Review: Tender Touches 2 “Holding Hands Until We Die”

We’ve got one hand in our pocket, the other one’s holding hands until we die.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Steve and Michelle return to the Villa to discover the house has been completely destroyed and we have no idea where Curtis and the others are. As luck would have it, a tunnel brings us to an underground cavern where Charlene, Verna, her assistant, and Curtis kill a walking fish that evidently was threatening Verna. When the fish dies, an earthquake ensues, and everyone with the exception of Verna and her assistant makes it out alive. Even better, Charlene’s face gives birth to another walking fish and thereby cures whatever the fuck was ailing her ills this entire week.

Our Take

The season two finale gives us our funniest effort to date. So go ahead, throw out any chance of hating this show, Tender Touches is a solid way to end the week. The improv element of the series provides for some random banter that builds some of the charms that make the series it’s own. Charlene steals another episode with her whole speech about The Cleveland Show finale having already done most of the plot initially presented which, to be honest, is a pretty astonishing skill to recollect a series that’s been canceled for a couple of seasons and to be able to recognize this ad hoc. Hell, even Steve had to go and download the episodes just to see. Even funnier, all of the actors breaking character to acknowledge the monologue and not even bother with called the character “Charlene” again and instead just chastising her voice actor “Bradley Millner”. I’m also super impressed with Bradley’s vomit skills…I’m still convinced that Bradley in fact vomited during his lines.

In any event, should we have expected a copacetic finale as the big guys do? Probably not, but the episode has the same staying power as this SNL sketch in that you don’t always remember the parts of a show or act to stay the course and instead you recollect the silly moments that help make a particular piece that much more memorable. One could sum that ideal up for the entire series, and we’ll get into more of that next week in our season review, but Tender Touches is becoming one of my favorite holiday season traditions.