I just watched the second episode and I have to agree that the switch to the longer episode format does good things for the show. In the first season, it always seemed as if the characters were chasing after the punchline and there wasn’t room for much else. With the longer episodes, there is more time to develop a conversation (even though the content and the delivery of the dialog remains rather on the nose).

I felt rather alienated after first watching it as well because I did not catch the connection to the earlier scene. The scene seemed to undermine everything the episode was trying to say about stereotypes. Husbands had never done a postscript before (and there isn’t one for the second episode), so I wonder why they decided to add this one to the first episode.

Unlike Karen, though, I watched the first season before watching the premiere, and I’m wondering what you think of the switch in format from “clips” to “acts,” to use imprecise terms to describe the increased length of this episode. The 2-minute episodes of the first season created brief scenes that were only really able to make one point, whether it’s a particular joke setup, a particular dramatic beat, etc. The premiere of the second season felt more dynamic, and I felt its message became more embedded in characterizations than outright stated in the script.

The postscript then alienated me to a dramatic degree, making me wonder who was being targeted by this program. Even though I was “in” on the joke–having seen enough of both BG and Dollhouse to get the references–I nevertheless didn’t know how to account for the two characters playing at lesbianism. I suppose there was a bit of a wink at the audience–no one could take a pillow fight seriously these days– but the scene nevertheless played out every soft-core trope of girly sexiness without a punchline or a reversal. As an outside to the series, I wasn’t sure if this sort of postscript was standard, and I did not have enough cues for how to read it.