegate lays into her, including making a remark about her mother… who Cardellini has been telling everyone is dead. So… not a great script, not great.

Applegate also confesses her first episode of the season secret to Cardellini, which leads to more drama and then a big cliffhanger with Applegate now ready to change all their lives.

Lots of big things happen this episode and none of them go very well, which isn’t a surprise… series creator Liz Feldman cowrote and she’s never written the better episodes of the show.

Dead to Me (2019) s02e08 – It Had to Be You

So, funny thing about this season. The cops seem to have forgotten anyone hit Christina Applegate’s husband with a car and drove away. Like. When Diana Maria Riva is recapping her involvement with Applegate and Linda Cardellini for Natalie Morales? Doesn’t come up. It’s very strange.

Though, I guess makes sense given where the show’s gone.

Morales hears all about Cardellini just after Applegate has given the romance the go-ahead—ditto Cardellini giving Applegate and new James Marsden’s romance to go-ahead. Initially Applegate and Cardellini were arguing about it, but then Sam McCarthy showed up to ruin the scene and confront Applegate about old Marsden’s missing car.

Three main plots this episode—first, Morales’s mom (who doesn’t appear) takes a medical turn for the worse, leading to trouble in new paradise for Cardellini and Morales. Bummer there.

Then Applegate goes over to Marsden’s mom’s house to sell it and score a $15 million commission, but Applegate feels bad about the situation. It doesn’t help Marsden mom Frances Conroy appears to have another major organ failing every few seconds. It’s a very weird choice, meant to gin up sympathy for Conroy, but then there’s also how exasperating new Marsden finds her so she’s simultaneously not sympathetic. She’s also apparently a terrible old rich White lady….

If they do a third season, I imagine there will be some notes on her.

But we also discover some of Applegate’s hesitation over a physical romance with new Marsden is because of her mastectomy and reconstruction, which the show could handle a lot better. It gets foreshadowed with new Marsden telling her how he has scars all over his chest from childhood heart surgeries. It’s weird and forced, though not effective thanks to the actors.

But then there’s also this fake-out involving someone writing “I Know What You Did” on the garage, which ends up just being another, Sam McCarthy’s a teenage White boy who doesn’t actually have to be accountable just sullenly nod when Applegate tells him not to be a shithead.

It’s poorly done, but McCarthy’s an abscess on this series.

Oh, Jere Burns. He’s not Marsdens’ dad, he’s the racist, sexist local police chief we heard about earlier. Brandon Scott’s back working—in the police department where he didn’t work last season but whatever—and taking the tip calls on old Marsden’s disappearance. Basically he’s there for Burns to be low-key racist towards. It’s charming. Or something.

Also we hear about Cardellini’s mom for the first time in a while, with the ending implying she’s dead or something, and Cardellini didn’t know.

They maybe shouldn’t have saved all the character development for episode eight of ten. Though it did mean four great episodes of Morales and Cardellini….

Dead to Me (2019) s02e07 – If Only You Knew

Wow, more of the, no, really, you like Christina Applegate and Sam McCarthy as a mother-son comedic pair. He’s quietly sullen and she’s loudly obscene. Please laugh.

McCarthy is a leech on this season, frankly. Thanks to Natalie Morales and new James Marsden, “Dead to Me” has a new lease on life—is that a no pun intended type statement—and the season one leftovers, for the most part, are still dragging it down in the seventh episode of season two.

Applegate and McCarthy generically and insincerely bond while taking data for her stop sign proposal.

Anyway. One of the main plots of the episode involve Applegate telling Cardellini to break up with Morales, even though Cardellini and Morales are in capital L love after only a few days together.

And, why wouldn’t they be, especially since there’s a “twist” in the identity of Morales’s ex-girlfriend, still-roommate, who has a somewhat amusing awkwardness showdown with Cardellini.

The other main plot has Applegate and Cardellini volunteering to organize a vigil for still missing old Marsden as a favor to overwhelmed new Marsden.

At the vigil, we get to meet Marsdens’ mom, Frances Conroy, who’s played as a tragic figure. Also there’s no dad, which it seemed like there wasn’t, but then new Marsden kept referring to parents plural… and Jere Burns threatens Cardellini at the vigil so I was thinking Burns was the dad….

But it’s never cleared up here. Because we’ve got to get to Keong Sim making an unexpectedly welcome return (Sim was never bad last season, just badly used) to say some words at the vigil before they kick off a slideshow, which McCarthy happens to see because he likes new Marsden so much but doesn’t want to admit liking a non-toxic male, and recognizes the missing Marsden’s car.

Plus Applegate and new Marsden make out, which is both creepy and unfair (heartbroken over Morales, Cardellini peeps their romantic beach make-out).

The episode also introduces “WWJD”—as in “What Would Jen Do” or “What Would Judy Do” because it took them seventeen episodes to realize their characters have the same first letter in their first names.

Doing a Jen (Applegate) is getting shit-faced no matter what the time of day. Doing a Judy (Cardellini) is being a good person no matter what the situation.

The show would be a lot more fun if they’d classified those tropes sooner.

Also Jennifer Getzinger’s direction is a step down from the season two usual. Not as bad as first season, but still incapable of finding a good reaction shot.

Dead to Me (2019) s02e06 – You Don’t Have To

So, first things first. Let’s get the negative out of the way; Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum does a poor job of directing. Not quite as bad as a first season episode, but definitely a return to the bad frame composition to cover for some of the actors not being very good. Like Sam McCarthy; I noticed Rosenbaum’s composition during a McCarthy and Christina Applegate scene and the show really just needs to acknowledge it’s not going to do anything special with the two characters.

It seems to come to that realization in the happy night out finish, where everyone—not Max Jenkins thank goodness—hangs out at an arcade and bonds. By everyone I mean, Applegate, sons McCarthy and Luke Roessler, and Linda Cardellini and her genuine, bonafide love interest, Natalie Morales. Out of nowhere, “Dead to Me” gets the major points for Bi-Inclusivity; first with Cardellini and Morales’s smoke out conversation about Cardellini’s relationship with Applegate, then with Morales meeting Applegate. It’s amazing how good sincere nonplus makes something seem when it’s really just not being bad.

The episode’s basically split with Cardellini and Morales and then Applegate and new James Marsden. The Marsden stuff turns into this fantastic T-800 situation; in the insane world of “Dead to Me,” obviously new Marsden is going to be the only one who measures up.

The show’s trying to make McCarthy more likable, giving him an awkward sex conversation with Cardellini and then he’s empathetic to brother Roessler at just the right time. But it’s still blah.

There’s also some more with Diana Maria Riva, who brings Cardellini for some questions and takes the opportunity to manipulate her. It turns out Riva is about to figure into the plot in a very forced “it’s all connected” way, which is a bummer. Though at this point you wish the good cast members—Marsden, Cardellini, Applegate, Morales—would just jump ship to a new series. The first season broke this one too hard.

Oh, and Brandon Scott’s back. He sadly didn’t bring his charm along.