Second Look: Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place Season 2, Episode 10 – “Two Guys, a Girl and a Thanksgiving”

Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place Season 2, Episode 9 “Two Guys, a Girl and a Thanksgiving”
Written by Kenny Schwartz (story), Mark Ganzel & Barry Wernick (teleplay)
Directed by Marjorie Weitzman
Aired November 25, 1998 on ABC

From Cheers to Friends to Cougar Town, Happy Endings and everything in between, Thanksgiving episodes are a staple of all modern sitcoms – and most of them since “Thanksgiving Orphans” (the iconic fifth season Cheers episode set at Carla’s house) have relied on a similar formula to succeed; pure, unadulterated chaos. The best of those, of course, are the ones that find moments of clarity in that chaos – and the worst turn the holiday into a hollow excuse for loud, gimmicky bits (I’m looking at you, “Slapsgiving 2: Revenge of the Slap”). “Two Guys, a Girl and a Thanksgiving”, the first of two Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place Thanksgiving episodes, falls somewhere in the middle of all those; in its best moments, it finds clarity with some of its male characters, continuing the show’s slow growth and transformation we’ve seen throughout season two. However, it’s also an episode full of Berg and Ashley histrionics, a plot centered on the debut of Ashley’s boyfriend Justin (Jon Cryer, of no relation to Suzanne Cryer, in one of the weirdest ’90s casting details imaginable) and the subsequent dick-measuring contest that ensues at Sharon and Johnny’s first shared Thanksgiving.

It makes for quite the strange ride, especially considering it begins with Pete’s grandfather arriving for the holiday, hiding out from the rest of Dunville family by blackmailing Pete, who still hasn’t told his family about dropping out of grad school to pursue non-architectural careers. But what begins as a fairly simplistic episode about Pete and Sharon trying to find peace with their chosen families, immediately begins to morph when Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place dives immediately into Berg and Justin fighting over Ashley (who herself has to spend most of the episode ignoring them, playing stupid, or sheepishly disengaging from their nonsense) – and though it remains funny throughout, certainly turns this into a lesser holiday episode than it initially had the potential to be.

The shift is noticeable; what begins as a light episode featuring TV legend Dick Martin as Pete’s grandfather, with Shannon’s underlying anxiety about Thanksgiving, as her private holiday dinner with Johnny suddenly turns into a very crowded affair, as a runner to give the episode momentum. But when Berg shows up at Ashley’s place to return a bunch of random things she left around the apartment, “Two Guys, a Girl and Thanksgiving” immediately becomes a much more serious episode than it seems to be intended – which makes a lot of Berg’s decisions in this episode, from barging into Ashley’s apartment to meet Justin, to later kissing Ashley during a game of charades in an arrogant move to prove their “connection”, feel more than a little bit rotten.

It’s perhaps the first example of Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place questioning whether an Ashley/Berg pairing is really a smart idea; Berg completely ignores Ashley’s assertion that she needs to give Justin a chance (since he quit his job and moved to Boston for her), which leads to a lot of uncomfortable moments where Ashley’s emotions and agency is railroaded by both Berg and Justin’s ego battle – which thankfully she points out in the episode’s climatic moments, but it’s already a bit too late for the episode, which suffers from the constant bickering and grandstanding by both Berg and Justin (Cryer, to his credit, is terrific as the smarmy, uppity smart and successful adversary to Berg). And it begins to question Berg’s apparent maturity this season, in a way that feels a bit unintentional; if Berg can’t listen to Ashley’s simple requests to respect her emotional space, how can they ever even conceive of being a couple, if her and Justin were to not work out?

Justin and Berg’s increasingly obnoxious peacocking overshadows literally every other element of the episode; Sharon’s frustrations with Johnny (who takes her Thanksgiving preparation completely for granted) and Pete’s ongoing existential crisis are all wonderful respites from this underwhelming conflict – to the point the scene’s best episode, when Pete and his grandfather share a moment on their apartment steps, is relegated to being played over the closing credits. It’s unfortunate, because whenever the camera turns its attention away from the Berg/Ashley story that’s dominated the past three non-Halloween episodes, “Two Guys, a Girl and a Thanksgiving” offers itself more engaging, amusing stories that also tie into the larger arcs forming in season two, but without any of the toxic insecurity driving the lead plot.

Unfortunately, “Two Guys, a Girl and a Thanksgiving” spends too much time on Berg’s ignorant, short-sighted attempts to win over Ashley, to the point it is limping through the motions in the episode’s underwhelming center piece, the aforementioned game of charades where everyone’s emotions rise to the surface. There are certainly scenarios where this episode seizes on the idea that maybe Berg and Ashley aren’t great for each other – or at least, that Ashley should give her relationship with Justin a fair chance – but Justin is too one-dimensional a character to give their relationship any real weight, and Berg’s pleas (that their one kiss was more passionate than anything she’s had with Justin) don’t hit with the intended gravitas. This affects the episode’s conclusion; though Ashley breaking up with Justin and telling off Berg should feel like a major development in her story and character, it just kind of happens, less an interesting development than a foregone conclusion, given all the shitty behavior she spends this half hour enduring.

Though it remains an interesting thread for the season to unravel, “Thanksgiving” doesn’t really offer us that moment of clarity that would elevate it from a middling episode into something greater, from any of its characters; ultimately, it is just empty theatrics with a bit of chauvinism on the side, which doesn’t exactly make for compelling holiday television. It’s frustrating, because there are definitely hints of a better, Pete or Sharon-focused version of this episode; but that’s not the half hour we get, and although it certainly is a half-hour that pushes the season forward, it does so in one the most grating, unsatisfying ways possible.

Grade: C-

Other thoughts/observations:

• Berg humbly taking Justin’s pizza order is a great little moment.
  
• Sharon’s family Thanksgivings sound fun: “Someone’s always throwing something at somebody!” (that somebody being Sharon, of course).
  
• Berg telling Ashley “Tell me he’s everything you want and I’ll leave” should’ve been a moment at the end of the episode, not in the beginning. Feels a bit inauthentic, when Berg hasn’t seen Justin and Ashley together at all when he says it.
  
• “You’re in love with my girlfriend.” “Yeah, but she’s in love with you and that other guy!”
  
• another good Justin/Berg exchange: “You deliver pizzas… I deliver dissertations.” “Which one gets better tips?”
  
• Sharon drops the turkey down the stairs, but is consoled by Pete’s grandfather: “That’s perfectly good – we’ll take it upstairs and wash it!”
  
• “A blend? I’ll adjust my palette accordingly.” Again, Cryer is good at capturing Justin’s aggressively bland style of douchebag-ery.
  
• Sharon accepts Johnny’s apology at the end, and leaves him to clean up while she goes to take a bath. His response is the correct one: “Man, my mother is going to love her!”
  
• Up next: Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place endures an unfortunate cameo in “Two Guys, a Girl and a Limo”.