The Carmichael Show: Lesbian Wedding (3x04)

Disclaimer: Spoilers for this episode of Jerrod Carmichael and NBC's "The Carmichael Show" after the jump! If you haven't seen it, do not click any further (until you've seen it, then definitely read)!

"I wanna be on your side, Maxine, but I'm not sure what your side is."

The Carmichael's discuss what it means to be beautiful on a very funny but unfocused episode. The episode starts off simple, Bobby needs to find a date to a lesbian wedding the family's going to. Maxine has a friend she can set Bobby up with but after referring to her as just "cute," and showing the family a picture of her friend (which they all agree is ugly) sparks a conversation about what it means to be beautiful. This is all good and fine until the conversation turns against Maxine. Don't get me wrong, I actually love the fact that the show confronts the privilege she has as a beautiful woman. Saying "it only matters what a person is like on the inside" is much easier said when you look like she does. Everything just dulls down a little when she decides to take a stand and stop dressing up so everyone can see that she's more than just a pretty face. 

The real issue is just Maxine herself. She's such a dull character that it sort of brings down the episode as a whole when they do things like this to her character. Maxine is used as sort of a liberal mouthpiece for the show. When things start to get controversial, she's quick to take a more new school, contemporary approach to the topic that's being discussion. While that's great, it would be greater if she felt like more than just that. Her dialogue, at times, just sounds like she's reading straight out of a think piece or a Wikipedia page. It's what hinders me from feeling for her in her final monologue about how hard it is to be pretty. Maybe that's what the show was going for. After Joe's jab at her this week about not being funny, that can definitely be argued. So if that's the case, they did a bang up job. But they have a lot more work to do with Maxine because there's something about Maxine that I really do like. Maybe it's just the way that Amber Stevens West just seems so tailor-made for the role, I don't know, but there's a lot of potential for her that feels squandered.

Aside from the main plot, the episode was fairly solid. When it comes to firing off jokes at a rapid speed, it delivered well. Nekeisha's mini-plot with her fine new man was hilarious, especially when she so easily took him back at the wedding and told him they were going to "show these lesbians what they're missing." Another funny gag was Joe's excitement over going to a gay wedding. Joe essentially being supportive of gay marriage for social media because he think it's trendy is absolutely hilarious. Bobby was a desperate hot mess, leaving the wedding after Nekeisha ditches him for Todd, just the way we like him. Jerrod was, well, Jerrod. I really respect Carmichael for given himself, the protagonist, the most outlandish lines. He could easily come off as unlikeable but there's just something about Jerrod that lets him get away with some of the stuff he says. He's just a regular, everyday guy.

I don't expect the show to take on an extremely controversial topic every single week, but this episode shows you that the show hits it's stride when it kicks things into fifth gear. A good episode, but not the best.

EPISODE GRADE: B
Pictures courtesy of NBC! Feel free to post your thoughts in the comments below and turn this into a real discussion!