The SmarK TV Rant for Joey: Season 1, Episode 7
“Joey and the Husband”
– Originally aired October 21, 2004
“I’ve spent my time in the trenches too, you know.”
“Doing what?”
“Digging! What else do you do in a trench?”
Just wanted to give a bit of clarification from last week before we start: I discovered that the reason “Joey and the Nemesis” seemed like it was out of order is that it was. It was originally shot third, with Michael Landes playing the evil Brian Michael David Scott, but he was replaced by Bob Odenkirk at the last minute and the episode was refilmed and moved to the sixth episode slot instead of the third.
So this week we finally meet the husband and finally they kind of decide to start going somewhere with the Joey-Alex relationship. Not that I agree with the way they’re teasing, but it’s nice to have clarification that the husband actually exists.
Anyway, as indicated by the title, Alex’s often-mentioned husband Eric returns from months on the road playing viola with a symphony orchestra (or, as Joey corrects, “vio-LIN”) and after being warned repeatedly by Alex that he might be jealous and threatened of Joey’s friendship with Alex, he ends up being not at all threatened or jealous. And Joey just can’t deal with that kind of rejection, since someone as good looking as him should NATURALLY be threatening to husbands everywhere. He’s an 8.5, you know! Gina talks with him about the acceptable circumstances for men and women to be friends (if you knew the woman before she was married, if you’re friends with her as part of another couple, or if you’re gay) and of course Joey meets none of the criteria, so he goes about trying to seduce Eric by showing his muscular calves and thus proving how attractive he is. You have to love that kind of determination. However, when none of his manly charms prove effective on Eric, Alex reveals that maybe Eric should be worried about them working on HER instead.
Meanwhile, Gina is having a rough time at work because her boss is a goober who spends the paycheque money on strippers while on his lunch and she generally hates her job. Joey and Michael offer a solution: Take Joey’s “Losing My Looks” fund and give it to Gina as a loan to get started on her own salon. Joey’s business model involving a pirate and rollerskates aren’t too sound, but at least the money is good. However, in a nice twist on the usual sitcom approach to these sorts of things, Gina is too lazy to start her own business and actually prefers working at a miserable job, because at least there’s no responsibility there. I’m down with that.
The Good
– I like that they’re finally moving somewhere with the Alex-Joey thing, although I think they should have just established that they were friends once and for all and left it at that.
– The sitcom notion that anyone, even people as dumb as Gina, can just come into a bit of money and start up a business successfully is one that I’m tired of, and I’m glad they’re not going down that road. Not everyone WANTS to sink their own money into their work.
The Not-So-Good
– We already had one “Joey seduces a man” gag this season. It’s not THAT funny.
– No Howard? No Bobbi?
– Although it was nice that they explained that Joey still had savings from DOOL, his lack of income is really getting to be quite silly and he’s gonna need SOME kind of employment sooner or later, if nothing else to give the set designers something else to work with.
