Summary
DMV delivers perhaps its best outing in “Test Drive”, finding fun character pairings, a just-right balance, and a lot of decent gags.
“Test Drive” might be the best episode of DMV yet. It’s a close-run thing, granted, largely because most of these instalments are of roughly equivalent quality anyway, but I found myself thinking a few times throughout Episode 13 that things were working better than usual. There’s a better balance between A and B plots, the character pairings are fun, and the whole thing isn’t too Colette-dominant without needing to rely on a guest star again.
The gimmick helps. It’s “Teen Outreach Day”, which means the DMV is helping a bunch of youngsters get their driving licenses. Since Gregg is a former teacher, finely attuned to the scent and demeanour of the youth, he’s been promoted to the A-plot, which is all I’ve been asking for since the season began. As a bonus, Gregg is forced to deal with a kid who turns out to be pretty much exactly like him, which plays into all the comedic strengths of the character.
Colette is pushing Gregg to engage as a way to draw his teacher persona back out and give him the satisfaction of helping someone navigate not just their driving test but also life. Gregg, being confronted with a kid so disinterested in everything that even he seems like a bubbly live-wire in comparison, carries a lot of comedic weight in “Test Drive”. And, even though Colette’s involved, it keeps her presence to a minimum, which is always appreciated.
Eventually, of course, Gregg opens up a little bit, shows another side to himself, and eventually the kid comes around. But it isn’t really played for sentiment so much as a vindication of perseverance. Gregg might not be able to understand the majority of Gen Z, but he can at least get through to the one student most like him.
Oddly, Vic has a similar subplot in DMV Episode 13, at least at its core, but it’s also wildly different in how it plays out. A regular patron of the local sperm bank, Vic begins to suspect that one of the teenagers is his biological son. And the evidence is compelling, to be fair. The kid, Nic, dresses, looks, and acts exactly the same, so Vic carries out an investigation into Nic’s parentage to clear things up.
Vic doesn’t want a son, obviously, but he’s needy enough to hope that someone chose to use his donated sperm. Of course, nobody did, thanks in large part to the fact that his profile is utterly insane. It somehow becomes Noa’s responsibility to smooth this over by rewriting his profile and then secretly acquiring one of his donations, finding himself as the third wheel peacemaker in another subplot, presumably because the writers don’t know quite what to do with him, and he has had a lot of focus being the object of Colette’s affection.
As is becoming a trend, arguably the best pairing here is that of Barb and Ceci. After competing over who was the best manager, they now find themselves working together to create a promotional video for the branch, with Barb as the director and Ceci, of course, as the star. It’s mostly a knockabout affair, but I do continue to like these two together, and it does seem like most of the cast are really settling into their individual roles at the DMV. It might be too little too late as far as a renewal goes, but you can never quite tell.
