Happy Endings finale – Nobody ever says, ‘I wanna be a Shershow when I grow up’

Happy Endings does relationships well. Not only the ones that don’t work out, but the ones that do. We’ve seen some great friendships out of this show, such as the one between Max and Penny. And Brad and Jane’s marriage doesn’t really make me want to gag the way that many “happy couples” are portrayed elsewhere — either as super cheesy-in-love, or as a disgruntled, pissy couple who always tries to one-up or humiliate the other for the sake of a laugh.

Another relationship that the show did right tonight, although it was kind of odd to watch, was the one between Penny’s “safety,” Shershow (a bumbling, smelly, embarrassing bull-in-a-china-shop type of guy back in the day) and wife-to-be Melinda. Everyone was surprised when Shershow’s fiance turned out to be both attractive and smart — not to mention the fact that he himself had undergone a subtle, but still noticeable, transformation. (Although he does seem a lot like Luke from Modern Family, only as an adult. Especially when he talked about his hatchback making “loading and unloading a breeze.”)

So once your safety marries someone else, what do you do? Max was great with Penny at the end of the episode; despite his jokey “blah blah blah”s and “You’re gonna make me talk about feelings?” shtick, he was sincere in that they’d have each other until she met the perfect guy. And although we’ve always known Penny as the “unlucky in love” girl, I’m glad the writers finally drew some attention to the fact that she was bothered by it, because that seems more realistic than just making a joke, shrugging her shoulders, and hopping back on the dating train a week later. By the way: “gafety” (gay safety)? Genius!

I was laughing hysterically at Derrick playing, as Penny put it, “Danny Zuko from Grease” as he tried to act straight. Especially when Max passed by in the background and whispered “It’s happening.” I also lost it when Derrick — who was snuggling next to a guy during the toasts — yelled out, “Sing it, bitch!” and kicked his leg up.

Towards the beginning of the season, I predicted that Dave and Alex would sleep together by the end of the season and then wonder what they’d done. Well, I was almost right … but I’m glad I wasn’t. By the way, the girl from the wedding who Dave did end up sleeping with? Hilarious. Especially during her toast poem, and when she actually thought Alex was there to clean the room and said super-slowly, “CAN YOU COME BACK LATER? I’M ABOUT TO HAVE SEX. Gracias!”

I also thought the twist with the undergarment malfunction was great, and I like that we don’t exactly know whether Dave heard what Alex said to Melinda in the dressing room. When he asked her to dance, I never thought she’d say no, but part of me wonders whether it was a good idea, because she is so going to fall back in love with him!

It’s interesting, because (as I said at the beginning of this post) I usually detest couples in comedies (Marshall and Lily from How I Met Your Mother being an exception). So I was pleased that Alex and Dave broke up before getting married and having to subject their viewers to their inevitable fights about decorating, finances, having kids, and so on. But ironically, now that they’re broken up, I can see how good they are together. It’s a smart move on the show creator’s part to have this work backwards a bit, so that we can get the back story and flesh out their chemistry so that, if and when they finally do get back together, their love will be believable, and we’ll all be on board.

This was a great season finale, and I’ll definitely be missing Happy Endings as my Wednesday night fix for laughs.

Because it was the finale, and also just because I feel like it, here are a ton more quotes than usual!

“It’s kinda like the gun in my grandma’s purse … she hopes she doesn’t have to use it, but she’s kinda glad it’s there.” — Penny, speaking about Shershow being her “safety” guy to marry at age 40

“So … should I get a condom?” — Connor, after his first date with Alex
“What? No!” — Alex
“Sweet! I hate condoms too!” — Connor

“Wow, this is so nice. I always thought if Shershow ever got married it’d be in a women’s prison.” — Alex, commenting on the lodge

“I”m so happy that you guys were all able to make it on such short notice. I’m leaving next week to deliver solar ovens to Honduras …” — Melinda, Shershow’s fiance
“Wow, Shershow, you hit it outta the park. She’s both beautiful, and says ‘Honduras’ the fancy way.” — Max

“What? A wedding jinx? I’ve only ruined one wedding!” — Alex, reacting to Melinda’s fears
“Yeah, and Yoko only ruined one Beatles.” — Max

“He can totally pull off straight. In college, he minored in theater.” — Penny, trying to convince her friends that flamboyantly gay Derrick can play her fiance at Shershow’s wedding
“Yeah, but he majored in dudes.” — Max

“I forgot to tell you that Dave owns his own food truck.” — Alex, to the dumb girl, acting as Dave’s wing-woman
“OMG. You have a truck made out of food?!” —  Dumb girl

Clacked by Rachel Blum-Jose
on May 26, 2011 @ 13:15 EST5EDT