Review: Men of a Certain Age, S2 Episode 11: “Whatever Gets You Through the Night"

[ryan423]

Well, if the **** hasn’t hit the fan already! This week’s Men of a Certain Age, possibly the penultimate episode of the series based on ratings, was one of the finest hours of television this year. If you follow me on twitter, you might happen to notice that on a weekly basis, I can’t help but rave about this show, and whether the show escapes cancellation or not, I will be extremely grateful that TNT gave this show twenty-two episodes. Now, onto the review… Note: Spoilers Ahead.

If Andre Braugher isn’t considered by Emmy voters, I will truly be sad. According to Alan Sepinwall over at Hitfix, this half-season will not be eligible for the 2011 Emmys, but will be eligible for the 2012 Emmys; on the bright side, the first six episodes of season 2 will be eligible. In last night’s episode, we finally see the pressure of running this dealership alone getting to Owen, and it seems to be affecting his overall health, mentally and physically. Twenty-one episodes back we were introduced to Owen Thoreau, an overweight, diabetic man who was probably the worst car salesman at his father’s dealership. Now, twenty-one episodes down the road, we have Owen Thoreau, an overweight, diabetic man who is probably not physically stable enough to be running his father’s dealership, albeit the fact that he is a much better manager than a salesman. The dealership is in debt, and Owen is now counting on Terry to fill the shoes that Marcus left when he quit three weeks ago as the dealership’s reliable salesman.

The episode starts out with Owen unable to get himself to sleep. It’s four in the morning, and work is all that is on his mind. He makes his way to his kitchen for a snack, and then finds himself sitting alone with his laptop mulling over the debt the dealership is in, and how bad the dealership’s website looks. When he notices a Scarpula commercial as one of the ads on the Thoreau dealership website, he decides to check it out, and while he finds himself totally amused at just how bad and cheesy it is, he realizes that the cheese of it all is what is attracting more possible customers to pick Scarpula for their purchases. It’s time to film a new commercial for Thoreau, and he’s got just the man to star in it: burned out actor and best friend Terry. Terry isn’t into the idea until Owen persuades him that it’s the leading men in these commercials that get the most customers, and more customers means more money. Once we get to filming the commercial, though in only one take with Terry and Owen Sr. in front of the camera, Terry adds on to Owen’s stress by pointing out that… well, the commercial is boring, but he quickly finds a way to fix it for his friend. Terry takes the director’s seat, and Lawrence, one of the show’s funniest recurring characters played by Matt Price gets in front of the camera in a plethora of stupid outfits… stupid enough to capture the cheese needed to compete with Scarpula. All is fine for now for Owen… as long as he can find some time to spend with his wife Melissa and his kids. Now before I go on to talk about Joe’s storyline this week, I don’t want to forget about Terry and Erin’s advancing relationship. After asking her to move in last week, Terry seems quite pleased with where his relationship is moving with Erin. He seems to be the only one truly handling these life changing decisions he is making well. Owen, while pleased with his decision to stay at his father’s dealership and take over as manager, is having a hard time juggling his work life and family life, and it’s no secret that Joe is having trouble giving up the gambling bug, which has basically led him into leading a double life: one where he’s the single father of two teenagers and running his own business, and the other being a life where he is constantly trying to bite the gambling bug in the butt while maintaining an unusual friendship with his cancer-stricken bookie during a tough time.

Joe definitely had the most story to discuss this week. We’re a week away from the season (or possibly series) finale, and Joe, more than ever, is trying to separate himself from gambling. Well, I don’t know if it’s more separating or avoiding, but he sure as hell is trying to get his life back on track and put things into perspective. For the most part, Joe has really neglected his business running the party store this season, and has left the burden of handling store business on two of the show’s most likeable minor characters, Dashaun (played by Lil’ J.J.) and Maria (played by Emily Rios). When he decides to get his business back on track by taking things into his own hands and getting the staff together for a day to repaint the place, he is confronted by Dashaun and Maria about never receiving raises for all the extra work they have and will be doing around the store. When Joe vaguely points out that he won’t be giving them raises and that the discussion is over, the two of them quit, which is all it takes for Joe to realize how screwed he would be, and how his business would be in shambles without these two employees taking control of the store during his frequent absences. Joe later realizes that Dashaun and Maria are worth shelling out more money to keep them on staff.

Last but not least, I must discuss the untraditional relationship between Joe and his former bookie, the cancer-stricken Manfro who, since starting chemo, has refused to take bets. It was only a few weeks ago that Manfro asked struggling gambling addict Joe to do him a favor and pick up the money he was owed for a bet, and agreeing to do Manfro the favor was the worst mistake Joe could have made. Nevertheless, Manfro proved himself to be a bad friend to Joe, at least in my eyes, for even asking him to handle such business. From that point on, Joe became somewhat of a bookie himself, even taking bets and money behind Manfro’s back, but that all came to a halt last week when Joe saw a man in a similar situation that he had faced, losing his family and his home because of his gambling addiction that he could not even afford. After witnessing such a case of what a gambling addiction could do to a man similar to himself once again, Joe realized he had to quit cold turkey, first by intentionally leaving Michelle (his… well, sex buddy) behind, a woman who seemed to encourage the gambling addiction in Joe, and cutting off ties with restaurant owner Mike who he had been accepting bets from. This week however, Joe gets a call from Mike about an unpaid loss, and he owes Joe five-hundred dollars. Despite the fact that Joe tells Mike to forget the five-hundred dollars and that he refuses to keep handling his bets, Mike takes it upon himself to confront Joe at his store and tries to pay him back the five-hundred dollars in hope that Joe will take on his next bet. Joe quickly gets rid of Mike, yelling at him from the inside of his store to seek help and to go to Gamblers Anonymous.

When Joe thinks he is in the clear, and from here he can start getting his life back on track, Manfro walks into Joe’s Party Depot and confronts him about taking his bets. Manfro loses it, wrecking the newly-painted store and knocking Joe to the ground. Joe loses a tooth, and Terry arrives just in time to get Joe to a dentist… his dentist where Joe’s ex-girlfriend, Dory (played by Sarah Clarke) works as a hygienist. We haven’t seen Dory since the season one finale when she is spooked by Joe’s $25,000 bet and jumped ship before their relationship got anymore serious than it already was, and it is their reunion that helps Joe realize that he’s not the bad guy he has come to paint himself. Whether this relationship moves forward is yet to be seen, nor do we know whether time will allow it to given the fact that next week could be the end of the road for this brilliant show. We also are left wondering whether this confrontation in Joe’s store is the last we’ll see of Manfro, which I hope not, as actor Jon Manfrellotti is a hoot to watch! I doubt it, especially if the show returns to TNT for a third season, and I doubt we have seen the last of Joe’s struggle to break from this addiction. On the bright side, his confrontation with Manfro seemed to give him some perspective, and from the looks of it, Joe will indeed be trying out for the senior tour in next week’s finale. I also doubt we've seen the last of Joe's Fantasy Girl who, after twenty-one episodes, Joe has built up the courage to speak to while on a hike with Terry and Owen, something we haven't seen for either most or even all of this season.

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[claret]

Excellent episode!! This is a great show... one of the best on TV.

[ryan423]

Originally Posted by claret

Excellent episode!! This is a great show... one of the best on TV.

Agree! In fact, I think it might go down as the best of 2011! Not one bad episode in this show!

[claret]

Agreed. Not a dud among them. And the casting is perfect.