If you recall the last review of The Critic, we've learned already that despite Jay Sherman being a pretty nice and honest guy, he isn't exactly lucky with the ladies. And this trend rolls on with the second episode of the series. We open that episode with that being hammered in with how Jay's ex-wife Ardeth mocking him via billboard on how much he owes her in alimony. We even get a Dating Game reference to continue to hammer in that Jay kinda sucks at the romance game. The rest of the world falling in love also just continues the cosmic kick in the crotch.
Even Sal and Mookie find common ground.
Essentially the first few minutes of the episode continue the trend of "Jay can't find anyone to love him", and his desperation even has him ogling the Statue of Liberty. Even his parents are getting it on. Essentially, it's not looking too good. During a screening for Indecent Proposal II however, he notices someone watching him from the projectionist booth.
It turns out pretty well for Jay as he and the mysterious projectionist get it on in the booth. Jay's so elated by his score that he brags about it more than actually reviewing the movie. This film tryst continues on for a while longer, but Jay begins to worry about that the relationship isn't about talking to each other. Eventually he confronts her, and learns that things are a lot stranger than it seems.
As in she's obsessed with Jay. Veeeeery obsessed.
Even having the infamous Jay Sherman book standee
And since this is still a "Misery" parody, this ends up with Jay being drugged and tied up. Her reasoning is mainly being for him to tell her what movies are good and bad. When he tells her not to, she just keeps drugging him, knocking him out for like a few weeks. Fun little running gag,
While this is all going down, Margo and Jeremy are trying to find Jay, who is stuck talking with a crazy cat lady. Jeremy holds a press conference, which goes well with Eleanor attacking the media (She'd fit right in with Trump and his cronies) and Franklin wanting to be a carrot.
Jay tries to escape finally, only to ultimately fail. This leads to the sledgehammer scene, only for a cop out with nothing actually happening to him. Eventually Jeremy puts two and two together and realizes the projectionist is the one who kidnapped Jay and gives chase. She's about ti finally finish Jay, but Jeremy comes to his aid, only to shoot Jay. Jay makes the save when Jay takes her out with his "buy my book" standee.
The episode ends with another meeting with Jay and the projectionist, as despite the kidnapping, he's still fine with dating her. Because at the end of the day, Jay really is that desperate.
This episode, while fun with the Misery references, does feel very sloppy and poorly paced. There are some great parodies and jokes, but we spend so much time with Jay's desperation early on, and when we get to the obsessed fan stuff, it never really feels like it plays itself out well. Plus a good chunk of the episode just feels dry. Really dry. Like very early Simpsons dry. In the end, while there were some fun bits, this was pretty weak for what really could have been a more entertaining plot idea.