‘Beaver Falls’: Episode 3 review

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It’s educational this show, you know. I thought it was just about cocks and jocks, but thanks to tonight’s episode, I have discovered that there is a spoon museum in New Jersey that exhibits over 5,400 spoons from around the world. It makes a change from the usual sort of spooning you get in Beaver Falls. But then, so does the episode as a whole. Three weeks in, and the show is avoiding some of the worse gross-out gags that plagued the first episode – sloppy sandal, anyone? – and is mining a new seam of sentimentality, thanks to that mainstay of teen drama: parent-child relationships.

Of the three leads, A-Rab and Flynn are continuing to discover fatherly qualities as they mentor the children – even as Flynn avoids confronting his own parental issues, until the final scene. However it’s Rick Junior’s relationship with his dad that the episode hinges on. Golf ace, Rick Traviata is a Grade A pillock, but one that you know will find a kind of redemption by the end of the episode – even if you’re not certain of the manner in which it will happen.

Beaver Falls is a show that seems to enjoy wrong-footing its viewers by revealing surprisingly literate depths beneath the smutty surface. But you judge on surface appearances if you dare: Rick Traviata is as knowledgeable of Mark Twain as the scriptwriters are of Arthur Rimbaud. Who knows? Maybe actor Corey Johnson has a first edition of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in that museum of his from Doctor Who’s ‘Dalek’ episode

And talking of repressive, uptight creatures – this episode, we’re asked once again to believe that someone as luminous as camp counsellor, Rachel, should be socially sidelined by the jocks as a ‘boring hillbilly virgin’. I think not. This woman has got ‘enchanting’ written all over her – which is why her journey from loser to boozer feels so forced.

A-Rab continues to be the most likeable of the three leads, so it was inevitable that the writers wouldn’t spoil the sweetness of his burgeoning romance by having him become a serial seducer. The revelation that his bunny boiling stalker was an innocent and a fantasist was a long time coming, but was welcome nonetheless. Full marks to the scriptwriters, too, for not ending his big scene with Rachel with the promised kiss. I like this show better when it undercuts its romantic clichés – even if it is with a barf joke. There’s still a major preoccupation with bodily emissions here. But then, it‘s not as if the show’s title sets up false expectations.

A show like this will always have its knockers, and, if you’re of a mind to, you’ll be able to freeze-frame them. However, it’s increasingly willing to also have a heart. It’s a strange tightrope to walk. On the one hand, there are still too many aspects of the programme that are made for fifteen year old boys to enjoy on fast forward. On the other, there’s genuine character development here, and, damn it – I can’t help but root for an underdog. Even Flynn, previously so cocksure, is becoming more and more sympathetic.

So – despite my new preoccupation with spoons, I find that I am unable to get out the knife. On this evidence, Beaver Falls deserves more than a critical disembowelling.

Airs at 9pm on Wednesday 10th August 2011 on E4.

> Order the DVD on Amazon.