Bubble IE Review: Ends Meet Season One Episode Two

Aaaaand now we’re all caught up.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The second episode of Ends Meet strikes a decidedly darker tone than the first. The episode provides the backstory as to how Beezer came to be a single father living at home in his own dad’s (Tony) council house. The episode opens with Seanóg begging to upgrade their Playbox 3 games console, with the new and improved Playbox 4, and gently segues into a flashback sequence in which Beezer is still in secondary school. Beezer is rudely (and hilariously) roused from his bed every morning by the sound of Tony bursting into his room, clanging a pot with a wooden spoon and declaring in perfect Dublinese, “Gerrup outta bed!” The episode follows  Beezer’s inability to apply himself to schoolwork, resulting in a detention sentence. Enter Jenni, a Dublin lass plucked straight out of a Roddy Doyle novel. Jenni and Beezer inevitably fall for each other’s zero-fucks-given attitude and get off with each other at a school dance. The scene cuts to Jenni and Beezer lying in bed together before Tony once again erupts into the room bashing his pot and wooden spoon with a vengeance. He sees the two in bed and backs away with a disturbed sounding grunt. The couple soon discovers that Jenni is pregnant with Seanóg, which Beezer sees as an obstacle to Jenni’s plans for her life. He offers to raise Seanóg himself, seeing as his only ambition is to sit around the house anyway. Here Beezer’s greatest flaw is shown to be the source of his good nature too. He is lazy but caring, and he doesn’t let his desire to live with no responsibility be curtailed by living with the greatest responsibility of all, parenthood. The episode closes with Seanóg and Beezer back in the present, debating what video games will look like in the distant future.

 

Our Take

In a similar vein as the first episode, I was left feeling that show misses some of its own potential for humour here. Seeing Beezer’s dad waking him up with the wooden spoon and the pot was the first time I really laughed properly at Ends Meet. While the show is obviously not trying to be a total satire that lampoons everything it touches, I do think this episode’s  balance of chuckle-worthy humour to the drama of real life struggles, is skewed more towards the latter in a way that makes it feel a little bit unsatisfying at times. We should be watching this cartoon and laughing our way through it, if even in spite of ourselves. Shows like South Park or Rick and Morty have proven that you can deal with dark subject matter while still being uproariously funny. To establish characters and a storyline in twelve short minutes and make them funny without descending into total farce is a tough ask though. I don’t think Ends Meet quite hit the perfect balance in this episode, however there some moments of genuine hilarity that should be capitalized upon more (more Tony!). It was good to get some backstory and I for one look forward to seeing more of Jenni, and the inevitable fallout between her and Beezer unfold. I hope to see the more eccentric sides of these characters being let loose, as there is ample room for this show to be as hilarious as it is touching.

 

Score
6/10