Written by Megan LaBruna
I’m not married, and I may hope to never be after watching FX’s new comedy Married starring Judy Greer and Nat Faxton. Don’t get me wrong, it was funny, but I think the people who will enjoy the show the most will be: married couples with kids or people who have at one time been married with kids. It shows a side of marriage that you usually don’t see on television. The opening scene centers on Russ (Faxton) attempting a shot at some intimacy with his wife Lina (Greer) who pretty abruptly turns him down, leaving Russ to fly solo. I don’t know about you, but I haven’t seen that in a premiere of a show before.
It doesn’t really slow down from there. Russ is clearly still in love with his wife, so the issue isn’t that they’ve grown apart. He even went as far as to dress up as a vampire to try to seduce Lina, since she is into the vampire and werewolf fad. Unfortunately, it didn’t work and he was left to do the deed himself again. Lina, who is physically and mentally exhausted from keeping up with three girls, running errands and being super mom, suggests that Russ go out and get someone to satisfy his adult needs. Like most of the audience, he’s pretty surprised at that response.
After discussing with his group of friends, they try to test the waters by asking a random waitress if she’ll be his mistress, surprisingly she doesn’t turn it down, until Russ starts talking and is clearly not okay with the concept. It’s funny to see the internal war going on in this man’s head. His wife basically just gave him a pass to go out and find a mistress, yet there’s no way to tell if this is one of those situations where she said it, but she doesn’t really mean it. Although, she did seem pretty convincing; but that could have been the sleep deprivation talking.
Russ does eventually find a woman to sleep with him after buying her a puppy to cheer her up from losing her child during pregnancy. He’s so close to sealing the deal, until his wife calls telling him to come home. Upon arriving home he finds out that he over-fed their daughter’s fish and the fish died. That’s the thing about your family. They’re always going to intervene and usually at the worst possible moments…or in this case maybe it was the best possible moment.
Long story short, Russ doesn’t go through with finding a mistress, at least not in the pilot, but he does attend his daughter’s fish funeral with the rest of his family. In that moment he seems content to be there with his daughters and wife and thinks maybe this is enough…until we see next week’s preview showing Russ plotting other ways to finally get his wife into bed. Who knew it would be so hard to get laid after you got married?
I’m personally hoping the show takes hold, because I’m a fan of Judy Greer, yet she never seems to be able to get out of that supporting character role, despite however hard she tries. Remember Miss Guided…anyone…anyone? All in all, I think audiences are in for an interesting look at what it’s like for a married couple after the thrill is gone and life has taken hold. So make a date with your loved one to watch Married on FX Thursday nights at 10pm.
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