FREE AGENTS “What I Did for Work” Season 1, Episode 2 – I thought the pilot for Free Agents was rather funny and although there were some awkward moments, I enjoyed all the characters. Unfortunately, tonight’s episode made me lose a little bit of the hope I was holding out for this show. I’m not quite ready to drop it, but I was bored for most of “What I Did for Work,” so I’m starting to worry.
The pilot explained that these were two co-workers who were somewhat recklessly distracting themselves from their real problems by shacking up. I suppose I was just expecting that there was more to the premise of the show than watching Alex and Helen secretly hook up, then talk about how the shouldn’t secretly hook up and then pretend to not get jealous when the other received attention from the opposite sex. It’s a cute plot for one night, but I was bored with the Alex-Helen game tonight.
Maybe part of it was that Alex and Helen didn’t seem as absurd as they did in the pilot. Although they were mostly normal people, Alex’s uncontrollable spontaneous tears and Helen’s lonely drunkenness made them quirky and entertaining. That little offbeat quality was missing in tonight’s episode and they seemed more like they were characters in a witty romantic dramady than a half hour comedy.
Thankfully the people around them still held on to a tiny bit of that weirdness because that’s where I got my laughs tonight. Helen’s assistant, Emma, was a perfect sociopath and her straight forward rude attitude probably made me laugh the most tonight. Walter, the security guard, and Alex’s other co-workers Dan and Gregg also brought in some of that strange humor from the pilot that I liked.
I’m hoping that Free Agents will come up with more interesting scenarios for these characters because I’m not yet invested enough in either Alex or Helen to care if “will they” or “won’t they.” From this second episode, it seems like that’s something we’re supposed to care about, but it’s going to take a lot more than the chit chat we got tonight.
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