SUBURGATORY “Charity Case” Season 1 Episode 6 – You have to hand it to Tessa. For all of her world-weariness, she still thinks she can make a difference in the crazy world into which she’s been dropped. But as she learns in “Charity Case,” this week’s Suburgatory, you can lead a suburbanite to a homeless transvestite hooker, but you can’t make them eat rancid meat.
After noticing that Dalia and her groupies throw away more uneaten food than a group of teenage vampires posing as humans, Tessa goes against her better judgement and tries to bring up the issue of waste with Mr. Wolfe. He appoints her head of the committee to stop waste, which results in an assembly, which leads to Dahlia deciding that they need to focus their charity efforts on the poor people of Florida.
All right. As a native Floridian, I could have taken offense at this, but in all honesty, my hair did frizz when I lived there and I could have used a better skin-care regime, but had I ever received such a care package from a rich Yankee, I would have returned the favor with a pound of bacon grease in cold cream jar.
Anyway…as her efforts have been thwarted by idiocy, Tessa tries a different approach, namely bringing the homeless transvestite, Gladys, from her old neighborhood to school to show everyone what someone in real need looks like.
No good deed goes unpunished; instead of opening up their hearts to New York’s needy, Dalia and Dallas take Tessa’s actions as a sign that the Altmans are in need. They are, after all, the poorest family on the street. When the neighbors start dropping off their leftover snow-cone machines and stolen lip glosses, Tessa sends it all to Gladys who sells it and gets a tent and a pre-paid cell phone which makes hooking easier. It’s so much better to…um…give than receive?
Meanwhile, Noah hires George to add a skylight to his bathroom because he did such a great job with the one Dallas had him install in Dalia’s bedroom. Clearly, people in the suburbs have no fear of skydiving peeping toms. When he takes Noah’s state-of-the-art shower for a spin, he winds up cracking his tooth after scaring the heck out of the cleaning lady. Good thing Noah is a dentist; bad thing Noah doesn’t believe in friend discounts. They work it out eventually and we get a little background on their friendship. College buddies and, unknown to George, silent rivals.
I loved that Suburgatory managed to champion a cause and highlight a fault in American society without getting preachy. That’s quite a feat and takes some seriously good writing. There’s a reason why it’s been picked up for a full season. It’s just a really great, very funny show.
What did you think of this week’s episode? Have you ever used a bidet? Or were you like me and my brother in Europe…utterly confused and, once it was explained to us, both grossed out and weirdly fascinated? Let me know below!
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