Wednesday 17 July 2019

Atypical: Season 2, Episode 2- Penguin Cam and Chill

"You don’t live here any more, lady.”

After last week’s dramatic events we have an episode about everyone learning the ground rules for their new situation, literally. Elsa is staying with a friend and finding it hard not to keep turning up at the family home unprompted, or with an impromptu cooked meal-on the one hand a vibe grate Ute, on the second hand a desperate one, and on the, um, third hand an implicit statement that she doesn’t think Doug can cope. It’s almost heartbreaking how excited she gets when Doug asks to meet, but of course it’s all about establishing ground rules. Neither of them are comfortable in this scene, and both actors are superb.

Casey is finding her new private school bewildering, with no friends, snooty classmates, toilets hidden for fear of admitting that posh kids have bodily functions, hard lessons, and Kafkaesque food rules. She begins to understand a bit when she meets Nate, boyfriend of her tormentor and possible future love triangle material, who points out that his girlfriend is in fact jealous of her athletic talent.

Finally, poor Sam is confused by the ambiguity when Paige returns insisting that their relationship be “casual”. He insists on being told the ground rules but, as soon as Paige needs his emotional support, that goes out of the window. And because he hasn’t needed her support with what’s been going on lately, that’s not a relationship based on equal feelings. So he’s dumped. And, like many things this season, handling it rather well.

Another immaculately constructed episode. I’m enjoying this more and more.

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