Cue the ecstatic, celestial snyth and strings ofExiles I Wanna Kiss You All Over.
The premiere episode of season 2 finds David having followed Skye directive.
Thats very good news.
Credit: Jessica Miglio/Amazon Studios
For David and Skye, seeing each other again is also good news.
Harley slows the episodes pace and style to that of a French New Wave film.
You wont be disappointed.
Amazon Studios
Thatll complicate things for her and David, for any number of reasons.
Amid all that discord, Skye returns home finally to reunite with David.
Who doesnt love a coming of age life choice?
Who doesnt love a new president?
(Thats a rhetorical question.)
Rather, who doesnt love a juicy TV courtroom drama, even within a TV comedy?
The upcoming trial of Getty is this seasons version of last years club tennis tournament.
And we might see some of that, too.
If not for some of its characters,Red Oaks future is bright.
Thats maybe a bit too on the nose, even for the eternally lovable Richard Kind.
And one other pet peeve, whichRed Oaksis surely not the first program to commit.
Take a tiny moment from near the end of the episode to appreciate.
Sam is waiting at a bar for his blind date to arrive.
He orders some poppers and cajoles the bartender to give them to him for half-price.
His date arrives and spots Sam while hes clumsily lunging for more ketchup.
She smiles wistfully and instinctively turns around and leaves the restaurant before hes seen her.
The scene is not played for laughs.
The creators ofRed Oaksand Heckerling have a humongous heart for the gawky old buffoon.
And if that wasnt tender enough, Sam also acquires a cat from Davids ex Karen.
Shades of John Turturro inHBOsThe Night Of,perhaps?
Elsewhere, the episode is terrific for also revealing flyaway bits of information about other easy-to-stereotype characters.
The fascinating tension in David and Gettys surrogate father/son relationship has always been the shows strongest thread.
If anything,Red Oaksshouldnt have waited until episode 4 to explore it.
And of course theres the bris of the title.
Notice the nice touch of 80s TV star Mark Linn-Baker (Perfect Strangers) as the scalpel-wielding mohel.
(Take a glance at how many tens of millions of dollars Ron Howards last two flops lost.)
If Heckerling cant get a project off the ground, thats not about her.
We get the filmmakers we deserve.
Last seasons Fourth of July ended with longing glances between David and Skye.
(Remember that Heckerling also possesses a huge heart andlots of patience for Gilbert Gottfried.)
(Series creators Joe Gangemi and Gregory Jacobs are credited here, along withEastbound and Downs Shawn Harwell.)
We wonder what hes thinking about.
Certainly about his daughter and his wife, whos alcoholism is not treated here as a TV sitcom joke.
And hes thinking about what terrible things Rudy Giuliani is going to do to him.
Join the club, dude.
But hes also thinking about David.
Of all the things were said/Theyve always worked before today.
She knows how to smoke on camera.
But the episode lumbers in other areas.
But we all know, come on guys, thatBill Murray already did it.
Body Swap has itself been swapped for a quieter, tamer depiction of suburban discontentment and malaise.
The creators perhaps realize that theyre on the same streaming provider asTransparent, and thus pivoting accordingly.
Misty says that she wont be able to sleep that night.
This episode focuses mostly onthat evil dude in the camping vest.
Fays excessive social drinking comes to a literal tipping point when she falls into the clubs pool.
David helps to fish her out and drive her home.
Though that works, too.
Its your daddys credit cards.
Sam discovers that she died two years ago.
Bravo to the show for down-shifting to include this lovely moment.
Perhaps for a reason.
His absence is felt.
The talk escalates into I need you to get off my fing back territory.
You have a heart condition, Agatha says dejectedly, then shrugs, I have asthma.
He gives her a short film from his Paris visit eight months earlier.
Seems like a lifetime ago, she sighs.
If there was anything else to say, the wouldve said it.
To quoteIan McEwan, This is how the entire course of a life can be changed by doing nothing.
