Summary
Poppa’s House mires a good message in questionable presentation in Episode 8, but there’s still some value in its ideas.
Episode 8 of Poppa’s House, “Wig”, has a genuinely valuable message but, sadly, only one joke. If the sight of Damon Wayans in a hairpiece that makes him look like Al Sharpton is your idea of a good time, you’ll love this, but for everyone else, it’s a shame that some good points about grief and old-school – typically male – attitudes to emotion have to share space with an ethically grey subplot about Poppa using his new wig to date much younger women.
I thought the previous episode was a distinct improvement thanks to its focus on Poppa’s relationship with Ivy, so it’s a bit of a shame that this one sidelines it entirely. Ivy just floats around in the background trying to take a mature approach to what is quite obviously grief, but that’s all she does. Her obvious care about Poppa’s well-being is nice, but whether it will even be acknowledged at any point still remains to be seen.
Anyway, I mentioned grief above. The catalyst for this odd episode is the death of Poppa’s best friend Leon, whom we’ve never met. The loss makes him consider his mortality, and he decides that the best way to get ahead of it is to wear a wig, take up boxing, and join a dating app called “Out Of Your League”.
The whole point of this app, as far as I can tell, is for older guys to meet younger women under false pretenses. Poppa’s date is Lola, and because his biological clock is ticking, he immediately decides to move her in with him, propose to her, and have more children. She doesn’t even know he’s bald.
Leon was an uncle figure to Junior too, which meets Poppa’s House Episode 8 is split pretty evenly between Poppa and him. As usual, Junior being emotionally stunted powers his entire character. In the wake of Leon’s death, he discovers he’s unable to cry, and thus unable to process his emotions. Poppa doesn’t cry either, but for him, it’s a choice, something stemming from an old-school mentality that equated emotion with weakness.
That’s the key theme. On a fundamental level “Wig” is about dispelling the longstanding illusion that men shouldn’t cry, but it doesn’t play out especially well. I have no idea what the Junior subplot is supposed to be saying here given he has been extremely emotional throughout the season and is simply unable to cry; it’s not a choice like the one Poppa is making (you know it’s a choice because in a couple of scenes he almost breaks down and removes himself), so it doesn’t really mean anything.
The turning point is Poppa being tricked into reading Charlotte’s Web for a class of schoolchildren, which forces him to break down openly and reminisce over his relationship with Leon. Seeing him crying also pushes Junior over the edge, so they’re both able to heal a little bit by being vulnerable in front of each other.
That’s good! But it still doesn’t mesh well with everything to do with Lola, and it leaves Ivy by the wayside again. This episode is devoted to Robert Nedd, a real-life friend of Damon Wayans who died in 2016, so it’s clear that Damon was pulling from personal experience to a certain extent. With that in mind it’s a shame so much of the episode just doesn’t work. If nothing else, though, the little bit of progress it makes in dispelling the stigma around male vulnerability is worthwhile.
