The Personal & Professional Intertwine in 'Funny Woman's Penultimate Episode

Funny Woman’s second season is burning through plot like a bunch of raked-up autumnal leaves. A four-episode season means that where we’d be at the midpoint of a season with six episodes, we’re already in penultimate episode territory, often where the big turning points of the season finale get in place*. In this episode alone, we’ve got the following sea change-type developments: Sophie reimagines her sitcom, drawing on her various conflicts with Marj and meeting the exuberant Greta; Bill gets arrested for the terrible and definitely worth prosecuting crime of being gay in public; the gang bands together to save Bill from being sentenced to prison. 

(*This is the last time I’ll force you to think about TV plotting math for the week, promise!) 

Meanwhile, Marj and Roger are so cute together until she learns that he’s a cop and didn’t try to protect Bill during his arrest; Sophie & Dennis finally get together; and Sophie’s parents schlep down from Blackpool to tell her The Big Family Secret, which that mean little snake of a journalist, Lynda, has unearthed and plans to tell the world. Whew! Let’s get into it!

The personal and professional are always intertwined for Sophie. Much of what makes her such an irresistible screen presence emerges from how skilfully she draws on her own experiences to bring her character to life. I’m not just talking about the Barbara she plays in Jim and Barbara and the one she will play in Flat Birds once it’s on the air; this includes her send-up of Ted Sergent when Bill and Tony come back to TCV and her channeling of Bill that’s so vivid and true to life that Tony easily slides into writing collaboratively with him. Or…her? Let’s go with both. 

It’s no surprise to make the new sitcom work with Dennis, Tony, and Bill; Sophie pitches a new idea: a show about the friendship and adventures of two young working-class women in the big city. I sometimes forget just how far we’ve come when I’m reminded that an idea like this was actually trailblazing not that long ago, but Sophie’s pitch – two female leads whose lives don’t revolve exclusively around “chasing trouser,” as Sophie puts it – brings the lads up short for a minute. Even right-on, fairly free-thinking men had to take a beat to let the idea sink in and realize it’s not outrageous; it’s just something they haven’t seen on TV before. 

Sophie and Marj’s constant, totally counterproductive sniping has really gotten in her head but it is finally proving a rich source of comedy material.

Sophie overcomes Bill and Tony’s understandable reluctance to throw out several weeks of work by deploying a rationale that is the rhetorical equivalent of a laser-guided missile to their hearts, minds, and ambition. Don’t they want to be the first comedy writers to write a show about two women? They’d be blazing a trail and making the idea palatable to other writers, TV executives, performers, and viewers. You can practically see the gears turn in their minds. A shot at a meaningful and funny legacy? They’re listening!

We know what the lads don’t: that this idea has legs. Sophie and Marj’s constant, totally counterproductive sniping has really gotten in her head, but is finally proving a rich source for comedy material. Stopping at a pub near the shop where Sophie spent an arm and a leg to buy a replacement for the lamp they managed to destroy at Pandora’s flat during another fruitless argument, the two finally reconcile thanks in part to Greta.

A young bartender, Greta can find humor in any situation and regards constant comedy patter as a core competency for pub work. She coaxes Sophie into singing during her traditional daily sing-along, and the two hit it off immediately, with chemistry between performers that you want to watch more of all the time. Sophie seizes the ice-breaking moment, bringing Marj & Diane up and apologizing to Marj, who apologizes, too. Their reconciliation is a blessed relief, I can tell you! Greta wins over Bill and Tony by first pretending not to be able to read fluently, then dazzling them with a powerful sight-reading performance of their latest pages. They need her take on the character — funny, down-to-earth, lacking any compunction about telling Barbara “when she’s gotten too big for her kinky boots.” Bill and Tony are platonically smitten as everything clicks into place. A productive writers’ room montage ensues, underscored by The Zombies’ “This Will Be Our Year.” I could watch hours of this. 

The sparkly and substantive thread of love – platonic, romantic, professional – is woven throughout the entire episode, in small and big moments. Marc Allen’s thoughtfully selected rack of ensembles for Sophie to choose from to wear to a small gathering in her honor at his hotel; Roger’s incremental revelation that he’s run several inconvenient errands to get all of the ingredients he needs to cook dinner for Marj; Greta’s charm offensive; Dennis and Sophie realizing they need to flip the bird to the nonsense of waiting three years to be together; Sophie and Pandora leaping to action to save Bill from prison time. Take your pick among them for your favorite; there’s no wrong choice.

The most significant is Bill’s arrest for cruising in a seedy public bathroom and what it elicits from his friends. Not only is he forced to endure the humiliation of being arrested and charged for an offense that is absurd and inhumane on its face, but he is beaten pretty badly into the bargain. The arresting officers explain away Bill’s resulting bruises and black eye — sustained after he was handcuffed —  as a logical consequence of his having resisted arrest. Sure. Worse still, Roger is revealed as being present at Bill’s arrest and doing nothing to help his girlfriend’s friend. 

This situation shares some DNA with the conflict between Marj and Sophie. Where Marj expects class and gender solidarity from Sophie, who is reluctant to provide it because she’s concerned about losing what scraps of privilege she’s been able to amass, Bill is disappointed by Roger’s failure to stand up for someone from another marginalized and persecuted minority. Roger’s explanation that he goes along to get along in part to maintain his position so he can make a difference specifically as a young Black man on an overwhelmingly majority-white police force. Marj isn’t 100% unsympathetic to this rationale, but she’s disappointed, angry, and heartbroken that he’d lie about his work and furious at his failure to be as gutsy as she is.  

Fortunately for Bill, he’s got an unstintingly supportive group of friends and colleagues. Pandora, as his barrister, manages to get him an early court date; Sophie prepares to stand up as a witness to Bill’s sterling character (brazenly and correctly against Ted Sargent’s wishes). Tony and Dennis attend court for moral support, too. Sophie’s testimony as a character witness goes well beyond the anodyne “I know this man and am confident he won’t re-offend”-style remarks Pandora recommended, but it does work. Bill’s crime, such as it is, isn’t everything that Bill is as a person, and the law is on the brink of changing. What’s the point of sentencing him when he’ll only be released from prison when that day comes? Why shouldn’t he enjoy the same privacy and personal freedoms as straight people do? Thankfully, His Wigship agrees, and Bill is free to go home, yay!

I don’t want to take anything away from Dennis and Sophie getting past their shared miscommunications and misunderstandings in their relationship. It’s lovely, they’re so moonily hung up on each other, and I wish them every single happiness! I hope Dennis will decide to brave the terrors of the avalanche of press coverage that might follow their being found out, because what’s one more scandal to throw on the pile? 

(Seriously, what is the other scandal? Lynda knows, and she confronts Doria about it at her place of work. Doria immediately goes to see George, and the two of them hotfoot it down to London to finally come clean with Sophie (and with us). 

Bits & Bobs:

• You know how in Ted Lasso, nobody really understands or can adequately explain the offside rule? Sophie does and can, and delivers a clear and cogent explanation to impress upon Tony, Bill, and Dennis that writing an episode of Just Barbara about her character only attending matches because she fancies a guy who’s a fan is simply not going to work. 
• Three costume notes: Sophie’s very cool extra-wide leg culottes in heavy woolen navy blue with maroon pocket accents; Greta’s blouse of many mushrooms in rich earthtones; and the coat Pandora wears when she goes to visit Bill in jail. It strongly resembles the Lili Ann coat Kate Hudson wears as Penny Lane in Almost Famous – dark brown with a super-wide collar and deep cuffs, both trimmed in creamy astrakhan. Stunning.
• A whole bunch of very funny lines this episode, but I think my favorite is Marj’s remark that Pandora's flat looks like the inside of Princess Margaret's brain. 

Funny Woman Season 2 continues on most PBS stations, the PBS app, and the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel at 10 p.m. ET on Sundays through the end of February, taking over from Vienna Blood Season 4. All four episodes are available for members to watch as a binge on PBS Passport. As always, check your local listings and streamers.