Angry, Like An Angry Person
Season 1
Episode 4
Editor’s Rating
4 stars
****
Photo: Katrina Marcinowski/HBO
Love, er, lust is in the air at Ludlow College. Both Katie and Greg get lucky after attending Walt’s cocktail party. Who knew a stuffy academic mixer would be such a hotbed of flirtation! Does Walt put some sort of aphrodisiac in the drinks to encourage hookups and stir up drama? I honestly wouldn’t put it past him. But the members of the Russo family are so ready to “get back out there” that they don’t need much prompting.
In embracing the drunken chaos of the college atmosphere, Rooster seems to finally be finding its legs. This episode really worked for me, as it showcased a lot of interesting character pairings, got both Katie and Greg out of their respective funks, and even had Greg doing Edward 40-Hands. I truly love it when older adults get to go back and reconnect with their younger selves by partying like it’s (actually) 1999 again. (See also: Hacks, Old School, etc.), And this episode delivers.
“Angry Like an Angry Person” pretty much spans a single day on the Ludlow campus. We see Greg teaching, encouraging his students to write what’s “in them.” It’s a weird thing to tell them as they’re literally handing in the assignments that they’ve already written, but decent advice overall. On the other side of campus, Walt gives Sunny similar advice, telling her to “live her life with authenticity.” This is decent feedback, but it leads her to post a picture of herself with her hands scooped into a heart in front of her belly and a cringey caption of “Baby Loading…. 25 percent.” Sure, live your authentic life, but it seems like a really terrible idea for Sunny to post this information on a public social media page if she’s actively seeking internships. Sorry, that’s just how the world works, kids. At least keep it in the “Close Friends” green bubble, girl. After some prompting, Archie reluctantly “likes” the post, proving that he is absolutely not into any of this fatherhood stuff … and, honestly, probably not really into his relationship with Sunny anymore, either.
Just as Katie is about to start teaching her first class back from her suspension, she sees Sunny’s post and her brain short-circuits for a second. Her frustration morphs her into a very fun professor for a moment as she introduces two famous artists that were also dirtbag creeps – Paul Gauguin and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Her students (and we) delight in her candor. Katie (like her father) definitely gets her groove back a bit here, endearing us to her as someone we’d want to spend time with. Later, the scene in which she attempts to flirt with the very hot bartender at the campus lounge is hilarious. In her try-hard attempt to look coy, she flails her hand about and accidentally smashes her martini glass on the bar. It’s a moment of cringe, but Carly Clive also manages to make it very funny because she does it without an ounce of pity for her character. Dylan sees this and takes pity on her, bringing her along to Walt’s party.
Walt’s gathering is a place no one wants to be, but where everyone ends up. In order to get Greg to attend his party, Walt stalks him down at the library — seriously, how did Walt know where he was? — and he proceeds to shut the entire library down so that Greg has zero other options. Greg dutifully heads over to the party, but flees moments later after he insults Walt’s wife, who is swanning around the party in a loud kimono. As he crosses campus, Greg ends up running into Tommy, who invites him to a keg party. After a tiny bit of convincing, Greg says yes.
The sequence where Greg lets loose with Tommy and his friends is a total blast. Of course, Greg’s penny-tossing skills translate to beer pong, and because he’s a kind and charismatic guy, he has no trouble fitting in with the dudes as they get hammered before they head out to a frat-themed party. It feels important to note that Greg really isn’t recapturing his youth here. Remember, he’s never been to college! Instead, he’s experiencing all of this for the first time. The camaraderie with the students feels genuine and needed. And, while Steve Carell could have chemistry with an empty keg, these kids sparkle and shine in his presence. It’s starting to become apparent that Rooster shines brightest when Greg is interacting with the students of Ludlow. There’s probably something to be said here about art imitating life as these young actors grew up watching Carell on The Office and are probably looking at him with real reverence, but there’s also an excitement and energy that the collective group brings to these scenes that makes it feel like we’re also in on the fun.
However, once the group heads out to the big party, things start getting a bit dicey for Greg. They run into Officer Rory Scovel (okay, I don’t know his official character name, so he’s Rory until further notice), and he accuses Greg of spray painting “FOR KATIE” all over campus. We know that Katie’s student Zoey is the perpetrator of these rebellious crimes, but Greg does seem to be a likely candidate. Officer Rory lets Greg go, but the combination of the walk and thinking about his daughter’s predicament has bummed him out. Once he gets to the party, he demands that the DJ play R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts” as he sings along from the center of the room. Tommy gently kicks him out, but not before telling him that he’s a townie and one of his parents is a faculty member. (Who is it?! Let’s all speculate in the comments!)
Also, Tommy imparts a little parting advice to Greg: “This is college, and in college you get to reinvent yourself.” This counsel is a bit different than the “write what’s in you” and “live your authentic life” missives that the older men convey to their students earlier in the episode, but it’s a good reminder that we only have one life, and we can always try out new things in the service of living our best lives. Is anyone else loving Maximo Salas as Tommy? His shaggy, sweet persona is a perfect foil to bring Greg’s hangdog insecurities to the surface, and I hope their friendship continues to blossom.
Greg takes Tommy’s advice and finally accesses his inner Rooster. He drunkenly strides back to Walt’s party with the intent of picking up Dylan, but he finds her with a hot, young date instead. The exchange between the two of them, with Greg telling the guy to “take care of our girl” and Dylan responding “What?!” is one of the true laugh-out-loud moments in the episode. Danielle Deadwyler is revealing herself to be quite the queen of hilarious line-readings. Here, she delivers with a single syllable.
With Dylan preoccupied, Greg heads to the bar and spots Cristle. They immediately lock eyes, down their drinks, and sprint to Walt’s office where they do it on his desk. Cristle hates Walt as much as she’s horny for Greg, and it seems like the encounter is a win for both of them. The next morning, Greg wanders across campus in his rumpled suit. Did … did he spend the entire night with Cristle in Walt’s office? No matter, this is his first real walk of shame, and the grin on his face is worth a million bucks. Brought on by depression, uncertainty, and a conflicted sense of self, this man had a dry spell for five whole years, and he’s finally starting to emerge from his shell.
Greg isn’t even fazed when he runs into his daughter carrying not one but two coffees. Both father and daughter quietly agree to ignore whatever it is the other one is doing and go their own ways. But Katie heads home and we find that — gasp! — Archie is in her bed. We all saw that coming, right? Is this cheating? Maybe! Should Katie feel bad for sleeping with her husband? Ummmm. Is Archie’s car totally vandalized, even though he parked it around the corner? Sure is! And that karmic retribution feels fitting for a coda to this episode about finding out who you are in a college setting: Greg is the new big man on campus, Katie is still finding out who she is, and Archie is a total himbo.
• I love how they have Greg reading Zadie Smith at the top of the episode. The man really is opening his mind and embracing all aspects of the college experience!!
• At one point, Greg trips and goes into the “Walk Like an Egyptian” dance to cover for his near-fall. This lands him in the behavioral committee for a third time. Save for Cristle’s thirsty comments to Greg, I don’t find these asides funny. Now that Cristle and Greg have hooked up, I kind of hope we never have to see him in that room again.
• There’s a running story in the episode about Tommy using AI to write his story for Greg’s class. Greg is adorably naïve about AI being used to complete work, and he (and Dylan) give Tommy a second chance to submit something he’s actually written. AI is putting a crimp in higher education, especially for writing, so I hope that the show circles back to this idea at another point in time.
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