Review: Ultra City Smiths: “The Little Baby Hand Pinky Grip Thing”

Overview: To pay for 34th Street Chuck’s (Jim Becker) neck reduction surgery, Street Hustler Boy (Damon Herriman) plans a robbery on a bank in order to secure enough funds and save his life. Meanwhile, Gail (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) pushes to move forward not only with her son but her new downsized role as a cop as David (Jimmi Simpson) and Nico (Chris Conrad) get ever closer to the truth of Carpenter K. Smith’s (Kurtwood Smith) demise. 

Our Take: The various tales throughout Ultra City began unraveling even further as the criminal underbelly began creeping its way into the lives of the main cast.

Street Hustler Boy’s story throughout consists of him mostly consists of his plot to rob a bank in order to pay for 34th Street Chuck’s surgery. It is a sympathetic tale that is also very charming as per usual with this series but especially with this character in how he traverses the concrete jungle with no money or resources to his name. This episode, while nothing earth shattering narratively or comically, merely builds upon that with more emotional chemistry between him and 34th Street Chuck along with more Wes Anderson esque atypical humor. 

On the detective’s side of things, Gail is making amends with her son and seeking to rehabilitate their family dynamic as a whole. This, along with Lady Andrea The Giant and Little Grace’s chemistry, is the real heart of the episode as they struggle in the despairing city and all the crushed dreams it attempts to offer, but with hope remaining at the forefront of both of them. 

Lastly, David Mills and Nico are ever closer to who the suspect is, or at least David still is as this fourth entry takes his new partner out of the equation with his death. This was definitely a shocker simply with how recently Chris Conrad’s Nico was introduced and how brief his overall time felt with Jimmi Simpson’s Mills. Their interplay will be missed as it was one of the most fun aspects of the show and a nice change of pace versus David and Gail’s interactions. With Donella Pecker running for mayor after her husband’s pecker incident, and a new (baby?) mobster on the streets, the series is gearing up for an eventful final two episodes, not to mention the appearance of a Smith into the public eye in that of Pecker herself, there’s no telling how that will shake up the city. 

Ultra City Smiths comes back with yet another fun romp as it brings more genuine heart and oddball humor that the series exceptionally executes with the show beginning to build up all of its characters and their tales to their inevitable end.