Review: Imaginary Mary “Prom-Com”

Prom prep gone awry.

Spoilers Below:

One of the neighborhood boys, Gabe, shows up at the family doorstep to ask Nora out to prom. He also arrives with a small band, but Nora turns him down. Alice witnesses this, and wonders why Nora isn’t interested. Nora admits that she finds prom to be a dated concept, and Alice is shocked. Alice herself never went to prom and says that not going was one of her biggest regrets. She convinces Nora to say yes, and when Gabe shows up with a chorus and guitarists, she agrees.

Her father is less enthusiastic and says that she can’t go to prom if Andy doesn’t have a date. Andy is having some trouble and has experienced only rejections so far. Alice goes through several options and then suggests Clara, who he performed in the garage play with. He’s hesitant, since he has a crush on her, and would be devastated if she turned him down. Alice vows to help him.

They show up at Clara’s house, with Andy dressed in a suit and holding a bouquet. They have written out a message asking Clara out on the street with chalk. To get her attention, Andy panics and throws a rock through her window. To make things worse, a sanitation truck comes by and erases half the message. The next day, Clara knocks on his window and asks if he meant to ask her out. Andy is tongue-tied, but Alice answers for him. Clara agrees to go to prom with him, and Andy is overjoyed.Despite that, Ben is less than happy. Alice gets it out of him that seeing his kids grow up is overwhelming, and prom is a symbol of that.

On the night of prom, Ben sees Nora come downstairs in a red dress and freaks out. He brings Gabe into the kitchen to interrogate him and ends up threatening his life. Intimidated, Gabe runs away. When Nora finds out, she is furious and demands to know why Ben is so overprotective of her, but not of Andy. Ben says that “it’s different,” and Nora accuses him of holding her to a double standard. She storms away, and Ben realizes that he’s gone too far. To make it up to her, they go with Nora to Gabe’s house and perform a song asking him out to prom. Gabe is touched and agrees.

Alice and Ben look at the kids having fun in prom and are glad that they pushed them to go. Ben asks Alice out to prom, knowing that she never experienced one as a teenager, and Alice happily agrees. The two enter the party and dance together, and the kids watch them, disgusted and embarrassed that they are intruding on the festivities.

Overview:

While the subject of the episode is one that should be explored more often, it continued to point out one of the biggest weaknesses of the show: the writing. Imaginary Mary functions largely off cringe humor, which bases its humor off the audience being uncomfortable with what the characters say or do. However, the characters don’t speak like real people; they speak like they’re reading off a script. For example, all the teenagers vocalize their feelings clearly and are very open. It’s possible but more unlikely than not. Even in an unlikely comedy, which functions on an imaginary friend turning real, there should be some form of believability. The characters don’t feel natural, at all.

That being said, it is nice to see Alice growing on the kids, and vice versa. Their relationship is improving, and Alice is trying to make sure they have the fullest childhood possible. Ben also had significant growth this episode— his largest fear was having his children grow apart from him and take steps into adulthood, and prom was a symbol of that. He turned from overprotective dad to a father more willing to give his kids space.

However, despite the good message the show is trying to send, it is far from being a thrilling watch.