It’s a shame that the writers of Sirens took this long to realize the comic potential of sticking Billy and Brian together in the same space. The two are perfect for each other, both with their child-like glee at the world around them and binary, almost autistic perception of right and wrong.
Instead of lamenting the fact that this pairing hasn’t been tried before, let’s instead delight in the memory of those two playing video games in the basement “apartment” where Brian lives (he’s being looked after by his parents still) and giddily eating licorice. And the moment when the two decided to move in together as a means of quelling Billy’s loneliness after getting dumped by Maeve and Brian’s panic at being on his own for the first time. Hell, if this series doesn’t get picked up for a third season, I encourage Kevin Bigley and Josh Segarra to take this show to the internet and let these characters live on just a little bit longer in a Perfect Strangers-like YouTube series.
Beyond this great meeting of the minds, what we got in tonight’s episode was a reminder of how entrenched our personalities can be as adults, and how we lash out when it is challenged, while also realizing the good that can come from being challenged by people we care about.
As with many Sirens episodes, the writers present this theme in the form of a patient. In this case it is a gent who refuses to get a festering leg wound treated because of his fear of hospitals. Naturally, it’s a character played by Wayne Knight, drawing up memories of Newman, his similarly stubborn Seinfeld role. Here, he’s willing to let maggots eat away at the dead flesh and cut off all the left legs of his pants to survive. But it’s his friend that finally pull the trigger on dialing 911 and getting him some much-needed help. Lo and behold, he adores the treatment at the hospital and, probably, starts feeling better for the first time in a long time.
The person who lashes out the most when her comfy little worldview is threatened is Maeve. Poor Billy finally opens up about his fantasies of seeing her pregnant and them living the nuclear family dream, and she freaks. It sends Billy into a weeping spiral and to Johnny and Theresa’s apartment where he cooks them eggs florentine and Dutch apple pancakes. As nice as it is, Johnny forces himself to try to get the two to reconcile…which of course they do. That’s in the bylaws of American sitcom television.