Review: Imaginary Mary “The Ex X Factor”

Still going.

Spoilers Below: 

Alice tries on dresses, trying to find a good combination to meet Ben’s ex-wife Renee. Bunny has a parents’ night coming up at school, and both parties plan on attending. Renee is neutral to Alice at first, but she becomes concerned when Bunny shows off her latest drawing: a depiction of Real Housewives, which she’s been watching with Alice.

In the meantime, both Dora and Andy fake sick to get out of the school’s annual mile-long run. They put soap in their tissues, and heat up their thermometers in the toaster to make their act convincing. Ben falls for it and lets them stay home for a day. As they stay at home, they watch Buffy reruns together. Andy is happy that they are bonding, and Dora is fairly neutral about the situation. A rainstorm breaks out, and Dora gets a text from one of her friends saying that the run was canceled due to the weather. Realizing that they can’t both fake being sick for two days in a row, Dora pretends to have actually caught a cold, leaving Andy none the wiser.

Renee angrily texts Ben, expressing her concern about Alice, so Alice decides to go along with Ben to apologize. They show up at the clinic Renee works in, and Renee acts surprised to see Alice too. She explains that from her first impression and what she could find on social media, she’s not sure if Alice is a good influence on the children. In trying to make a better impression, Alice hastily comes up with a lie that she’s going to be taking Bunny out gardening. Renee asks to join along, and they can’t back out of their lie.

The next day, Alice, Ben, and Dora show up at the community garden, but they find that all the plots have been reserved for the next decade. As Renee approaches, they quickly deposit their stuff by a random plot and pretend like it’s theirs. It works for a while, but the true owners of the plot appear and ruin their scheme. Renee says how she’s very concerned with Alice, which escalates into a fight with Ben. Alice later says that she understands Renee’s concerns and that they should sincerely apologize, at the very least.

Andy finds out the next day that the run is scheduled, and that Dora tricked him, and he realizes that she’s faking sick. He says how betrayed he is, and storms off. Dora reads his diary and feels bad. As Andy prepares for the run, Dora shows up and says that she’ll run behind him to make sure that he won’t end up in the last place. After a long run, Andy finally finishes, and thanks Dora for her support.

The family eats dinner together, and Ben says that he’s tried to smooth things over with Renee. It didn’t really work, but it has calmed her down a bit. Dora and Andy have gotten a little closer and nearly fool their dad completely, before Bunny finds a thermometer in her toaster oven. Ben sends the two of them to their rooms.

Overview:

The introduction of Renee was a potentially interesting one because she comes with a lot of real anxieties for remarriage. The former spouse usually has to in some way approve, and it’s a thin line to walk. In the end, Renee is concerned about her children, not so much about the fact that Ben is remarried. Alice doesn’t have everything together, and even if things do end up working out in the end, she does seem like a questionable influence from an outside perspective.

The show tries to talk about subjects worthy of discussion, such as companionship between siblings and how a divorced family functions, but the way it does so is so dry, and the humor is so bland that it loses all of its potential power.