I have often struggled to explain to people why I consider FX’s “You’re the Worst” to be one of the most confusingly beautiful shows on television. The bare bones plot line is that two generally awful people fall in love, and I can feel people rolling their eyes and shifting their attention to something else each time I give my pitch.
Anyone who watches the show tends to immediately become as enamored as I am, but I have learned that the log line of a show rarely captures what it brings to the table.
“Mad Men” is by no means about advertising and “The Wire” is not about drugs. So how can I tell people what’s so appealing about it?
I think I came to my conclusion while watching the season-two premiere last week that brought back the characters I missed hating and adoring.
What works so well for “You’re the Worst,” — what makes viewers put it on a pedestal — is that the protagonists, Jimmy and Gretchen, are by all accounts shitty people. They are selfish and rude and antagonistic and closed off and that’s the beauty.
We all view ourselves as messes and focus on our flaws. Most people I know hate themselves in some way or another. So instead of the usually gorgeous main characters that have all the likable traits we wish we possessed, “You’re the Worst” shows that messes can find each other as well.
“You’re the Worst” feels grounded despite seeming more absurd than most shows on television.
The exaggerations are not the positives. The exaggerations are the awful, cringe-worthy moments. So the ooey-gooey, aw-shucks moments that normally would result in an eye-roll end up feeling earned, because we have seen the ugliness along the way and how these two actually need each other.
Though season one focused on the obvious attraction between Jimmy and Gretchen combined with their mutual reluctance to ever be vulnerable with each other, season two shifts towards them learning how to actually be a couple.
They have conceded defeat to each other. They are ready to try, but how do couples keep the fairy tale alive?
In the premiere, “The Sweater People,” Jimmy and Gretchen find themselves exhausted by how often they are partying together because they assume the other wants it.
This taps into a fear most have in relationships. Both are trying so hard to live up to the ideals the other has in their mind of who they are. Jimmy and Gretchen view each other as this fun, partying couple that is better than everyone else.
But what they try to do — key word “try” — is show each other the side that just wants to get some sleep or read a book. It is OK to rest easy.
Yet as I write hundreds of words about how “You’re the Worst” captures the struggles of intimacy, I look back on the moment in the premiere when the two are at the phone company trying to join a family plan.
The salesman goes on a long, beautiful pitch about what makes family so important and turns around to find Jimmy and Gretchen gone.They are at a bar, talking crap about that salesman. It was a reminder of how fun these two can be, and how shitty they are. Like all of us.
Brody Miller
