{"id":164132,"date":"2021-01-27T15:16:47","date_gmt":"2021-01-27T12:16:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/when-youre-the-worst-took-a-hard-look-at-marriage\/"},"modified":"2021-01-27T15:16:47","modified_gmt":"2021-01-27T12:16:47","slug":"when-youre-the-worst-took-a-hard-look-at-marriage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/when-youre-the-worst-took-a-hard-look-at-marriage\/","title":{"rendered":"#When &#8216;You&#8217;re the Worst&#8217; Took a Hard Look at Marriage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;<strong>#When &#8216;You&#8217;re the Worst&#8217; Took a Hard Look at Marriage<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\">\n                <\/aside>\n<p><!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 3.7.8--><em>This essay is part of our <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/watch-movies-tv-seriess\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Watch Movies &amp; TV Series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">series<\/a>\u00a0<strong>Episodes<\/strong>, a column in which senior contributor Valerie Ettenhofer digs into the singular chapters of television that make the medium great. This entry looks at the anti-love story You\u2019re The Worst and its formative episode \u201cLCD Soundsystem.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p>Love is for suckers. At least, that\u2019s what Gretchen (<strong>Aya Cash<\/strong>) and Jimmy (<strong>Chris Geere<\/strong>) think when they decide to pursue a casual relationship at the beginning of <strong>Stephen Falk<\/strong>\u2019s <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fxnetworks.com\/shows\/youre-the-worst\">caustic comedy series<\/a> <strong><em>You\u2019re The Worst<\/em><\/strong>. Forget a meet-cute: the two start dating after recognizing a mutual ugliness in one another at the wedding of a woman they both despise. Gretchen is an impulsive, irresponsible publicist, while Jimmy is a narcissistic, mean-spirited novelist. The two are a match made in hell.<\/p>\n<p>Romantic cynicism may be part of the tagline for <em>You\u2019re the Worst<\/em>, but it\u2019s not exactly the through-line. Early in its five-season run, the series begins to incorporate hints of vulnerability, cracks in the armor of its ironic veneer. In the Season 2 episode \u201cThere is Not Currently a Problem,\u201d we learn that Gretchen has suffered from depression for years, while Season 3\u2019s \u201cTwenty-Two\u201d shows us what an average day looks like for Jimmy\u2019s kind, PTSD-suffering roommate Edgar (<strong>Desmin Borges<\/strong>). By series\u2019 end, <em>You\u2019re the Worst<\/em> evolves into a brutally honest take on mental illness, love, dysfunction, and companionship. Along the way, though, it takes some detours, and none are as strange and surprising as the events of \u201c<strong>LCD Soundsystem<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The ninth episode of <em>You\u2019re The Worst<\/em>\u2019s second season, it\u2019s the first with Falk credited as director and one of only a handful that the series creator both directed and wrote. \u201cLCD Soundsystem\u201d opens with a couple making love. They\u2019re shot intimately, close-up to the point that we can\u2019t tell who they are. Are Gretchen and Jimmy suddenly the touchy-feely type? When they finish, we see that it\u2019s not our central duo, but a couple of randos played by <strong>Justin Kirk<\/strong> and <strong>Tara Summers<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Kirk and Summers play a suburban married couple named Rob and Lexi, whom we soon learn are the blissful definition of LA hipsterism. He works in film restoration, while she\u2019s a green space architect. They make breakfast for their young daughter, Harper, cooing to her about the benefits of unions after Lexi reads an article about worker\u2019s rights. They go to a cafe, where they run the gamut of hip adult topics in rapid-fire, throwing out buzzwords like \u201cprix fixe\u201d and \u201cbacksplash.\u201d \u201cQuentin\u2019s showing one of my prints at the New Beverly,\u201d Rob says offhand, and they joke about the time Lexi went on a date with Margaret Cho. Their Mad Libs-style conversation, a mash-up of Hollywood-adjacent cool and new-parent nostalgia, is almost gratingly idyllic.<\/p>\n<p>For several minutes, \u201cLCD Soundsystem\u201d doesn\u2019t seem directly linked to the story that <em>You\u2019re the Worst<\/em> has been telling us thus far. Falk lets us linger in our confusion as he brings this couple\u2019s life into focus. During the cold open, Rob and Lexi walk past a trash bin that\u2019s overflowing with empty cans and bottles and say wistfully, \u201cRemember that?\u201d They\u2019re in front of Gretchen and Jimmy\u2019s house, so we know now that the two couples are neighbors. After the cafe scene, though, we fall back into their daily life. Rob asks Lexi if he should name his garage band \u201cNot Penny\u2019s Boat.\u201d Lexi gets a text letting her know they\u2019ve landed an interview for a prestigious preschool. \u201cOur lives just got so cliche,\u201d she says. \u201cAre we really gonna become this?\u201d We even see the couple settled on the couch in the evening, trying to decide whether they should fool around or continue binge-watching a cable drama. Their dog, a pug named Sandwiches, won\u2019t stop barking outside.<\/p>\n<p>Then there\u2019s a sudden perspective shift. We cut to Gretchen. She\u2019s standing outside, watching the couple through their window. She\u2019s wearing black and smoking a cigarette. Sandwiches is barking at her. The moment feels like a horror movie, with one of our series protagonists taking on the role of the stalker in the night.<\/p>\n<p>It turns out that the first impression isn\u2019t far off from the truth. Im<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a>tely after this scene, we see the same day replayed through Gretchen\u2019s eyes. She first sees the couple in the cafe, where she hones in on their conversation with an almost hypnotized gleam in her eye. After they leave, she follows them all the way home, waving at baby Harper from across the street.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s hard to overstate how jarring \u201cLCD Soundsystem\u201d is upon first watch. The episode takes place soon after Gretchen has told Jimmy about her depression, and instead of embodying her emotional struggles in any conventional way, Falk takes an edgier, more suspenseful <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>roach. Cash is always utterly phenomenal in her turn as Gretchen, but she\u2019s rarely better than when the character is possessed with the manic, borderline dangerous energy she reveals for the first time in this episode. For twenty-two minutes, we have no idea what\u2019s going to happen next, and at times, that unpredictability is downright scary.<\/p>\n<p>Gretchen continues to secretly invade these strangers\u2019 lives. She approaches their dog and feeds him nachos through the fence. The next day, she follows the family to a Whole Foods-like store, where some conveniently spilled juice allows her to swoop in and hold Harper for the family\u2019s nanny. When the nanny steps away to clean up, Gretchen walks Harper through the aisles, baby-talking to her about kombucha and fair trade coffee beans. She even briefly slips out the front door with the baby, before ultimately returning her to the by-then distressed nanny.<\/p>\n<p>Gretchen\u2019s imposition doesn\u2019t end there. Another brief glimpse into Rob and Lexi\u2019s life is cut short when they realize Sandwiches is missing. Cut to Gretchen, who\u2019s gleefully going for a run with the dog on a leash by her side. She takes him to a dog park, then to an outdoor workspace. When a stranger asks her about the dog, she parrots back conversation points she overheard from Rob and Lexi, wearing their perfect life as if it\u2019s her own. \u201cI miss our Largo days,\u201d she tells Sandwiches, an exact quote from Lexi.<\/p>\n<p>In lesser hands, this would seem like straight-up serial killer shit, and while it\u2019s still disturbing, the situation is complicated by Gretchen\u2019s display of raw, childlike emotions. She lights up when holding Harper, when running with Sandwiches, and when masquerading as Lexi at the dog park. She visibly pouts when both the nanny and the dog park stranger don\u2019t buy her facade. It\u2019s as if she\u2019s worried that her failure to convincingly pass as a happily married woman signifies something about her own brokenness, a stink on her that everyone else can pick up on.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, after several of these nerve-jangling, taboo-skirting scenes, Gretchen returns Sandwiches to his rightful owners. Rob and Lexi are overjoyed, treating Gretchen like a hero as she lets herself into their home. It\u2019s here that we get to the crux of the episode, which is also, in a way, the thesis of the series. The three drink and chat, and we fast-forward to the middle of a deep conversation about marriage. \u201c[We\u2019re] totally aware of the pitfalls and the hazards and the compromises, and yet still doing it,\u201d Lexi explains. \u201cConventional and scary? Hell yeah. But the death of fun? Not necessarily.\u201d She goes on to say that anyone who\u2019s caught up in an idea of coolness misses out on authentic lived experiences. This is incredibly wise advice that gets to the heart of the series\u2019 conflict between ironic distance and genuine emotion, yet both Gretchen and Rob aren\u2019t really listening. Gretchen is starry-eyed at the very idea of this perfect couple, while Rob is caught up in the nostalgia of their kid-free partying days.<\/p>\n<p>Gretchen invites Jimmy over to walk her home, playing up their couple status with a kiss. When Jimmy leaves to check out the family\u2019s homemade treehouse (because of course, they have one), Gretchen is left with Rob. She\u2019s all smiles as she tells him how great his family is. It\u2019s clear now that she wants what they have for herself, and that she feels trapped by the walls she\u2019s built around her heart and so loudly championed in her relationship with Jimmy. But then things take an unnerving turn one more time.<\/p>\n<p>Rob, who\u2019s a little bit drunk, starts to ramble about everything he doesn\u2019t like about his life, from Lexi\u2019s Mini Cooper to their mortgage to the loss of freedom he associates with their daughter. He says he\u2019d love to get a drink with Gretchen, then backpedals a bit, before going all in and confessing that he\u2019s thought about divorcing Lexi. Kirk, who previously worked with Falk on <em>Weeds, <\/em>is a talented actor whose presence as a guest star usually indicates bold and unexpected storytelling. He effortlessly embodies characters who can shift gears between charming, dickish, and pitiful, and as such, he plays this moment perfectly. All at once, Rob is tumbling headfirst off the pedestal Gretchen placed him on, deflating into someone who\u2019s depressingly predictable and breathlessly desperate. He calls to mind Jason Bateman\u2019s character in <em>Juno<\/em>, a girl\u2019s hero-worship figure who turns out to be little more than a confident disappointment. When he asks Gretchen to hit him up the next time they go out \u2014 \u201dseriously, Lexi goes to bed crazy early\u201d \u2014 he\u2019s almost in tears.<\/p>\n<p>When Jimmy returns, a clearly shaken Gretchen makes an excuse to leave. The two walk down the darkened street while Lexi and Rob\u2019s now-arguing voices echo in the background. Jimmy, jaded to the bone, cracks condescending jokes about every perfect detail of the couple\u2019s life. He doesn\u2019t notice Gretchen crumpling into tears at his side.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLCD Soundsystem\u201d unfolds like a masterful short story for the screen. It surprises at every turn and leaves its most profound ideas unspoken. It also, in a way, becomes the sun around which the rest of the show orbits. When it comes to love, should our protagonists buy into Rob\u2019s cynicism or Lexi\u2019s optimism? Is commitment a form of control or of freedom? The show never lets the concept of marriage off the hook. Even in the series finale, Jimmy calls it \u201ca false guarantee that protects us from exactly nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gretchen\u2019s own skewed ideas about marriage and her deeply ingrained sense that she\u2019s unlovable \u2014 first laid bare in this episode \u2014 undercut her and Jimmy\u2019s relationship at every turn. At the same time, his own pessimism and failure to recognize her emotional needs leads to disaster time and again. The subtly devastating third act of \u201cLCD Soundsystem\u201d is brilliantly reversed in the series\u2019 final episode, however, when Gretchen and Jimmy finally commit to one another on their own terms and start a family despite years of protestations. The series ends on a pitch-perfect final scene, in which the two skip their own wedding and happily share a plate of pancakes, all while discussing the fact that their union could end in catastrophe. Love is for suckers, sure, but sometimes it\u2019s okay to be a sucker.\n<\/p><\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more Like this articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/social-media\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Social Media category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/youre-the-worst-lcd-soundsystem\/#utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=youre-the-worst-lcd-soundsystem\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#When &#8216;You&#8217;re the Worst&#8217; Took a Hard Look at Marriage&#8221; This essay is part of our series\u00a0Episodes, a column in which senior contributor Valerie Ettenhofer digs into the singular chapters of television that make the medium great. This entry looks at the anti-love story You\u2019re The Worst and its formative episode \u201cLCD Soundsystem.\u201d Love is&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":164133,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Youre_The_Worst_LCD_Soundsystem.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[7059,62196],"class_list":["post-164132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-episodes","tag-youre-the-worst"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}