Review: Enlisted “Homecoming” – Emotional Coffee

Under the helm of Keven Biegel, it’s no surprise that Enlisted‘s been able to find a Scrubs like balance between goofy, heartwarming, and hilarious, underlining its slapstick humor with cathartic releases of difficult emotions. “Homecoming” is exactly that: it’s an episode about loss, and the role a family plays (be it biological or not) in helping someone heal. Pete’s lamenting the loss of his football ability, Cody potentially giving up his bitchy cat Cheesecake (and losing the football bet… again), Derek losing his girlfriend (who we meet in the middle of their relationship, because Fox pushed this episode up to add to the Super Bowl vibe) to her ex-husband – and for Randy, it’s the loss of his father, a man who clearly inspired every member of the Hill family to the careers they lead today.

Dealing with loss is not an easy thing, even for the toughest, most seasoned soldiers: look at Pete cry when his ‘halter top’ is cut off him, or when Randy has his cup of “emotional coffee” in the morning. Right under the hilarious jokes, are very serious emotional holes in these men’s lives – holes that they can’t try and heal themselves, no matter how hard they try to fill it with something else. Pete can’t feel like a champ coaching against a team of Marine superstars, just as Randy will never feel like he got to welcome their father home welcoming other parents back from war (even his best friend and object of worship, Pete).

But even with great loss (56-7 is pretty damn bad, even Pete will admit that), there are small victories will be had: Rear D does score a touchdown (go Chubowski!), Derrick and Randy pull off the birthday surprise (even though it might come at the cost of Derrick’s budding relationship in the future) – and most importantly, Randy is finally able to feel like he’s a part of homecoming, watching a video of his father returning home to welcome the huge Baby Randy Bump on Mama Hill. Randy might not have seen his father come home from war, but he certainly was there: and as the brothers continue to process the loss of their father, the home video they watch over the closing moments is a beautiful depiction of the power of family, the ability to lean on others to help through devastating losses (even when ‘devastating’ is ‘losing a football game’).

Being the ninth episode of the show produced (if I remember correctly), “Homecoming” is a bit of a glimpse into what the show is trying to grow into it: and although there’s still a few rough patches balancing the non-Hill characters, the writers are zeroing in on the sweet spot between slapstick ensemble comedy and rewarding individual character pieces. With such a well-developed core of characters, Enlisted‘s got a ton of promise – let’s hope Fox keeps this one around for a little while.

Grade: B+

Other thoughts/observations:

– in the interest of keeping things short on a busy evening, I leave you with this: “Where I come from, Plan B is where you leave your baby daughter in the woods during bear season.” (oh, and Erin was married to Superman? Damn!)