You’re the Worst, “Crevasses” (2.2) - TV Review

September 17, 2015, 10:30 p.m. (EST), FXX

To a pretty large extent, being an adult is about just doing things that need doing. It sounds simple, in theory, but there’s a great pull to inaction. Stasis isn’t stable, but it certainly feels that way sometimes, and the space between the life you have and the life you want almost always involves dozens of tiny steps that won’t be fun to accomplish. Competence involves, at a base level, a desire for competence. We have to want to be better versions of ourselves, but then we also have to actually do things to make that dream a reality.

“Crevasses” is about that crisis in ways both big and small. Gretchen’s meltdown about running errands isn’t really about not wanting to buy a toothbrush, but about not wanting to assume responsibility for solving the problem of making her new life. Jimmy can’t write a second novel because he is crippled by fear of failure, but also because its easier to people watch, eat food court Chinese food, and dismantle a drone than to actually focus on his career. The two combined improvise Bloody Marys involving mayonnaise and carrots because they can’t be bothered to find the Bloody Mary drawer or a recipe. Lindsay makes Edgar do everything for her, both because she can and because its easier than the alternative. The characters on You’re the Worst aren’t incompetent, they’re just lazy and comfortable with that fact.

The B-story this week doesn’t fare nearly as well as the Gretchen and Jimmy material. One of the great things about Kether Donohue’s performance as Lindsay is the way she plays Lindsay’s gleeful acceptance of her own glibness, but watching Lindsay openly abuse Edgar somehow fell flat for me. Part of it is that the whole subplot is an overused cliché, from the “girl uses guy who likes her for things” premise to the “girl inexplicably covered in increasing amounts of sauce” runner, but largely, it felt like a lot of the push and pull of Edgar’s basic decentness and Lindsay’s raging id was dialed back. The shoe is usually better about laying Edgar’s doormat tendencies against his dignity and self-worth, but that all took a back seat this week in favor of a lot of material that wasn’t strong enough to support the divergence from character. That being said, the exchange between Edgar and the gay guy at the bar where he does not understand how the man could be both gay and not attracted to him made its point incredibly well and incredibly succinctly. If the rest of the subplot had the punch and humor of that moment, it would have been one for the ages.

But “Crevasses” has that inspired montage of Gretchen and Jimmy hanging out around the mall, Gretchen’s miraculously funny and insightful thong speech about how her life has fallen to pieces, and that great opening bit where Lindsay, Edgar, and Gretchen play Trivial Pursuit while an infuriated Jimmy is shocked by their ignorance. It isn’t an all-time great episode of You’re the Worst, but “Crevasses” is still a smart story about the growing pains that mark the road to full adulthood.

The Roundup

• “Q’s are like the elbows of letters.”
• “I’ll get the tab. But this is really stretching the definition of the word ‘meeting,’ Jimmy.”
• “Mallden.”
• “But what most people didn’t know was that Megan was actually…a Nazi war criminal.”
• “You said you weren’t interested in me.” “Yes.” “But you’re gay.” “Right.” “I don’t understand.”
• “Get your shit up in those crevasses!”
• “Towels, smaller towels for your butt, chairs. I guess chairs are also for your butt.”
• “I’m just gonna leave you with this checklist for college freshmen.”
• “Get off the counter banana, you fancy now.”