Review - Raising Hope, Season 1, Episode 19 "Cheaters"

Rating: ★★★★★

Review - Raising Hope, Season 1, Episode 19 "Cheaters" 3

Burt (Garret Dillahunt) and Virginia (Martha Plimpton) having a verbal sparring moment

Hiatus ends, and we get this? Hit the snooze button, folks, you didn’t miss a thing. Jimmy (Lucas Neff) has been crushing on his coworker Sabrina (Shannon Woodward) since the start of the season. I can’t figure out why this is; she is the least interesting character on this show. In “Cheaters,” Sabrina is the focus and Maw Maw (Cloris Leachman) gets short shrift. Again. The writers need to get their priorities straight! Maw Maw makes this show, along with Burt and baby Hope (who continues to be the cutest television baby ever).

This episode feels like all the actors and writers went on vacation in their heads. Probably the most inspiring (and very cute) moment occurs when Burt (Garret Dillahunt) tells Virginia (Martha Plimpton) he would die without her. He regresses to being a little boy, snuggling Virginia on the couch. I’m not sure why she needs assurance from Burt that he won’t go out and find another woman when she dies. She doesn’t really need this, because, come on, Burt is a super loyal husband who doesn’t even flirt with other women. Virginia is his woman, and there’s no other. He might as well be a priest, he’s that loyal! Same goes for Virginia. What a cute couple, although their personalities are quite different, proving the adage, “Opposites attract.”

Sabrina needs to break up with her boyfriend, Wyatt (Ryan Doom). Not that I really care about them, but poor Jimmy keeps pining for her so much so his parents call him “a pine log.” I think they should end up together because they are just so boring! Boring people belong together and shouldn’t expose other people to their boring-ness. How predictable that we find Wyatt making out with another girl at a party, and Sabrina catches him. Oh, woe. And it’s even more predictable when they get back together. It’s the same old shtick. Yawn.

Virginia (Martha Plimpton) takes Maw Maw (Cloris Leachman) to Mel's house

Like I said, we need more Maw Maw. She’s been hiding beneath a desk for three days and the Chances want to get her out of the house. She goes to Dead Tooth’s (Kate Micucci) day care, where she meets Mel (Jerry Van Dyke), who also has dementia. Van Dyke is a fine comedian, but neither he nor Leachman can save this tepid episode. This is just a silly side story to accompany Jimmy’s. It’s just a “geriatric hookup,” as Virginia says. We know elderly people have sex, but I’d much rather see Maw Maw singing a ditty (which she does, very briefly) or going in and out of her dementia haze.

One recurring character I find quite funny is Virginia’s coworker, Rosa (Carla Jimenez). I’d love for the writers to give her a storyline, but it’s clear that they’d rather focus on boring Jimmy and Sabrina. I’m beginning to think Maw Maw is being slighted because—dare I say it?—she’s old. Think about it. She’s second banana to the family and she happens to be the funniest.

I’m expecting next week’s episode to be better. If not, I’m pretty much writing off this show.

Watch Raising Hope Tuesdays 8/9c on FOX.

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