Episode 4: “Call Me Forty”

Intro:

Each week with Kat is a new rock bottom. I’ve learned that “low point” is a relative term, and low points breed desperation. In this week’s episode, I deeply contemplated outsourcing these blog posts to Fisherman’s content writer. I got as far as drafting the email request to Joey and writing up the accounting description to justify this as a business expense. It wasn’t very difficult given the opportunity cost of writing these posts. If small businesses are underserved in 2022 you can blame my college roommates. Stripmod is the new Grubhub.

Alas, despite my ancestors’ uncharted levels of humiliation if they could see this product of their labor, deeply ingrained principles of accountability and resilience are too red in my blood to give up now. After all, it’s only episode 4. How is it only episode 4?

Episode Recap:

We open in Kat’s apartment with another raw, if not failure-to-find-even-an-entry-level-script-writing-candidate quote from Kat to Oscar: “You put googly eyes on everything! I have so many new friends to meet!”

Welcome to my new life.

It’s Kat’s 40th birthday. She is looking around the apartment for some sort of surprise. She’s specifically told Oscar not to plan a surprise but seems confused when unable to find one. Oscar says he’s leaving for work and heads downstairs.

Note that 0 context has been provided for the googly eyes.

Kat walks downstairs and a flash mob of dancers ensues, including all of her closest friends (i.e. the 5-person cast of the show). As a Call Me Kat fan, it’s everything over the top that you’ve dreamed of.

Cut to Kat and Oscar returning from an amusement park. They throw out a cheap innuendo about enjoyable rides.

Oscar tells Kat that his mom is visiting from Australia and wants to meet her. Kat says she has a rough track record meeting the parents of significant others. We flash to scenes of Kat clumsily flinging wine onto a partner’s mother and another where she accidentally starts a blazing fire in a living room.

My new hobby is to estimate the budget for each of these episodes to get a feel for Fox’s willingness to take on net losses on programming. A controlled fake fire is more than their typical charade.

We cut to a woman dropping off a sweater to Max at the bar. She says she doesn’t want to keep seeing Max because she’s looking for something more casual than it seems like he is.

We continue the theme from episode 3 of Max being lonely and getting progressively desperate.

Cut to the cafe. Phil is upset about his apron being ripped up by a cat. He says he has a cat nemesis. There’s an awkwardly long pause as he stares at the cat in question. Kat and her mom walk in. Kat has bought a nice outfit for her first meeting with Oscar’s mom. She’s extremely nervous. Randi and Phil paradoxically advise her to be herself while not acting like she normally does.

Cut to a restaurant where Oscar and Kat are waiting for Oscar’s mom. Oscar’s mom walks in and seems the antithesis of Kat - she’s poised, suave, and has witty comments for every line. Meanwhile Kat is being extremely over the top, to the extent that she lies not only about being able to speak Spanish, but also that she was a Spanish teacher. She spills water all over the table and things are generally going very poorly.

This show is uncomfortable to watch. This sequence is particularly painful.

We cut to Oscar’s mom telling adventurous stories about being a travel writer. Kat is now hitting it off with her and asking timely follow up questions.

This was an abrupt transition but I welcome any effort at skipping plot details.

We cut back to the bar. Max has had yet another bad experience hitting on someone. Carter tells him that he’s coming on too strong. He seems desperate, which is a turn off.

We’re back at the cafe. Phil is still frazzled by his nemesis cat. Kat runs in; she’s excited because Oscar’s mom wants to meet up again just the two of them.

Like all other overdramatized expressions of excitement, this does not bode well.

We cut to Kat and Oscar’s mom having dinner together. They’re having a lovely time, and then Oscar’s mom suddenly tells her to break up with Oscar. Her rationale is that Kat is too old and she wants to have grandchildren. Kat is sensibly fuming and walks out.

Kat walks into her apartment and Oscar is cooking like the perfect boyfriend he is. She tells him what happened. Oscar is angry and is about to call his mom. She tells him not to because she’s worried that his mom is right.

Ya gotta feel for our girl Kat. Building self-esteem despite the world’s inherent biases is a big theme for this show.

Oscar tells Kat that he’s never been with someone that feels so right for him, and that age simply does not matter to him.

Apparently Kat is well over 10 years older than Oscar.

Oscar says he loves Kat and Kat says it back.

If I was even remotely emotionally invested in this show, this would be a calling sick from work type of moment for me.

Kat and Randi are at the cafe. Kat tells Randi it was the first “I love you” of her life, and she’s overjoyed. Carter and Max walk in. Max needs an intervention to make him cool again because he keeps coming on too strong. Max says he’s sick of dating. He doesn’t want to go through the motions anymore. The group tells him he simply must if he wants to have any success.

We cut to the bar. Max is talking to a woman who sounds exceedingly desperate. It’s a wake-up call for Max and he finally realizes what he’s been sounding like.

Back to the cafe. Phil is searching around for his nemesis. Randi tells him the cat has been adopted, expecting him to be happy about the news. It turns out Phil actually misses the cat, because he’s a hopeless lover at heart.

Oscar’s mom sends an apology text to Kat, and Kat’s mom warns Oscar never to let his mom say something so unkind to her daughter again.

And then guess what, despite all of the interpersonal conflict that’s been surfaced throughout the episode, all of the characters emerge to start dancing and singing together.

Still no context provided for the googly eyes. I’m irrationally upset about this.

Memorable Quote: n/a

Episode Score: 3/10