You're The Worst 1.1 "Pilot"

Chris: I’ll begin this series by admitting outright that I adore this show and I’ve been wanting to do a review series on this for awhile but I brought along some friends that hadn’t seen the show to adjust for my obvious bias. As you’ll see as we go, You’re the Worst is irreverently hilarious but still fully capable of handling serious moments better than I think I’ve seen any other comedy do so. The premise of this show basically says outright, “hey, Gretchen and Jimmy are horrible people surrounded by other horrible people, why don’t you watch this trainwreck with us?” However, what we learn is that even though everyone in the show can be described as “the worst,” I wouldn’t classify any of them as malicious or evil. Everyone in the show has a reason for why they do what they do and they’re all (whether they want to admit it or not) good people. One of the things I love about the show is that almost no piece of information is wasted. As you’ll see as the show continues, there are references made in the pilot that come back in a variety of ways and it shows that Chris Geere and the writer put great care into every detail of the show. What I love about the characters are how relatable they can be and I guarantee you, dear reader, that at some point you will relate to one of these guarantees. Should relating to these characters in any way alarm you? I don’t think so. Like I said, everyone in YTW are good people at their core with complex issues but at the same time, we’re all kinda the worst sometimes.

Alexa: I’ve been wanting to watch “You’re the Worst” for a while now, so I’m happy to have an opportunity to not only see it but discuss it as well. From what I’ve heard, it’s a show that lends itself to ample possibilities for discussion. My first impression is, as the title aptly implies, that Jimmy and Gretchen are both pretty miserable people. But even from the pilot alone, I don’t think they’re terrible just to be terrible. Yes, they’re self-involved and a bit of a mess and they can be insensitive and just straight-up mean. But beneath their sharp edges are already some faint glimpses at a softness to them, a subtle vulnerability. They open up to each other in a way they both play off as casual but actually hints at a sort of reluctant intimacy. It’s one of the many facets of the pilot that makes me want to keep watching. I want to get to know these people. As Chris points out, for better or worse, they’re oddly relatable. I want to know why they are the way the are individually and how their dynamic will evolve as a couple. The phone exchange about Jimmy’s foot fetish at the end of the episode sealed the deal for me. It’s funny and sweet in a twisted way. That’s a combination I can get behind.

Joel: This is going to be an interesting viewing for me. I’m often very wary of shows where the main concept of the show is “These are terrible people, but they’re fun to watch.” Ever since Seinfeld found success in their mantra of “No Hugging, No Learning” to keep their character from ever learning lessons from their bad behavior, it seems like television can’t help but to try and find success again with a group of terrible people.

Plenty of post Seinfeld shows have found success with a “group of terrible people” show, both critically and commercially. Perhaps most notably, you have shows like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia where the rude, selfish, and all around terrible behavior of the main characters puts most episodes of Seinfeld to shame, but there’s also shows like Arrested Development, that added the formula to the family dynamic and South Park which cranked the whole idea up to eleven. Yes, there are plenty of great shows where the gimmick (at least initially) is focusing what bad people the main characters are, but more often than not these shows themselves end up being terrible. Take a look at the long list of sitcoms that never make it past a few handful of episodes before getting canceled, and you’ll be surprised to see how many feature one or two characters whose main traits are being rude to everybody but in a funny way.

Obviously, You’re The Worst has had some success, it’s been on for four (going on five) seasons and there has been plenty of critical acclaim surrounding the show the whole time. Getting into the first episode, it’s easy to see where that critical acclaim might be coming from. We’re introduced to Jimmy and Gretchen to quickly discover that they’re both the worst. One thing that is worth noting right out of the gate is that neither Jimmy or Gretchen are terrible people because it’s funny. Yes, there are several funny moments in the episode, and most of them revolve around Jimmy or Gretchen being mean to someone or perhaps to each other, but the humor for the audience isn’t the only reason that these characters are doing/saying terrible things. There is clearly some background motivation on both of their parts, something that has caused each of them to put up this shield of meanness between them and the outside world. We’re one episode in, but we’ve already gotten characters that feel like they have a backstory worth exploring. It’s obvious that this show is going to hinge on these two main characters and their relationship, and if you’re intentionally going to make the two main character unlikable, then you need to at least make them interesting. And this does just that. We may not have main characters that are great, but we already have the beginnings of a relationship that will be worth following.