Mulaney: “Halloween”
(Episode 1.03)
Halloween may be a holiday primarily for children and the sexually depraved, but there is still something out there for the rest of us. Namely, Halloween episodes of sitcoms. Television shows usually bring something out of their bag of tricks for holiday episodes, and, if nothing else, Halloween episodes allow characters to dress up in funny costumes. But Mulaney’s “Halloween” doesn’t have a ton of that. Instead, there’s a bunch of really good comedy, and the best material that every character on the show has been given.
First, of course, there is the titular Mulaney. At the top of the episode, we find out an old man in the building has died, and Mulaney happened to have some of the jokes he wrote in a notebook. Meanwhile, at work, Mulaney finds himself in a predicament wherein he may be fired. That is, until Lou reads the jokes from the old man on the air, and they go over well, and so naturally John finds himself taking credit for a dead man’s jokes.
This ends, naturally, will Mulaney standing over the man’s grave, ready to steal some jokes from a notebook he was buried with. Why was he buried with a joke notebook? For the sake of this bit, obviously, but it’s funny, and enough of an exaggeration of the actions at hand, to still be funny. After all, Seinfeld only went so far as to grave rob at a pet cemetery. Taking things to the next level, it would appear that Mulaney has not actually robbed the grave (shoveling is too much of an upper body workout), and tells Lou the truth. Ah, but at episode’s end we see the old man’s notebook sitting on a chair, with the exact idea John gave Lou in it!
Then, there’s Jane, who’s up to some morally dubious actions of her own. In a classic sitcom trope, the old dude had a rent-controlled apartment, and Jane must have it. This involves trying to gaslight the world into believing that she was the man’s common law wife, and she takes up residence in his place. Sure, it doesn’t work, (because this is television and the female lead can’t leave the main set piece of this show). But before all that we get a musical number from Nasim Pedrad, which was both weird and wonderful. This is the sort of thing Mulaney has been doing since the pilot. It hasn’t always been as good as this, but there is a clear comedy voice here that is really encouraging and impressive.
Motif thinks his room is haunted, and goes to great lengths to try and get the ghost out of his room, including taping himself extensively. Oscar has “Call Me Maybe” as a ringtone. Lou is a little bit more dialed down, which is wise, but there is still plenty of humor there—including his groovy spy costume… which is definitely not an Austin Powers costume.
Lastly, there is Andre, who hasn’t really been discussed much in reviews thus far. In the pilot, it seemed he was going to be some sort of obnoxious guy that everybody disliked. However, in these last two episodes, that hasn’t been the case. Perhaps that’s because these were, respectively, the seventh and tenth episodes produced. They are further down the line, which also may explain why people who saw the show’s earlier episodes before Mulaney aired didn’t like it, while the last two episodes have, in fact, been quite funny. Anywho, Andre seems much more buffoonish and pathetic than anything else, and the gang doesn’t seem too irked about having him around. Andre is a guy who thinks it is a good idea to dress like a little kid, so as to avoid having his trick-or-treating candy stolen by teens (teens hate little brothers), whom we also avoids by only trick-or-treating at sexual predators’ houses. He’s also the guy who thinks hiding his food in a keg of beer will keep it from teens, because beer is for people 21 and over. Andre has provided solid laughs since the pilot, but he was particularly funny tonight.
Mulaney has a comedic sensibility rare in modern multi-cam sitcoms, even if the show does occasionally have to deal with the issues incumbent with the medium. You know, awkward pauses and staging and things of the like. However, these are quibbles, and quibbles are the only issues to be found in this episode. It was a great showcase for the actors—a sharp, clever story, and a source of a bunch of laugh out loud jokes. Maybe the episodes that critics groused about before Mulaney debuted are yet to come. However, “The Doula,” and especially “Halloween,” show that John Mulaney and company have the ability in them to generate very good television.
Chris Morgan is an Internet gadabout who writes on a variety of topics and in a variety of mediums. If he had to select one thing to promote, however, it would be his ’90s blog/podcast, Existential Parachute Pants. (You can also follow him on Twitter.)