Bubble IE Review: Ends Meet “Episode 3”

Is the Irish exclusive getting better?

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The third episode of Ends Meet opens where we might have expected it to. With Jenni established as Seán Óg’s mum in episode 2, it was just a matter of time before we saw the high-school romance/unplanned pregnancy all caught up to the present complete with shared parental custody of Seán Óg. The scene opens with Beezer dropping off Seán Óg at Jenni’s “gaf.” What follows is poor Beezer’s doomed effort to amuse a grown-up Jenni. Clearly, these two are no longer a match, with Jenni’s soft manner contrasting heavily with Beezer’s unfiltered and unrefined general demeanor. Upon dropping off his charge, Beezer proceeds directly to the pub, where we are introduced to the “Dope Squad.” The Dope Squad are seemingly Beezer’s only friends, although Beezer sits away from them in a separate booth indicating that he may have mixed feelings about this fact. The Dope Squad are a refreshing dose of over-the-top caricatures of gruff Dublin pub-talkers, who grumble about life’s many miseries without ever summoning the gumption to do anything about it. A nice touch is Jerry entering the pub with a shopping bag filled with cans of Bavaria, the cheap beer of choice for discerning Irish alcoholics!

The Dope squad learns of a feminist meetup of which Jenni is a part, and in the spirit of fragile masculinity, and all-around dopiness, they band together to bring a stop to what they see as a flagrant attack on their manhood. They set an ambush in the meeting room and lie in wait for the women to arrive. With the women understandably bewildered as to what on earth is happening, the Dope Squad is treated to an education in sexual politics that none of them really understands. Stunned into silence by the cold force of reason on their sexism, the Dope Squad retreat. Beezer seems to be the only one of the crew who took anything to heart and he admonishes his friends for their ignorance. The episode closes with Beezer admitting to Seán Óg that his friends are in fact a squad of dopes.

Our take

Episode 3 of Ends Meet is the strongest so far in the series. While the first two suffered somewhat with fitting enough jokes into and around the themes being discussed, the introduction of the Dope Squad in episode 3 injects some much needed farcical comic relief into the mix, while still touching on the highly topical issue of deeply ingrained sexism. The first two episodes may be forgiven for attempting to establish characters and a narrative, but I was left feeling that the show didn’t know if it wanted to be a comedy or an animated soap opera. Episode 3 dispenses with this particular problem, with the merry band of idiots that comprise Beezer’s friends ensuring no such confusion occurs. However, I still feel that the short running time of each episode is constantly working against the show, with no real character development possible in under 12 minutes. This episode did expand the cast of characters, so it will be interesting to see if the Dope Squad returns, or if they served a single thematic purpose for talking about sexism. Either way, this was a good episode that struck the balance between serious and silly much more effectively than the first two managed. Here’s hoping it’s a pattern that will continue.