Summary
Poppa’s House puts focus in the wrong place once again in Episode 15, descending into a gimmicky A-plot while leaving more interesting drama on the table.
Call me naïve, but I thought Poppa’s House was onto something. After finally introducing a halfway-compelling new element, it regresses into its default state in Episode 15, putting gimmickry over storytelling and overlooking a much more compelling B-plot sitting right in front of it. It’s a tale as old as time.
In classic sitcom style, “Say Wha?!” is divided into two distinct strands, but not neatly in half. The “A” plot is yet another petty back and forth between Poppa and Junior which gets even more ridiculous than usual when it turns into an arch pastiche of daytime-TV courtroom shows. The “B” plot involves Nina and Ivy, two characters who only barely interact, and gets about three very tiny scenes of development before the perfunctory payoff.
The A-plot of Poppa’s House Episode 15 typically depends on Junior’s stupidity. He’s trying to fund a movie by buying and selling junk at flea markets, but an item in his latest haul catches Poppa’s eye. It’s a Billie Holiday vinyl that Junior paid $10 for. When Poppa offers to buy it, Junior can’t believe his luck, and enthusiastically extorts his father out of $100 – what he believes to be a rip-off, and a giant win for him.
But the vinyl turns out to be signed and is worth $20,000. When Junior discovers this he thinks Poppa should split the money with him, and even takes him to court over the matter. Since the judge finds Poppa attractive – and Junior has absolutely no legal case whatsoever – she rules in Poppa’s favour, and he gets to keep the vinyl.
And keep it he does. The auction ticks up to $23,000, but he doesn’t have any intention of selling it. Instead, it enters his private collection, which will eventually be donated to Trey. Junior thinks this is just to personally torment him, but after a brief lesson about the significance of Billie Holiday and a reminder that some things are worth more than their monetary value, he gets the message – and a conciliatory check for $10,000, as an investment in his movie. It’s almost like the court case was a waste of time.
Meanwhile, Ivy has finished her latest book and trusts her best friend Nina to give her some honest feedback before it’s sent away to her publishers. Like most writers, what Ivy means by “honest feedback” is “glowing praise”. But Nina doesn’t like the book, which feels like a retread of Ivy’s previous work, and she tells her so. Ivy doesn’t take it well.
This feels like a missed opportunity to me. Poppa’s House has historically been about the male characters, and on a thematic level, is largely about the push-pull of old-school versus new-age masculinity. That’s kind of how Episode 15’s A-plot works, since Poppa is ultimately teaching Junior an important lesson (not that he’ll listen). But he does that every week. Nina very rarely interacts with Ivy, and rarer still on a one-to-one level.
Of course, Nina is right, and Ivy’s publishers tell her so, which leads to a reconciliation and another important lesson. But all the potentially interesting drama occurs off-screen, and what we do see is so rushed that it might as well not be there. This is Poppa’s House in a nutshell – the focus is always in the wrong place.
