Insecure
“Hella Shook”
Season 2, Episode 5
If you like it, I love it. Get yours.
After last week’s less than favorable episode, Insecure hits back with a set of tales reminiscent to the third outing but carrying the jokes of the fourth. Issa, Lawrence, Molly and Freida get their own times to champion their failures. As for a winner, no one gets away with anything. Molly ends in a place she admittedly wants to be in but the circumstances surrounding it are not optimal. Freida is mad at Issa for not agreeing with her on a work subject. Issa’s roster grows but her life crashes. And Lawrence will never top what went down in “Hella LA.”
On the Molly front, she’s dealing with having to throw a good vow renewal for her parents. Sure, she’s still dealing with not being taken seriously at work and trying to find the right man but this story takes precedence over the others for some reason. If there’s anything to be said about the writing of Insecure, it’s the struggle each writer has with arcs. Dropping hints here and there for these big topics isn’t how this show should play out. It might feel aimless because of all the character hopping going on. Back to Molly, she struggles to find her place in the world of the show. She has a line delivered to Issa where she talks about an expensive high rise hotel room she’s getting. In that one sentence, the viewer can see she’s successful. But Molly wants more. She wants to move up at work. And she wants a man by her side; someone not like her but equally successful and “good.”
Her problem is the comparisons she has with her parents. They seem happy after decades of marriage. In a discussion with her brother, Molly admits she was settling when she brought Sterling K. Brown’s Lionel to the vow renewal. It’s dialogue that should’ve been said when Issa told it to her episodes ago. It isn’t until Molly hears that her father cheated on her mother years ago that everything changes. Can love be real for her? Distraught, she finds Dro – the man in an open marriage and her oldest friend – driving her home. They have sex and Molly has finally gotten what she wanted. It’s not love though.
Love plays a hand in Lawrence’s story too. He finds a picture of Daniel and Issa from a post-Kiss N Grind outing that has him flustered. This eventually leads to Facebook stalking. But it’s a talk with Tiffany’s husband, Derek, that opens the story up. Lawrence misses Issa; this is obvious. He laments his stress to Derek repeatedly but his friend says no one can discuss it without taking sides. Derek has choice words, not only pointing fingers at Issa but to Lawrence as well. Finally, he sees what everyone – audience and character wise – has been seeing since episode one. Lawrence was jobless and living off of his girlfriend. Cheating is in no way comparable to mooching but the, the point is, they’re both bad people.
Case in point: look at Issa’s current status with her “hoetation.” Rosters aren’t anything new and yet she’s so braggadocios about it. Molly is happy her friend isn’t in the dumps anymore. Plus, Issa looks like she’s enjoying it all. However, rosters come at a cost. This probably won’t end like John Tucker Must Die but we’ve already seen the path it’s going towards. Issa gets into a wreck worrying about a dick pick only to have Daniel come pick her up. For some reason, she feels it best to admit to him they aren’t exclusive. While she does owe him that, she could be a little bit more forthcoming when it comes to other aspects of her life (i.e. at work). Working with Freida has changed. The once chipper blond doesn’t want to have anything to do with Issa going so far as to not join her in a group exercise. Freida is carrying anger about Issa’s non-caring attitude towards Principal Gaines and his racism towards Hispanic students. Like the other subplots, this one is nowhere near solved and it inevitably ended nowhere.
Should you watch “Hella Shook?”
The joke writing continues to soar while the story stuff gets a tad bit shaky. What made the show’s first season so wonderfully unique is its ability to slow down. You can have all of these stories in a half hour but they need to be plotted well. For now, there’s no telling where they could go. That measure works great for Game of Thrones, not Insecure. There are a few more episodes left. Let’s hope they can give each character their due.
Notes
Rarely do I do notes for a television review. I just had to add in a few things.
- STERLING K. BROWN is back! I don't care if Molly is making a checklist; that's the guy she should be with.
- Regina Hall's Shondaland style slave show returns too! I expect one full episode by season's end.
- No SZA this week. What a shame. We had it good for a while.