'Mulaney' season (series?) finale: 'Life is a Series of Different Apartments'

For a show built on poor and miscalculated timing, perhaps it's fitting Mulaney ends its season — and most likely series — with no clear resolutions or wrap-ups. Just his characters participating in typical, familiar antics bounced by misguided attempts at edginess and 20-ish charisma.

As the unintended wrap up of the season — John Mulaney and his crew were working on the final three episodes of their 16-episode run when Fox pulled production on them after the sitcom debuted to poor reviews and ratings — "Life is a Series of Different Apartments" is perhaps the best possible way a show like this could have concluded. There are some signs of development in terms of character, but of course most of these are discouraged or pushed to the side.
There are also clear moments of reflection and understanding one's self, as well as the cast's full assemble working together for their first and only time, but overall this 13th episode feels like yet another installment of the sitcom.

Where the show not so mediocre, this won't be a bad thing at all. In fact, "Life is a Series of Different Apartments" is quite easily, and sadly, the closest Mulaney ever came to finding its own identity and configuration.

Sure, all the story beats are predictable as ever, and the gags still can't blend its mix of mean spirit with earnest love of sitcoms from the past, but this was the first time there was — and ever will be — a sense of fluidity and breeze within a 20-minute segment of this series. Most of this derives from a majority of "Life is a Series of Different Apartments" located in Lou's (Martin Short) apartment, where characters don't have to be plagued by useless subplots and tiresome plot extensions. If only the jokes squared throughout weren't laced in fairly racist and kinda sexist ideology.

At so many points, just like before, "Life is a Series of Different Apartments" is meant to be shocking. These times mostly, however, come across as creepy or unintentionally unsettling. The most apparent example of this comes from the third quarter revelation that Jane (Nasim Pedrad), during her freshman year of college, raped an acid-tripping John in someone's yard. He perceived this moment,at the time, to be him attacked by a werewolf, although he blacked out shortly thereafter.

The joke there was Jane used to be a nerdy, unibrowed Iranian nerd who went by her traditional name. It's not any funnier than it would sound here, and continues to prove how much Mulaney ultimately wasted both Pedrad and her character. She never was able to feel natural in the series, and her subplots almost always played little roles in the main overarching plot John's character had. She always felt like she was just filling a quota, and to know she left Saturday Night Live to do that is mostly heartbreaking.

There are other things I could talk about in this episode. I could mention how John relives one of his greatest stand-up bits in the opening, or that Oscar (Elliott Gould) finally is in the gang this episode and plays his biggest part yet. But ultimately it doesn't matter. For as talented of a guy as Mulaney is, he simply dropped the ball here and, while he picked himself up slightly from time to time, he never scored the slam-dunk he deserved.

What exactly caused it is unclear. Maybe the studio was too involved, maybe the restrictions of basic cable cancelled out the show's charm or maybe Mulaney himself just wasn't ready to propel himself with his own show. It's likely a combination of the three. Whatever it was, it's over now and with that, Mulaney should take this as a personal reminder and go on to make great things. Your show may have sucked, but Mulaney, you still got that spark. Leave this show alone and go on to make great things.

Thanks for reading everyone. To read more of my TV reviews and recaps, check out my Girls and Togetherness write ups each Sunday, followed by Better Call Saul on Mondays and Man Seeking Woman on Wednesdays.

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