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Casual season 3, episode 8 recap: Venus and other planets

By Brittany Frederick

CASUAL -- "Venus" Episode 308 -- Alex makes an unlikely friend at work while trying to unearth the identity of ValerieÕs brother. LauraÕs relationship with Casey intensifies. Valerie finds her new arrangement with Jack maddening. Jack (Kyle Bornheimer) and Valerie (Michaela Watkins), shown. (Photo by: Greg Lewis/Hulu)
CASUAL -- "Venus" Episode 308 -- Alex makes an unlikely friend at work while trying to unearth the identity of ValerieÕs brother. LauraÕs relationship with Casey intensifies. Valerie finds her new arrangement with Jack maddening. Jack (Kyle Bornheimer) and Valerie (Michaela Watkins), shown. (Photo by: Greg Lewis/Hulu) /
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Casual season 3 features fights and Fleetwood Mac in “Venus,” a sharp episode written by stars Tommy Dewey and Michaela Watkins.

This week’s episode of Hulu‘s Casual season 3 is one of those episodes fans will be talking about for a while. Not only does “Venus” find a way to complicate an already messed-up situation but it’s a milestone for the series, too.

It also proves that no matter how crazy your life gets, it can always get messier, which is sort of the modus operandi of this show.

In the aftermath of Brothergate, Alex (Tommy Dewey) got utterly thrashed and slept with his roommate Rae, who is disgusted by that fact. Alex handles this latest disaster the way he handles most of them, which is to turn right back to his family.

He tries to make things up to his sister by starting to search for her half-brother, while Alex also crosses paths with Judy’s (Judy Greer) son Clark. When you combine those two things, this happens:

"Clark: What’s a groupie?Alex: A slut for musicians.Clark: Like John Mayer?"

Alex eventually tracks down the half-brother but telling that information to his sister only gets him yelled at. “Venus” is not a great episode for him, but it is for Tommy Dewey as we see Alex adrift in a sense, trying to make things right and also trying to find something to hold onto.

Laura (Tara Lynne Barr) has the opposite reaction and skips out on her family to spend time with Casey (recurring guest star Nadine Nicole). This means that Laura meets Casey’s girlfriend, who is only slightly less put off than Rae. That’s because she’s convinced Laura is going to replace her and be Casey’s next conquest. Well, that’s awkward, and it puts the seed of doubt in the viewer’s head, as well as Laura’s.

There are also Casey’s friends, including the one guy who walks through an entire shot completely naked, and because this is Hulu you see everything.

How is Valerie (Michaela Watkins) coping with her adjusted situation? She’s trying to rekindle her relationship with Jack (Kyle Bornheimer). But Val continues to be partially motivated by sex and has to ask Jack why he’s not sleeping with her and how they can date when he’s not sleeping with her.

Even when she explains to Jack, and thus to the audience, why she feels like sex is so important, it doesn’t quite hit home like Casual normally does. He’s right when he says it’s not fair to compare them to the end of her marriage. But she breaks things off with him anyway.

This episode of Casual is everything you’d expect it to be. As much as you feel bad for Jack, Val is acting exactly as we know her: she’s the woman who’s had two separate impulsive hookups in the third season so far.

Laura continues to look for something outside her family, and Alex can’t find anything outside his family. “Venus” really makes clear, even as it throws a few more wrenches into the equation, the dynamics in this group and why they are the way they are.

The most interesting part of “Venus,” though, is what happens off-screen. This episode is co-written by Michaela Watkins and Tommy Dewey, the first time either of them have written for the show. And based on this script, they should do so more often.

Casual
CASUAL — “Venus” Episode 308 — Alex makes an unlikely friend at work while trying to unearth the identity of ValerieÕs brother. LauraÕs relationship with Casey intensifies. Valerie finds her new arrangement with Jack maddening. Behind the scenes with Valerie (Michaela Watkins) and Alex (Tommy Dewey), shown. (Photo by: Greg Lewis/Hulu) /

Dewey’s a hilarious writer; if you haven’t already, you should check out his go90 original series Now We’re Talking, co-written and co-starring Tug Coker. He and Watkins come together for a script that stays true to everything fans know, love and even get frustrated about with Casual. It feels like an episode written by series creator Zander Lehmann himself.

We see actors directing for their shows fairly frequently now, but it’s much rarer to see actors write for their shows, so it’s special when it happens. Not only is it fun that it happens for Casual, but it’s also very, very well written.

The one criticism is that the episode doesn’t feature Leon (Nyasha Hatendi) or Leia (Julie Berman), a week after we found out that they were a couple. That left us wanting to see more of them, but “Venus” doesn’t really have a place for that either, so it’s kind of a split. Other than that, this is all that and a bag of chips.

Next: AMC orders Better Call Saul season 4

New episodes of Casual season 3 stream Tuesdays on Hulu. For the latest news in all of summer TV, follow the Television category at FanSided here.