Review: On ‘You’re the Worst,’ Gretchen asks Samira Wiley to ‘Fix Me, Dummy’

A few thoughts on tonight's You're the Worst coming up just as soon as I regret giving you license to say anything…

Busy week, so let's go straight to the bullet points:

* Very happy to see Samira Wiley (for whom Stephen Falk wrote when he was on staff at Orange Is the New Black) playing Gretchen's new therapist, who is alternately befuddled, horrified, and intrigued by her new patient, and both smart enough to push the right buttons and confident enough to not need this woman in her life, even though we know Gretchen is the lead on a TV show and thus provides Wiley with employment. It's always fun to put a smart and sensible human being into the group to see how they'll react to Gretchen and/or Jimmy, and while Dorothy supplies some of that, this doctor/patient relationship should allow for a lot more of that over the coming weeks. Looking forward to it, and to seeing how the show addresses both Gretchen's angst over keeping the death of Jimmy's father a secret from him and Jimmy's inevitable reaction to the loss of the man he finally made some peace with during their last encounter.

* Not loving the Lindsay plot, which has her playing Annie Wilkes – albeit Annie Wilkes in a slutty nurse Halloween costume – to poor, injured, oblivious Paul. I couldn't help but laugh at the spectacle of him trying to throw DVDs into the player from the couch, but on the whole her behavior towards Paul is ugly in a way that doesn't really work even on this show. There's being an awful person, and then there is being a monster, which is what she is right now, and it's remarkable what a relief it is to see Lindsay in any other context, like how she's a little too eager to act out Gretchen's claim to the shrink that they're about to make out.

* Meanwhile, the show is skirting to the right edge of the line with the subplot about Edgar going off his meds. There's probably more room for darkness here to begin with, since he's primarily harming himself at the moment – though there's great potential for Dorothy to be emotionally hurt depending on how bad his PTSD symptoms get – but if that's where we're headed, we're working towards there gradually, with Edgar fixating on the homeless encampment outside of Dorothy's new apartment, trying to put his improv skills and Sharpie to good use freshening up their cardboard begging signs.  It's a charitable gesture, but also an obsessive one, and though Dorothy is able to break the spell without making him abandon his good deeds, it's clear more is coming.

* Outside of the Lindsay/Paul arc, these two episodes have done a strong job of putting the comedy at the forefront again without ignoring or undermining the darkness exposed in Gretchen and others last season. Pleased on the whole, with that one exception that I'm hopeful Falk has a solution to that will, if not redeem Lindsay, at least get her quickly out of an untenable situation.

What did everybody else think?

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