When the first previews and press releases for the new season of 2 Broke Girls began making the rounds, I couldn’t help but hold out the smallest of hopes reading the premise of ‘And The Hidden Stash’.If there’s anything that could bring out some form of intelligence in the show, it would be the emotional vulnerability of a broken father/daughter relationship – hopes immediately dashed when ‘And The Hidden Stash’ opened with a barrage of mindless jokes about breastfeeding. And the rest of the episode mainly follows suit, missing every opportunity to give any of its characters any kind of emotional grounding, instead falling back on the same pile of jokes about sex, gay people, and whatever trashy remark the writers can stuff in Max’s mouth.
The funniest thing about the episode opening is how well it parallels the story its about to tell, but how it has no idea how to rein those moments into anything remotely funny or meaningful. The grown child who can’t stop breastfeeding speaks right to Caroline’s situation in life: she could never get off the family teat, and now she’s paying for it (although her out of work outfits still look fresh and brand new, even though it’s been some time since she become poor). For all intents and purposes, Caroline and the child are one and the same, but all the show can do with that is make some crack about Game of Thrones that feels like a deliberate “fill in the joke here with a pop culture reference”. It’s the kind of humor bottom-feeding shows like this revel in, unable to draw anything out of its cardboard characters, thus having to rely on broad, slightly offensive attempts at humor to keep the simple masses entertained.
‘And The Hidden Stash’ is really The Caroline Show, with Max reduced to her worst traits, making cracks on the sidelines about her attraction to felons or various birth control failings. Sure, there’s a Sophie/Oleg B-plot, but it’s no more than a reconstructed plot from season one. Sophie’s dumb, Oleg has gross sex with her a lot, Sophie only likes gold and therefore “no like Oleg”. The episode is really about Caroline’s wild goose chase for a stack of money her and Max are convinced in an old trophy her imprisoned father wants her to retrieve for him.
On a pure comedic level, the “contrived misunderstanding” is the lowest, laziest form of comedy and usually represents the lack of creative ambition on the part of the people involved (see: seasons 7-9 of Frasier and seasons 6-10 of Friends for great examples)…. and this is what they’re opening the season with. This isn’t a good sign for the show – but what’s even worse is that it wastes any opportunity to grow Caroline’s character into something more than a rich girl gets poor archetype. Forgiving your father for such an embarrassing crime has to be a difficult thing to deal with, and not only does she have to read about it in the paper every day, but her father sends her to an auction to win an award she’s mostly forgot about.
That alone should give us a lot of insight into the struggles of maintaining a happy face around her father during their prison visits – and could be a source for a lot of humor throughout the season, be it Caroline facing the public scrutiny head on and bumbling it up, or striking off on a new path of independence from her family name, embracing her spot in society and trying to rebuild her life (yes I know, this is supposed to be the presence of the show).
But ultimately, Caroline does neither, which reveals that the writers on this show not only haven’t developed her character, but that they don’t really care to. When it’s revealed the trophy doesn’t have money, her father tells her that he wanted her to have it as a remind of all the hurdles he’s placed in front of her in life, and how he’s sorry for those. Instead of taking that as a moment to give her character some definition by either embracing or rejecting her father (or explaining how difficult it is to do either) would’ve given us so much on her – instead, she sheepishly shakes her head, and after he’s gone, decides that she’s support her father because “he’s more than a thief… he’s my daddy.” Really… that’s all you’ve got? God forbid 2 Broke Girls provided us with a female character who could actually muster up some kind of intelligent thought at an episode’s most crucial points. Instead, it’s all ok because “I wuv daddy” – because in life, if we never learn or grow, things will always tend to work out in our favor, right?
‘And The Hidden Stash’ is a perfect microcosm of my frustrations with the show: too much time is spent listening to Sophie’s “accent” and Max’s wise cracks about her swallowing talents or how she’s dysfunctional in every single aspect of personality and life. Even when the show stumbles by chance onto a ripe plot for characterization and story telling, they toss it in favor of Katie Holmes jokes. But hey, did we really expect anything more?
Grade: D
Other thoughts/observations:
– I could think of millions of people that would rather have a paid job at Banana Republic than be in prison.
– How can I believe Caroline is destitute and has a soap box for a wallet, when she walks around in fancy new clothes, with lots of jewelry, and fancy purses?
– old gay guys yelling “YOLO”!!! with green socks and tiny puppies in their lap…. I would love to meet someone who laughs at this.
What did you think of ‘And The Hidden Stash’? Feel free to leave your thoughts/comments below!
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