Summary
Proving the pilot wasn’t a fluke, “Nigerians Don’t Do Useless Things” is another genuinely funny and nuanced episode of Bob Hearts Abishola.
This recap of Bob Hearts Abishola Episode 2, “Nigerians Don’t Do Useless Things”, contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.
“Nigerians Don’t Do Useless Things” is something of a relief. After a highly promising pilot, there was every chance that CBS’s Bob Hearts Abishola could prove itself a fluke. With all the myriad ways in which this multicam sitcom could shoot itself in the foot, it’s a pleasant surprise that it instead continues to put its best one forward, perhaps improving on the premiere with a follow-up episode just as funny but even more nuanced.
Take, for instance, the conversation that opens Bob Hearts Abishola Episode 2, between the titular Abishola (Folake Olowofoyeku) and her workmates Kemi (Gina Yashere) and Gloria (Vernee Watson). It’s about Bob (Billy Gardell), sure, but it’s also about the difference between first-generation West African immigrants and African-Americans, and about the expectations of both Kemi and Abishola’s Auntie Olu (Shola Adewusi) and Uncle Tunde (Barry Shabaka Henley). The latter three, knowing that Bob is a prosperous white man, have already decided that Abishola should marry him, especially since she hasn’t seen her husband for the last eight years.
Olu and Tunde are so keen on this idea that they’re following Bob around in their van, checking out his car and workplace. Unfortunately, Bob catches them and pursues them home, where they invite him in for tea and biscuits to discuss a union, asking him his credit score in the process. Tunde conspiratorially mentions that he’s “Team Bob” when Abishola returns home with Dele (Travis Wolfe Jr.) in the middle of this. A date is arranged, but Bob insists that he doesn’t want to spend time with Abishola unless that’s what she wants too. As it turns out, that is what she wants.
Bob Hearts Abishola Episode 2 sees their first date — sort of. Abishola insists it’s no such thing, but it certainly feels like one. They spend Abishola’s break from work together on a bench, having a simple discussion about their respective lives. Bob is a divorcee, and the sock business was his father’s. Abishola is still married but her husband moved back to Nigeria eight years ago; there, he was a civil engineer, and in America, he was forced to work a tollbooth. The episode’s title, “Nigerians Don’t Do Useless Things”, is Abishola’s response to Bob asking her if she has any hobbies. It’s just a touching, funny, earnest conversation.
Bob Hearts Abishola Episode 2 ends with Olu and Tunde following Bob home, to take a picture of his house. “We’ll be very happy there,” they agree. I hope they’re right.
