Inherent in 2 Broke Girls’s premise is this idea that these two girls were perfect for each other, two women whose life experiences and personalities not only made them unique from each other, but brought them together as strangers to become close friends. But as we head into the final third of the sophomore season, there’s a growing body of evidence that Max is anything but ‘good’ for Caroline.
The events of ‘And the Temporary Distraction’ are a textbook example of Max’s behavior through the season. The two women take temp jobs at an insurance office to help pay the bills. Max is hesitant, reluctant to give up her routine of making cupcakes every day (because it’s the only thing keeping her from suicide, typical fodder for her character), but Caroline’s thoroughly negative attitude about their failed business drives their decision to take the position, if for no reason except the money.
Perfectly fine set up – there’s an interesting conflict of attitudes at the heart of it. It’s a bit of a role reversal: Max is the one holding onto ‘the dream’, while Caroline’s abandoning the idea. But instead of resolving it in a logical way for the show moving forward, they decide to undermine the character’s friendship, and subsequently forget about it to get to the happy ending.
Max’s decision to get Caroline fired for sexual harassment isn’t funny to begin with – but the sentiments are more disturbing. The only thing that gets Caroline excited in the episode is a new job, and the benefits and comforts of finding full-time employment (how many jobs are offering full medical benefits right now). Why does she sabotage it? Because Max is so desperate not to be alone, she can’t handle the idea of Caroline not being around. She’s proven it with every tale she’s ever told: every family member, man, and person in her life has either abandoned her or humiliated her, and she makes a depressingly desperate attempt to find humor in all of it.
BUT THE SHOW NEVER ADDRESSES THIS.
Instead, Caroline just forgets that Max not only put a big stain on her professional record, but she cost her a job that would pay the bills better in the short-term than their failed cupcake business. Max’s selfishness overrides anything Caroline does, but the show only defines this as “well, the cupcake shop is the premise, they HAVE to do it”. Instead of using it as an opportunity to really develop their relationship – and in particular, Max’s one-dimensional character – it becomes a throwaway joke: “oh well… good thing she got fired because her boss would probably rape her!”
Most of ‘And the Temporary Distraction’ is the usual carbon-copy structure of every episode, going through the motions of Han jokes, ejaculation euphemisms and references to Max’s breasts. But it goes from an average episode to a disturbingly inept one in the final few minutes, throwing the show’s central friendship into the wind for a terribly constructed conclusion, dismissing any notion of intelligence with an idiotic ending that only points out how awful Max is for anyone in the world.
Grade: D
Other thoughts/observations:
– yes, Max is being optimistic about the cupcakes. But she’s content to sell them at the diner for the rest of time – a conclusion Caroline shouldn’t be satisfied with. Would any logical human being just buy into the phrase “I don’t know, but it’ll be different this time.”
– remove Max from this show, and you’ve got a perfectly average, enjoyable comedy. But Max’s racism, disgusting personality, and complete lack of morality is really what ruins this show. Tonight’s episode is a great example: her presence in the second half sucks the life out of the episode.
– there’s actually some competent editing during the ‘yes’-‘no’-‘yes’ sequence that enhances the comedy. Might be the first time it’s ever happened on this show.
– YouTube cat video jokes!
– oh, you don’t casually fantasize about death everyday? What a weirdo you must be.
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This episode was the single greatest reason for the human reason to be terminated, my intelligence was insulted and I’m having a difficult time comprehending the shows logic or the central characters relationship. In any other show max would be the antagonist.
The audiences applause at the end when Caroline said the cupcake business was back on, made me sick.
I think this was the most disgusting pathetic episode ever. We hung on to watching it, thinking that it could be possibly pulled up to some watchable level but this episode just proves that this show is a half an hour of your life that you can’t get back. We are tuning out and watching something (anything) else next week.
I’ve been watching this show since it started, not putting a lot of thought in the highly offensive racial jokes, but then this episode comes and I cant make myself watch it anymore. A best friend doesn’t make her best friend fired in this economy, and no one would forgive that easy being fired from a steady job WITH BENEFITS. So in the end we have to feel sorry for max since if she doesn’t make the cupcakes what is she going to do? These characters are so dumb that they couldn’t see that with a steady job they could amass more money than by selling their overpriced cupcakes on a coffeeshop for the rest of their lives.