Second Look: Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place Season 2, Episode 1 – “Two Guys, a Girl and Someone Better”

Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place Season 2, Episode 1 “Two Guys, a Girl and Someone Better”
Written by Kevin Abbott
Directed by Michael Lembeck
Aired September 23, 1998 on ABC

Airing only two months after “Two Guys, a Girl and a Landlord”, Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place‘s self-assured first season finale, it wouldn’t be surprising if “Two Guys, a Girl and Someone Better” felt more like an epilogue to season one (or at the very least, something adhering closely to its freshman formula). Instead, “Two Guys, a Girl and Someone Better” feels like an entirely new, creatively reinvigorated show, smartly integrating its new ensemble member while quietly eliminating some of its fringe elements, successfully shifting the show’s tone – and hopefully, the season to follow.

Save for the opening credits and incidental score, Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place‘s sophomore premiere looks and sounds nothing like the 13-episode first season; and while the series is still more than willing to indulge its goofy side (as seen in the cold open, where Pete falls out a window trying to yell at some kids), “Two Guys, a Girl and Someone Better” presents a leaner, more focused version of the sitcom – and one with an incredibly smart script, introducing one of its new ensemble members by upsetting the entire status quo of the central trio.

When Berg, who has been dominating his med school exams, finds out he’s finished second to someone else in his class (which… who else remembers the days of test scores being posted on the wall?), and spends the first half of the episode obsessed with finding out who. After spending the first few minutes getting phone numbers and being his usual effusive, slightly annoying self, Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place‘s season premiere upends the confident bravado that is Berg as he descends to second place – all while Pete, riding a high of an architectural project he won a prize on, finds himself ascending to second place-dom and having the inverse of Berg’s experience near the top.

Not only is it an ingenious way to flip the roles Pete and Berg had throughout season one, projecting Berg’s easy confidence and Pete’s neuroses onto each other, but it provides the perfect avenue for Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place to introduce the perfect foil to Berg, with Ashley Walker. Ashley is as confident and assured as Berg – and because of that, she reads him like a child’s book, immediately poking and prodding at his ego as she discovers just how sensitive he is to losing.

The moment she’s introduced, it’s immediately clear why we don’t see or hear about Mr. Bauer, Melissa and Bill; Ashley’s debut provides the series with so many potent comedic and dramatic avenues to explore, it’s immediately obvious the series is no longer concerned with pizza shop owners, ex-girlfriends, or hallucinating old men. Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place not only shifts completely into a story about late Gen X-ers trying to find their place in the world, but into a series clearly more willing to engage in serialized storylines and romantic subplots, all of which immediately pay dividends the thirteen previous episodes of fray boy hijinks of season one was never able to grasp.

With a dry, sharp answer to every one of Berg’s quips (and later, Pete’s), Ashley Walker’s introduction is a perfect way for season two to explore its new voice, and help ground the series in some era-appropriate detached sarcasm. She sees through both of his plans to try and unnerve her – and quite honestly, shame on Berg for thinking he could psyche her out as easily as anxious nerd Kamen – and as payback, gets him drunk on tequila (while pretending to drink herself) so he will be hungover for their next big exam. It’s a great introduction, showing that while Berg might be great at checkers, he has a lot to learn if he’s going to step up to the proverbial chess table – which is why it’s no surprise that her confidence and whipcrack insults immediately make him proclaim that they are destined to have children together at the episode’s end.

As far as character introductions go, Ashley’s is quite impressive; Kevin Abbott, with his first credited script of the series (he would become executive producer for the show’s latter two seasons – and most recently created Happy’s Place!), does a phenomenal job of bringing her into the fold, establishing her competitiveness and intelligence with a character who is unforgiving, a bit grating, and a bit arrogant; she’s not an entirely likable character, and the confidence the series has in the complexity of her character is encouraging.

If there’s one mark against “Two Guys, a Girl and Someone Better”, it is how little it features Sharon, her character reduced to nothing but a pursuit of a random bartender, something that’s given little attention by the other two central members of the cast. It’s a strange bit – but one, unfortunately, that the series would always struggle with, her character and her relation to men often forming the genesis of her stories throughout the rest of the series (especially when Johnny is introduced mid-season, completely changing her dynamic for the rest of the show’s run). Here, it’s really just a byproduct of a busy episode needing a bit of filler – but as the season continues, revisiting Sharon’s personal and professional arc throughout this season is a huge focus.

However, it’s mostly forgotten for the majority of “Two Guys, a Girl and Someone Better”, which draws a lot of great humor from Pete and Berg’s paths converging on second place, and the joy and horror the two draw from that moment of discovery (respectively), 22 minutes of twisting the screws into Berg and watching his hilarious reactions to the world changing and growing around him. Despite what little time the show had to reflect on itself and chart a path for season two, “Two Guys, a Girl and Someone Better” proves the series was more than up to the task, a season premiere reinventing itself on the fly, without losing the few endearing qualities its amusing, but mostly forgettable first season was able to establish. Not only a fantastic season premiere, but an episode that immediately raises the bar for the young sitcom’s potential -right as it kicks off its first full-length network season.

Grade: A-

Other thoughts/observations:

• Welcome to season two reviews of Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place! If you’re just tuning in, you can check the archives for reviews of season one.
  
• Isn’t it strange Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place features not one, but two Green Lanterns in its cast?
  
• Berg’s Casey Kasem impression isn’t terrible… better than his Christopher Walken, that’s for sure.
  
• “Your chemical company destroys the planet!” Sharon: “yeah, but we’re number one at it.”
  
• “Just remember… scalpels don’t have erasers.”
  
• Berg: “Hey…. there is nothing underneath my bravado!”
  
• Pete: “My mother is a woman, but that doesn’t mean I understand them!”
  
• Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place also teases another future identity in this episode: the rom-com, when Berg teases Ashley, drunkenly asking “you ever find yourself just gazing at me?”, to which she offers a sheepish non-response. Though you can’t tell her, the romantic comedy is mostly where Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place would settle as an identity for the series; the fact it’s still such a background element in the season premiere is a prescient reminder of how frequently this series would change its DNA throughout its run.
  
• Up next: Sharon considers quitting her job in “Two Guys, a Girl and a Vacation”.