Quick Thoughts: HAPPY ENDINGS, "The Kerkovich Way"

While "The Kerkovich Way" was not as strong as some of the best Happy Endings episodes, it was still a lot of fun to watch, and I liked it more than I probably should have.

On paper, I should have loved the Penny/Max/scavenger hunt plot since they're two of my favorite characters, but this one was the weaker of the two storylines. It relied a little too much on both characters being in slumps, so having to watch them be down in the dumps took away some of the sheer joy that comes along with watching Happy Endings. Sure, these kinds of moments add some depth to the characters (and these two need to most), but I just wish we had gotten this kind of character development due to a stronger episode. That being said, I was glad that it ended on an uplifting note.

Much like the B-plot, I was surprised by how I reacted to the main story of the night. Sometimes watching these people be mean to one another can be off putting, so an entire episode about Jane tricking Brad and Dave should not have played as well as it did. Thankfully, Eliza Coupe was able to make it work thanks to her over-the-top yet believable (well, believable by this show's standards) performance, and of course Damon Wayans, Jr. was amazing per usual. I also appreciated the fact that the show didn't beat us over the head with Dave and Alex or have their hook-up mean more than it what it was. Sure, I'm interested in the lovelives of Dave, Alex and Penny, but I'm not interested in worn-out "will they, won't they" cliches.

Lines of the Night:

• "What if she wants to get back together? What if I don't? What if she's pregnant? Would we raise the baby together or would we raise the baby as a group? Group babies, is that a thing?"
• Max: "Yeah, they definitely call the cops and charge people with hate crimes when they're too good at scavenger hunts."
  Jane: "I did not push that guy out of the way because he was French. I pushed him out of the way because he was moving slow like a damn French."
• "This mannequin is not regulation."
• Brad: "What if I've done something terrible and don't remember? What if I like, killed a farmer, and the ghost of the farmer's hunting me down in revenge?"
  Dave: "Do you even know a farmer?"
  Brad: "Oh my god, I don't remember."
• "Whoa, it's like there's an alternate reality. What if that reality kept going, and there's another Alex living there? Whatever, I bet she can't krump like I can."
• "This isn't working! I cannot just krump away this guilt I have for deceiving Dave."
• Jane: "It's just like mom taught us. Flood the target."
  Alex: "Target?"
  Jane: "Mark, victim, loved one. Whatever..."
• "She save a whole village. OK, and that village went on to produce three famous Olympic gymnysts ... and Slobadan Milosevic."
• Penny: "Year of Penny!"
  Max: "The year's been over for a couple of months now Pen."
  Penny: "Well, not the Fiscal Year of Penny. Suck it taxpayers!"
• "Max, you gotta snap out of it. You can't get sad every time you think about bacon cause bacon's going to come up a lot for you."
• "These WASPs are going to beat us."
• Dave: "This is hot."
  Brad: "It is hot."
• "A hate crime. A baby committed a hate crime on another baby."
• "What a graceful swan of a lady."
• "Ugh Dave, clean it up."
• "Guilt trips my feline friends. That's the Williams' Way."

When Happy Endings misses, it misses big, but there was enough good stuff in "The Kerkovich Way" to keep it from being a failure. I just hope that we're back to the Fiscal Year of Penny, and we're done with sadsack Penny because this show works so much better when she's positive ... and everyone else is negative.