Review: Imaginary Mary “Sleep Over”

Last one.

Spoilers Below:

Alice decides to sleep over for the first time, to ease into life with the family. While Ben thinks it’s a great idea, he’s concerned because the three kids are terrors during the nighttime, something Alice isn’t aware of. Dora sleepwalks after seeing scary movies, Bunny constantly demands the tiniest things, and Andy snores like a bear. He brings them all together to convince them to behave and seals the deal with a $20 bribe.

The kids all try to behave, but they let their arrangement slip to Alice. Alice, thinking she can handle it, says that there’s no need for that since she can handle this. She tells all the kids to act as they usually do, much to Ben’s concern. As expected, the first night is a disaster. Andy snores so loud that it wakes Alice up, Dora comes into their room, mumbling about having seen Freddy Krueger, and Bunny screams for help with the tiniest things. In the end, Ben and Alice don’t get any sleep.

Alice is incredibly sleep deprived the next day and asks one of her coworkers how she managed to do so. It’s revealed that several mothers have converted the closet into a secret break room, where they can sleep during the day. When Alice explains her plight, her coworker laughs at her, saying that the other mothers have infants, not grown children. Alice, not realizing this isn’t normal, sets out to fix the problem.

She gives Andy a bra with tennis balls so that he’ll sleep on his stomach instead of his back, Dora a new phone to live blog her sleep nightmares, and Bunny a water cooler to get her own drink during the night. Ben sleeps well, but the next morning Andy realizes the ‘sleep sling’ is a bra, and Bunny knocks over the water cooler. Dora’s gift is deemed too expensive to just give normally. Ben becomes frustrated and criticizes Alice, who criticizes him back for babying his kids.

Ben later admits he babies his kids because he felt guilty after the divorce, and did everything he could to make them feel better. Alice points out that it’s been two years, and he needs to put his foot down. He tells Andy to use his sleep apnea machine and confiscates Dora’s phone. He resists Bunny’s calls, but when he doesn’t respond, she begins to call for Alice instead. Alice is moved and goes to help Bunny– but becomes Bunny’s new target.

Overview:

I sincerely thought the series ended the last episode, but we have one more anyway. The writing is still bad, everything is way too over the top, and I didn’t laugh once, but this episode was slightly better.

It addressed the complications a single parent feels regarding discipline and how they should treat their kids. The problem is, Ben doesn’t know how to stop and have spoiled his kids beyond belief. He is trying, but he has absolutely failed in succeeding since he doesn’t even realize that his kids are taking advantage of him. The entire show consists of them taking advantage of him, and this is a very dramatic example. Bunny is by far the worst, since she demands the smallest things, and switches targets when she realizes her father managed to resist her calls. Ben does manage to get a handle on himself, but sadly, Alice lacks the same self-awareness in her desire to be seen as a new mother.

Also, Frankenstein was the doctor, not the monster.

At least the season is finally over!