MR SUNSHINE “The Assistant” Season 1 Episode 8 – This week saw Roman hired as Alice’s assistant and then instantly used as a spy so than Ben can suss out Alice’s true intentions behind a flirty email. Meanwhile, Crystal is shocked to find that her cleaner has passed away and decides to hold a funeral in her memory.
This was yet another pretty sleepy episode of Mr Sunshine. I wish I could enjoy Mr Sunshine as much as I do Modern Family or The Big Bang Theory, but the laughs just are not there. Allison Janney and Matthew Perry and co can only carry the show for so long before it becomes obvious that the stories are redundant and even with only eight episodes under its belt, the plot lines are drying up fast. Alice’s relationship with Ben is possibly the worst culprit for such unfertile story development.
Even Roman is getting to be a tired story device: his stupidity is starting to become unconvincing (“He asked me what a Q was!” Really, Ben? Did he really? Was this before or after he balanced your accounts?) Nate Torrence’s performance is the main reason why the character has managed to stave off the risk of becoming that annoying character, but in this episode Roman was unusually grating.
Of course Mr Sunshine has its odd run of good moments. Crystal’s realization that her cleaning lady stole from her was well written, “what’s ‘skank’ in Russian?” and Allison Janney’s final eulogy was pretty excellent.
There comes a point however when a show depending almost exclusively on the scenes featuring Allison Janney to bring the funny needs some new spark. Matthew Perry is a good lead and his character is (or should be) a great center for the show, but he rarely gets the storylines which can match his potential, or the show’s.
What did you think of this episode? Sound off in the comments below.
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