Summary
Poppa’s House Episode 11 is a perfect example of why this show isn’t any good, highlighting all of the usual problems.
If you asked me to design an episode of Poppa’s House that perfectly exemplified all of the show’s myriad issues, it’d look a lot like Episode 11, “Dirty Laundry”. Too much focus on Junior? Check. Arch, slapstick comedy overly reliant on visual gags like dopey outfits and wigs? Check. Nothing for Nina or Ivy to do except be sounding boards for the men in their lives? Check. An extremely hand-wavey moral conclusion where Poppa wheels out something to do with his upbringing to explain his present-day behavior? Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner.
Any progress made on the Junior front is immediately abandoned here since he’s back to being a sap again, agreeing to film a commercial for J.J.’s billionaire friend pro bono, and to rope Poppa into being the product’s official spokesperson, again pro bono. None of this makes much sense since it has already been established — way back in the first episode! — and reiterated multiple times that these two can’t stand each other. Why would Poppa do anything for J.J., let alone for free?
The product, by the way, is a vibrating foam roller designed to help carpal tunnel syndrome that looks suspiciously like a vibrator, which leads to a couple of jokes you’d probably expect. This is as risque as the show has ever been, but it doesn’t amount to anything of substance beyond letting us see a slightly raunchier side of Ivy, even though her only job in the episode is to take Junior’s side.
To be fair, Junior is kind of in the right here to a certain extent. Because he thinks his son’s being exploited, Poppa jumps on the podcast to call him a slightly off-color word that makes Junior a bit of a meme, so the two fall out for a while. While Junior busies himself directing the commercial, which is a parody of King Lear complete with ridiculous outfits and hampered by J.J.’s awful personality, he and Nina brainstorm ways to give Poppa a taste of his own medicine.
This turns out to be roping in Catherine to unsubtly remind Poppa of all the times he was forced to “sell out” in order to provide for his family, including starring in a few dodgy commercials of his own. The point is that Junior has mouths to feed and a creative career he’s trying to nurture, and if he sees something as an opportunity it shouldn’t be considered beneath him. Sometimes, it’s worth remembering that pride doesn’t pay.
But there’s nothing new in Poppa’s House Episode 11. Poppa leans on the flimsy excuse of his father being dismissive of his radio ambitions to excuse his point of view, but it doesn’t track because Poppa made it in radio and knows how he felt at the time, so it’s clear his father was wrong in that regard. Why would he repeat the behavior with his son? I don’t imagine anyone thought a great deal about this.
To be honest, I don’t think anyone involved in this show thinks about it much at all beyond the silly outfits and hairpieces it can dress its characters up in. It’s a shame since there are still the bones of a decent sitcom here somewhere, but they’re barely visible under reams of needless unfunny padding and cyclical storytelling.
