Go On "Fast Breakup" Review

Close friends and family fall away from characters in the fantastical world of sitcoms. What's left are the core characters who've really just become part of the main character's universe. Any other character is reduced to a one-off guest character who'll pop up every now and then, or never again. I'm thinking of Boy Meets World's Rachel character and the way she showed up and immediately became part of the gang, even though she never bonded with any character besides Jack and Eric. Fortunately, Ryan and Wyatt have history together, so when Lauren tells Ryan to break up with Wyatt for her, it's not totally out-of-left-field. I mean, I hated the choice to use an overdone cliché in sitcoms and romantic comedies. At least the choice made sense for the characters involved, in the most sitcom sense of what sense means for the characters involved.

Wyatt and Lauren were never a great fictional relationship, because she spent more time with the group than with Wyatt. It is tricky to get the audience to care about a character barely seen for most of the season. The writing must be terrific for it work. Go On is a fine sitcom, but it is not the kind of show that'll make Lauren/Wyatt matter when they're barely together. Go On seemed like it wanted to put Lauren/Ryan together; however, the show also has interest in a lot of different pairings. Ryan and Carrie have a weird thing going, and Lauren and Steve have the most chemistry on the entire show. Lauren's wedding to Wyatt would be pointless because he's not a regular. Non-regulars rot in sitcoms.

The Lauren/Wyatt storyline is frustrating to watch, especially with the added Ryan/Carrie element. Go On's become a more enjoyable show because of its use of the secondary characters. Lauren and Ryan are decent characters but they are the worst comedic pairing of the many pairings. Lauren doesn't want to marry Wyatt, so she enlists Ryan to tell Wyatt for her. Ryan agrees if she'll handle the Carrie situation for him. Carrie had a wild night out in which she, at one point, drunk dialed Ryan and left a message about wanting him to come over with pizza. Ryan's intrigued but reluctant because of the age difference. Instead of confronting the issue directly, Lauren and Ryan choose the path of poorly written romantic characters. They duck their problems.

Inevitably, Lauren directly ends her relationship with Wyatt for all the reasons repeated each time Wyatt appeared in the episode, and Ryan doesn't avoid Carrie. There is some fun in the Lauren story, though. The bachelorette party features Mr. K losing his skull over a male stripper, his admission of wearing a special thong for the evening, and his indifference to being a male in a female centric event. Yolana learns saucy words to use just between the girls, such as 'whore' and the 'P-word.' Anne's high on marijuana and Fausta laughs and has a good time. Ryan's scene with Wyatt isn't terrible, though the bread gag came out of nowhere. Go On clung to the bread gag too long. Ryan singing 'O Danny Boy' with Wyatt was unnecessary as well. I theorize that Matthew Perry forces his pitches into the show regardless whether or not they work.

Since the season finale is next week, Ryan's forced into making an active choice when Carrie quits the radio show. Let's not quibble over Carrie quitting her job to be with a guy. Ryan dated Simone for a stretch of episodes. Last week, he competed with Anne for Courtney Cox (I don't remember her character name). Now, he needs to make a choice about Carrie. I guess there needs to be some sort of urgency in the finale.

Despite the episode's A story, "Fast Breakup" continues Go On's solid run of episodes. Viewership has dropped significantly. I'm pretty sure me and four other people are watching now. I like the characters and their quirky world now. This quirky world is strong enough to withstand shaky choices that owe way too much to romantic comedies.

Other Thoughts:

-The C story with the K-Bal is good. Bal has a rather cocky demeanor. Of course, Go On can't just let a joke go. Ryan puts on the suit, which sort of sucks, and then Laurel puts on the suit, which really sucks.

-Lauren Benanti recorded the drunken voicemail, right? Wouldn't Ryan have saved numbers in his phone? Wouldn't he have known which woman drunk-dialed him? Ah, what's the point of asking questions?

THE YOUTUBE CLIP OF THE WEEK