Luke Graham continues his episode by episode review of E4’s latest American sitcom…
After what I felt was a relatively weak episode, the latest episode of Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23 not only picked things up, but might be the best episode so far.
The strength of The Wedding was how it changed things up, placing its eccentric bunch of characters in new settings and mixing up the pairings.
| “Ouch! You blinded me with my own hair!” |
The episode began at a wedding reception with Chloe (Krysten Walker) calling roommate June (Dreama Walker) a bitch as she kissed James Van Der Beek (erm… James Van Der Deek), grabbing our attention before the title sequence started and the plot flashbacked to a few days before. This was interesting because it drew on something I had ruminated on from the first episode: as June grows to cope with New York life, would she become the bitch of apartment 23?
The plot properly begins with June at her lowest point as she is invited to a friends’ wedding, friends she has not seen since breaking up with her cheating fiancée. Chloe takes pity on her and decides to help her gain confidence. She and pal James take her clubbing and coaches her on releasing her inner bitch to get what she wants, but things backfire as James and June start to hang out more, and even go to clubs without Chloe. She becomes intensely jealous because of this.
Chloe’s not very experienced at this whole “sharing” thing.
As a result of their friendship, June takes James as her plus-one to the wedding, while Chloe enlists Kevin Sorbo (Hercules from, erm, Hercules) as her celebrity arm-candy.Events escalate by the appearance of an unexpected face, which creates a reason for June and Chloe to bond.
| “Don’t mock my comedic cameo puny man” |
While I was disappointed not to see Ray Ford’s Luther make an appearance, I was very happy to see the character of pervy neighbour Eli fleshed out, as we seen him outside of his apartment playing tambourine with his wedding band, and the show’s usual non-sequitors were hilarious, especially June and James’ unrehearsed dance sequence in the middle of a club, as was James’ piss-take of Guy Ritchie movies. It was also great that James’ role was expanded from being the B-story to being integral to the main plot. His absolute sincerity to self-deprecating humour is what makes this show work. As is the fact that Krysten Ritter looks absolutely gorgeous in her vamp/gothic style. Oh, and Kevin Sorbo’s cameo as himself was brilliant: he is very serious and subtle in the episode, providing much needed contrast to the antics of the main cast.
