Review: Duncanville “Clothes and Dagger”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

When it’s time to take Duncan pants shopping, Annie knows she’ll have to employ some trickery to get him there. The trip goes as disastrously as Duncan imagined until he finds a knife in the parking lot and decides to become a weapon-wielding alpha male. Wolf isn’t so excited about being bumped out of his spot though, and the two of them decide to settle things, one way or another. Meanwhile, Kimberly helps Jack and Annie become fashion icons of a sort.

Our Take:

It’s the second week in a row of new Duncanville episodes and I’m enjoying it! The show just has a fun vibe that makes it unique and tonight’s ep, Clothes and Dagger, really makes the most of it with a  storyline that’s friendship oriented and super funny.

Duncan may be the title character of Duncanville, but he’s not exactly your traditional main character material. He’s weak, ineffective, and a total goon, which is why adopting a knife is so unusual for him. Setting up this story by having him go clothes shopping with his mom is a great choice, though, as it adds a bit of an explanation as to why he’d be so pumped about such a simple thing. Plus it was also really hilarious.

All his friends see him as the goofball of the group, so once he finds the knife, Duncan is loathe to let it go. A lot of the humor in the ep comes from that dichotomy as the typically baby-ish Duncan tries out being a knife-wielding bad ass. He’s got the sheath in his Jessica Simpson jeans and plenty of cuts from mishandling it. It’s a really bloody episode for how tame things stay!

The conclusion to the storyline involves a stand off between Wolf and Duncan to decide who will be the alpha of the group. It’s one of the funnier scenes, especially with how the two of them take interview questions before the throw down. The Jake Tapper guest role was a little meh, but that’s my only real complaint.

The side story is definitely the weakest part of the episode, with Kimberly setting up an online shop for Jack and Annie to sell their old clothes. There are a few gags about secondhand shopping, and then it turns into a weird hipster-bashing monologue about how Gen X is the best generation. Despite going a little off the rails, there were still some good gags, like how Jing in always ready to hop in a car with a couple who vaguely resembles her parents.

All in all, this week’s episode is a solid second mark to continue starting off the show’s third season. It was fun to see Duncan in a different type of light, and his relationship with Wolf being spotlighted was even a little touching. The subplot wasn’t the best, but even it had some laugh out loud moments. Clothes and Dagger may not be up there with the best episodes of the series so far, but it’s still pretty sharp.