IMHO "Kath & Kim" episode 109: “Gay” or "Is this really the best Max Greenfield can do?"

Thursday night's episode of NBC's Kath & Kim was the show's 'gay' episode titled appropriately, if simplistically, "Gay". (All the episode titles are one word.)  I've attempted to watch the sitcom before, but failed after becoming violently ill each time. However, I managed to sit through all of last night's thirty minutes so I feel confident in unequivocally giving it a down arrow.

Read more after the jump including what the show tells us about the state of gay issues in America. Seriously!

The gist of the episode is that when the very tolerant (in her mind) Kath (Molly Shannon) reacts awkwardly to a lesbian couple, she realizes she isn't as open-minded as she believed. The issue becomes more pressing when Kath concludes (wrongly) that her daughter Kim (Selma Blair) is a lesbian. As opposed to just a waste of precious resources.

Selma Blair and Molly Shannon helping to destroy the intellect of America

Before I get to how the show handled the gay material, I want to, nay, need to, rant for a moment about how I do not want to live in a world where this piece of dreck gets a full season pick-up while ABC has canceled Pushing Daisies and Eli Stone. That's right the show celebrating two dim-witted, self-absorbed, materialistic, and vapid suburban Americans (one of last night's plots was Kim freaking out because she didn't have cable for 12 hours) will continue to pollute my television while the admittedly flawed, but nonetheless daring, innovative and touching Pushing Daisies dies? 

And don't even get me started on the loss of Eli Stone, a show that managed to be different, smart, and sentimental without being cloying. Those or Kath & Kim and America picks K&K? Seriously? It's tantamount to George Bush running for a third time and managing to beat Barack Obama. (And don't try to tell me Kath & Kim is satire. It's not.)

Kill me now.

Okay, back to how the show handled its gay elements. Because Kim starts hanging out with an old high school friend who happens to be a girl and the cable person, everyone wrongly assumes she is a lesbian. And after fighting with her significant other, Kim declares she is done with men, further convincing Kath her daughter is gay.

Kim and suspiciously butch cable girl

Therefore Kath sets out to learn all she can about homosexuality and eventually comes to accept her daughter just before learning she isn't actually gay. Kim also learns that her friend (pictured above) isn't a lesbian either just because she can fix things. Both Kath and Kim have all sorts of screwy ideas about gay topics (as they do with everything; we're talking "morons" with a capital M here). 

A very smart writer I once talked with said that if you want to know what society thinks about a particular cultural issue, don't look at the books winning Pulitzers or the plays winning Tonys to see what folks think about an issue look at the low-brow entertainment including genre books, soap operas and really, really crappy sitcoms. Assuming there is some truth to the idea, what does Kath & Kim tell us about how Americans views gay issues?

For starters, that they are very clueless as to what being gay means and as to who might be gay (and how you can tell) and that they probably haven't given it much thought. When pressed, however, their minds are at least open, that they are willing to learn, and that it really does take knowing someone gay to get to them started down that path. 

That being said, the show still sucked like a dozen tornadoes hurtling down Tornado Alley. In fact, the only redeeming factor was that Max Greenfield, lately of Ugly Betty, Greek and Veronica Mars, showed up in a tiny part that at least ended with him in the arms of another man on the floor. 

Max, get yourself a new agent ASAP.

Okay, there was one funny throwaway line after the closing credits. Kath and Kim are lounging around outside when Kath is stung on the lip by bee. The resulting swelling makes her look hideously blotchy and puffy, but both think she looks gorgeous just "like that Lisa Rinna". Now that's satire