Episode 208: Therapy

Before this one, you’ll want to see Episode 207 – Dad (and before 207, you’ll want to see Episode 113 – Brendon’s Choice).

Cast:
Brendon Small – Brendon Small
Jason Penopolis – H. Jon Benjamin
Melissa Robbins – Melissa Bardin Galsky
Coach Jon McGuirk – H. Jon Benjamin
Paula Small – Janine Ditullo
Andrew Small – Louis Szekely
Linda – Laura Silverman
Lunch Lady – H. Jon Benjamin

Synopsis: Brendon, Andrew & Linda try to solve some of their problems by going to group therapy. However, it only makes things worse. Paula spends the episode reacting to Andrew’s wedding, while McGuirk has gingivitis.

Lawn Gnomes:
· Must've missed it.

Brendon’s Filmography:
· “The Shrinking President-King” – A medieval tale of a President-King who faces the challenges of scheming servants and a shrinking body.

The Movie-Episode Connection:
· Well, I think the psychiatrist summed it up nicely.
· I also noticed in “The Shrinking President-King” Brendon says “We don’t call it shrinking, I’m reverse growing!” This represents Brendon’s feelings on the psychiatrist’s “Gentle Talk” style.

Song Lyrics:
· Brendon’s “The Shrinking President-King” movie has it’s own medieval style music.
· The Hot Dog Theme is used at several points in this episode, mostly in the restaurant.

Random Observations & Facts:
· Throughout this episode, Paula reacts to Andrew & Linda’s marriage. Some of her reactions include: Eating chips, popcorn & ice cream while watching TV and going out in the sun and having a margarita.
· The President-King’s “big shoe” might be Linda’s shoe.
· The therapist has a leather jacket that says, “The Feelgoods” on the back.
· The “Gentle Talk” book features the therapist on a beach in a…weird pose.
· McGuirk calls a timeout, even though (as I understand from 106 – Director’s Cut) there is no timeouts in soccer.
· A big black glob of something drops when McGuirk opens his mouth.
· You can hear something that sounds like “The Compliment Song” (from Episode 210 – History) coming from the TV.
· Brendon eats some butter of off a knife while Andrew & Linda are arguing.
· A cartoonist is at another table in the restaurant. The guy he is showing his drawings to ends up hitting him on the head.
· When shrinking President-King Brendon asks servant Melissa for the eyedropper, Melissa has an eyedropper and Brendon ends up holding a turkey baster. Good use of camera tricks.
· When Brendon does the spit take, he ends up hitting Linda.
· This is the second episode in a row to go to the commercial with Brendon doing a spit take.
· When Brendon is thinking about Linda, she seems to say, “Hello Brendon”.
· While Brendon does his rant during therapy, it’s interesting to look at Andrew’s facial expressions as he talks.
· The therapist uses finger quotes when he calls Dad “Andrew”.

Past Episode References:
· Lorraine from Episode 206 – Impressions can be seen at the restaurant.

End Credits: “Hot Dog Theme”

Reviews: WARNING: Spoilers

Randomguy: Man. That Home Movies was AWESOME. After the disappointing "Dad", this episode took the new characters a bit farther, while still managing to be comedic. The dialogue totally drove this episode. The best bits were all of Brendan and Paula's talks, and the McGuirk/Brendan interplay. Some really sharp insight was made here into the whole pop-psychobabble therapy thing as well. Every single thing about the therapy sessions was superb. Even the movie rocked. Best of all, we saw HM characters really DEVELOP. Brendan showed some backbone, Dad began questioning his wife, etc. Great Overall. I say A. Too bad it won't be on again Thursday. To be frank, there wasn't really anything wrong with this episode. Jason and Melissa might not have been featured a lot, but that's ok, because some others got extra screen time. I'm still missing Erik, but other than that, this ranks among my top 5 episodes of HM.

Spectre: "Therapy" begins and interweaves with a segment that should be placed high on the "Best Home Movies memories" list: the "shrinking" Brendon film. Perhaps for these several moments I should consider this episode to be better than last weeks.

There are numerous pluses: the amazing Paula and Brendon conversations which always seem to bring a smile to my face; Brendon, Jason, and Melissa's comments toward the film they're currently making; McGuirk's gingivitis problem; several instances of what seemed like improvisational dialogue; the ending; and of course, the amazing, hilarious, off the wall clips of Brendon's movie, as I said before. Jason, Melissa, and Brendon create these sorts of characters in the movie that I think will linger in my mind for a while.

There are some negatives, however. There were a few semi-long stretches of time where I didn't laugh; mainly during the fight scenes between Brendon's dad and his soon to be wife. It didn't seem so humorous... it seemed more serious, but in a bad way. Got annoying, really.

The therapy sessions were also somewhat of a letdown. I did laugh a little at the book the therapist wrote and such.

Was "Dad" better? It's extremely hard to tell. I don't know, really; I think that I might like this one even more because of the pluses. They hugely outweigh the negatives.

All in all, a pretty good episode. Grade: A-

Pabcool: This Home Movies episode shows off the usual greatness of HM. The whole therapy plot was great, (and the fact that I wanted to run over, shoot, and toss the therapist's blood-drenched corpse off a nice little cliff was probably intencional) the movie, due to it's overwhelming low budget cheeziness I usually see in low budget films, was very amusing, and the McGuirk sub-plot was decent. (McGuirk REALLY strikes me as the type who'd regularly see a shrink)

I give "Therapy" a B+.

StrangerAtaru: Once again, we have one of those episodes that is for the most part good, but does have a couple of problems here and there. For starters, I love the whole plot about Andrew, Linda and Brendon all being forced to go to therapy in order to get the marriage setup to work. Although some of the fighting involving Andrew and Linda could have been worse in this part, it is Brendon as a "third party" in these fights with his typical snide comments that makes it hilarious. (such as one of my favorite lines in the whole series: "Well then it's unanimous: SOMETHING'S STUPID!") The therapist in this episode reminded me a lot of the anger management counselor McGurk went to in "Brendon's Choice", but in this episode, he creates a lot of awkwardly funny things just because of his ridiculous methods involving how to approach conflict resolution. (which, as we all know by now, doesn't go anywhere) Brendon's telling off of the guy's methods at the end should have been a lot funnier to me, but considering it is so similar to McGurk's approach to Fenton in "The Party", it just was not as funny. Meanwhile, I thought that even though McGurk was trying to be useful in this episode, a lot of what he does isn't necessarily needed. Once again, he treats Brendon older than he really is and tries to instill a non-existant Oedipal complex with Linda, while the whole gingivitis bit was even more pointless. (while McGurk has been off or pointless the last few episodes, he starts picking up comedically again next time) Paula once again was a great character, trying to cope with Brendon's therapy as well as her old husband remarrying. I especially like the conversation in front of the TV with Brendon in this episode. And of course, what review of this episode would be complete without "The Shrinking President King", one of the better movies made and giving desperately needed roles to Melissa and Jason in this episode. Although I didn't quite overinterpret it to the way that the therapist does, it does bring out a lot of the themes in the episode in a fun, low-budget fashion. Then again, be prepared to compare a movie like this to the "big one" coming up real soon. (you know what film it is.....)

BTW: During this funny bit where Brendon tries his "gentle talk" on the caf lunch lady, this is the first time I notice the background character I have appropriately named "Joe Kido". Yes, I think he does look like the Digimon character, probably not intentionally, but who knows.

DrWeird: A good one with a couple of problems and a few things that fell short.

First and foremost, "The Shrinking President King" was excellent. Jason's laugh was great, it looked good without looking too professional (that'll come up in a few other episodes), Jason laughs was hilarious, and the episode connections were there in many ways (more so than even the therapist mentions). I won't spoil all the connections for you (though I have a few things on my website: www.starboy.tk) [/plug]

The central plot was good. The idea of the fact neither Andrew, Brendon or Linda really wanted to be at therapy was well done (and they get progressively angrier as the episode goes on). The therapist was a good character (Mitch Hedberg would've been nice for the voice, though. But that's just wishful thinking) Andrew had good lines ("do you have to call me 'Dad'?"), Brendon was hilarious ("You can tell from my nose") and Linda was, tolerable. Anyone else notice this is the second episode in a row to go to commercial on a spit take?

Paula had a nice subplot (even if I missed it the first time seeing the episode). Her reacting to Andrew's marraige through lots of food & TV (the scene with Brendon on the couch) or Sunshine & Alcohol (the scene with Brendon in the sandbox), was very well done and added a human element to the character.

McGuirk was good as an advice giver in this one (his astronomy thing was hilarious, as was his interpretation of Brendon & Linda), but...more on him in a minute.

here come the negatives of this episode.

First off, the big problem I had with this one was when Andrew & Linda verbally fought several times in the episode. It wasn't funny and brought the episode down (plus we haven't known the characters long enough for this to be a good emotional scene). McGuirk's gingivitus subplot should've A) Never had existed or B) Been resolved, preferably A. Also I just didn't like one specific quick exchange in this episode...

Brendon: I'm mad and I like it.
Andrew: Ya!
Linda: Way to go, good for you, Brendon-
Andrew: You leave him alone and talk to him like that Linda...

That just doesn't seem like something Andrew would say at that moment, based on what we know about his character. I mean, he wanted Linda & Brendon to get along better...but I'm thinking too much. Overall, a B.

Positives: The movie (!!!), Therapy (and the therapist), Paula's reaction, McGuirk's advice
Negatives: Andrew & Linda fighting, McGuirk's ginivitus