I first heard about The Other Two when I was browsing HBO Max (before it became Max), but didn't really give much thought to it other than "Oh, Molly Shannon is in this." I actually forgot the show existed after that, but then saw a post from one of the Neo-Futurists I'm friends with on Facebook because she was on an episode (she plays Sheila in season three). I thought, "Okay, I should probably check it out." Then I saw an article blasting Elemental for doing something similar to what Disney did in one of the third season episodes and that sealed the deal for me. I am SO glad I finally got around to watching because it was such a fun and hilarious series. There are times when it takes a serious turn, but there's a good balance overall. It reminds me of Arrested Development and has little hints of Reboot and a few good doses of Curb Your Enthusiasm. I love the satire and how it never takes itself too seriously. And, of course, I love all the LGBTQ+ rep. One of the main characters is gay, so it's there in spades!
The Other Two is about two millennials who are trying to make names for themselves in their careers and just not getting there. Cary is an actor who gets bit parts on commercials and TV series, if he's lucky. We first see him auditioning for a commercial where he has to look like he's smelling a fart. Brooke was a dancer at one point in her life and now she's not really doing much of anything. We first see her trying to sneak out of an apartment she's squatting in. Their thirteen year-old brother Chase is a pop star who was discovered on YouTube and now they're trying to benefit from his fame. Molly Shannon plays their mom and her main focus is on Chase's rise to stardom, which she also ends up benefitting from.
I love so much about this show and I'm sad that there won't be a fourth season, but I'm glad the writers knew that in advance and gave it some good closure. It shines a light on "the industry" in so many comical ways. There are a lot of great supporting characters and tons of celebrity cameos. I love that the two main actors are completely new to me. I've never seen Drew Tarver (Cary) or Heléne Yorke (Brooke) in anything before, but now I want to see them in something else. Cary reminds me of Jason Bateman in Arrested Development, but gay. Brooke reminds me of a young Meg Ryan in some ways. (Fun side note: Heléne's birthday is closer to my daughter's than Kathy's birthday was to Pat's. You have to watch the show to get what I'm talking about.)
Fair warning: The Other Two is VERY raunchy. Lots of sex, nudity, and mature content all over the place. If you're new to the series, do NOT watch with kids in the room. Also keep in mind that some material is offensive on a Curb Your Enthusiasm level. It's not PC for sure. There's one point where I thought they took something a bit too far, even though it still came off as funny in the context of the scene.
Check out this trailer if you haven't seen the series yet, and then stop right there because there will be spoilers below. If you have seen the series, you may proceed...
Thoughts with SPOILERS...
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Cary and Brooke are essentially flawed in so many ways. I wanted to share some thoughts on both of them. As insufferable and/or cringey as they could get sometimes, there was a Zack Morris effect in play, since they're both protagonists and you want to see them "win" as a result. If the show was narrated through anyone else's point of view, you'd probably get so annoyed with Cary and Brooke. Like imagine seeing the show through Curtis and Lance's eyes. I'll wait.
There you go.
Thoughts on Cary:
I like Cary and how openly gay he is throughout the series. I feel like he keeps getting screwed over with his career and that has led him to make some really drastic and stupid decisions. His love life could use a tune-up too. I felt bad for Jess, since it seemed like he really was into Cary and Cary bailed as soon as he got spooked by that level of emotion. And he should have dumped Lucas as soon as he found out about the method acting. Cary also needs to keep his competitiveness and schadenfraude in check when it comes to his friendship with Curtis because that really did come back to bite him. There were other times I just really felt bad for him. Like I just wanted him to catch a break. Through Cary, we get to see how difficult it is to make it with an acting career. And I appreciate that. I also found his wanting to watch people watch him totally relatable.
Thoughts on Brooke:
Brooke is definitely relatable, especially on the career front. I totally felt for her with how she kept dipping her toes in the industry and trying to figure out what she was actually good at. And in season three, she was just so lost. I honestly don't think it's that hard to do good in some way or another, but Brooke was so focused on trying to prove something to the world, or at least to Lance. I was actually impressed at the amount of patience Lance had for her. Especially when she couldn't figure anything out for herself and took it out on him. Somehow, he was still there for her even after their big fight. I was also impressed that Brooke taking the fall for Chase and Pat somehow translated into something big for her career.
Sometimes I felt like Brooke and Cary were two ships passing in the night and other times I really liked their sibling dynamic. I'm glad they were both able to take a step back and reassess where their lives and careers were going.
Favorite supporting characters:
Pat: Obviously, since she's played by Molly Shannon. I also appreciate her kindness and vulnerability.
Streeter: I didn't know an agent could be so dumb, but Ken Marino does it so well with this part. I love how earnest he is too.
Lance: He's too "good" for Brooke, but he still adores her and is so devoted to her.
Curtis: He's generally a good friend to Cary and I feel bad that he doesn't get that in return. I also love that he calls Cary out on his BS.
Lucas Lambert Moy: I love how he commits to each of his characters, much to Cary's chagrin. And then how he gets lost when he doesn't have a role and his Australian accent comes out.
Shuli: I love Wanda Sykes and she's so great in this role.
Chase: He's the backbone to this show. It's fun watching him and seeing how fame affects his life.
I probably listed all the main supporting characters at this point.
Favorite funny moments:
* Brittlynn being eleven years old, but Brooke thinks they're the same age.
* Cary sending a live picture of his butthole and then it goes out to everyone.
* The father and son who are really a gay couple, and the "straight son from Kansas".
* Globby!
* The fake Applebees.
* Streeter thinking everyone has diarrhea on the plane.
* The AIDS play. Need I say more?
* The song for winning at the high school reunion, which sounds like "The Ants Go Marching One by One". The episode had a Romy and Michele appeal to it.
* Pat trying to evade her security staff.
* Jackie Hoffman as the Chase decoy.
* Brooke thinking an old man was pretending to be a sick pre-teen girl and then accusing the grandmother of the same thing.
* Chase's gay brother song
* Brooke stepping in as a backup dancer but trying to get everyone to not dance all sexy in front of Chase since he's a teenager.
* The farm where former girlfriends of celebrities go to stay safe. I loved the video with Ann Dowd.
* Streeter treating his breakup with Pat like a divorce.
* Brooke trying to recruit talent at a kid's birthday party
* Cary shadowing nurses at the hospital and finding out that there were other actors there doing the same thing.
I also liked some of the conceptual stuff in season three, such as people being invisible if they're not in the industry and the Pleasantville situation with Emily Overruled. Really clever and funny.
Actors I recognized:
* Alison Rich as Melanie. She was Valley Girl Erica on The Goldbergs.
* Nadia Dajani as Mackenzie. I remember her from Sex and the City.
* I was surprised about David Lascher playing Mackenzie's brother in the series finale. I knew he looked familiar but wasn't sure why. I think the last time I saw him was on Blossom ages ago. Or maybe in that movie where Melissa Joan Hart kills her parents and blames it on Jeremy Jordan (the pop star, not the Broadway actor).
* Jackie Hoffman as the Chase decoy at the dance (as mentioned earlier). She's a great comedic actress. I actually saw her perform at Second City Northwest when I was a teenager. (Nia Vardalos was performing with that group too.)
* Fin Argus as Lucas, since I recently saw him in Queer as Folk.
* Noah Galvin as the gay guy who is pretending to come out to his "dad." He's engaged to Ben Platt and he also played Evan Hansen at one point. And he narrated one of the characters on the audiobook of What If It's Us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera.
* Tuc Watkins, who played the fake dad of Noah Galvin's character. (I think he also played Brooke and Cary's dad in a flashback scene.) I remember him from Desperate Housewives, but I also saw him on Uncoupled.
* Marcia DeBonis as Kathy. She's been in a lot of small roles on other shows I've watched.
* Greta Lee as Genevieve (Brooke's dance school rival). I saw her on The Morning Show.
* Josie Totah as Elijah in the school dance episode. This was before her transition though. I most recently saw her on the Saved by the Bell reboot.
* Beck Bennett as the "pilot" Brooke was sleeping with. He was on Saturday Night Live.
* Heidi Gardner, also from SNL, as the woman who is helping Pat get high at Chase's birthday party.
* Dana Delaney as Emily Overruled. I think the last time I remember seeing her was on Desperate Housewives.
* Ann Dowd as the lady on the video about sending teenage girls to live on a farm. I haven't really seen her in much but I recognized her right away.
Some cameos I loved:
* Bowen Yang doing an impression of Cary after the butthole incident.
* Lukas Gage in the AIDS play episode, where Cary is trying to get him to give up the porn role. I even love the reference that was made to his role on White Lotus.
* Aidy Bryant. I can't remember what she did, but I just love her anyway.
* Jordana Brewster as the woman the gay-baiter had dated in the past.
* Debi Mazar on an episode of Pat's talk show. I also loved her on Younger.
* Ben Platt, who was supposed to perform at the Night of Undeniable Good.
* Kiernan Shipka as the celebrity Chase gets pushed into marrying before he hooks up with Pam Snot.
* Patrick Wilson, who was trying to help Cary during Watch What Happens Live.
Questions:
Why did Brooke give up her chance to work with Alessia Cara while Cary gave up the family trip to go work on Night Nurse?
Who played the girl who was singing "Ring of Keys" from Fun Home at the school dance in season one? She looks so familiar but I can't find her on IMDb.
If you made it this far, you've obviously seen the series. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
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Last month, my daughter had her Bat Mitzvah. We had a party to celebrate her coming of age and she made a speech about her parsha (Torah portion) at the celebration. She totally slayed it and made it even more interesting with her theatrical personality. It was a really nice celebration and I look back upon it fondly. My older son provided the entertainment with the improv troupe he started at his high school. That was a lot of fun and everyone enjoyed it.
As tradition would have it, I made a top ten list for her during my speech, just like I did for her older and middle brothers. I'm not waiting until her thirteenth birthday to share this, as it's not until early next year.
1. She loves to read. I’m thankful to have kids who enjoy reading. She and I have a lot of similar tastes in books and I am more than happy to share novels that I loved when I was growing up. And I know we're going to "fight" over who gets to read Dahlia Adler's new book first. :) (Side note: I ended up reading it first.)
2. She’s really funny. I’m sure she picks up a lot of humorous bits from her siblings and from Jeff, but she definitely makes me laugh a lot, especially when she adds her own twists to what she already knows is funny.
3. She’s smart and does well in school. While middle school is a new experience for her with lots more homework, she has been getting As consistently throughout her first year there.
4. She’s a great conversationalist. She always wants to “converse” with me and loves asking questions, which ends up leading to more questions.
5. She likes to draw and is really good at it! When I was her age, I had this big pad of paper on my desk and I would draw on it all the time, as well as in my school notebooks. She is the same way and she likes sharing her artwork with me. She also likes drawing inside everyone’s greeting cards. (Her Zadie inspired that.)
6. She has a strong moral compass and it’s important to her that people behave ethically.
7. She is kind and loyal to all her friends. Friendship is important to her and she never wants to jeopardize that.
8. She loves musical theater. I enjoy taking her to see shows and then hearing her sing the songs from her favorite musicals. She did Imagination Stage camp last summer and had a blast and she’s excited to go back again in a couple weeks.
9. She still wants to spend time with us. If you knew me at 12, I was not that way with my parents and usually kept to myself. (Sorry, Mom and Dad.) However, she always wants to have quality family time and she also loves our mom-and-daughter days out. (Especially if it means going to Bath and Body Works and getting Starbucks.)
10. She is one of the sweetest and most genuine people I know. If everyone had her personality and attitude, the world would be a much better and happier place to live in.
I want to wish Mazel Tov to M. You are an amazing daughter and I am so lucky and thankful to be your Eema. I know you have a lot of great things coming to you in life and I can’t wait to see what those will be!
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