This week’s episode of Don’t Trust The B—- In Apartment 23 starts with June (Dreama Walker) running around the apartment with a big smile on her face. Now that she is no longer with her cheating fiance Steven, she has decided to bust out her sexy underwear to snag a new guy and get her life plan back on track. Even though Chloe (Krysten Ritter) thinks that life should never be planned, she still wants to hook her up with Scott, a bicycle-enthusiast and “total husband material.”
Elsewhere, James Van Der Beek (James Van Der Beek) decides to teach an acting course at NYU just like James Franco previously did. Van Der Beek however, hated James Franco ever since he beat him for the role of Harvey Milk’s lover in the film Milk, so now he plans to beat Franco at being a better teacher. While being fitted for an Indiana Jones-esque suit for his lecture, Van Der Beek convinces Chloe to commit a stealth set-up between June and Scott.
After coming home from a shift at the coffee house, June is surprised that a raging house party is happening at the apartment. Still in her biking gear, she bumps into the Scott (Michael Landes) that Chloe wanted to hook her up with, who is also adorned in similar biking apparel. They really hit things off immediately and talk until the sun came up. Everything seems back on track for June until Chloe comes in the door and utters three simple words, “good night dad.”
‘Daddy’s Girl’ was certainly a better episode than the pilot. Without the restrictions of setting up the world behind the show, the story was able to focus on the characters interacting with each other, which turned out to be much more interesting.
In this episode, we see that Chloe actually cares about June’s well-being even though she normally has a general lack of empathy, something she may or may not have picked up from her family. As we learned more about Chloe’s background we got to see that she’s not necessarily just “the bitch” who happens to live in the 23rd apartment and I am glad the writers are expanding her beyond a one-dimensional caricature. Just from the first two episodes, it seems like this is the type of show that’s more dependent on character interactions than plot development, so interesting and well-rounded characters will be key for its future success.
Once again, James Van Der Beek‘s side story was hilarious and actually dealt with the very real problem of him being pigeoned-holed in his career. No matter where he was or what role he was portraying, crowds always refer to him as Dawson and he always has to endure questions about Dawson’s Creek. I’ve always wondered if the show would play on this at all and I’m surprised that they brought it up so early in the series.
Now that the series is past that awkward introductory phase, its charm is starting to shine through. The characters are evolving into likeable people and more importantly, this week’s episode was a very enjoyable watch. I said in my previous recap that the series had potential and only two episodes in, we’re already starting to see that potential shine through.
