Is Max a character anymore? Throughout the second season of 2 Broke Girls, Max has felt less like a three-dimensional person, and more like a checklist of jokes: parents sucked, she’s a whore, let’s do drugs, repeat. While Caroline is trying to build a business and change her life, Max has increasingly felt tacked-on to her adventures, standing around with her arms crossed while Caroline humbles herself and questions everything around her.
To a degree, the show’s always kind of embraced this balance of Caroline’s hyperactivity and Max’s detached qualities – but in episode’s like tonight’s ‘Not-So-Sweet-Charity’, it sticks out badly. There’s an honest effort underneath the ridiculousness of her visits to Aunt Charity (how original) to try and save her company: but it’s all undermined by Max’s complete inability to give a shit about anything, sucking on morphine lollipops and acting proud of the fact they paid rent half of the months they’ve been there (“we’re batting .500… those are Hall of Fame numbers.”).
It’s disappointing – although the show’s always been inept at taking interesting ideas and turning them into something meaningful, there’s been a noticable increase of attempts in maturing Caroline beyond the premise of her character. Max? No such thing – ever since she lost her boyfriend in the middle of the first season, she’s slipped further and further into caricature, a snide presence in the corner waiting with some self-deprecating quips she wears like a badge of honor.
It would be one thing if she was witty: but she doesn’t add anything to Caroline’s story with her idiocy. She makes multiple joking about ejaculation (Caroline: “The mailman came.” Max: “Where?”… that’s the zinger the episode opens with), and when eviction and a failed investment loom over her, she doesn’t seem to give a shit. This might be interesting if it was suggested that Max was the reason the bakery failed – but it’s not, she’s happy to sign it over to the deaf real estate agent (who is deaf because what’s more fun that jokes about sign language!) and chalk it up as a loss. There isn’t even a hint of caring in anything she says or does, and it puts her at a distance from everything, totally unattached to the reality of the situation.
I could see a much better version of this show existing without Max at all – or her character relegated to Sophie status, only annoying the audience for two minutes before getting the hell off the screen. There are little moments here and there where the show actually feels like it cares about Caroline, and wants us to invest in her journey from fallen rich girl to a successful woman standing on her two feet. But those moments crash and burn as soon as Max opens her mouth with a cliche dick joke, smacking the audience back to reality and reminding us that there’s no brain or heart at the core of 2 Broke Girls.
Grade: D+
Other thoughts/observations:
– “Family can’t kill you, because they’re the first ones questioned” is basically Max’s idea of familial love. How charming.
– “It’s a lipstick at Target, not a missile in Iran!”
– How about those Whole Foods ads? “If they put a Whole Foods in this neighborhood, the economy will booom!”
– nobody even needed to write any Han lines this week: instead, he recited memes. The laziness here is almost insulting.
– a lot of what they try to build with Caroline is ruined when she demands $25,000 for a broken cup. She reverts right back to her privileged self, and never acknowledges it.
– why does the audience break out in applause and cheering when Sophie starts begging for money?
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