Review: 2 Broke Girls ‘And Too Little Sleep’ – It Might Be Super Gonorrhea

The diner in 2 Broke Girls has become less of a hub for Max and Caroline in season two – and for good reason: the worst material from the show consistently came from the racist Han jokes, gross Oleg sex jokes, and constant jokes about hipsters (a group of people who seem to represent every non-main or recurring character on the show). So the idea of ‘And Too Little Sleep’ having almost the entire episode in said diner had me nervous for some painful ‘And The Three Boys With Wood’ material… which there was a bit of, but mostly it was just an episode with some interesting plot threads that in typical 2 Broke Girls fashion, don’t go anywhere.

If you didn’t catch it from the 48 times it was mentioned in the script, Max and Caroline are REALLY tired in ‘And Too Little Sleep’. Caroline is falling asleep taking people’s orders and Max is taking off her pants in front of strangers at her workplace, which doesn’t bode well for their mental states when they find out they have to make 1,000 cupcakes in the period of 10 hours, or let a $4,000 job slip through their fingers.

But there’s more to the episode than the title suggests – the episode is also about Caroline’s recent break up with Andy. Unfortunately, the show tries to throw too much material at the wall for any of it to stick. We don’t really understand why Andy wants her back so bad, especially after he points out how much Caroline still is obsessed with her plan for the cupcake business. It makes their scene in the back of the diner less effective because neither actor really seems to understand why the writers still have them interested in each other – a conversation largely marginalized at the end of the episode when Caroline reveals she hadn’t thought much about him anyway since they broke up.

The more interesting part – Andy and Max breaking up their friendship to avoid awkwardness – is one of the first story lines I’ve seen on the show to feel emotionally true (coming on the heels of Andy’s breakup last week, which is nullified by his behavior this week). The two of them like to exchange pictures of unlikely animal relationships – a meme-based bit that is repeated way too much, and not really funny to begin with – but it makes Caroline uncomfortable and is pretty counter productive to him moving on when he’s texting Max about his ex.

Unfortunately, it probably means the end of Ryan Hansen on the show – but tonight’s episode revealed that the writers clearly had no other material to work with. His character in ‘And Too Little Sleep’ is built more out of convenience than actual emotional pathos – as we see in the scene where him and Caroline confess their ‘glove’, the show really had no idea what to do with the idea of a serious relationship in the first place.

The rest of ‘And Too Little Sleep’ is scattered with the usual bits of desperation, particularly the tasteless Rihanna and Chris Brown jokes. There’s nothing worse than two women making jokes about domestic abuse against females, and 2 Broke Girls is all too willing to keep the bit going for a minute or two, with absolutely no idea of how despicable the attempts at making that humorous is. But for two weeks in a row, the relationship bits have felt a little more grounded, and it makes the episodes infinitely more watchable – even if the writers go nowhere with its characters, the scatterbrained ideas of friendship and the separation of a social circle after a break-up represent a small step forward for the show, hopefully one that lasts a little longer than two episodes.

Grade: C

Other thoughts/observations:

– “Success really cuts your balls off” might be the best thing Max ever said.

– the recurring bit about Max not knowing she slept with a guy at the record store really isn’t funny. Nobody loves a girl that loves herself for being a slut.

– I don’t get Oleg’s joke about “doing 70, because he’s got one more than 69” (paraphrasing). Explanation?

– One scene with Sophie is one too many, but her ten seconds of screen time in this episode was definitely boosted the grade.

– you don’t want to see Han on two Sea Breezes.

– In case you were wondering, Earl did coke for 30 years because that’s just what black people do. He also can’t control himself drinking.

– for once, the money total at the end actually made some sense. Still totally fucking stupid to have it, though.

– did anyone not think the tube of frosting would lead to a cum joke? Let’s not forget the show we’re watching here.