With The Grinder: Los Angeles taunting Dean and the Sandersons on a weekly basis in their living rooms, it was only a matter of time before conflict arose between Dean, Timothy Olyphant, and Cliff Beemus – though admittedly, I didn’t expect it to happen this quickly. “The Grinder Rests in Peace,” while diving into the obvious egotistical conflict we’d all expect to happen, is also about pushing the show’s overall story forward, offering another unexpected twist in The Grinder world that has me quite intrigued to where this show will go when it returns in 2016.
Through the first eight episodes, Dean’s inner conflict has been this search for purpose in his life; after walking away from his television show, Dean sought direction in his life. Moving back to Idaho and “helping” out at his brother’s law firm has only pushed him forward so much: he’s still giving weird, douche-y dating tips to Dean’s children, and constantly comparing every event in his life to episodes of the show he once starred on. As much as he says he’s let go of his old identity, Mitchard Grinder was still very much a part of who Dean was (even if he tried to separate the two inside himself; I love when actors talk about their characters as completely real, unique entities from themselves), an identity he couldn’t find a way to escape.
Why? There hasn’t been many reasons beyond “mid-life crisis” and “emotionally stunted celebrity” given, until the last two episodes: last week revealed how sick Dean was of the direction his character had gone, effectively building out a sense of pathos for the show’s most superficial character. “The Grinder Rests in Peace” takes that idea a step further: since Mitch Grinder was never given an ending, Dean was never able to put his character behind him, an open-ended legacy with no resolution for the man it defined. Quitting the show never gave him a chance to say goodbye to the character – and by proxy, to the man he once was, giving voice to why he’s been stuck in the same cyclical behavior through the show’s first nine episodes.
In that sense, “The Grinder Rests in Peace” is a major step forward, both for the character of Dean and the series as a whole: the longer The Grinder refused to let Dean outside of his own carefully-constructed box, the harder it was becoming to be invested in the show’s comedy, be it the character-specific material, or the show’s musings on the entertainment industry as a whole. The farther it pushed Dean from the acting world while still insisting he behave like the actor he once was, the more the reality of The Grinder broke down, unable to sustain itself as a middling legal sitcom, with a few light/thoroughly underdeveloped family stories (here, it’s Ethan trying to get the girl he was chasing in the pilot back, with Dean’s horrible dating advice) and Dean’s incredulity at regular life to support it.
With stories like that of “The Grinder Rests in Peace,” The Grinder can really bring all of its elements together – save for the law firm material, which floats weightlessly in the background. The familial elements of Dean and Stuart’s relationship, the meta-commentary on television production, the existential anxiety Dean feels in a life without explicitly defined, audience-driven purpose: when all of these elements can come together in a single story, The Grinder can be both funny and earnest, entertaining and heartwarming. And while “The Grinder Rests in Peace,” with its continued under-utilization of its supporting cast, still has plenty of room to grow, it’s final episode of 2015 establishes it as a show to watch in 2016, to see whether it can continue to flesh out these ideas and grow into the vast potential it’s flashed at times.
Other thoughts/observations:
- The Claire plot line was just odd. It’s like they want to give Natalie Morales something to do, but they don’t know what to do with her character. At all.
- “Hard is all he knows.” Mitch’s post-grinding life sounded like a pretty great/terrible early 1990s sitcom pilot.
- Is “the Caruso deal” a real thing?
- Really hope Timothy Olyphant’s time on The Grinder wasn’t just these two episodes. He’s great, and gives Dean a different type of conflict in his life.
[Photo credit: Ray Mickshaw/FOX]
