Man Seeking Woman Season 1 Episode 2 Review: Traib
Carissa Pavlica
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You laughed out loud at least once watching Josh and the gang at the Center for Important Emergencies, right? Not to mention his attempt at exorcizing Maggie out of his life.
There were two plot points in Man Seeking Woman Season 1 Episode 2, and to get a play by play of the events, just reach on back a few words and click the episode link because it's a nice, detailed recap.
Regardless of how ridiculous the events may play out before you on screen, they are more true to life than most of us care to admit.
Does anybody ever let go of everything from their past relationships truly and completely? God forbid if all of the pieces of my past came crawling out. Not only would there be more than I could even remember, they wouldn't even fit together.
I loved seeing the razor making its way across the floor to Josh as the lights flashed and the apartment whispered "Maggie" menacingly, taunting him as he claimed he was totally over his ex. As someone who still sleeps with a stuffed bear given to her by her first real boyfriend (hey, it's a Gerber and very soft and well made), seeing Mr. Heart jump out of the closet made perfect sense to me.
But while the exorcism of Maggie was funny and led the priest to prescribe sex as the final step to send Maggie's spirit packing, it was what came next that really made the night.
How often have you either, a) struggled over what to send to someone after you have scored their digits (hey, just using the lingo), b) called in reinforcements to help you do that, or, c) wished like hell you could hit a recall button to pull back what you sent?
Thank God for the Center for Important Emergencies. Bringing on Michael Hogan as the decorated military man Bradley was a stroke of genius.
To me the course of action is clear. The text, above all, must be cute. I would deploy an emoji, perhaps a crying waa waa face or a winky kitten.
Bradley
He was the perfect foil for Josh's friend, Mike, who is all about dick jokes. The dude in the labcoat tossed out the first bit to unnerve Bradley and from there things started to crumble and giggling like a little girl in church felt like the best course of action from this viewer.
Bradley: See? Already you failed. You have a comma after Josh and a period after Josh. What's next? Semi colons and footnotes?!
Josh: OK. No punctuation.
Labcoat: No! If you look at the data, you will see women are going nuts for punctuation.
Liz: That is true.
Labcoat: Exclamations points in particular. I would suggest 50!
Bradley: So now we're screaming at her?!
There is that fine line of punctuation. You don't want to be formal, but you don't want to be too casual. When Josh got his brilliant idea (which turned out to be pretty much the exact same idea he had before they went to the Center for Important Emergencies, Liz noted he was writing in all caps... things were stressful all around.
Josh from the traib; what the hell's a traib?! She's gonna think we're crazy!
Bradley
As Josh TextWatch 2015 swept the city, the nation and then the world after Josh successfully sent the agreed upon text, the one suited gentleman at the table asked that God forgive them and they all sweated it out wondering why it was taking so long for Laura to respond. It had been a full 15 seconds.
Mike: Maybe she's in the shower.
Bradley: She's not in the God damned shower! She hated the text! She's never gonna respond!
Mike: Hey, relax my man.
Bradley: We have to save face! We have to pretend we were just kidding!!
Liz: OK. Get him out of here!
Bradley: Text JK! TEXT JK! [someone screams 'Oh my God' while someone else jabs Bradley in the neck with a syringe] Text JK...text jk...
That entire scene was enough to put Man Seeking Woman down as one of my all time favorite comedies. The pacing of it was perfect. The way Bradley was shown swilling down scotch (or whiskey..), while Josh wiped his brow of the sweat, the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife and in the middle of it all Mike still managed to rip into it with another attempt to get Josh to send a dick pic, this time an in-underwear pic, preferably next to a quarter to show size... everything about it was perfection.
Then the reality of it reached up and smacked Josh in the face. For all of the worry and the thinking and rethinking, he got his date with Laura, who was pretty much the same smiling weirdo from the train. They had absolutely nothing in common and clinging to a water glass for dear life and chatting about romantic comedies wasn't going to make it so.
Hey, he tried. He put it out there. He looked past the pink razors and Mr. Heart and tried to get to know someone new. He even hired a four man Polish quartet who humiliated him further when the lead dropped a watery pierogie-laden deuce in his bathroom. Note to self: Keep wet wipes on hand, placed appropriately next to the toilet, at all times.
How's the show doing as far as representing the real world of dating in a truly innovative way? Are you digging it? If you drop by, why not leave a comment? Should we keep the reviews coming?
If you have no idea what's going on, watch Man Seeking Woman online via TV Fanatic to find out.
Carissa Pavlica is the managing editor and a staff writer and critic for TV Fanatic. She's a member of the Critic's Choice Association, enjoys mentoring writers, conversing with cats, and passionately discussing the nuances of television and film with anyone who will listen. Follow her on X and email her here at TV Fanatic.
