Home Economics Season 3 Episode 9 Review: Sunday New York Times, $6

For Tom, great success comes with a whole lotta anxiety. For Denise, it’s her parents’ suspicious newfound happiness that’s stressing her out. Home Economics Season 3 Episode 9, “Sunday New York Times, $6,” focuses on these peculiar stressors and is doubly triggering for me as a person who cannot relax and who usually assumes the peacemaker role.

Both Tom and Denise are delightfully dorky when they are anxious, therefore, there is much to love about the two parallel storylines on this episode. Additionally, guest stars Kim Coles and Gary Anthony Williams bring a whole lot of quirky humor as Denise’s parents, retired dentists, and Jimmy Buffet enthusiasts, Tamara and Jay.

It’s the first we see of the couple and they are not at all the bickering duo Denise had described them to be. However, her anxiety has already rubbed off on the audience leading up to their arrival. With the help of Tom’s generally anxious vibes intensified, we can experience this apparent shift in their relationship as jarring or, at the very least, curious.

I love to feel visceral emotions (even negative ones) through storytelling, and that doesn’t happen quite so often with sitcoms. On this episode of Home Economics, I can be stressed out and entertained, simultaneously. And since being stressed out is a natural state of being for me, I rather appreciate this.

Marina: You managed 11 hours of happiness before you started to worry.
Tom: I’m not worried. I’m — oh, my god. Oh, my god, what if I’m worried?

This is me when I worry that I’m forgetting to worry about something. Tom and I are a rare breed. I actually had to watch the scene with the money on the bed twice to get the dialogue because I was so distracted by the second-hand repulsion I was feeling. “I think we need to burn the sheets.”

Yes, burn them immediately.

Tom’s storyline contains not only fun, relatable anxiety but a sweet, heart-warming conclusion as well. Tom finding that his happiness is being able to make his wife happy is the most perfect use of his book money.

It’s also good that he got rid of that health-hazard hot tub — it will do wonders for his mental well-being.

Marina: I don’t know if I could let you do that for me.
Tom: Oh, well, this isn’t for you. This is for me. Yeah, this is totally selfish.

His selfishness is as charming as his anxiousness. 

Denise’s rollercoaster with her parents gives us some nice background on the character. It adds interesting context to her ability to mediate and diffuse arguments—she’s been doing it her entire life. And more so since she married into the Hayworth family.

Like Tom’s story of stress, Denise’s has a wonderful resolution. Connor, of all people, offers some perspective for Denise—”I hate that you’re giving me a lot to think about” — and she has an honest, heartfelt conversation with them.

Home Economics Season 3 Episode 9 follows two stress cases on their journey to happiness and does so in a real and really funny way with remarkable comedic performances and great direction from Connor himself. Jimmy Tatro directs and turns out a fantastic episode that this reviewer gives the full 5 stars.

What did you think of this episode of Home Economics? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Home Economics airs Wednesdays at 9:30/8:30c on ABC.

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