Platonic Episode 8 Review
Platonic Episode 8: San Diego – 8.0/10
And then there was 3. Episode 8 of Platonic marks the beginning of the end for Season 1, and our story finally starts to pick up. San Diego is an episode that focuses mainly on Will and The Lucky Penny Brewing Company, as well as Sylvia. Charlie is involved in the larger plot that is bound to be the focus of episodes 9 and 10.
Spoilers from the episode ahead, be sure to go watch the episode before proceeding.
This weeks episode sees the entire crew from Lucky Penny head to San Diego to met Johnny Rev. The business trip comes shortly after Sylvia was fired from her job, a detail she hid from Charlie for 3 days. This is where the issues begin to start for leading couple. Initially, Charlie is supportive and understanding, until he stumbles onto some photos from the days she spent at the bar during her secret unemployment.
Pair this with Sylvia’s trip with Will, and Charlie’s brain goes crazy. He and his coworkers investigate further and discover that the family lizard is in fact Will’s old lizard. This creates further issues that end the episode on a slightly creepy moment.
The real focus of episode is meeting Johnny Rev and discussing their beer partnership. This too goes quite poorly when Rev tries to kiss Sylvia, among other really problematic behaviours. It creates a lot of tension and awkwardness, and then all the sudden Andy proposes. It’s a weird moment, but it’s totally on brand for Platonic.
Alrighty, enough recap let’s jump into the actual review. Episode 8 is nowhere near my favourite episode, and it actually ranks right near the bottom. The show is consistently awkward and uncomfortable, cracking jokes that rely a lot on situational irony to hit. This is not the case with Episode 8. The jokes are less funny, and it just becomes hard to watch. It’s not funny, and watching a comedy that isn’t funny is really tough.
The only reason this episode is any good is due to the characters that have been built and the fact that we have some kind of a concrete plot line leading into the final two episodes. Sylvia and Will are still solid character that have more going for them than just humour, but this episode lacks a release. All the weird, awkward, uncomfortable energy that this show builds doesn’t ever let go. There isn’t a good joke or a well placed line to ease some of that tension.
The topics explore aren’t meant to be easy to watch either, and I get that, but it just doesn’t mesh well with the show that’s been created. I like the idea behind the episode, it’s an interesting premise, but golly was it tough to watch. I am really excited for next week, but this week was only decent.
