The second episode of the new Fox show, Dads, features a "pot-off" between the four main characters. No joints are smoked, but many brownies are consumed.
Dads is from the same team who brought you Ted - writers Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild and executive producer Seth MacFarlane. So it's no surprise that an episode would be devoted to pot.
Video game designers Warner (Giovanni Ribisi) and Eli (Seth Green) live with their respective fathers, Crawford (Martin Mull) and David (Peter Riegert). Both dads are as politically incorrect as two characters can be, leading to charges from critics (after just the first episode) that the show's offensive.
In "Heckuva Job, Brownie," David eats one that was intended to inspire Eli. "These are special brownies from my clinic," his boss Veronica (Brenda Song) says. "Use them to come up with a great game idea I can put into production."
Suddenly, David's mellow and expressing his emotions. The next day at work, Eli tells Warner, "My dad ate one of the brownies and he was a delight."
So that night Warner leaves a brownie on the kitchen table for Crawford, who subsequently visits David. The dads know something's up. "You marijuana-ed us," David tells Eli and Warner. When Eli apologizes for "tricking" them, Crawford counters, "We grew up in the '60s, you squares… I've got enough glaucoma to glaze a donut. Can't handle the effects? I can pot you under the table, son."
David chimes in: "Crawford and I challenge you two to a pot off. If you can handle more pot then us, we'll stop."
In the final scene, the stony quartet devours six brownies. If there's a winner, it's Eli and David.
Brownies are the perfect vehicle to build a pot episode around on TV: they indicate marijuana, but don't look like it. No smoking, just getting baked. It's also worth noting there's no negative consequences from all the brownie chomping, just a lot of predictable hilarity.
It's nice to see Mull (Fernwood Tonight) back in a high-profile TV role. Fans of Animal House will remember Riegert as Boon. Green and Ribisi as best buds works; both are movie actors taking their considerable talents to the Doob Tube.
Watch Dads on Fox, Tuesdays at 8 pm ET.
