Chris: It’s fitting that the selfishness of Jimmy take top priority in this situation. As soon as he finds out that Gretchen isn’t cheating or anything like that, he’s only concern is if he did anything wrong. Once Gretchen tells him that he didn’t do anything wrong, he acts as if all the weight is off and doesn’t bother with figuring out why exactly Gretchen is crying in her car every night. And as Joel will point out in his review below, the directors of this episode really know what it’s like to both live in Los Angeles (because where else would a water bar open?) and be women working in comedy. Remember, this episode aired at least 2 years before the Me Too movement started and it’s painful to see how such sexual harassment felt like it was simply part of the process and if women weren’t willing to go along said process, they were simply discarded with the whole “women aren’t funny” nonsense. This is the one element were You’re the Worst feels dated (that plus when Dorothy refers to the vines she has to make in future episodes) in a good way. The problem isn’t fixed still but at least this kind of behavior is being exposed more.
Alexa: “You’re the Worst” has a knack for deftly balancing comedy with more dramatic moments. Even when the story takes a more serious turn, the show never loses sight of the fact that it is, at its heart, a comedy. Yet at the same time, the characters respond to those situations in an authentic way. It’s a tricky line to walk, but the cast and creative team balance it so well. Jimmy wearing that ridiculous mustache when he follows Gretchen to find out where she’s been sneaking off to is a small yet funny gesture that defuses the tension, but it doesn’t detract from the reveal that Gretchen has been crying in her car every night. Nor does her admission that she takes Sam’s burner phone with her because she likes to play Snake while she cries make the situation itself any less weighty. You know from her demeanor and from Jimmy’s reaction that something significant is happening, even if that something elicits a few chuckles in the process. The same can be said of the unexpectedly timely subplot about the harassment Dorothy endures from her male comedy partners. Her confrontation with them has its humorous moments, but never at any point does it feel like the show is making light of sexual harassment. The way the characters weave comedy into more dramatic circumstances feels natural and seamless, and it’s one of the show’s greatest strengths.
Joel: Of the four main characters, Lindsay is the one that I feel hasn’t really clicked as a character as well as the others. Part of that is that Lindsay’s “terribleness” doesn’t feel as natural as some of the other characters. While Jimmy is rude and abrasive because it allows him to protect himself from getting hurt and Gretchen genuinely doesn’t care about the opinions of others, and doesn’t mind doing what she wants to do regardless of how it might make her look, Lindsay feels like at times she’s a terrible person for no other reason than she’s a character on a show called You’re The Worst and that requires her to be terrible sometimes. (For example, in the previous episode Lindsay throws her ice cream on the ground before her and Gretchen leave in one scene. Lindsay could have easily left her ice cream behind for someone else to deal with. That would have made sense as she’s supposed to be selfish and the minute she’s no longer focused on the ice cream, it’s someone else’s issue. Instead, she throws it on the ground, making her mean just for the sake of being mean, but also meaning that the laziest character on the show is having to take extra steps to be terrible, making the moment feel out of character.)
I bring this up, to highlight Lindsay’s “journey” in this episode. It feels like the show knows what it wants to do with her, but hasn’t figured out quite how to get there. Lindsay hasn’t gotten the attention that Edgar has, and as a result she’s the least fleshed out character so far. Also because Lindsay is the stock “stupid” character on the show, they run the risk of flanderizing her more absurd traits quickly. (Case in point, the “learning to walk” moment in this episode felt like it was coming very close.) I feel like I’m rooting so hard for the show to really do something with this character. I feel like all the ingredients are there, a great setup, a funny actress, a good dynamic between her and the other main players, but we’re not there yet with Lindsay like we are with the other three characters.
The other part of this particular episode I want to talk about is the breakup of the improv group, Hey Put That Down, Brian. This particular episode was both written and directed by women (Alison Bennett and Wendy Stanzler respectively) and you can tell that this storyline is venting a lot of frustrations about what it’s like to be a woman in the world of comedy. Everything from Dorothy being taken aback by Edgar’s straightforward approach to asking her on a date, to her having to deal with “women aren’t funny” when turning a guy down has a feeling of “uncomfortable realism.” Plus the whole thing comes to a head when Dorothy tries to bring up her issues to the group only to have every male member quickly explain why they can’t be at fault (“I’m a feminist!” “I was raised by two strong lesbians!”) so the issue must be with her to the point where the whole group dissolves. This whole storyline has moments that feel specific enough that it’s likely that these are not unique moments, but common struggles that have come up for Bennett and/or Stanzler again and again.
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