FX's Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll - Episode 1.02 "Clean Rockin' Daddy"
Gigi and the band want Johnny to write songs without using drugs or alcohol.
The character of Johnny Rock is always going to be over-the-top and wacky. That's the way Denis Leary conceived the role and is playing him. He is this ridiculous character who happens to be the center of the show. The supporting ensemble around him don't have much to do other than be the straight people to his wild antics. That's not a great source for comedy. Nor does it allow the show to delve deeper into what makes the rest of the ensemble interesting and funny to watch. So much time is spent on Johnny that the rest of the show gets lost. That's a huge problem - especially in an episode like "Clean Rockin' Daddy" where the only lesson learned is to not interfere with the overall ridiculousness that is Johnny Rock.This episode sets out to answer the question: Why does the rest of the band still let Johnny get high and drunk? It's a self-destructive pattern of substance abuse. One that has a history with the music industry but something that isn't part of the zeitgeist at the moment. Everyone else in the band is clean and sober. They certainly have other problems - Bam Bam and Rehab, for instance, have to take several prescription medications. But for the most part, they are able to function as adults living in society. Why then, can't Johnny do the same? He and Ava are the most out of touch with reality. It allows for a few brief moments of humor. Ava not fully grasping that quitting cold turkey meant not indulging in any kind of drugs or alcohol was amusing. But the way that this episode actually deals with the subject only serves as a justification for it happening in the first place.
Johnny is going to keep doing drugs because that's the appeal of the character to Leary in both the writing and the performing. That aspect can't be taken away. That would allow for too much maturation too quickly. Johnny on some level has to be as narcissistic and destructive as he was in the premiere in order to make the humor compelling. It doesn't completely work. The character is very self-involving of the show. This episode never fully grasps onto the reality of Johnny giving up drugs for good. It is always positioned as something that he doesn't take seriously. And then, he gives it a genuine try for a second only for the episode to end with the rest of the band needing him to get back on the drugs as soon as possible.
It's a fake out of the most epic proportions. It does show just how self-involved and fame hungry the rest of the characters are. They are so desperate for Johnny to write songs that they are willing to give up their moral superiority in regards to drugs in order to get it. That is a very twisted rationalization for the rest of the characters. And yet, the show never commits to showing things from their perspective. Johnny is the center of the show and no one else is allowed to have a genuine voice that would help propel the narrative forward. Every situation that the characters find themselves in only occurs because of the direct connection Johnny has to the material. Johnny's conversations with Bam Bam and Rehab are only about Johnny's desperate need to find drugs as well as his reactions to the slightly off but still normal things that the two of them then do. And then, Johnny has a heart-to-heart with Gigi only for that conversation to be reduced down to the joke that he is still trying to get high again. The show isn't really aspiring to do anything really inventive with the conversation that it's starting. Drug abuse is a part of this industry. It's a part of this show. But the show only wants to treat it as a matter of fact thing that the audience shouldn't question which doesn't work all that well.
Some more thoughts:
- "Clean Rockin' Daddy" was written by Denis Leary and directed by Michael Blieden.
- The "Johnny worries that Flash and Gigi will sleep together" story is still a plot beat that the show really wants to hit hard and still ends up playing as totally creepy.
- It feels so weird whenever Gigi calls Johnny "Dad." Not because Denis Leary isn't believable as her father. He totally is. Johnny just hasn't earned that moniker yet. He has done nothing and his daughter still wants to call him dad. It just feels forced. Her motivation is easy to understand - she uses that name because she wants something from him. And yet, the execution doesn't really work.
- Microwavable gluten-free tater tots sound horrible, don't they? Also, Bam Bam easily could have reached the ketchup that was allegedly on the high shelf.
- Rehab being obsessed with song cycles and the Irish potato famine were quirky details that helped add texture to that character. His anger towards Johnny and Flash for never allowing him to sing a song is a justifiable story as well. But it also seems like that plot thread was introduced and discarded way too quickly.
- The rest of the band was into Johnny's sober song until he started just repeating things over and over again on the chorus. Couldn't they have given him that critique instead of immediately jumping onto the drug bandwagon so quickly? It was a very weird and anti-climatic end to the story.
- This show really loves name dropping musical acts from the past few decades. It adds to the arguments the show wants to make. But it also becomes annoying after awhile. Poking humor at the expense of famous people can only get a show so far.
