How To Live A Better Life - Season 2, Episode 1: "Home Is Where The Home Is" Review

Watch The Episode Here

Confused? Well, if you paid any attention at all to the last review, I said I'd be going back and covering the previous four episodes that came out before these started getting written. That's what we're doing. So sit back and relax while I explain why "Home Is Where The Home Is" is a piss poor episode of How To Live A Better Life.

First off, those who have seen the first season of the show (which I also explained that I would review in due time) would know that it didn't set the world on fire, and it wasn't meant to.  It was just something that three friends made in their spare time because they loved doing it. I'm sure they were proud of themselves for actually finding the time to film 12 different episodes (10 released, 1 Christmas special, and 1 lost episode). They probably didn't care how it turned out. It's a hobby. I've made some awful stuff too, but I loved doing it. Criticism like this goes completely unwarranted when you're talking about personal projects, and it will definitely rustle a few jimmies when I actually do get around to reviewing the first season. I'm doing this purely for fun, as are the series creators Zach and Jordan with the show. However, even if I am doing this lightheartedly and am totally not trying to intentionally hate on the show, I have to do it right. People review episodes to highlight the good, and the bad. There is plenty of good in HTLBL, tons of it, but there is also bad, and I, as the reviewer have to provide an unbiased look on both. "Home Is Where The Home Is" is bad. It doesn't suck, it's just bad in the context that the show has itself built. What does that mean? Well, give me a second and I'll tell you. I just needed to make sure people understood what a review is supposed to do before they grab their torches and pitchforks and try to drive me out of Reviewtown.

I mean, it's not like people like this exist, right?

"You're just mad because they make better videos than you do." 

Yeah, shut the hell up. This is not a competition.

So, all of that being said, we now have to get to the episode. "Home Is Where The Home Is" is the season two premiere of this wonderful show. It opens up like the series premiere, pretty much shot for shot, which is a nice callback. The music playing over this sequence is the same song used in the intro for season one. Callbacks, aplenty! These are very welcome. Mike enters Jordan's house without knocking, and tries to recreate the entire first scene of the first episode (which would be the last callback I would allow for this episode), but doesn't see Jordan anywhere. No big deal, Mike will just check his room. Downstairs he goes, only to find that Jordan's room is completely deserted. Now here's some drama! This is looking to be like a suitable return for the show! Suddenly, Mike hears "Santeria" by Sublime in the background. That's a pretty significant song when you're talking about this show, so Mike obviously tries to find the culprit. He goes upstairs to find that it's Jordan playing the song, but in his new room. This shocks Mike for whatever reason. Jordan moved! Cue the new intro, which now features the song "The Science Of Selling Yourself Short" by Less Than Jake, and that is an awesome song. 

Jordan doesn't see the problem in moving rooms, but Mike is really taken aback by the decision. He explains that it was hard moving from Great Britain to America, and that he liked Jordan's place because it was the one place that stayed the same. He doesn't do well with change. Jesus, Mike, he changed rooms! You sound like a 13 year old girl looking for even the smallest reason to explain why she has "deep emotional problems" which is Teen Speak for "Chronic Attentionwhoreitis".

Jordan offers to take Mike to a place that never changes, and that place is the bowling alley. A HTLBL landmark, East Side Lanes has provided the location for not one, but TWO season one episodes. It's the place where Jordan "practically grew up". The thing is, they get there, and it's closed. One incredibly fake puke gag later, and Mike is promising to take Jordan to another magical place, which is also closed. In a last ditch effort to salvage the episode, Mike tells Jordan of one last special place they can go. They go, but it's just Jordan's room. Jordan is confused, so Mike explains to him (though looking directly at the camera, which is okay, this is a documentary, remember?) that....well....it's just better if I type it verbatim:

"It doesn't matter where you hang out, it's who you hang out with. It doesn't matter where your home is, it's who's in it."

Then Jordan stands next to Mike and puts his arm around him, then utters this Earth-shattering quote:

"In other words, uh, we were just too lazy to finish the episode."

Mike agrees, and they share a poorly-executed high-five. The episode ends there.



What the literal dick, show.



Remember in the episode 5 review when I said that none of this matters? It still doesn't! But let's keep pretending it does. You've been waiting patiently since last season's non-cliffhanger to see some new episodes of How To Live A Better Life. Finally, the day comes, and you're ready to see some more crazy Mike and Jordan hijinks. Then you watch this episode. Knowing all that you do about the show based off the first season, you wouldn't expect much, but you should understand that shows generally tend to evolve and get much better as they go on. Some don't. How To Live A Better Life totally does, but sweet Jesus not in this episode. It seems to be stuck between evolution and devolution, in that the cinematography is getting better, the camera and audio quality is better, and you can tell Zach and Jordan really know their characters well enough that dialogue is no problem for them to come up with. Yet it seemed to go lower than before with the story. There basically is none. Yeah, Jordan changed rooms and the bowling alley closed, but did you see how quickly those plot points were resolved? Excluding the bloopers, this episode clocks in at just a little over five minutes. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that is by far the shortest episode of the series, and it's a season premiere! Whoever heard of a season premiere having less substance than later episodes? That's the exact opposite of what a season premiere is supposed to be! This is just bonkers.

I guess it's good that we get the bad stuff out of the way first so we can really truly enjoy other episodes of this show. I cannot stress this enough: I love this show. It has plenty of good to great episodes in both seasons. "Home Is Where The Home Is" is just not one of them. So now that we've gotten through the two bad seeds of the current season, let's set phasers to fun when we get to episode 2, and episode 6 when it releases Saturday. The worst part is over.

Stray Observations:

• Something to watch out for in this show: Zach Pruett (Mike) does a whole lot of growing up physically as the episodes go on. Seriously, the difference between him in episode one and in the season two finale is just nuts. That's only a year's difference, people.
• I've been told that this particular episode wasn't planned at all, it was just made because the guys were excited about the new camera. This review still stands, though.
• It sounds like Mike's accent is more pronounced in the earlier episodes. In later ones it's much more subdued.
• Mike openly narrates EVERYTHING
• "Santeria" is another awesome song, just saying.
• "I can't read?"
• Two random elements in this episode: Jordan sniffing his shoe, and where did those glasses come from?
• The song playing over the opening sequence made it feel like the beginning of a high school-based tv show.
• I really liked the blocking in the intial shot of Mike and Jordan walking up to the bowling alley.
• Enjoy those bloopers, people. Bloopers are never a bad thing.
• Overall Episode Grade: D-