MARY + JANE Review: Neighborhood Watch
0As the delayed episode of MARY + JANE opens, we find out that the girls are probably college buddies because they have a visiting professor from Humboldt. It’s the first hint we’ve had all season of how the girls know each other as they seem to have different backgrounds—given that Paige always has out of town visitors. While they wait for their new supplies, they have another problem to face: annoying new neighbors.
It turns out that Seth Green and his partner are the annoying neighbors, who are playing East Coast transplants that are busy doing a whole bunch of crazy renovations on their new rental property, even as they hate on the neighborhood and say how poor it is. It turns out that Seth’s partner is actually a member of a Scientologist-sounding group as well as a famous photographer of public nudity and Jordan wants to model for him. Through the course of a conversation, an upcoming housewarming party turns into a neighborhood watch gathering as the new neighbors want to get rid of any unwelcome elements like drug dealers. Despite the current vote to legalize marijuana use in California and the relaxed attitude most people in that age group have about marijuana use as well as the relaxed attitude that medical marijuana users have, Jordan and Paige immediately get all self-conscious about their career path and immediately try to hide any evidence that could get them in trouble. Once again, I don’t understand why they are engaging in an activity that is so embarrassing to them if they really view marijuana selling and use as no big deal. Definitely, the timing of the whole thing is off as they show aired on the eve of the big vote as to whether or not California would join the growing list of states to legalize recreational marijuana use.
So the ladies go into a frenzy to hide any evidence that they’re dealers and hide their stashes and paraphernalia as well as call off their drop-off supply and cancel plans with Bentley, the rival dealer. Just as the party is getting started, off course their professor supplier shows up anyway, which has notes of The Birdcage as they try to hide his supplies and encourage him to act completely differently from usual and not to bring up pot or getting high in any way. It just seems like every other funny movie or sitcom rolled into the one episode and on a show that’s never been original, despite having a unique take on the sitcom, it’s an extra annoying touch. Like Will & Grace’s guest stars, this episode has at least five familiar faces that show up to the neighborhood watch event—including Bently, who presents himself as a freestyle rapper instead of a fellow dealer. The girls’ plan to get naked in pictures and a free poncho from poncho designer Lindsay Price seems to be going well as the ladies come up with stories to appease their strangely uptight guests. Then the cop shows up and we go to commercial.
It seems obvious that a cop would go to a neighborhood watch event, but once again Paige and Jordan are unable to see it coming. So through a series of chaotic events that ensue without a modicum of humor or originality, Paige finds herself drowning in water in the neighbor’s luxurious bathroom, which is very drought unfriendly. Later in the episode, Jordan points this out, which somewhat redeems the scene. But overall, I’m not a fan of the show promoting things like water waste while failing to portray marijuana use in a positive way–not that smoking weed is so positive, but it should be for the purposes of the show. It’s always stereotypical and the girls always seem to be on the wrongish side of the law
It turns out that Seth and his buddy and his lady friends were part of some kind of elaborate sting that makes absolutely no sense and the ladies are disappointed because the drug dealers deal pot, not scary stuff like heroin. I just don’t understand why they were trying to catch drug dealers because they are not government agents, as far as I can tell. Overall, the writers seem to have gotten so lost in making it a madcap, physical comedy episode that the jokes didn’t quite land because they don’t make sense.
And once again, Bentley’s freestyle nonsense is the best part of the episode as everyone smokes some weed.
Season 1, Episode 9 (S01E09)
Mary + Jane airs Mondays at 10PM on MTV
Read all of our reviews of Mary + Jane here.
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Carly is a freelance writer that watches too much TV while she writes blogs and articles about lifestyle including travel, food, fashion, beauty, home decor, entertainment, health, fitness and wellness and green living.
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Carly Zinderman | Contributor