Melissa & Joey follows up a great premiere with the equally enjoyable, “Don’t Train on My Parade.” Mel hires a trainer who starts dating Joe, and Lennox tries her best to be just friends with her crush.
To me, this episode showcased Mel and Joe more as sister and brother, despite the last scene where they share a special bottle of wine meant for his date. When Joe starts having a steamy fling with the charmingly perky new trainer Lindsay Gates (Jessalyn Wanlim), Mel is totally grossed out instead of jealous, much like how a little sister would react. The scene where she confronts Joe about it is hilarious, and I’m glad the two agree to work around each other quickly, rather than Mel continuing her immature yet very funny behavior.
Another pleasant twist is that Lindsay’s fairly likeable character doesn’t change through the episode. At first she and Mel act like too-good-to-be-true BFFs, so I expect Mel will discover that Lindsay is a fake for whatever reason, especially when the trainer immediately starts a heated relationship with Joe. But Lindsay doesn’t turn out to be two-faced, exactly. She doesn’t seem to intentionally lead Joe on, to me it’s more that he falls for her too fast.
Meanwhile, Lennox still misses the geek who dumped her, Beckett (Miles Wood). Claiming to want him back purely as a friend, since he’s taken, she starts inviting him over to hang out. He frequently remarks about the many differences between him and his current girlfriend, then says he plans to dump her…only if Lennox will be his next girlfriend. Outraged that her friend seems to think women are interchangeable, she finally “dumps” him. It’s a very cute, somewhat different storyline, and I’m hoping that we see more of Beckett.
After two strong episodes, Melissa & Joey appears to have gotten better and funnier during the break. “Lost in Translation” airs next week.
