A quick review of last night’s “Happy Endings” coming up just as soon as I explain “Tremé” to you…
I will be honest: I would have been wildly happy with an episode that was just the Hip-Hop Santa tag scene (embedded below) expanded to a half-hour, but that speaks more to my belief that Funny Dancing Is Funny than to the quality of “No-Ho-Ho” as a whole. Because it was a very strong outing for the gang.(*)
(*) This morning, I asked on Twitter whether the group had a nickname (like Scooby Gang or Cul-de-Sac Crew) I had forgotten. Consensus was no. I’m generally not a nickname-maker myself, but this does feel like a gap that’s crying out to be filled. Some of the early suggestions – the Pallies, Kerkobitches – are clever but too specific to one or two characters. Feel free to suggest some in the comments, and if we get enough good ones, maybe I can figure out how to use HitFix’s poll widget.
Much like last week’s episode, this was one that managed to find just enough humanity within the insanity to make “No-Ho-Ho” more than just a collection of great one-liners and bizarre running gags like Alex’s gift-wrap fetish. Jane’s sadness about being a Christmas baby was taken just seriously enough – and played so well by Eliza Coupe, who always does well when allowed to show Jane’s mushier side – to feel like there were some stakes to Jane-mas. And just when I feared that the whole gift whisperer gag was going to be another case of Dave being douchey and oblivious, it turned out he really did have skills in this area (and then that the big-ass candle was a real, good gift that he didn’t understand without the backstory).
A very nice, funny way to end the year for the gang (whatever we choose to call them).
What did everybody else think?