S12.E03: Old Lady House: A Situation Comedy

[Lantern7]

Quote

Charlie thinks Mac's mom is holding his mom hostage so the gang installs spy cameras in their house to monitor what's going on. What they end up discovering is the moms are quite entertaining once Dennis makes some quick edits and adds a laugh track to the surveillance footage. Dee wants in on the new hit show and Frank becomes obsessed with banging Charlie's mom now that he's seen her on TV.

And if you need a visual . . .

[Galileo908]

"They're not women, they're old!" Ahh, Frank.

I like that Charlie's mom writes letters in his language. And of course Charlie STILL didn't know what it said.

Man, adding the music and the laughtrack made the moms' awful lives so much better and funnier. Of course Dee had to try to be funny and ruin it, but loved when Frank came in. 

I just realized: Dennis can finally play God by acting as a showrunner. Totally like him to lose interest when everyone knows when they're being filmed.

[Lantern7]

At least nobody shed blood this week. Sure, Dee shit herself, and Mas Kelly and Mac abused each other, but at least the laugh track made things funny. And Charlie's uncle got to be inappropriate with him. So . . . yay?

Damn, nobody gave a shit about Dee. She tries way too hard. At least she looks better than her father shirtless. Brrrrrrrrr.

[Marley]

This episode made me laugh so much.

Of course Dee bombed it and no one cared but her parts almost made me pee a bit.

[Amarsir]

I loved the shots at traditional sitcoms. I don't think there were any direct shots at current offerings, but "now I know where to laugh" was a pretty great commentary.

Uncle Jack manages to top himself in every appearance. A hard drive he accidentally left under the floorboards indeed.

[DrSpaceman73]

It is amazing how much the tone changes with the addition of the laugh track. 

They did a great job turning those videos into a traditional sitcom

Sweet Dee........she just doesn't get it. 

And neither does Mac, constantly wanting to think his parents love him when they obviously don't care at all about him. 

Always love an Uncle Jack appearance. 

[jcin617]

Mac's life is pretty much a constant state of denial.   His parents' love, his abilities as a fighter, his sexuality...

[joelene]

I could not stop laughing. Tears down my face. Last week didn't fully land with me but I thought this was amazing. 

[halkatla]

I don´t think I´ll ever be bored with any of these characters. Dennis is always a favorite of mine but I was a little afraid that his darker side was getting too overwhelming for me to justify my complete love for him, but this season he is being so "caring" in a way that totally fits his character. I loved how he was looking at Charlie´s mom as a star, lol, and then last week when he took the con-girl under his wing. I mean they´re all pretty one-dimensional, Dennis and Dee least of all though, but it never becomes boring or too much.

[vousviou]

5 hours ago, joelene said:

I could not stop laughing. Tears down my face. Last week didn't fully land with me but I thought this was amazing. 

I wasn't sure at first if I was going to like it -- it seemed a little overly meta with the back and forth between Dennis, Charlie and Mac about the laugh track.  But when Dee showed up at the house doing her wacky neighbor bit, I almost lost it. 

[vousviou]

2 hours ago, halkatla said:

I don´t think I´ll ever be bored with any of these characters. Dennis is always a favorite of mine but I was a little afraid that his darker side was getting too overwhelming for me to justify my complete love for him, but this season he is being so "caring" in a way that totally fits his character. I loved how he was looking at Charlie´s mom as a star, lol, and then last week when he took the con-girl under his wing. I mean they´re all pretty one-dimensional, Dennis and Dee least of all though, but it never becomes boring or too much.

It's interesting that the manipulative, sociopathic side of Dennis has been highlighted the past two shows, but he hasn't descended into the depths of kidnapping, rape and murder that usually gets hinted at.  Which I suppose is a development of some kind -- they maybe figured that they needed to stop going to the well quite so much and figure out other ways to show that dimension.

Likewise, they so far haven't dug into the Mac is gay theme yet, which I think makes sense.  It was such a big part of the two parter that ended the season, and it's worth dealing with other things that make him funny.  Like other people have said, when Mac is in denial about his family and desperately wants to believe they're all warm and loving, it's absolutely hilarious and (almost) heart wrenching at the same time.

12 hours ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

Always love an Uncle Jack appearance. 

I completely cracked up when he said if he'd known there were going to be visitors he would have worn his hands.

[DrSpaceman73]

Mac is in denial about a lot of things, but they are all in denial about something.  except maybe Frank. 

Dee......her acting skills, career prospects in acting.

Charlie.......the waitress, his skills as a lawyer, among other things

Dennis.......his erotic abilities and his general appeal to women, views himself as a true romantic and ladies man when in fact he is a controlling user of women

There are other things I am sure.  But they all live in a weird delusional world that the others recognize about them but still accept them despite that fact. 

[ganesh]

I like the running joke how Dee is a terrible actor. 

[hincandenza]

2 hours ago, ganesh said:

I like the running joke how Dee is a terrible actor. 

What's great about that to me is that for my money, Kaitlin Olson is unquestionably one of the very best comic actresses working in TV right now.  She simply kills it as Dee, and I still can't watch a clip of her dry-heave noises when Dee was doing open-mic stand-up comedy without losing my shit.

[Amarsir]

33 minutes ago, hincandenza said:

What's great about that to me is that for my money, Kaitlin Olson is unquestionably one of the very best comic actresses working in TV right now.  She simply kills it as Dee, and I still can't watch a clip of her dry-heave noises when Dee was doing open-mic stand-up comedy without losing my shit.

How's her new show? I haven't decided yet if I should make an attempt to watch.

[DrSpaceman73]

7 hours ago, Amarsir said:

How's her new show? I haven't decided yet if I should make an attempt to watch.

The new show is OK, worth checking out.

Basically imagine Dee in charge of a 3 rich kids in a mansion after their parents (one is her sister) flee the country to escape legal charges

Not really an image changing role for Olsen, but its still funny.

Also I like that they used the cliché "sitcom home" for this show.  Family room in front, kitchen to the left, stairs going up to another floor.  Vast majority of the sitcoms of the 70s and 80s used it.  Or its mirror image

[vousviou]

40 minutes ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

The new show is OK, worth checking out.

Basically imagine Dee in charge of a 3 rich kids in a mansion after their parents (one is her sister) flee the country to escape legal charges

Not really an image changing role for Olsen, but its still funny.

I agree that KO is good in it, and it's trying hard, but I wouldn't call it great. 

I'm sure I'm influenced by Always Sunny, which sets a really high bar.  The Mick is definitely struggling with the network TV model -- Sunny isn't afraid to have people speak quickly, talk over each other and interrupt all the time, which lets the show do some fantastic things with pacing and conflict.  The Mick ought to be more like that, considering its chaotic situation, but it feels overly stage managed to me, as though there are a slew of network execs firing off notes about countless little details.

But I don't want to be too harsh -- Olson is really good and the rest of the cast is solid, which is especially hard with kid actors, and they're definitely given a long leash for a network show.  It's just hard for me to view it without thinking about how Sunny would do it.

[ganesh]

3 hours ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

Not really an image changing role for Olsen, but its still funny.

That's what I noticed. It's basically Dee in charge of kids. I'd like to see her stretch her acting chops. 

[callie lee 29]

I like it. It's  not as good as sunny, but it's network. I like to think of it as Sweet Dee with kids.

[ViewerPDX]

I watched Charlie's entrance into Old Lady House at least 5 times.  He does a hilarious yet subtle homage to Kramer's entrance on Seinfeld, and Dennis even inserted the "audience favorite" applause that was reserved for Kramer, Schneider from One Day at a Time, and others during their entrances into a scene.