Childrens Hospital is not a show with a lot of season-long arcs but it's nice to see a couple of things from last week get carried on to this week and, I assume, the rest of the season. For one, it seems Jordan Peele will be sticking around as Brian, which is fine by me. Also, everyone's now living in this big Grey's Anatomy mansion, which we first saw last week but really gets explored this week in the hilarious opening scene of Blake, Owen, Lola, Glenn, Valerie and Brian all crammed together in the kitchen, then the car, then the hospital walking like they've been glued together.
They try to wonder about who to kick out of the group, and keep coming back to Blake (even he suggests himself by the end) but then it comes down to Glenn and Lola, who apparently are together now, although Glenn has of course been with the Chief and Cat at one time or another (his hurt motion to his yarmulke in the pilot episode when Cat breaks up with him is still one of my favorite gags the show ever did). Their relationship dramas are played out in front of their dead-faced roommates and with lively guest performances by Lindsay Sloan and Tom Lennon. Lennon, clad in a football jersey and recommending that Glenn dress up like a woman for six to eight months to catch Lola badmouthing him, was especially funny, not surprising considering Lennon's one of the best comic character actors around.
Nick Offerman also made a welcome second appearance this season as Chance Briggs, this time helping Owen take down a kid who was abusing the make a wish foundation. I love Offerman's beautiful mustache and silky voice as much as the next man and he makes a great team with Rob Huebel but this story seemed a little flat, even though lots of inappropriate things happened to Owen like him making out with a goat. In general, this episode just sort of bounced around without much of a center, with the usual high ratio of good jokes but nothing particularly memorable.
What I liked this best this week was probably Valerie's horrible put-downs of Sy, with Henry Winkler in particularly adorable sad-sack mode. Malin Akerman just has a flair for being mean, I guess. I liked how the storyline had an obvious end-point (Sy moves in with the gang and hijinks ensue!) and how neatly that clean ending was disposed with after Brian suggests a workout room instead. Henry Winkler is funny when he's depressed, people. And when he has a huge TV balanced on his lap in an out-of-order hospital bathroom.
Stray observations:
Owen won't sleep with Sy's sister again, because she looks too much like Ray Liotta. "She's totes Liotes."
Valerie got her blood all over the kitchen counter.
"Cool! I don't really know how to end this conversation, so, high five?"
"What, you think you deserve an award for going home at lunch? Is that what you think? Suck on it."
Owen keeps confusing the Make a Wish Foundation with Michael Vick.
Lola likes to watch Black Hospital, but complains, "That show is so unrealistic."
"I am SORRY that I am not as SMART as you!"
"I HAD AN ABORTION, GLEN! AN AB OR TION!"
"Aren't you a sight for sore eyebrow."
"Can you arrest a kid for being a dick?" "If he's a Muslim."
The huckster kid is called Johnny "The Dying Kid" McCloud.
"You should come with me to oral sex rehab!" "ROAD TRIP!"
"She refuses to play with my balls." "You can't expect her to like bowling as much as you. How's the sex?"
"You're all the way under arrest!"