2 Broke Girls, S6E9 “And the About FaceTime”: A TV Review

There are many things I expect from 2 Broke Girls. Off-colour humour and painfully bad puns number among them, of course, and as of this season solid jokes/gags as well. What I don’t tune into this CBS sitcom for, however, is a strong theme that is heavily featured throughout an episode. All that said, “And the About FaceTime” was a pleasant surprise, especially after having taken last week off.

A fairly successful cold open kicks things off, with the gang trapped inside the Williamsburg Diner due to aggressive canvassers blocking off both exits. Nobody wants to be confronted by the unnervingly gleeful young people, and it’s that same procrastination and fear of facing things head-on that will be experienced and dealt with by various members of the cast moving forward.

For Oleg it’s putting off selling his beloved Toyota Yaris, as Sophie wants them to become a minivan-owning family. For Caroline it’s the fact that she hasn’t had sex in two straight years, the implication being that she’s been too preoccupied with her business and the rest of her life to give it any attention. For Oleg it’s death [wow, making old people jokes really is that easy]. When it comes to Max, however, it’s not made explicitly clear until over halfway through the episode.

Randy makes a reappearance after two episodes away, though solely through the screen of Max’s iPad. They’re still making the long-distance thing work, which makes sense since it was almost exactly a month ago that they decided to get back together. In order to turn their tricycle into a/an [insert your four-wheeled vehicle of choice here] Randy snags Caroline a date with his co-worker Tyler. It’s his introduction that acts as a catalyst for whatever it is that Max and Randy have going on.

On one hand, seeing the forming Channing heiress get physical with the former star of Nickelodeon’s Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide- 

Thanks, 2paragraphs, I had a strong suspicion but you confirmed it.

-is understandably difficult for Max. She misses actually being able to touch her boyfriend, and sexting only gets you so far [no pun intended]. Following up on that is Randy flaking on their date, which leads her to cock blocking Tyler and [the-female-equivalent-of-cock-blocking] Caroline. In his frustration The-Child-Star-Formerly-Known-As-Ned drops a bomb, asking her “what do you expect?”

See, Randy and Max broke up in the Season 6 premiere because neither of them was willing to move for the other. Tyler spells that out, indicating that if neither of them were willing to make the big step it can’t be something they consider very important. After a very brief phone call Max breaks things off for the second time in under a dozen episodes.

While things could have been seeded better in the weeks leading up to this one, just as far as a certain level of dissatisfaction in their relationship, the conclusion was an impactful one. Better couples have kept things going in-person for much less, and the realization that they never should’ve gotten this far is something I can deeply relate to.

In the end Caroline never seals the deal, which maintains the longstanding status quo, and Max is once again single. It’s an interesting place to leave things, especially so close to the midseason finale, but as with most things it’s satisfying because it was done well. To reiterate, episodes with a strong theme are not at all something I expect from 2 Broke Girls, but if there are more down the pipeline I’m certainly not complaining.

Oh, also there were parts that I thought were funny which are listed, as usual, down below.

Current Total: $4,840.35.

New Total: $5,821.62. No clue, sorry.

The Title Refers To: FaceTime is a popular video calling app for smartphones and tablet. The term “about time” implies that something was a long time coming, and “about face” refers to turning around, but I’m not sure which was intended in this case.

Stray Observations

• Causes the canvassers might be raising money for: “OCD pandas or owls who say ‘whom’.”
• “Rest in peace, Earl. Taken seconds before his time.”
• “Don’t worry, everything’s okay. Unless you’re the North American Honeybee.”
• Caroline’s perfect match: “a gay guy who doesn’t mind loud chewing”

“Oleg, did you really think you could pass this off as you? You don’t wear glasses!”

• “Are these prices, ’cause they’re all two numbers-“
• Caroline and Tyler say Spanish words with a lisp.
• Max talks about not having more than one plate in the same episode she complains about not liking the taste of fennel.
• Every instance of Caroline talking about sex is a gem:

“break off a piece of that Kit-Kat bar” sexually

“I’m gonna have sex tonight, if you know what I mean.”

“Hey, Randy, I can’t hear you I’m going through a tunnel!” / “I wish.”

• After Sophie violently shoves her stroller down the stairs she says “Baby Barbara loves that,” followed by a shot of the laughing infant. I guess it’s fine then.
• “That car was magic. And now the only tail my Yaris will ever see belongs to a lasagna-eating cat!” I wish I could communicate just how much Jonathan Kite nails that line.
• “Max please don’t threaten my date, he’s not a kid with a McFlurry!”
• “I need to be alone. Maybe I’ll go to a taping of Carson Daly.”
• The diner has a betting pool on Caroline having sex and Sophie actively prevents that from happening, which is not how betting pools work.
• The episode closes with Han running the metaphorical bases in Oleg’s old Yaris with some pretty young blonde. They don’t make as big a deal out of this as I thought they might.

For a number of years now I’ve wondered how many of the jokes on 2 Broke Girls, especially the ones referencing pedophilia and sexual assault or abuse, have been able to make it onto the air. Every now and then, however, I find myself asking if something can be shown. This week our newest feature, and one that will likely be returning, is called-

Can She Do That?

“And the About FaceTime” brought that question to mind just a couple of minutes into the episode, when I saw the following take place:

Immediately my mind jumped to the fact that you’re not allowed to show people drinking alcohol on television, but there’s no way that could possibly be true, right? After all, we can all think back to at least one instance of a character sipping at a hard beverage on-screen. With that in mind, perhaps it’s just shows on basic cable?

A writeup on Adweek revealed that it’s actually more complicated than that. In America, where 2 Broke Girls is produced and aired, does not have any laws in place that might limit alcohol marketing, ie. beer commercials and the like. That said there was once a Code of Practices for Television Broadcasters that was enacted in 1951, which prohibited:

“prohibited the use of profanity, the negative portrayal of family life, irreverence for God and religion, illicit sex, drunkenness and addiction, presentation of cruelty, detailed techniques of crime, the use of horror for its own sake, and the negative portrayal of law enforcement officials, among others”

While the code was suspended in 1983 it turns out that many broadcast networks tend to stick to much of its contents, in particular to the consumption of alcoholic beverages on-screen. With that in mind, it’s pretty safe to say that 2 Broke Girls already portrays the vast majority of the items listed above on a regular basis, so what’s adding one more to the list?