Laid: Season 1 Episode 2 – Recap and Review | Hsu’s Charm Continues To Be A Lifeline

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Category	Details
Originally Aired	December 19, 2024
Network	Peacock
Director(s)	Nahnatchka Khan
Writer(s)	Sally Bradford McKenna, Nahnatchka Khan
Character	ACTOR’S NAME
Stu	Ettore Ewen
Ruby	Stephanie Hsu
AJ	Zosia Mamet
Zack	Andre Hyland
Robert	Mamoudou Athie
Isaac	Tommy Martinez
Merci	Olivia Holt

Quick Recap

With multiple exes dying, Ruby decides to get checked out by four doctors, and they all reassure her that she wouldn’t be responsible for exes dying of sepsis, like David, and she couldn’t be responsible for another ex, Stu, dying thanks to a foul ball to his temple. But, while Ruby is ready to move on AJ isn’t, especially since she broke up with Zack and needs something to occupy her mind until another of Ruby’s exes, Robert, has his Thursday wedding.

This wedding causes a bit of a problem since Ruby questions why she wasn’t given a plus one on top of Zack’s insistence on going. Mind you, she doesn’t have anyone lined up, and after learning that Isaac has a girlfriend named Merci, she couldn’t even make him a last-minute date. But bad goes to worse for the night of Robert’s wedding. On top of him revealing that he is dying, Ruby sleeps with Zack, only to learn that the next day, he and AJ are getting back together.

Add on learning her exes are dying in order of who she slept with, and Ruby finds herself spiraling.

New Character Descriptions

Stu

Stu is a baseball player credited with giving Ruby her first orgasm, who would love to pick her up when being intimate. He dies thanks to a baseball hitting his temple.

Robert

Robert is another of Ruby’s exes, who she was with for three years and seemed like the one, until he broke up with her for he was tired of dealing with her being selfish.

Merci

Merci is Isaac’s girlfriend, a marine biologist who works at a charity that helps women without cars and often lacking homes, and from what it seems, Merci and Isaac are serious.

Review

Trajectory (76/100): Plateau

“Laid” is not going to be a hit-the-ground-running show, as this episode exhibited. It clearly wants to figure out a way to be funny, a touch raunchy, but with a true beating heart in the middle. The problem is that it feels too closely geared towards doing what you’d expect a comedy like this to do.

The prime example is Ruby sleeping with Zack. It was odd enough that the two were having a deep conversation with one another, considering how they were going back and forth in episode one. But for her to drink, smoke, talk with, and then have sex with Zack? It felt like unnecessary drama to add in, even if for the sake of causing a stir with AJ that could show Ruby isn’t always perfect in her eyes.

However, how this show is running through exes may become a serious issue. In my mind, these exes should be treated like we saw in “Love Life,” specifically season 1, where we get a sense of who they are, why they matter, and why things didn’t work. That is opposed to seeing Stu comically get killed with a baseball or Robert likely joining the many who appear in one episode and barely leaving a mark.

But even with the complaints, Hsu still provides enough of a hook to hope things get better. With only eight episodes in this half-hour-per-episode season, there are hopes the time crunch will mean things will get better quickly.

Highlights

• Zack’s Conversation With Ruby About Finding The One

On The Fence

• Flying Through Forgettable Exes
• Ruby Sleeping With Zack

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