Summary
Not Suitable for Work divides itself up pretty evenly among the cast in “The Jawline of Your Dreams”, but several subplots are developing surprisingly quickly.
After a fairly chaotic three-part premiere in which all manner of things went wrong for the residents of Murray Hill, it has taken until Episode 4 for Not Suitable for Work Season 1 to feel like anything’s going well. Here we are, though. “The Jawline of Your Dreams” sees positive developments in the subplots for every major character, though, as a caveat, they’re the kind of developments that are positive now but also likely to become very complicated and potentially ruinous down the line.
That’s sitcoms for you, though. Everything exists to set up a joke, and very often the joke is some kind of crippling embarrassment or personal calamity that we can all laugh at together. So, despite how well everything seems to be going, I wouldn’t bet any money that it’s going to stay that way. In fact, most of what happens here has the distinct shape of a ticking time bomb just waiting to go off in someone’s face.
We might as well start with Kel, since he’s the only character for whom things are going at least a little bit badly, despite a late rally. For one thing, a cheapo photoshoot he did to advertise jaw surgery has resulted in his likeness being licensed, so he’s now the star of a giant billboard advertising services he has never even used. He’s understandably forlorn about this, since it’ll imperil his acting career, but more to the point it tips his parents off that he’s dabbling in things outside of med school.
When Kel’s parents confront him about having taken on the work for money despite medical students receiving a stipend, he has to confess to having dropped out of med school, which, predictably, they don’t take well. But standing on business does Kel some good. At the very least, it allows him to understand that pursuing your passions is a good thing, which makes him a better teacher. However, he’s still too focused on Abby to have realised that his colleague is basically throwing herself at him at this point.
Speaking of colleagues, Josh ends up working closely with one of his to dispel the ridiculous rumour that his boss, Wes Dryden, is dead, and that his daily TV appearances are actually deepfakes designed to cover up his demise. This consists of staying up all night arguing with incels, but Josh, cavalier as ever, ends up using his own social media account to do it. When people look him up and realise he works for Wes, the conspiracy is legitimised. Wes’s only option is to lean in and pretend to be a ghost live on air in order to take the power out of the scandal. It’s a silly subplot, but it’s clearly here to introduce the idea of Josh finding love at work, even if his new beau still calls him Joffrey for now.
Meanwhile in Not Suitable for Work Episode 4, Abby is still trying to maintain a professional boundary between herself and Austin, which becomes even more difficult when he asks her to personally style him for George Clooney’s upcoming humanitarian awards. He’s rightly getting sick of Vanessa, who continues to treat Abby like an indentured servant, and while she initially rebuffs the idea, the possibility of striking out on her own, especially with Austin, eventually becomes too compelling to ignore. Abby agrees, and almost crosses a line, but one assumes the real violation of personal and professional boundaries is coming later in the season. It’s definitely coming, though.
The bulk of the saucy drama in “The Jawline of Your Dreams” comes from AJ and Bill, though. Even though Davis is still playing a long game, assuming that AJ will magically fall in love with him via osmosis, she only seems to have eyes for her new boss, so when the opportunity to insert herself into an acquisition presents itself, she’s there. The CEO of Spanx is trying to acquire a girdle company using Bill’s firm as an intermediary, but back in the day, Bill insulted the CEO of the girdle company with an offhanded misogynistic remark. To seal the deal, AJ also has to stand up to Bill and teach him the error of his ways. Davis, ever the sycophant, is dead against the idea, but it somehow results in Bill and his entire team wearing girdles to show solidarity. As a result, the deal goes through.
It turns out that Bill is pretty keen on women who get things done, or perhaps he’s just pretty keen on AJ, but either way, her success earns her a deeply inappropriate smooch in Bill’s office. Things are moving pretty quickly in this area, so I think we can virtually guarantee they’re going to go badly wrong sooner rather than later. Should be fun.
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