Review: Ben and Kate ’21st Birthday’ – Missing A Window

With the poor quality of this year’s new shows, calling something the ‘Best New Show Of The Year’ isn’t really saying a whole lot – especially when too many people were willing to hand the award of to the disappointing The Mindy Project before the pilot even made it into American homes. But through four episodes, Ben and Kate is far and away the best new show of the fall, delivering their best episode yet with tonight’s ’21st Birthday’.

For an episode with a party and Kate pounding tequila, ’21st Birthday’ is underlined by the somber tones of two characters (Ben and Kate, and to a small degree Tommy) trying to reluctantly recapture a feeling from before they could legally drink. What they both find out is that there’s a reason they haven’t been trying to rewind their lives and emotions: it really wasn’t what they thought it was in the first place.

Darcy’s revelation to Ben that their relationship wasn’t really as magical as it sounded was a slap of reality I don’t think a lot of shows (especially comedies) would be willing to give a major character this early on. And with the mention of their relationship mostly contained to the pilot, it could be considered a bit of a jump to have such a revealing conversation this early on – it’s just hard for us as an audience to connect with characters we don’t know that well yet. But that’s the subtle mastery at hand with the construction of Ben and Kate‘s larger narrative: we know a lot more about Ben than we’ve been explicitly told to this point, even though it’s pointed out in black and white through Darcy’s words here. He’s always been a dreamer, and their relationship was really nothing more than his salad delivery system: he might think he’s serious about something, but his effort and passion doesn’t seem to extend much past “we’ve been experimenting with some prawns.”

Ben’s idea for the birthday party fits right into the same themes: he wants her to relive her 21st birthday and have a great night, but he’s the first one to leave after he drops Molly into Kate’s unsuspecting arms. His heart is in the right place, but his inability to follow through on anything – which leads to nobody taking him seriously – have led him to where he is now: broke, alone, and living in his sister’s garage.

It is a little disconcerting how the structure of the episode jumped back and forth between Ben and Kate, but Kate’s journey was a little more light hearted than the depressing look in the mirror Ben had to face with Darcy. For her, the sight of an old friend brings back a version of Kate that none of us probably want to see (and what may have led to her facing early motherhood), and she goes out for a night on the town to try and gain back a window of time that’s already passed for her: being a careless, drunken youth.

Of course, this ‘window of time’ theme is playing out twofold, with the show’s first real look into the history between Tommy and Kate. I didn’t care for Tommy’s massive crush on Kate in the pilot, but I think their friendship is given some important context through the episode. Sure, it’s a little Ross and Rachel-y that Tommy was supposed to take Kate out on a date, but gave the money to Molly, thus starting the chain to the birth of Maddie. But it does give Tommy an important emotional grounding his character needed (beyond “funny black guy who is Ben’s best friend and wants his sister”). Like Ben and Kate both, Tommy is too worried about the past to see the great things he’s got in the present, including a second chance at a first date with Kate.

There are a lot of other things to talk about in the episode tonight – particularly the redemption of BJ’s character – but for the sake of time, I’ll talk about that in the notes below. The bottom line: ’21st Birthday’ is not only a funny half hour of television, but takes a number of important steps forward for the main characters of the show, a very positive sign for it moving forward.

Grade: A-

Other thoughts/observations:

– this chemistry on this show is fantastic, and it really brings out some great material between the cast. Tonight’s scenes between BJ/Ben and Kate/Tommy were terrific.

– giving BJ a bit of a respect for Ben’s free spirit could mean some cliched romantic plots down the road, but as friends, I thought her support of Ben gave her a grounding I didn’t think she had with the other cast outside of Kate. I do think her bitchy attitude with Maddie (who returns it with a consistently sharp wit) are some of the show’s funniest things.

– BJ was the highlight tonight: telling a dancing man to shut up, letting Kate know she “dropped off the buzzkill” (Maddie), and her speech at Darcy’s house.

– what a great closing scene: the cut to Kate sharing each of her birthdays ‘alone’ with Maddie in the ice cream shop was a beautiful way to close the episode. Plus, her playful comments to Tommy left us all (including him) with a smile: “Wait, what does that mean?”