Season premiere review: Whitney ‘Bawl And Chain’ – Bitch Can Jump

I won’t lie – I haven’t watched an episode of Whitney since last fall’s pilot, which I reviewed and didn’t particularly care for. But instead of suffering through what I’ve heard is a largely painful first season, I thought it wiser to enter the new season with a fresh perspective and eye for the show after its summer hiatus. And while I didn’t find ‘Bawl and Chain’ as blatantly bottom-feeding as the pilot, the show still operates with a massive blind spot to any sorts of subtlety – which is too bad, because there’s actually some interesting ideas in play during ‘Bawl and Chain’.

It appears the previous season finale found Alex and Whitney getting married in a wacky, unconventional way that involved a hospital visit and some questionable tattoos. Season two begins the morning after as they examine their new ink and reflect on the life and the change they went through, reaching the basic conclusion of most middling sitcoms: that marriage is some unavoidable spiral into absolute pessimism. After the opening title (which obnoxiously reminds us that the show is filmed in front of a live audience, wearing it like some badge of honor), the pacing of the episode starts bouncing all over the place. Whitney’s mom shows up for a scene, which throws Whitney into a fit of crying and series of illogical overreactions to Alex’s attempts to console her.

For a woman who has the opportunity to write her own character, Whitney Cummings certainly fails at portraying her protagonist as a strong, rational woman in any sense of the word. Her on-screen persona is immature and insecure, hinging her wild emotional swings on the thinnest of plot points. Look at the progression of her emotions in the episode: a minute-long visit from her mother and a show of genuine emotion from Alex (albeit one with an odd physical reaction) turns her into an insufferable hypochondriac for the rest of the episode.

It’s an easy problem to diagnose: like the other show she’s creatively involved with (2 Broke Girls), everything on the show is in service of the jokes. Alex’s attraction to her vulnerability is an interesting idea to explore – but here, it amounts to nothing but a few throwaway jokes about primates and getting horny at family reunions. But it’s more bothersome when it’s with Whitney’s embarrassingly insecure character, because it’s a massively wasted opportunity for a woman in her position in the industry. Instead of trying to bring humor forth from honest interactions between characters, she’d rather rush through the writing, and fall back on character generalities and cruel relationship humor for laughs (the latter of which completely undermines the core relationship of the show… more than once I found myself wondering why Alex wouldn’t just run in the other direction).

There are a few funny bits spread throughout the episode – the 10 second bachelorette party being the best of them – but its overshadowed by the writing, which appears disinterested in doing much besides tell enough jokes to justify a paycheck. Whenever something interesting is introduced, its quickly rushed through in favor of some lazy jokes that even the actors have trouble delivering with any sort of conviction (an entire B-plot between the two supporting female characters takes place in a two-minute long scene in a bedroom). Overall, Whitney is definitely less painful than the show I reviewed last fall, but certainly isn’t an entertaining show, just a half hour of mind-numbing multi-camera mediocrity.

Grade: D

Other thoughts/observations:

– I don’t really have much else to say about the show without sounding cruel, but I think the episode’s second-biggest fault (behind the failure of making Whitney an interesting female) is the ignorance of Alex’s willingness to commit to something he didn’t really even recognize as a real marriage. Before and after the contrived moment Whitney pried displeasure out of their unique situation, he was all-in on their relationship, willing to sit and analyze his own feelings (and physical reactions) in hopes of strengthening their relationship. But is that ever really talked about? No, instead we get 20 minutes of Whitney yammering and yelling about how she feels about everything. Not impressed.

– will someone get Alex a fucking razor and a haircut? He looks like a sloppy idiot.

What did you think of ‘Bawl and Chain’? Feel free to leave your thoughts/comments below!