Review: A 'You're The Worst' Tour De Force Takes A Closer Look At Edgar's PTSD 

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A beautiful, unusually structured episode written and directed by Stephen Falk

You\'re the Worst coming up just as soon as I have a plan to stop being fax-dependent by the time of the next war...

"It\'s just turning down the volume. It\'s not living." -Edgar

Funny story: five minutes into "Twenty-Two," after that had been no discernible dialogue (when Edgar turned up at the breakfast table, Lindsay and the others sounded almost as muffled as an adult in a Peanuts cartoon), I emailed some folks at FX PR to confirm that there was nothing wrong with the screener. I was told that it was a stylized episode, and all was well. So I just went with the idea that we were experiencing life as Edgar unfortunately was at the moment: tuning out the people around him as his PTSD symptoms worsen, instead focusing on nature and visual and aural hallucinations. It seemed a daring stylistic conceit, but as the episode continued and I got to the scenes between Edgar and Dorothy, and Edgar and the VA doctor, I began losing patience with the idea. "I can\'t follow this without the ability to read lips," I wrote in my notes at one point. What had once seemed audacious was now just frustrating...

... which is exactly when I got a second email from FX PR, explaining that there had been a technical error with the screener, and much of the audio — including all dialogue — was missing(*).

(*) This wasn\'t the first such screener snafu I\'ve encountered. I once watched the majority of an episode of The Bridge that was without subtitles for the Spanish-language scenes, assuming the creative team had decided the audience didn\'t need its hands held anymore and could follow based on body language. (I couldn\'t.) This was also a mistake.

All of which is to say that I went into the final version of "Twenty-Two" annoyed I would have to watch virtually the whole thing over again, even though I felt I understood most of it(*), and came out dazzled by what Stephen Falk and Desmin Borges accomplished. That\'s how good it was.

(*) For the record, I was way off on the Edgar/Dorothy scene, which without dialogue seemed like her finally breaking up with him.

Though there was, in fact, dialogue — some of it repeated from "Men Get Strong," which this episode was like the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead of — the finished product still effortlessly puts the viewer inside Edgar\'s head, hearing what he hears (often insults from Jimmy and the others), seeing what he sees (often innocuous people whom he takes as menacing) and feeling what he feels (utter despair at how things aren\'t getting better for him). He\'s juuuust barely able to keep it together long enough for the doctor to recommend him for the new pilot program with virtual reality, but that falls apart when he becomes too candid about going off his meds, and by then even the cassette tape his brother gave him can\'t make him calm anymore.

You\'re the Worst has pretty expertly walked the knife edge between taking Edgar\'s condition seriously without having it completely undermine the comedy (and without having the occasional PTSD joke seem like it\'s diminishing the condition for him or real-life combat vets). "Twenty-Two" fully embraced the darkness of it all, and culminated in a frank and straightforward conversation (one of the few times in the whole episode when the ambient noise was relatively muted) with the tow truck driver/vet about what his friends have done to address their issues. We don\'t know what it is Edgar has landed on as the thing he will try to do as his coping mechanism, but the look on Borges\' face suggests he\'s very pleased with the idea.

As with Gretchen\'s depression, there\'s always the risk that raising the curtain on a main character\'s mental illness to this degree will make the comedy much tougher. (As it is, the reprise of "Men Get Strong" scenes from Edgar\'s POV made Jimmy and Gretchen seem like even bigger a-holes than they ordinarily are.) But this has long been a show that\'s not afraid to take its characters\' pain very seriously, and "Twenty-Two" felt like the kind of episode Edgar\'s story, and Stephen Falk\'s interests, had been building to for two and a half seasons. This was splendid, and I look forward to seeing how Edgar changes, and how my view of him does, once we\'re back to more traditionally-structured episodes.

And because I had mistakenly assumed (with some help from the faulty screener) that this was a silent episode, I got an extra big kick out of seeing Edgar appear in an actual silent movie short at the end, complete with Charlie Chaplin shuffle. So it all worked out in the end!

* Earlier today, FXX ordered a fourth season of the show. This is not a surprise; once it successfully transitioned to the new channel in the eyes of FX management, its fate seems secured for as long as Falk wants to keep making it. Though given the volatility of the characters, YTW doesn\'t seem built for a long haul, anyway. But in the meantime, let\'s celebrate Vernon-style with some trash juice and a screening of The Babadook!

* If Shazam wasn\'t giving you any results for the yacht rock song Edgar kept playing as he drove around town, that\'s because the tune — "Something Like a Feeling (That Feels So Right)" — was written expressly for the show, with music by Adam Blau, lyrics by Falk, and a vocal by Rick Cowling. If you couldn\'t get a good look at the cassette, the fake band is Starlight Tidepool, and their album is called "Dreams of Tangier."

* One of the three people featured on the album cover (along with Blau and YTW writer Franklin Hardy) was Corey Brill, who kept popping up in the background of the episode as the cop with the radar gun, the utility worker in the cherry picker, and several other figures who kept triggering Edgar\'s paranoia. (The script credits him as "Mysterious Man.")

* Another bonus of getting to hear the dialogue: the film student acting (I think) as a surrogate for the show to mock Jason Mann from Project Greenlight by complaining about having to shoot on film.

Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-\'90s, first for Tony Soprano\'s hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "TV (The Book)" about the 100 greatest shows of all time, is available now. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com

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I had the exact same experience you had with The Bridge, only with Breaking Bad. Apparently the first run of season four Blu-rays had a screw-up where none of the Spanish dialogue was subtitled. Just the same, I guessed that this was intentional through several scenes over the course of the season.

But then I got to "Hermanos", with its ten minute plus scene of Spanish dialogue leading up to a gunshot, and I quickly went from accepting of this creative decision to being very annoyed. I went online to check the reviews after I finished it, and was shocked to see a litany of perfect scores for the episode. I ended up having to go back through the whole season, turning on the English subtitles for the scenes in Spanish.

Anyways, this was an astounding episode of television on its own, and is even more impressive when one considers the significant weight it adds to whatever explosion is coming in future episodes.

Ive always felt that edgar\'s various storylines and edgar as a character have felt tonally out of place with the rest of the show, and as a result have never really been sold on edgar as a character. Giving him his own episode allowed the show to embrace that tone and give Edgar the screentime and nuance to make his character a lot more interesting than usual. This episode allowed us to get inside his head in a way this show hadn\'t been able to do so far, and allowed us to experience his story without it feeling jarring, or making me want them to switch back to the other characters. This was a really good episode and it makes me think they should give him a spin-off and cut him out of the main show, and maybe give his screen time to becca and vernon.

This episode made me HATE JIMMY AND GRETCHEN SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!

Probably the best ep of this show so far. Loved it.

A terrific episode. I loved how it retold the same day from Edgar\'s perspective and we got another chance to see Jimmy and Gretchen being gleefully unpleasant. I think it was new information they were rutting like minks in his back seat. They are hilariously awful people.

I was hoping for more from the silent film, but I loved the randomness of the director, crew and actor popping up out of a drainage tunnel as Edgar held the paper boat.

Seeing Edgar stop his car in despair in the isolating and dehumanizing buzz of L.A. traffic, dressed in business attire, reminded me of Michael Douglas in Falling Down.

We saw the headline about the escaped panda at least twice. Was anyone expecting the animal to show up at some point?

I too saw a lot of symbols in this scene. The panda especially ~ it made Edgar smile, like a beam of sun peeking through angry clouds. Good reference to"Falling Down! "

The silent film was a good direction to take. Communication among humans is 90% nonverbal (last time I checked) and I felt that its use enabled some of Edgar\'s mental anguish to permeate.

wasn\'t a fan of this one, as i like the show better light.

but it was nice to see things from edgar\'s perspective, just so heartbreaking.

I\'m really curious to see how we integrate back into the usual tone of the series from here. This was such an extraordinary, gut-wrenching episode. I love Edgar\'s story, and really, really appreciate the departure from the usual Jimmy-n-Gretchen frolic... Their usual A-plot will be pretty hard to stomach from now on.

Thanks for the review. This episode felt especially powerful to me, at least in part because my dad is a Vietnam vet and I have gotten to meet and know more than a few people who suffer from PTSD. It worked as a nice counterpoint to Jimmy, Gretchen, and Lindsay in their self-centered ways (generally), and how they are really being clueless assholes. What was funny last week seems cruelly insensitive and oblivious, particularly on Jimmy\'s part.

I think that is why this works. Like Gretchen\'s depression, this was a touching on a very serious topic that is woven rather expertly through the larger narrative of the otherwise humorous and somewhat self-destructive meanderings of some very selfish people. Like Louie (and not much else), this is a blend of the comedic and absurd with some very dark, and resonantly real, sorts of issues.

Great episode. I am curious how this will resolve back into a largely comedy-based show, but it was beautiful and fascinating. Desmin Borges showed some amazing range and really impressed me, and Collette Wolfe was lovely and heartbreaking. This is one of those shows that has impressed me and it is unfortunate more people do not watch it.

I can\'t help but laugh that an annoying workday for a tv critic is getting a screwed up screener. You have such a hard life, Alan! I\'m just busting balls. This episode was fantastic.

Do you agree that this influx of "dramatic comedies" are starting to become better than the hour long dramas that we are currently getting? My favorite shows of all-time are The Wire, The Sopranos, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and Six Feet Under. They are the best because of their humanity. They feel like real life. Nowadays most of my favorite shows are half hour "comedies" like You\'re the Worst, Louie, Horace and Pete, High Maintenance, Girls, Transparent, Fleabag, Better Things, Atlanta, Vice Principals, Togetherness, Easy, Master of None, Baskets, Casual, and Catastrophe. I go to these shows because of the humanity. The characters feel real and I actually don\'t know what is going to happen next on these shows. I really enjoy shows like Game of Thrones, The Americans, Mr. Robot, The Leftovers, and Fargo, but I can\'t help but feel that they aren\'t reaching the heights of the classic dramas of the past.

Our culture is dynamic; our media will morph just as our language does. (groovy, radical, whatevs, lol, hangry, etc.)

I too find some shows quite medium, or devoid of essential humanity. I watch TV to feed my tired, beaten soul. And, perhaps to supplement the joys of life I may not be entirely gleaning from my family. I\'m always a sucker for a good story though, and especially awed by the writers who make it effortless for me to indulge

In removing verbal dependency, or even altering it is sometimes better when conveying mental turmoil. A blind person often posseses a heightened ability of hearing, and we can likewise better understand Edgar\'s plight. It is wonderful. I read somewhere of the writer\'s fondness of manipulating the form of a storyline and I truly enjoyed this episode in a way that exposed the mainstream TV shows i usually watch as "mediocre fluff."

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