Every season, there are shows that take you by surprise, either for how they exceed their premise, how they take a more subversive angle than one would expect, or how strongly executed they are overall. This is particularly true with more outlets getting into the scripted world in recent years, meaning that there are quite a few platforms whose scripted brands you don’t know about due to a limited sample size. Considering the sheer volume of choice there is out there, part of being a good television fan is knowing what type of project you can expect from any network or streaming platform, thereby making your decision on what to sample all the more easy. But while more networks getting their feet wet with scripted projects might mean a slightly hazier television landscape, the joy that comes with finding something unexpectedly good makes everything worth it.
Last summer, the happiest surprise for me was Bravo comedy Odd Mom Out, a wryly satirical take on life in the Upper East Side from author/star Jill Kargman. Based on Kargman’s novel Momzillas, the series follows snarky photographer Jill Weber as she deals with being an outsider in a world she’s not sure she wants to belong in; whereas the prototypical mom in Odd Mom‘s universe is vapid, bleached, and out of touch with reality, Weber is all dark clothes, hyper literate pop culture quips, and disdain for the insanity around her. A little bit Curb Your Enthusiasm and a little bit Gossip Girl, Odd Mom Out quietly debuted during the summer of freshman phenoms UnREAL and Mr. Robot, though it quickly grew into an irreverent, warts-and-all look at a woman who has to make peace with her social status while avoiding allowing said status to consume her identity. Jill Weber is no Stepford Wife and in the second season of Odd Mom Out, she’s as bound and determined as ever to live life under her own terms.
Season one of Odd Mom Out concluded with a blowout between Jill and sister-in-law Brooke (Abby Elliott) after the latter discovered that her husband Lex (Sean Kleier) had been cheating with his assistant. The uneasy relationship between Jill and Brooke provided the backbone of conflict in season one, as two had gotten unexpectedly close after Jill was forced to deliver Brooke’s child before things came crashing down, which makes season two something of a reset. Taking place months following the events of the first season finale, season two is more episodic than the bulk of season one, with no clear arc developing throughout the course of its first three episodes. Which isn’t a bad thing considering that it provides the show with a chance to breathe and re-embrace the heightened reality it established for itself last season. Humor-wise, Odd Mom Out has a surrealistic streak that bumps up against something like FXX dating comedy Man Seeking Woman, a delightfully specific choice that expands what the show is about to say about class, culture, and parenting while keeping a show about brownstones and nice apartments visually interesting.
With a structure that recalls a short story collection, season two mostly keeps Brooke and Jill on opposite sides of the show, the former getting a business off the ground in her quest for independence from Lex. Elliott has been excellent at not only mining the comedy from an outsized presence like Brooke, all preening self-satisfaction and casual extravagance, but keeping a character like this from becoming too much to deal with. Brooke is a satirical vessel laced with underlying vulnerability and insecurity and Elliott is quite adept at showing these different sides of what could become a loud caricature without making them feel like different people; Brooke is more than the empty joke machine that she could have been in an alternate universe version of this show and while co-showrunners Julie Rottenberg and Elisa Zuritsky deserve a lot of credit for keeping her characterization honest, particularly in the face of broader moments during the rest of the show, Elliott’s portrayal, particularly her chemistry with Kargman, has been the show’s secret weapon since day one. For what it’s worth, season two offers Brooke some interesting growth opportunities and ways to further deepen her character, none better than episode three (“Hamming It Up,” an energetic, focused half-hour that also finds Jill and Vanessa on the hunt for Hamilton tickets) when she’s forced to bow before an influential fashion blogger in hopes of getting the exposure necessary to expand her aspiring fashion house.
But while the show is arguably built around the contrast between Brooke and Jill, that doesn’t mean that that’s all there is here. With the two of them only interacting a little bit during the first three episodes of the season, there’s room for other side characters to have storylines of their own. Following the conflict between him and Lex at the N.A.C.H.O. gala, Andy (Andy Buckley) has taken some time off from work and ends up stressing out about his Uber rating, while Vanessa (KK Glick) has one of the most unique cases of commitment cold feet that I’ve ever seen on television, as she still doesn’t really know whether she thinks Elliot (Nate Smith) is good looking or hideous. It’s this type of low stakes comedy with specific voice that makes Odd Mom Out what it is and while it might come off as #RichPeopleProblems, there’s an undercurrent of cynicism that, combined with this show airing on a network filled with uncritical eyes toward the wealthy, keeps its privileged navel-gazing to a minimum. In fact, Jill has been something of an audience surrogate since the show’s inception, commenting on the delusion that surrounds this world she inhabits while seemingly doing everything she can to not pull a Jim Halpert. That type of self-awareness is valuable on a show like this and not only has it sold Jill as a solid protagonist, it makes the show standout (in a good way) against the rest of its network brethren.
Touching on everything from Burning Man to fasting on Yom Kippur, from living wills to where to score drugs in Manhattan, season two of Odd Mom Out is a promising continuation of season one. Though we don’t yet know what season two will turn into in terms of plot, given that the back half of season one was where the show became more serialized, the first three episodes act as kind of a restating of the show’s mission statement while laying the groundwork for the remaining seven episodes. While we wait to see what the overarching storyline of the season will be, this is a fun world to just live in for a while, so watching Jill and Vanessa do their best Daria and Jane while contemplating how pop culturally jaded they are or getting a welcome visit from boozy, perpetually horny Candace is more than enough reason to tune back into season two. It’s accessible enough for new viewers while giving those who’ve already seen season one what they came to enjoy last year, so hopefully this year, the creative strength and continued potential of Odd Mom Out will go from surprise to well-known (and accepted) fact.
The second season of Odd Mom Out premieres Monday, June 20th at 10:00 on Bravo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv8DJUi1p0I
