The B. Team- Focal character: Michael Bluth
At this point in the season, this episode needed to be a slam-dunk. Enough was enough. We'd had two "meh" episodes in a row, preceded by a "pretty good" one. Sadly, this one was "meh" and really dragged the show down, making some lose hope for this comeback.
If they had put the Gob episode here instead of a Michael one, it would have saved the first half of the season. We didn't like what this episode did with the movie industry and Ron Howard plot lines. We thought those plot lines were going to keep being boring and drag down the entire season. Thank God they turned out better than they started off.
Michael heads to Imagine Entertainment, Ron Howard's company, where he sees Kitty, who works there. Kitty does not show Michael her boobs and is offended that he thinks she will. Oh, Kitty. Maeby hired her back in the day.
We're glad this season used Kitty sparingly. We love the actress, but the character should come in small doses.
Michael meets with Ron Howard, who has just finished a casting call for and Andy Griffith show remake. The two talk inside a model shuttle from Apollo 13.
Ron Howard wants to make a movie about the Bluth family's recent troubles, but he wants Michael's wife to in it, dying. Ron suggests his girl, Rebel Alley, for the part. Michael assumes this means that Rebel is his mistress, but Ron was actually talking about his illegitimate daughter. We love how Ron Howard pokes fun at himself and the rumors surrounding him in this show.
Ron Howard tells Michael that he needs to get all of his family members to sign releases in order to make the movie, because it's about all of them. But the heart of the movie will be the father/son relationship. Ron has had cards made up for Michael that say "Co-Associate Producer" on them. Michael likes this.
Outside, Michael has doubts about the movie. Then, Michael has a meet-cute with a pretty red head (Isla Fisher). They literally run into each other and like each other right away, but they don't get each other's names. Michael tells her that he's a movie producer looking to cast a "wife." She tells him that she's in a band and invites him to a club to see her play.
In order to charm the new redhead, Michael feels that he needs to be a real producer and cast her in his movie. Instead of, you know, just asking her out. So he needs the signatures. He goes to find his father and sees George Sr. canoodling in secret with Lucille 2.
George Sr. refuses to sign the release, because Michael can't promise that his father will be positively portrayed. Michael calls Carl Weathers, because Call made a George Bluth Sr. episode of a crime-reenactment series, and Michael thought Carl might have the rights to George Sr.'s story. Of course, Carl didn't get the rights, but Michael keeps him around as part of his dream team.
Michael remembers that he knows a Writers Guild member, Warden Gentles. He also gets Andy Richter onboard. He takes his dream team back to Ron Howard to pitch the movie….without getting releases signed. Ron Howard isn't into it because he wants to cast everyone himself. Ron tells Michael to go get the signatures and gives him an office in Orange County so that he can be closer to his family.
George Sr. goes to Michael's office to speak to him and give him a peace offering of Mexican porn. They go to get coffee. Once George Sr. realizes that Michael wants to make the movie to fool a hot girl into thinking Michael is a producer, George Sr. signs the release.
Michael goes to the club where the redhead is playing. Outside, he meets Ron Howard and tells him the good news that he has George Sr.'s signature. Ron tells Michael that the father/son relationship he is interested in is between Michael and George Michael. This worries Michael, since George Michael values his privacy.
Michael watches the redhead play in her band, and the show gives us its one good line of this episode: "And like all bagpipe music, it was hard to tell if it was good music played horrible or horrible music played well.
After her set, Michael takes her out for drinks. There's a good nod to Rita in the conversation. The redhead reveals that she has a son. Michael says he has one too, but he lies about George Michael's age so that he wouldn't seem old and clingy. Michael and the redhead have sex in a photo booth at the restaurant.
The redhead gives Michael the strip of photos from the booth, and he finally finds out her name: Rebel. Michael is shocked to be dating Ron Howard's mistress. Conan O'Brien guest stars as himself in this episode and is also a good sport making fun of himself.
This episode was the least funny. It set up a lot of good things and wasn't hard to understand like the George Sr. episode, but it was "meh." By now, we were in desperate need of the Gob episode that we still had to watch to episodes in order to get to.
Episode grade: C-
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