‘Dr. Ken’ Episode Review: “Dave’s Sex Talk”

Dr. Ken, Season 1, Episode 20: “Dave’s Sex Talk”
Original airdate April 8, 2016.

Symptoms:  Dave asks Ken a question about sex, prompting a need for “the sex talk,” but Ken wusses out, and the task falls unintentionally to Julie, who gets a few things wrong. Molly convinces Allison that Allison’s wardrobe is beginning to date her, leading to Molly’s picking some new clothes out for her mother. Clark is stressed out because he’s sure he’s about to be dumped.

Diagnosis: Strong performances by Suzy Nakamura, Kate Simses, and Jonathan Slavin lift this episode slightly above C-level, but the most interesting thing is the apparent on-again status of Damona and Pat’s relationship. The sex-talk story is mildly intriguing, but it’s the contrast between Dave and Julie that gives it a little bit of extra dimension. The Molly-Allison story is a good idea, and I like the effort to tie it to the Dave-Ken story, but it feels flat somehow, and I think it has something to do with Allison’s wardrobe being pretty nice until this episode.

Prognosis:  I continue to be encouraged by more character development, but there’s still too much of an effort to include all the characers in the stories. This seems unnecessary and unwise.

Rx:  I accused the show of staying in the lines a few weeks ago, but that was mostly aimed at the episode structures. It should get a few props for a few not-in-every-sitcom situations beyond the Asian-ness of its central characters. One homosexual couple and one interracial couple, both of whom kiss in the Welltopia office in a not-a-big-deal way, give the show a little more real-world cred even in the middle of some difficult-to-believe stories.

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In this week’s Post Show and Tell, Joz Wang and her guest co-host discuss misconceptions about sex and the British calendar, and Albert Tsai offers another great Tsai-nopsis.