A review of tonight's “You're the Worst” – which FXX just renewed for a third season – coming up just as soon as you tell me if I'm going to be an aunt or an uncle…
“Other Things You Could Be Doing” represents the two extremes of “You're the Worst” at its best, in terms of both its tone and what its characters can be.
Tonally, it's at times as dark and despairing as any episode in this Gretchen depression arc, yet at other times incredibly lowbrow and/or silly with gags like Jimmy's response to Nina's disgusting feet, or Lindsay's confusion about Becca's baby, or Henry Rollins (guest-starring by tablet) wondering what on earth he's dong here.
And Jimmy is alternately heroic in finally realizing that he has to be there for Gretchen no matter what – he may not fully understand the nature of her illness, but he can at least see that she needs him there, no matter what she says – and utterly cowardly in how he attempts to get out of the date with Nina by hiding in the bushes and continuing the season-long “New phone who dis” running gag. It's remarkable that Chris Geere could play those two extremes – the serious man feeling destroyed as he listens to Gretchen order him to go sleep with another woman, then the Daniel Craig-esque upset baby lying on the ground rather than confront a woman he only vaguely knows – and have them feel like the same character, but it works. Jimmy building the makeshift tent for Gretchen (rather than trying to smother her with that pillow like Tony Soprano with his mom) was a lovely, unexpected touch on which to finish that story for this episode, even though it's obviously not going to be all sunshine and rainbows by next week's finale.
Jimmy's plan to bomb Gretchen with the love – or, at least, the company – of the people in her contacts list was also an elegant way for the show to incorporate its many recurring players (including the return of Justin Kirk as Rob from “LCD Soundsystem”) without it feeling like a distraction from the main story, which has been an issue at a few points this season.
And the two subplots with Edgar and Lindsay did a nice job of charting their respective growth this season, even if Lindsay's pregnancy is almost certainly going to cause her to backslide. My only worry about Edgar and Dorothy is that things are too healthy for them right now. Given that this is both a show about dysfunctional people and their relationships, as well as one where Edgar loses a lot of his creative utility if he's not living with Jimmy and supporting his every need, I fear that he and Dorothy are going to not only break up in the finale, but in a way that seems more motivated by the needs of the show than where he and she seem to be at together.
But that's something to be dealt with in the finale, and hopefully Falk and company can surprise me as much there as they have with so much of this excellent season, including this funny and poignant resolution to the question of whether Jimmy would leave Gretchen over this crisis.
What did everybody else think?