Summary
Poppa’s House isn’t actively offputting in Episode 13, which is an improvement. Focus on Poppa and Ivy is worthwhile, and while Junior’s theatrics are still present, they’re at least put to better use.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, it’s worth reiterating that Poppa’s House is a significantly better show when it’s focusing on Poppa — especially his relationship with Ivy. In Episode 13, “Graduation”, the show finally remembers that. As a result, it isn’t actively off-putting, which is definitely an improvement over recent efforts. Even Junior’s performative weirdness is put to better use than usual, and while I still can’t stand him and lament the show’s insistence on dressing him up like an idiot as if that on its own constitutes comedy, his plot in this episode is at least for the benefit of his kid and not strictly his own ego.
But anyway, here’s the general idea. The graduation of the title is Ivy’s mother’s; Felicia, a long-time fan of Poppa and determined critic of Ivy, has just got her Master’s degree and is throwing a big shindig to celebrate. We haven’t seen any of Ivy’s family life before so this is already a good start, and when Felicia turns out to be overbearing and relentlessly critical of Ivy’s choices, it cracks a bit of a window into why Ivy is the way she is.
Poppa offers to be the party’s DJ, so he has front-row seats for Ivy’s unexpected reunion with her ex-husband, David, a former NFL player who left Ivy out of the blue. Again, this is a new side of Ivy we haven’t seen. David’s a charmer, but he’s so nakedly villainous that it doesn’t really ring true that Ivy would immediately be seduced by his claims that therapy has made him realize what a mistake he made. Still, I suppose most of us have that person in our lives that we’re unusually susceptible to.
Either way, Ivy agrees to get back together with David, but he immediately gets drunk and reveals to Poppa that he has no intention of being faithful and just needs his relationship with Ivy to be public so he can get his endorsements back. Poppa lets him condemn himself and then immediately tells Ivy everything he said. She’s disinclined to believe him, and they bicker, but David shows his true colors by kissing a random woman right in front of her, so the point is proved either way.
Do I think this whole thing could have been handled slightly better? Yeah, sure. If David wasn’t so obviously awful and didn’t make his infidelity so blatant we could have had a subplot here to sustain a couple of episodes. But as it stands Ivy goes to see Poppa at the end of Poppa’s House Episode 13 to thank him for being such a good friend to her. Still just friends, for now, but we’re heading in the right direction.
The other half of “Graduation” is the Junior stuff. He and Nina are throwing Trey a birthday party that they hope to rival the one thrown by his rich classmate, Joey. I know what you’re thinking — Junior and Nina already seem pretty well off, so Joey is hilariously, cartoonishly rich. He wouldn’t have lasted two minutes in my house, I’m sure about that, but Junior and Nina are determined to impress for Trey’s sake, so they contrive a Dragon Ball-themed party and end up dressing as Goku and his wife.
The dressing up is never funny and it isn’t funny here either, but Junior cosplaying Goku is entertaining enough for the kids, which I suppose is fair enough. But it’s a tolerable subplot either way because Junior is adamantly going out of his way for the sake of his kids, and that, at least, I can appreciate, even if I could take or leave the wig.
