Second Look: Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place Season 2, Episode 17 – “Two Guys, a Girl and the Storm of the Century (Part 1)”

Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place Season 2, Episode 17 “Two Guys, a Girl and the Storm of the Century (Part 1)”
Written by Rick Weiner (story), Mark Ganzel & Kenny Schwartz (teleplay)
Directed by Ellen Gittelsohn
Aired February 17, 1999 on ABC

From The Nanny‘s “Hurricane Fran” to E.R.‘s “Hell and High Water” (or “The Storm”) to How I Met Your Mother‘s “Disaster Averted” (or “Three Days of Snow”), episodes with big storms have long been a staple in modern American television (The Pretender‘s “Keys”, anyone?) . After all, big weather events are a perfect backdrop for big emotions, and opportunities for series that normally might not place its regulars in physical peril to experiment with the element of danger, and how that affects its protagonists. “Two Guys, a Girl and the Storm of the Century (Part 1)” is but one in a long line of these kinds of episodes – and for most of its running time, a rather disappointing use of setting and tone for the story it is trying to tell, another example of Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place and its penchant for experimentation, but unfortunately one that just doesn’t quite stick the landing.

“Two Guys, a Girl and the Storm of the Century” opens with the gang’s first sighting of Ashley since “Two Guys, a Girl and a Limo” – in turn revealing the facade Berg’s put on for weeks, as he immediately begins to spiral in disturbing fashion. He begins obsessing over local Spanish news station weather woman Venita Viento (Switched at Birth and The Lopez Show alum Constance Marie), and forcibly tries to throw himself back out into the dating game – even though he’s clearly not ready to, as his fawning over Ashley returns in earnest. In typical Berg fashion (“Two Guys, a Girl and Oxford” being a good reference here), he decides the best way to distract himself is to go find Venita as she broadcasts a thoroughly irresponsible weather broadcast on the Boston shoreline, in the middle of a massive tornado-like storm.

Look, I appreciate Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place trying to be clever about Ashley’s re-integration into the show – and I can even get on board with making it the focal point of the show’s first two-parter, especially since the show’s been on a bit of a hot streak (well, mostly) since her post-Thanksgiving departure. However, the resulting story in this episode is ludicrous at best – and at worst, borders on some of the most lifeless, pointless storytelling the show’s engaged in so far. Berg’s pursuit of Venita is just weird – and not even in an off-putting, but quirky and maybe a little charming way, ala How I Met Your Mother‘s “Purple Giraffe” – and does nothing to serve his character; he just decides he’s going out in the storm, and risks his life to go hit on Venita… while she’s in the middle of a news broadcast.

Strangely, the episode never really even tries to make a case for his attraction to her, beyond a vague nod towards him always wanting women he can’t have; so it’s a strange development to see Venita warm up to Berg, eventually sharing a kiss with him and agreeing to go on a date with him – after they survive the storm by bearing down on one of the pier’s sheds, giving them an opportunity to display their lack of chemistry when they shared a blanket. So when Ashley suddenly reappears at the end of the episode, talking about how the storm made her see that she didn’t want to be with Justin anymore, it doesn’t land with any sense of dramatic significance, or even comedic irony: it’s not even clear whether Berg actually knows her name by the end of the episode, so the attempt at delivering a cliffhanger falls incredibly flat, souring what was already an underwhelming (and surprisingly unfunny) episode with an absolute stinker of an A plot.

The rest of “Two Guys, a Girl and the Storm of the Century” doesn’t fare well, either: Pete spends the entire episode trying to get Sharon to talk about their kiss at the end of “Two Guys, a Girl and Valentine’s Day” – which, of course, Sharon’s completely unwilling to even recognize as valid inquiries. It is, rather unabashedly, an attempt by the show to delay with the fallout of its own creative choices, clearly not ready to contend with the potentially world-breaking decision to break up the titular platonic threesome; not only does Sharon completely avoid the topic of her breakup with Johnny, but she shuts down Pete every time he tries to bring up what happened after the infamous Valentine’s Day dinner; it is a lot of space wasted on Sharon blatantly ignoring Pete, and lends to the thoroughly unsatisfying, anticlimactic feeling one is left with at the episode’s close (consider that the second part of this episode would not air for nearly a month later… talk about killing the momentum).

“Two Guys, a Girl and the Storm of the Century” is an incredible miscalibration by the Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place writers, in so many ways. Berg’s behavior, Ashley’s reactionary decision-making, Sharon’s ignorance, Pete’s pathetic attempts to engage her… it all shows the characters of the series at their most selfish, without any of the prescient bits of self-reflection this series has already proven it can provide. And its attempt to experiment with form is also a failure; there’s nothing about the cliffhangers of this episode that are genuinely shocking, or exciting, or even necessary. It’s just 22 minutes of strained contrivances forced upon its characters, none of which deliver on the inherent promise of a storm-centered two-part episode, its only saving grace being the goodwill already built up in the season’s second act, and the few jokes that do land, saving this episode from being a complete dumpster fire from beginning to end.

Grade: D

Other thoughts/observations:

• “Can we stop for a second? I have fisherman’s foot.”
  
• One bit I do like in this episode is Pete’s denialism manifesting: he insists the storm is all hype, a result of “big business” and “candle cartels” trying to drive up demand for their products.
  
• Wait Venita… why are you not allowed back in the state of Texas? Red flag!
  
• Pete, noticing Berg’s sudden turn of fortune with Venita and Ashley: “Boy, when it rains, it pours.”
  
• Up next: Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place gets more than a little toxic in “Two Guys, a Girl and Ashley’s Return (Part 2)”.