“Get out of my way nerds.” – Reagan
I guess the hope of all parents is for their children to not give them the same grief that they gave their own parents. This week on Up All Night, Reagan comes to this realization when her parents surprise her with a visit.
After Reagan and Chris receive an Internet chat request from her parents, Angie and Dean (Blythe Danner and Richard Schiff), Chris wants to accept it as he is feeling sentimental about life having just learned from the Sports Illustrated death clock that he only has twenty-one years left to live, while Reagan would rather ignore it. Chris decides to answer it though. When Regan learns that the reason for their chat is to inform her and Chris that will be coming down for a visit she does what any normal daughter would do, she acts like the internet connection is bad and slams the laptop shut. One problem though, the computer was still on and connected to the chat.
Chris goes even further and goes behind Reagan’s back and invites her parents to stay with them while they are in town. She’s furious about this but soon has a change of heart when she hears Amy making the same exasperating noises that she makes towards her own mother towards her. Feeling guilty by your children’s actions is hard to overlook. She’s determined to have a treasured moment with her mom to set a good example for Amy. While they have their mother daughter bonding night Reagan suggests that Chris has a bonding night with her dad as well. Needless to say Chris’ night goes much better than Reagan’s. He learns from Reagan’s dad — a psychiatrist — that the best way to deal with death is not to think about it and to drink alcohol.
While Reagan is at her mom’s book signing — for a book about their relationship — she learns that the topic of her mother’s next book will be Amy. This doesn’t go over well with her and she completely loses it and lets her mom know that she’s not okay with it. Her outburst prompts her mother to come to her and question her parenting skills and they finally have their treasure moment. It’s nice when a comedy can go soft and inflict some humor in a topic that’s quite sensitive and important.
Of course the laughs don’t end with Reagan and Chris, this week when one of the Ava’s staff members, Dale, passes away and she delivers an insensitive eulogy she’s left to make it up to the rest of her staff as they suspect she doesn’t value them. The video homage to Dale at the end of the episode was priceless. All they had of him to use in the video was two pictures of him and his W-4. Ava actually sings a song that includes his address and cuts it short when the video ends. Definitely not the kind of office one would want to work in.
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.