Review: Raising Hope, Season 1, Episode 20 “Sleep Training”

Rating: ★★★★★

My hopes for a better episode this week were sadly dashed. I don’t know if it’s me or if “my” television shows are degrading in quality. Whatever the case, I’m quickly losing interest in Raising Hope. Jimmy is getting on my nerves with his whining.

Jimmy (Lucas Neff, R) spends time with Hope

At least, Jimmy (Lucas Neff) isn’t obsessed with Sabrina (Shannon Woodward) this week. As he should be, he’s worried about Hope. She’s colicky, and the family is in a tizzy about it. As smart alecky as Virginia (Martha Plimpton) and Burt (Garret Dillahunt) can be, they are genuinely tortured by her crying jags. They’re torn between comforting her and leaving her to cry herself to sleep.

Meanwhile, at Howdy Market, the employees are talking about starting a fight club. This is ridiculous, and not even remotely funny. If you’ve been watching this “team” as long as I have, you’d have nothing but pity for them. Frank (Todd Giebenhain), Jimmy’s oddball coworker, thinks his idea is brilliant.

This episode reveals Jimmy to be a maladjusted son. Twenty years earlier, Maw Maw instilled in him a fear of the Doghead Man, a character from a horror film. She would taunt him and say the Doghead Man would come and eat him. Of course, poor Jimmy had nightmares after that. I don’t believe maladjustment is genetic, but if Hope turns out to be anything like Jimmy (i.e., a crybaby), I will change my mind.

Clockwise: Virgina (Martha Plimpton; Burt (Garret Dillahunt, standing) suggests to Jimmy (Lucas Neff, R) they should start sleep training Hope

Zoe (Kaitlyn Black) is still in the picture. If there’s one thing Jimmy has a talent for, it’s the women he chooses to date. (Note my sarcasm?) Zoe, a nude model, may be too wild for Jimmy’s taste, but in an effort to  prove his coolness, he accompanies her to her friend Alejandro’s (Federico Dordei) home, where they proceed to get high on some strange tea. None of this is particularly funny, either; the whole scene plays out like some really lame B-grade pothead film. I don’t even know what to compare it to.

Jimmy (Lucas Neff, R) agrees to attend art class with his girlfriend (Zoe Kaitlyn Black, L)

You can see where this is going. Predictably, Jimmy calls his parents for help, but doing what they should’ve done a long time ago, they stand firm and refuse to help him out. Both young father and daughter end up prevailing—they learn they can rely on themselves to work things out. Hopefully, this incident will inspire some independence in Jimmy, but I’m not holding my breath. I believe the writers think this is what makes the show as funny as it supposedly is.

At least, Jimmy has some sense to end things with Zoe, when she was nothing but trouble.

Watch Raising Hope Tuesdays at 9/8c on FOX.

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Juana

My favorite forms of escapism are books and telly/film. I require plenty of solitude.

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