Overage Drinking: A National Concern

Characters have completely lost their charm, everything is slower and bloated with cringeworthy sitcom style humor ("now that's a plot twist", "gotta go take a s***"). Mac is insufferable. This is easily the worst episode I have ever seen of this show and I cannot understand how someone who liked the show can like what it is now.

This season has been remarkable! The cast is back in form, refusing to grow up, all characters are treated equal (unlike last season) and dynamics are back.

But, this espisode was many levels below that bar. The ep was not cohesive, and just plain not funny. Scene after scene I was thinking what was their point - just people talking about petty issues.

Also the camera work was weak. Many times the camera angle changed and characters were in a totally different poses or had different expressions - when this happens 5 times during one scene its really distracting. Why dont they just film with multiple cameras? I would think the scenes would also be funnier that way - more improvisation, more rawdogging ;)

This was a really solid episode. It drove home how the gang refuse to grow up, even as they grow old.

The gang run into Trey and Tammy, the high schoolers from season 1 who had asked Dennis and Dee to prom. They are now a married couple. While Tammy and Trey have grown up in these 20 years, Dennis and Dee clearly have not. They immediately start chasing drama by pursuing sex with Trey and Tammy. But is adult drama as fun as teen drama? And is there a line Dennis and Dee won't cross? This is the first episode this season which gives us a glimpse of Dennis' dark, psycho side.

The B-side gets meta with it. Mac and Charlie look for a missing Frank while trying to figure what kind of story they are in. Is it a thriller, a tragedy or something else? This was good meta fun, felt like the writers navigating the story themselves, and asking stuff like: would this be a good arc? Are we comfortable with this bit? There is a hilarious bit where Mac argues how even a tragic arc could be satisfying and Charlie completely shoots it down. We also meet some old favorites in this plot line. The plot resolution was maybe not the best but again, they were going for a meta joke.

Overall a hilarious episode. Watching it back to back with the Season 1 episode Underage Drinking is great fun to see how far the gang has evolved, or rather devolved since.

Old characters return, the dark edge stays sharp, comedy is on point, love the heros journey myth and mac philosophising everything, the dichotomy between adult stuff and apparently naive television, everything was so funny, uplifting and whatever they did in the show was horrible ! (but In a humorous manner, gallows humor like way) and I loved it, it felt nostalgic, this episode was a banger, it may be not the best but it brought me back to a simpler and edgier time where offence wasn't a thing and people can take jokes AS JOKES ! And nothing more than that.