AVClub: Married successfully resists giving audiences what they want. That’s a simplification—by “audiences,” I mean “lucrative, complacent masses of viewers”—but the whole formula of this series is a the weekly impersonation of a sitcom. Married is a minutely observed, wry drama in sitcom clothes.
Tonight, the show introduces itself with the comforting promise of another standard sitcom setup—Russ’ difficult mother is coming to town for the weekend. And it’s true that, in the course of the episode, all the expected beats are hit—Russ’ mother Sharon (Joanna Cassidy) is impossible to please, talks down to daughter-in-law Lina, is inappropriate around her granddaughters (and her son), and generally acts as the single episode disruptive whirlwind of poor parenting most sitcoms trot out at one point or another. What “The Cruise” does—and what Married does—is ground Sharon’s actions in resolutely human terms that refuse to yield to easy laughs or to the genre necessity of closure at the end of a half-hour. Even on sitcoms that acknowledge the pain of having a shitty parent, an episode will include a feint toward reconciliation or at least connection. Married sticks to its guns here, as usual, making a case that family life is a continuum, and that people don’t really change. Certainly not in a half hour, and most likely not at all.
The Doomsday Cult of Antares De La Luz Review: The documentary explores how the cult members were coerced in the group and made accomplice of heinous crimes.
Don’t let the cringey awkwardness of The Office fool you: Michael Scott would actually be the perfect boss.
City Hunter Review: The manga adaptation unravels the tragic beginning of Ryo Saeba and Kaori Makimura's partnership.
