Loveday Writing

The job of a season premiere is to establish new story arcs for the season and pick up from where we were left off at the end of the previous season (if there was one). This premiere did a great job.

I mentioned in my review of the season one finale that the possible story arcs for this season could include a Shelly-Lenny-Bambi love triangle, Tina leaving to go to college and what that could mean for her and Doug’s relationship, and Joyce starting her own publishing company. The premiere touched on all of these.

The season kicks off with Doug dreaming about Joyce being celebrated at Westwood Village as the world’s first female pornographer, before waking up in his office, which still has the effigy from the previous season’s finale in the middle of it and copies of Minx on the floor.

We then cut to Joyce being wooed by Hearst, Meredith, and Conde Nast as she struggles to find a publisher. This is a nice throwback to the pilot when she was pitching to them without success and is nicely contrasted with Doug trying and failing to get a loan to get himself out of debt. Meanwhile, Richie and Bambi are working in Richie’s aunt’s bakery to make ends meet as Joyce is on her publisher search. Richie tells Joyce that he has a photography job, doing boudoir photos for a wealthy woman.

Later, Bambi goes to see Shelly at her house to talk about Joyce’s publisher search. Shelly tells Bambi that she is not surprised Joyce is struggling and that she is probably afraid of making an impulsive choice, even though Bambi points out that they are the kind of publishers Joyce is looking for. The sexual tension can be felt between them and despite Shelly saying they can’t hook up again, they do anyway. Bambi and Shelly are almost caught in the act when Lenny comes home from work early, but they manage to get dressed and Shelly tells Lenny that she was giving Bambi a tour of their house. Lenny tells Bambi that he wants to ask her a question, building up the tension that he could possibly know what happened between them, only to compliment her on the photos she took of Shelly. He later suggests to Shelly that she find a job as he mistakes her excitement around Bambi to be excitement around working at Minx.

The wealthy woman that Richie is photographing is revealed to be Constance Papadopoulos, the first woman to hold a seat on the New York Stock Exchange and the world’s first female CEO of a company that she took over from her ailing husband and turned it into an empire. Constance also knows Joyce and is a fan of Minx.

Meanwhile, Doug and Tina struggle to keep Bottom Dollar Publications afloat due to debt. When Doug trades his car in for a truck so he and Tina can make the deliveries themselves, Tina tells him to call Joyce and admits that he made a mistake by letting her and Minx go. He refuses but he goes to see Joyce at the bakery to find Richie developing the boudoir photos. Richie tells Doug about Constance and he crashes Joyce’s second meeting with Conde Nast, just as she is about to sign on with them. Doug tells her that Constance should be their publisher and they can teach her about the industry, but that she needs to meet with Constance now.

Doug and Joyce then go to a dog show that Constance is attending. Constance can see through Doug’s charming bullshit and Joyce asks to talk to her alone. Constance asks Joyce why she should invest in her. Joyce tells her that she and Doug are outsiders and they want to keep doing Minx their way, but with a woman at the helm this time. Constance agrees but asks if they need Doug as his bravado is risky, Joyce tells her that Minx is just as much his success as it is hers and that he pushes her to be better.

The episode ends with the gang celebrating with Constance at a bar and Doug asking Tina not to give up working at Bottom Dollar for business school and she agrees to stay.

Overall, I enjoyed this premiere. We have a new publisher and character in Constance, who I think will be an interesting addition with her personality alone, much less her life experience. The premiere touched upon and progressed the story arcs that were set up in the previous season’s finale, and for me personally my favourite parts were seemingly throwaway lines and moments that ended up paying off in hilarious ways, such as Joyce actually calling Shelly from the portable phone, and Doug borrowing a dog from Mikey “Two Fingers” who stole his role as Santa at another colleague’s Christmas party.

I’m looking forward to reviewing the rest of the season as it’s released.

Stray Observations:

Episode title – Constance says this to Joyce and Doug, after Joyce tries to stop Doug from talking shop and Constance tells her that entrepreneurs proposition her with business proposals everywhere she goes.

-In her meeting with the publishers, one of them tries to win her over with a portable telephone in a suitcase. Joyce appears to jokingly make a phone call to Shelly; Shelly later tells Bambi that Joyce actually did call her out of the portable telephone suitcase.

-Bambi plays mahjong with other centrefold models.

-Bambi tells Shelly to get Lenny to stretch before he tries the wheelbarrow position in the Kama Sutra. According to her, Gene Hackman’s lumbar never recovered from trying that position.

-According to Lenny, the linen closet will knock Bambi’s socks off, apparently because of the cedar.

-Apparently Doug once published senior porn publications: Silver Sluts and Oldies but Goodies. Doug is perplexed that no-one wants to read or see senior porn.

-Doug can differentiate between Joyce’s fake and real smiles.

-The hilarious ease in which Bambi tells Lenny that she lost her bra in a well makes me think she has used this explanation/excuse before.

-Shelly’s married name is Lambert.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “It’s a good centrefold idea through, working-class heroes, sweaty men doing honest labour naked. Oh, maybe not in food prep, though.” (Bambi pitching a centrefold idea to Richie, involving his godson, Arturo, who works in the bakery with them)
• “Would it help if I chose? It wouldn’t be the first time I found a stepdad on short notice.” (Bambi to Joyce on choosing a new publisher)
• “Look at you, you big Spanish monarchs. Are you gonna pillage the New World?” “Don’t use that word, it triggers the kill instinct.” “Which word?” (Joyce to Constance’s Afghans, then Constance to Joyce, then Joyce to Richie)
• “Dicks in mirrors was my idea, I’m using it.” (Richie to Joyce on using a centrefold idea for his photo shoot with Constance)
• “You’re gonna get along great with the gals down at Vogue, they love correcting us.” (Male Conde Nast Executive to Joyce)