Ben and Kate is such an unusual but exciting series to watch, considering the types of shows that surround it. So many half-hour comedies, like Two and a Half Men or The Big Bang Theory, seem content with recycling the same ideas from shows before them and forcing the laugh track to kick in whenever the characters punctuate each sentence with a supposed laugh. But what has been refreshing in these first four episodes, and especially in the best episode of the season so far, “21st Birthday,” is when the show starts off with an idea that on the surface sounds relatively familiar and then pulls the rug out, doing something completely unexpected.
In “21st Birthday,” Ben decides to throw Kate the 21st birthday party she never had, since she was pregnant at the time. Kate doesn’t want the party and would rather have her yearly tradition of going to an ice cream parlor for a single scoop. The show sets up that the episode will be all about the party and that a majority of the episode will be about planning this blowout near the end of the episode that ultimately, in typical sitcom fashion, Kate will disapprove of. But Ben and Kate doesn’t do that. Halfway through the episode, the party has already been kicked off and both title characters have already left the party for their own side adventures.
This leads to “21st Birthday” switching things up once again. While Ben and Kate’s adventures have so far involved each one of them working with their close friends—for Ben it’s Tommy, Kate it’s BJ—here the friends are reversed. At the party, Kate has been reunited with her old best friend Molly, who wants to party hard and go to a club. Since Tommy is in love with Kate and Molly still owes him $15, Tommy decides to drive them on their night of debauchery that ends with Kate accidentally buying drugs from a bouncer.