“You Are Destroying My Life.” “Only Because I Love You.”
I was amused enough by the first season of United States of Al to give season two a chance. I was impressed with how the season started, but as it went along, it lost much of the enjoyment I was getting from it.
If you’ve missed this show, it focused on Al (Adhir Kalyan), an interpreter for the US Marines in his native Afghanistan who has immigrated to the United States and is now living with his best friend, former Marine Riley (Parker Young) and his family, including his father, Art (Dean Norris), and sister, Lizzie (Elizabeth Alerfer). Rounding out the cast, we have Riley’s ex-wife, Vanessa (Kelli Goss), their daughter, Hazel (Farrah Mackenzie), and Vanessa’s new boyfriend, Freddy (Brian Thomas Smith).
While I know the characters and show are purely fictional, I couldn’t help but think of the characters as the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan was happening during August of 2021. The writers felt the need to address it as well, so we get the season two opener, which was the best episode of the show, hands down. While this is a sitcom, they actually made this episode without any jokes, and it felt more like a thriller as Al was trying to get his sister out of Afghanistan. It was tense and heartwarming at the same time, and the actors brought their A game, pulling us into the story. If you have never watched an episode of this show, I recommend you watch at least this one. It was that good.
From there, the show got back to its comedy roots. Yes, there were some references to Afghanistan and Al’s family, although the references to real events dropped away. Instead, we got more stories about Al trying to fit into his new country and the college classes he started to take. We still get some serious storylines as Riley deals with his time in the Marines, but there is still humor as well.
I actually appreciated these storylines. They were realistic about what our soldiers have to deal with during and after they leave active service, but they did it without disrespecting the men and women who serve or our armed forces. It was a perfect balance of comedy, public service, and respect.
I also felt like the humor was getting better. This was never a sitcom that gave me huge laughs, but it was always amusing, and I felt like the writers were beginning to find themselves and the humor in the characters.
Then came the second half of the season, where things went off the rails. We began to have more and more storylines related to Riley and Al’s love lives, and I didn’t appreciate where they took either character. I especially felt like Al was out of character this part of the season. Not only that, but they started to go for the easy and cheap joke. I rarely laughed in these episodes, and, if we weren’t so close to the end of the season, I might have stopped watching. That’s not to say that we didn’t get some of these jokes and storylines all season, but they took over at the end of the season.
Needless to say, when CBS decided to cancel the show at the end of season 2, I wasn’t heartbroken at all. I’d already decided I wasn’t going to be back for season 3 if it had happened.
Since the show was cancelled at the last minute, there are several storylines that are left unresolved. I wouldn’t say there are any direct cliffhangers, but it would have been nice to get some closure on certain relationships.
Honestly, I recommend you watch the season 2 premier, and then skip the rest of the season. What could have been a great show was never allowed to bloom, but instead was choked out by sex jokes.
I have heard of the show but never watched it. I'm not sure I will, but I do like that premise.
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