TV Review: Bored To Death 4.4, "We Could Sing A Duet"

rating: 3

Week after week, this show has impressed me with its ability to move everything forward while still managing to keep the characters in this sort of status quo. Very rarely do we enter an episode any different then we exit. About halfway through this season, "We Could Sing a Duet" presents us with a different take on this formula. It's definitely not a mind-blowing twist but a least a dashing flick of the wrist. The episode begins like any other, the three amigos out for the day at the shooting range (each of whom's style, I might add, deeply reflect their personality). Afterwards, George expresses his growing worry about his daughter, Emily, and her soon to be husband. He proposes that Ray and Jonathan show her a "youthful" good time so that she can get an idea of what she will be missing. Ray's still pussywhipped, so he counts himself out, but Jonathan agrees. He takes her out only to discover that someone has been impersonating him on Craigslist, and dammit, he's going to find out who. With Emily in tow, he tracks down the impersonator who turns out to be a slightly hyperbolic version of himself. George goes out with Bernard and winds up at his own little doppelganger, a new artisanal restaurant Richard has opened in order to compete with George's customer base (which brings food from 50 miles outside the city instead of a measly 100). Ray slips up at home and gets kicked out. He heads straight to the bar, with a little stolen cash, and runs into the elderly woman from a couple of episodes ago (the one that admires stocky men). Jonathan finds his cinematic equivalent in his impersonator, someone who has gained his private eye knowledge from watching noir films instead of reading detective novels. It's always a good time to watch Jonathan be confronted with the reality of his situation. Looking in the mirror makes him delightfully nervous, which as it happens, is also his default sexual setting (right up there with platonic). As is the difference between the mediums, Jonathan Two (Brett Gelman) is inclined towards dramatic action and less towards rambling his inner monologue. The two butt heads all night and set Emily off on a horrible bender which culminates in some dark secrets revealed. Without Ray's help, Jonathan gets too stoned and blurts out why he really brought Emily out. There's just a hint of jealousy in his actions, a little worried about loosing George to his daughter. But he may have gone too far.

The episode proceeded rather typically, but this time, the little mistakes and missteps which always seem to bring everyone together ends with a rather climactic twist. Spoilers: the group is breaking up. I doubt it will last very long, but there it is. This season has seen a little branching out for all of the characters, but they always managed to come back to one another. They have finally pushed out too far and there's no one out there to reign them in. I will admit, there's a little bit of a narcissist streak in the lot of them, which may account for their relative isolation, but I really don't like the sound of the group divided. The entire show's premise rests on their ability to set off on inane adventures as a group, only to come out surprisingly unscathed at the end of it all. Think about it. In the first season, when Jonathan attempted this whole private detective thing on his own, it always ended up horribly unless he had the support of his friends. Anyway, I'm sure its a problem which will be quick to resolve for the show. Of course, if that's the case, then this week makes for a pretty redundant episode and I don't know it even needed to exist. If that's not the case, then we're in for some real restructuring of the show. But hey, maybe when they finally do get back together, they'll all be better for it (I hope).