Abby’s Review: Backup/Rosie’s Band (Season 1 Episodes 8 and 9)
It is hard to view Abby’s Season 1 Episodes 8 and 9 “Backup”/”Rosie’s Band” in the context of the show’s still-developing first season.
Airing but a few hours after Abby’s was unceremoniously canceled by NBC, both episodes take on a completely different air, the inane plots and punchlines suddenly meaningless in the face of the show’s impending mortality.
The news couldn’t have come at a more disheartening time; both episodes offer intriguing windows into what Abby’s could’ve become in the future, two structurally symmetrical episodes, each their own showcase for the insanely mature chemistry that’s developed between the core cast.
After a number of episodes trying to prove itself, “Backup” and “Rosie’s Band” are a lucid glimpse of a more developed, relaxed version of Abby’s — the perspective of the show’s cancellation only further amplifying those strengths, in what amounts to a very entertaining, bittersweet hour of television.
“Backup” is the superior episode of the two — along with Abby’s Season 1 Episode 4, “Book Club”, it is the closest Abby’s feels like a complete product, a perfect encapsulation of what a kind, heartfelt comedy Abby’s wants to be.
It offers an ideal blueprint for the sitcom to follow; a loose, low stakes comedy that grounds its nonsensical plots in a strong cast of personalities, using Abby as an emotional fulcrum for the entire group to give resonance to its inherent silliness.
That’s not to say “Rosie’s Bar” is a major step down; but the weightless B plot about James and Fred’s paranoia around a strange bar patron is a lesser companion than the secondary story in “Backup,” which sees James trying to figure out how to tell Beth he’s broken her signature cup, which gives a surprising avenue to deliver the show’s central thesis; those who drink together are honest together, the most sacred of friendships forged over lukewarm pints and horribly-mixed mojitos for centuries and centuries.
If there’s one avenue Abby’s frustrating embrace of arbitrary rules, customs, and traditions comes to life, it’s around Beth’s monologue in the closing moments of “Backup,” giving breadth to the sacred rituals of Abby’s illegal outdoor establishment, and what they mean in the larger context of the cultural underpinnings of water holes throughout humanity’s history.
Am I pontificating a bit? Sure, but the reason the end of “Backup” — and, in a different tone, the end of “Rosie’s Bar — both work so well is their utter, optimistic embrace of the sociological phenomenon known as ‘getting drunk with your neighbors.’
Abby taking on role of alpha protector for the bar and Rosie (respectively) embodies the blue-collar roots of Abby’s premise, finding joy in the shared misery of humanity.
Cups will break, bands will fail, and every member of Abby’s will feel weak and vulnerable at some point; knowing these characters have each other in the lowest points of life, is a heartening reinforcement of Abby’s moral ethos. Like network counterpart Superstore, Abby’s is a show about common people finding a place within their lives to carve out a community.
For these two episodes to work, that underpinning is more than enough; how “Backup” and “Rosie’s Band” fill in the spaces between that is almost perfunctory.
But those spaces are where Abby’s arguably shines the most: be it Natalie Morales’ amazing physical comedy talents (on display in both episodes), Kimia Behpoornia’s deadpan delivery, or Jessica Chaffin’s ability to make the most mundane lines hilariously weird and dark, this double feature shows how much unearthed, fertile potential the series had to be, just as a sitcom.
The final beats of both “Backup” and “Rosie’s Band” take on a heavier emotional weight, knowing there are only three more episodes remaining in the series. That weight is telling, a tactile measurement of Abby’s ability to connect with its audience in a few short episodes.
Maybe, when rewatching the series in a few years, these episodes will just feel like ordinary chapters of the short-lived saga — in the moment, however, both “Backup” and “Rosie’s Band” undeniably feel like brief flashes of the boundless possibilities Abby’s had as a series.
Other thoughts/observations:
- Abby’s may be canceled, but there is still one more episode left — I’ll be along for the ride, whenever it’s burned off NBC’s schedule in the coming weeks.
What did you think of this episode of Abby‘s? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Abby’s airs Thursdays at 9:30/8:30c on NBC.
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Randy Dankievitch
Randy Dankievitch is a TV critic living in Portland, Maine, whose obsession with pop culture began as a child, watching reruns of The Muensters while listening to Paul's Boutique on repeat. A writer since 2011, Randy is currently the writer of TV Never Sleeps, TV Editor at Goomba Stomp, and a columnist for Up Portland, with previous bylines at Sound on Sight, Processed Media, TV Overmind, and many others.