In the Todd Barry-centric episode a few weeks back, Delocated took one of its comic relief characters and fleshed out an entire episode using him as the star. It worked really well because it felt like the writers were using every joke they’d saved up for Barry all at once, giddy with joy at the opportunity to top themselves each time. Sure, Jon is the star of the show, but there’s an awesome ensemble of supporting players around him, and it speaks to the keen senses of Jon Glaser that he casted every role knowing he might one day bump up their visibility.
Another great Delocated addition is Amy Schumer, playing the role of Yvgeny’s girlfriend Trish. She had a bit of business in the first episode this season, but has since been relegated to the sidelines, occasionally cropping up to demonstrate that Yvgeny is totally whipped, and completely incapable of running a mob family. In “Sample,” Trish is the star, and Schumer nails the proper balance between outward pleasantness and an inner manipulative nature. Hell, Glaser shows so much faith in Schumer that he literally only speaks for half of the episode.
In “Sample,” Jon is having a lot of trouble sleeping because he’s pining after Susan (“Cream dream…big time”). Everyone is suggesting he get out of his head, but everywhere he goes, he keeps hearing his own voice singing about the bone zone. It’s coming out of every car, every radio, every iPod. That’s because unbeknownst to him, Susan has been licensing audio bits from the show to be turned into Russian techno songs, capturing the crossover audience between Delocated and Yvgeny’s show. Jon is pissed because he’s not getting any money from the deal—and because this is yet another wedge between himself and Susan going to the actual bone zone. So he decides to go on a silence strike, refusing to speak until things are changed. Then when that starts to become a pain, in typical Jon fashion he takes things too far and builds a suit he can wear full of buttons, each one a sound bite that’s already appeared on the show so as to not put more money into Susan’s pockets.
Meanwhile, Yvgeny is still doing his thing—meaning he’s technically the mob boss, but he’s still kind of a wuss. Trish is getting fed up; when she started dating Yvgeny, she dreamt it would be nonstop angry/post-murder sex. But Yvgeny’s kind of a pussy, so it’s just not happening. Sensing a rift in the relationship, Sergei asks his prostitute lady friend to take Trish out on a girls’ night and find a way to drive her away from Yvgeny. Almost instantly, Trish reveals that things sexually aren’t working out with Yvgeny, and the idea is planted that perhaps she should screw Jon as the ultimate “Fuck you.” And given Jon’s dry spell, the timing is perfect. Trish needs only to go up to him and say they should have sex, and he’s quickly leaving the picket line to pick at her line (labored wordplay alert!). They do it in Jon’s bed. They do it in the cemetery over Gregor Mirminsky’s grave. They do it at “Location X.” Soon, Trish is the commandeering presence Jon has been looking for since the first Susan left him.
The entire courtship gives Jon a chance to try out ridiculous physical humor, and Trish to react to his disgusting movements with a variety of funny facial expressions. Examples: Jon flailing his junk around trying to pick up Trish’s purse with his foot; Trish talking about how something horrible gets her really wet with just the most straight, deadpan look. Jon doesn’t talk the whole time, meaning he has to come up with other ways to express how he’s feeling. There’s the suit of course, plus recruiting TB to read a note to Trish while standing behind Jon, so it looks like Jon is the one talking. (In typical Glaser fashion, the letter literally explains exactly this tactic, plus includes notes to TB that he wasn’t supposed to read but does anyway.) Then, when TB abandons the note, Jon takes out a ring and simply points to it—which is when Sergei shows up.
See, “Sample” also showcases Sergei’s uncomfortable side. As the episode details, he grows to respect Trish’s gall rather than resent her impact on Yvgeny, and thus wants to watch her have make-up sex creepily from a chair off to the side. He also meets with the Wang Cho gang in private—a scene so intense it feels like it comes from Breaking Bad or something. It’s great to see Delocated play around with all sorts of different tones in a single episode; there’s all this Very Important Stuff, but also a completely silent marriage proposal that ends with the phrase, “led me to your vagina.” And given how well Schumer stepped up, it seems Delocated is the kind of show that’s going to showcase its meticulousness time and time again.
Stray observations:
- I totally saw that ending coming—that whatever Jon says to end his silence strike would be turned into a song—but it was great that they take Susan and let her go nuts on the dance floor, suggesting she does all this music stuff simply for her own amusement.
- Suddenly everyone hates Todd Barry?
- The Wang Cho "symbol of ultimate shame" is a big thumbs down. I'd hate to think of what the symbol of penultimate shame is: sad emoticon?