What makes Simon Rich's Man Seeking Woman so fantastically bizarre is how it's able to be as surreal and quirky as can be, and yet never feel overbearing or forced. In a post-YouTube age, where everyone and their brother mistake oddity for abstract, how refreshing it is to see Rich organically make his oddly acute humor shine.
This week's episode sees Josh (Jay Baruchel) struggling with both getting over his ex-girlfriend Maggie (Maya Erskine), once again, and finally contacting Laura (Vanessa Bayer), a stranger Josh got a number from on the train. While this may involve deleting contacts on cell phones and nervously texting a stranger for most people, for Josh this involves battling Maggie's possessed forgotten items in his apartment and contacting a CIA-esque organization to decide how he should approach reaching out to Laura. It's as strange and in-your-face weird as can be, but the performers all treat it like it's the most natural thing in the world, and that's why it succeeds.
While this second episode is not nearly as consistently funny as last week's pilot, "Triab" is also far less scattershot. Man Seeking Woman, for all its low-tech technical work and familiar story tropes, continues to be as charming and likable as can be. Baruchel feels more natural and at ease with this character than any he has played before, and that even includes his version of himself in This Is The End. Plus the show's supporting cast, include The Eric Andre Show's Eric Andre, are all well-casted and continuously on-board with the show's oddities.
What must be celebrated in this episode, as well as the last, is the use of stop-motion and practical effects over flimsy CG effects. While the latter pops up once-or-twice now-and-then, it seems Man Seeking Woman — whether for budget reasons or by preference — likes to keep a lower-key, odd-school vibe that always add to its charm. Whether its a demonic heart stuffed-animal puppet or a picture frame floating by an obvious string, the show has an almost film school-esque charm to it which makes it more palpable and heartfelt.
Even in the moments later on this episode that don't click as well have some redeeming moments. While a bathroom chat between Josh and an Italian violin player falls flat completely, an over-intentionally awkward date between Laura and Josh is able to work purely on the strength of their seasoned comedy actors. There's a pulsating charm here continuously at work, and hopefully will continue to shine in episodes to come.
Rich's show — even on FXX — fits naturally into FX's atypical brand of comedy. Man Seeking Woman clearly has a voice of its own, but its natural occurrences and downgraded activities in the face of unusual manners makes it highly relatable and completely engaging. Plus, anyone who tries to win a girl over by placing a bookmark halfway into David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest deserves some props in my book.
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