You’re the Worst Review: Bachelor/Bachelorette Party Sunday Funday (Season 5 Episode 9)
You’re the Worst Season 5 Episode 9, “Bachelor/Bachelorette Party Sunday Funday,” brings back an old tradition one final time.
Sunday Fundays have long been a treasured pastime for You’re the Worst. Of course, it eventually had to reconcile with the fact that every twenty-to-thirty-something had picked up this tradition for their own also, making the whole thing seem a bit blasé for the characters.
It would seem, however, that this series is not above a final hoorah in this sense and has combined a Sunday Funday with a truly bizarre Bachelor/Bachelorette party in a way that perhaps only You’re the Worst could do.
Overall, “Bachelor/Bachelorette Party Sunday Funday” is fine in practically every meaning of the word. Its biggest problem is that it feels kind of pointless. At best, it exists solely to point out the ways in which the marriage either won’t work out or won’t happen at all.
The episode has this faux air of conflict and resolution to it, but it just feels kind of empty.
Even despite that, the episode could have gotten away with a lot because, if nothing else, it is an entertaining descent into madness. The show can’t help itself, though, and has to bookend it all with this eleventh hour revelation that Gretchen is abusing pills — but this time it’s serious.
To be clear, there isn’t anything wrong with a character back-spiraling when it seems like they’re doing well. You practically expect it on a show with characters as neurotic and self-destructive as this. The thing that feels off about this — and, quite honestly, rather insulting to Gretchen herself — is that she couldn’t possibly do a good job without something like this.
It’s part of the habit that this show often has for its characters to always have to move one step forward and two backwards, almost without exception. It’s exhausting that the show can’t just let Gretchen have being good at her job. It has to emphasize her good work with also abusing pills in a big way, despite there being no groundwork laid for that in the recent episodes.
To the episode’s credit, the conversation had between Jimmy and Gretchen on what they want and what they don’t want — even though it’s completely crazy and unbelievable that they haven’t already discussed this at some point earlier, given how long they’ve been together — feels totally lived-in and realistic. It’s also kind of commendable in how flexible it is.
It’s an undercurrent that flows through the entire episode, specifically with Gretchen. But this idea that who you are as a person is constantly in flux and the way you feel or think about something this instant might very well change in a few years — it’s a fact of reality and not something to feel shame for or have to justify.
At the same time, the characterization of Jimmy in this episode as someone that doesn’t improve for Gretchen doesn’t feel in keeping with the person we’ve spent time with before this.
“Bachelor/Bachelorette Party Sunday Funday” doesn’t feel particularly essential, but maybe that’s in keeping with the tradition of the ridiculous day where you might get pushed around in a shopping cart or set off fireworks. It’s a break from the nightmare reality, and there’s something pleasant about that — even if it comes in the form of something mind-bogglingly dumb.
What did you think of this episode of You’re the Worst? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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You’re the Worst airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on FXX.
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Drew Koenig
Drew has an ongoing, borderline unhealthy obsession with pop culture, but with television in particular. When he's not aggressively trying to get out of a perpetual state of catching up, he can be found passionately defending the ending of Lost. More of his online work can be found at The Lost Cause and he also co-hosts The Lost Cause Pod.