Loaded Ep. 103 – Josh’s Mum and Dad
They say that money changes everything and that’s certainly the case in Josh’s Mum and Dad, the latest episode of AMC’s Loaded. All the money in the world hasn’t made Leon, Ewen, Josh and Watto’s work life more enjoyable or kept Josh’s parents in wedded bliss.
After a couple of uneven episodes Loaded is finally hitting the mark. The humor shines through in several scenes particularly during Naomi’s office interviews. The laughs continue with Watto’s secret and bizarre hobby of collecting mugs but really take off with Josh’s parents. Returning two months early from their round the world trip, Josh’s mom has taken to living in the caravan seeking space from her husband. Sporting a new set of teeth and a tattoo, Josh’s mom has been seduced by the glamorous life and yearns for a chance to live out her party girl bucket list. With Leon’s help she becomes in her words “the MILF of Wall Street”.
After Casey demands a review of IDYL Hands’ efficiency cutbacks are the order of the day. The lads are tasked with firing staff and cutting costs, including the amount of free teas they provide in the office. Adversity is the order of the day and several crises of confidence spiral the foursome into adolescent bouts of depression. Watto deals with his addictions to “stuff”, Ewan struggles to find a backbone, Leon searches for his true purpose and Josh is a helpless witness to the dissolution of his parents’ marriage.
Josh’s Mum and Dad is the strongest outing for the show by far. It’s a great mix of humor and character development that Loaded had been flirting with but unable to successfully maintain for an entire episode. This week viewers finally got to see what makes the lads tick and why they’re such good friends. The episode also provided some insight into why their company has achieved any success at all. The whole, as Aristotle once said is greater than the sum of its parts and IDYL Hands is a perfect example of that. Josh, Ewen, Watto and Leon are misfits on their own but as a group, even if it’s not plainly evident, are capable of great things.
There’s a lot of potential to keep the narrative at the level achieved this week. If the writers can continue to mine some comedic gold from Josh’s parents and his budding restart of a relationship with Abi to go along with Casey and Naomi’s quips, Loaded may end its debut season on a high note.
