The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
If you have Hulu, dive into dating dramedy ‘Casual’ head first
Devouring all four seasons of Hulu’s ‘Casual’ well worth the commitment
I recently took advantage of a free monthlong trial of Hulu so I could stream the second season of the company’s acclaimed series “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
(Having pretty much pulled what they could from the 1985 Margaret Atwood novel for the show’s first season, the showmakers produced an uneven follow-up campaign, albeit one that got better as it progressed through its 13 episodes.)
Wanting to experience more of what Hulu had to offer, I checked out the first episode of “Casual,” a contemporary dramedy ostensibly about casual dating in Los Angeles. I soon found myself racing against the calendar to devour all four seasons of “Casual” — 44 episodes — over the course of a couple of weeks, enjoying the intense binge and finding a show that hit me much harder emotionally than I initially expected.
The series centers around 30- to 40-something siblings, Valerie (Michaela Watkins) and younger brother Alex (Tommy Dewey) and Valerie’s sexually active teen daughter, Laura (Tara Lynne Barr).
The good-natured but incredibly narcissistic bachelor Alex — who helped start a successful dating website, Snooger, and stays somewhat involved with its operation — has opened his fairly awesome house to Valerie, a psychiatrist, following her divorce from Laura’s father. (One of my favorite aspects of the early part of the show’s run is that instead of Alex feeling put out by his houseguests, he is desperate for them to stay, making waffles every morning and going so far as adopting a dog when he fears Valerie might buy a home for her daughter and herself. This clearly is a man who fears real intimacy with a romantic partner but desires some form of family life.)
Early on, “Casual” is about the constantly dating Alex trying to help his sister to get back on the scene. As it progresses, however, you realize just how much “Casual” is driven by the co-dependent nature of the siblings’ intense relationship. It’s good stuff, but, I’ll admit, it wasn’t until maybe about halfway through the series when I was convinced there wouldn’t be some weird romantic moment between brother and sister.
While that never happens (phew), know that “Casual” goes to some potentially uncomfortable waters, including bisexuality and polyamorous relationships. Know also that “Casual” explores such areas in mostly satisfying ways.
Other regular characters include Leon (Nyasha Hatendi), whose path to becoming Alex’s close friend is entirely nontraditional in the best way; Leia (Julie Berman, Valerie’s smart assistant; and Drew (Zak Orth), Valerie’s ex-husband, whose affair with a younger woman was discovered by Laura.
The best occasional visitors to the world of Alex and Laura, however, are their parents, Charles (Fred Melamed) and Dawn (Frances Conroy) — never-married free-love types who, when they even bothered to be around, provided an extremely unconventional home environment for their children. The series’ funniest episode is Season One’s “Bottles,” in which Laura invites her estranged grandparents to Thanksgiving dinner without telling her mother or uncle. The general contempt the adult children have for Mom and Dad is hilarious.
“Why are you here?” Laura demands of Dawn and Charles, who had been mostly living apart in recent years.
Dawn’s response ultimately concludes, “A piece of us has always remained together. It took us a little while, but we finally had a breakthrough.”
“You’re getting euthanized!” Alex suggests. Outstanding. The delivery of one-liners by Dewey, with whose earlier work I am unfamiliar, is one of my favorite aspects of the first season of “Casual.” After the first Alex evolves quite a bit, and while I didn’t always love the journey — his second-season arc frustrated me to a degree — I really like where the writers and Dewey had taken him by the conclusion. I certainly hope to see more from the actor.
Valerie is the more relatable character, even if, like her brother, she makes her fair share of questionable choices. The performance of Watkins — a short-timer on “Saturday Night Live” whose other TV credits also include “The New Adventures of Old Christine” and “Transparent” — is solid throughout “Casual.” She’s terrific when Valerie is frustrated with Alex, a regular occurrence.
I’m largely indifferent to Barr (“Aquarius”) as Laura, but the character, who’s no stranger to bad decisions herself, serves a purpose.
While “Casual” was created by the little-known Zander Lehmann, it also benefited greatly from director Jason Reitman (“Up in the Air,” this summer’s “Tully”), who helmed the first two episodes of the series and select others throughout the first three season. It feels as though he provided a successful template early on for others, including actors Fred Savage and Lake Bell, to follow.
Surprisingly, the recently released shorter (eight-episode) fourth season was my second favorite. It brings the end of a few characters’ emotional journeys, presenting new chapters in their lives. Plus, the reasonably compelling finale does a nice bit of bookending with the pilot.
Again, “Casual” isn’t perfect. The occasional episode or storyline is clunky or uninspired. Overall, through, it’s fun and addictive. With episodes running about 30 minutes or less, I usually could talk myself into knocking out one more. I don’t know the last time I binged like this.
I’m already missing “Casual.” My relationship with it was anything but. Binge TV is a semi-regular regular series about something we’re enjoying that can be watched on demand, be it via a streaming service or cable/ satellite.