Michael Arden as Patrick on Anger Management
If you went simply by the title, you’d think the topic of tonight’s episode is pretty simple, but you’d be wrong. Yes, Charlie and Kate did kind of battle over passive aggressive gay patient Patrick, but they travelled so many paths to get there you’d have no idea what was going on unless you checked into the show at just the right time.
The whole battle began when Charlie purposely ignored Patrick early on in the program. He focused instead on Ed who was upset because his wife purchased a TV recorder to skip the commercials. This angered Ed because he no longer had any idea what to buy. Commercials told him what was new, improved or available for a limited time only. Patrick was quick to point out what’s limited is Ed’s time on this planet.
This conversation meandered through a discussion of whether or not Ed liked brown people and some other nonsense and ultimately came to rest on the fact that Ed was upset because he actually really just likes commercials. In fact, it turns out he’s only cried twice in twenty years and one of those times was over a commercial with puppies and a Chinese kid. Ed couldn’t remember whether they were trying to sell the puppies or the Chinese kid, but said “if that commercial didn’t get to ya, you’re a freakin robot.”
After listening to all this talk about Ed, Patrick says it’s his turn, but Charlie says they are going to have to call it a day. Patrick bemoans that they learned a lot about Ed today and Charlie says next time it will be Patrick’s turn. Patrick says there is no “I” in therapy. There is just a “Y” for why do I bother? Charlie says you bother for the “P” which stands for “progress” and for the “H” which stands for “hey” I’ll see you next week. I believe the writers are hoping you’ll see this as Charlie running a therapeutic exercise on Patrick, but it’s impossible to know for sure.
Charlie’s daughter Sam and ex-wife Jen come in at this point and Sam says hi to Patrick and then asks Charlie if it is okay to say hi to him. Before Charlie can answer, Patrick says no because everyone is just ignoring him today. Read More
Therapist Kate on Anger Management
Before we jump into tonight’s recap of Anger Management, let’s put it into perspective from a ratings point of view. Last week the primetime scripted comedy was the most-watched comedy series premier in cable history with a record setting 5.5 million total viewers and 2.65 million in the 18 to 49 demo. A second episode pulled in 5.7 million total viewers which, when combined with new episodes of Louie and Russell Brand’s new BrandX resulted in a killer evening for FX and cable. Of course, based on the advertising money and other pre-launch noise, the viewership had to be spectacular to be considered a success according to some industry wags.
Lionsgate’s International TV division has been successfully selling Sheen’s latest effort for weeks to various foreign territories such as Australia, Canada, Germany and Latin America and announced today that the show is headed to the UK via Comedy Central UK, so the high numbers are already helping Charlie’s syndication rights.
Tonight’s episode began with Charlie’s ex-wife Jennifer and his daughter Sam returning from a vacation in totally opposite physical states. Sam arrived so sleepy Charlie couldn’t wake her while Jen staggered through the door crying one minute that she hated Sam for ability to sleep and the next that she loved her. Due to Jen’s sleep deprivation, Charlie had no idea what she might say from one minute to the next.
Charlie dumps Jen on a bed and she claims its heaven, pauses, and then asks Charlie what he’s doing in heaven. He tells her it is part of an exchange program and that Gandhi is down there in a strip club with Mussolini. All of this sleep deprivation honesty Jen is sharing leads Charlie to the conclusion that if he uses this technique on his patients, he will lead them to major breakthroughs in their lives. Read More
Anger Management -- Charlie and the Slumpbuster
Thursday’s first half hour of Anger Management covered just about everything it could. The second fell off a cliff.
Early on in the episode we find Charlie in his local bar dating bimbos who can barely recite their ABCs. His sexy young date is ordering her drinks by color. When his ex-wife shows up he announces that good looking people are attracted to each other and he is simply a tool of evolution. You can see the ugly date set up coming from a mile away.
We flip from Charlie and the beautiful people at the bar to another of Charlie’s in-home therapy sessions. Charlie announces that another new patient is about to arrive and a few acidic comments are tossed around by the group when a knock is heard at the door. Bickering between sex pot Lacey and Queen Patrick has everyone set up for the arrival of a new hot looking chick. Charlie opens the door and finds an unattractive middle aged woman standing in the doorway. Let’s be real, she isn’t run away screaming ugly, but she isn’t a beauty queen. Read More
Anger Management – Charlie Goes Back to Therapy
Before Anger Management even aired Thursday evening we all knew from FX Network advertising that it was the “Next Great Sitcom “and “Better than Two and Half Men.” We’d seen that no matter how bad the train wreck, everyone, especially Charlie Sheen, deserved a 24th chance to prove their worth.
Sticking with that theme, Anger Management begins with Charlie staring into the camera and growling “you can’t fire me, I quit. You can’t replace me with some other guy, it won’t be the same. You may think I’m losing, but I’m not.” At which point Charlie turns to a spottily filled room and explains that those are examples of frustrations the occupants can use to channel their anger using a blow up doll called Bobo, the bopping bag if they feel one of their fiery outbursts rising to the surface.
You see, Charlie is a work at home anger management therapist holding group sessions for a motley crew of angry misfits. The great thing about being on FX is that Charlie isn’t constrained by some of the programming issues that held him back on Network television. We’ll have to watch and see if he and FX use this freedom to turn Anger Management into a break out hit, but it at least gives him free rein to go farther over the top.
After Charlie introduced his clients to Bobo, we meet the clients beginning with a passive aggressive gay man named Patrick (Michael Arden) who, in response to a rebuke from his father, dressed like the Statue of Liberty and stuck a sparkler up his ass. Patrick was harassed by a grumpy Vietnam Vet named Ed, played by Barry Corbin who wasn’t all that excited about having fought in the Nam for the right of queers to go around taking pictures of themselves with sparklers stuck up their butts and a very uninteresting Nolan (Derek Richardson) whose major problem is that he is attracted to angry people. Read More
