'The New Normal' Recap: Sex After 50
Season 1, Episode 5, "Nanagasm"
Last week, I was worried The New Normal would give us a "very special episode" every week, but "Nanagasm" was more classic sitcom than soapbox -- well, that's if you consider talk of post-menopausal vaginas to be "classic sitcom." (I do.)
Bryan, David, Goldie, and Shania go surfing because it's one of the items on Shania's California bucket list. Good job, Shania -- I have lived in California my entire life without ever stepping on a surfboard. Now I just feel lazy. Shania's anxious about the possibility of moving back to Ohio, but Bryan is preoccupied dreading a visit from his mother-in-law Francis. Elsewhere, Nana (Jane, if you're nasty) is also thinking about the custody hearing, but in a much more favorable light: "My granddaughter might be hypnotized by those gay pied pipers, but I know what is best for her, her daughter, for all of us, is to move home." For whatever reason, her bigoted ranting attracts the attention of a sleazy vitamin salesman.
Francis arrives, and David and Bryan spring the news about their babymama. Francis takes to Goldie immediately ("You're gonna have to start calling me 'Mom'") while continuing to ignore Bryan. Naturally, Bryan's feelings are hurt, which he expresses in standard Bryan fashion -- pouting, asking Siri to "text Rocky to come stab me in the ears." David doesn't want to get involved. But weirdly enough, he is comfortable talking to Jane about her issues. When Nana goes to visit him the next day, she describes a weird tingling sensation. The episode title was a dead giveaway: Nana slept with the gross vitamin salesman and had a nanagasm orgasm.
Shania has a quinceañera at the park because it's on her bucket list. (Fun fact: It was on mine, too. I celebrated on my 19th birthday.) Jane is still confused about her downstairs feelings, leading David to tell her, "You are a fit, attractive, horribly offensive woman whose sexuality is alive and kicking. You need to embrace it." And we as an audience need to embrace that this episode is about vaginas of a certain age. Jane confides in Francis, who explains that she's more multi-orgasmic than she's ever been before. "That thing between your legs only turns into an elbow if you let it," she offers. Someone with better knowledge of female anatomy is going to have to explain that one to me.
Later, Bryan and Francis try to hash out their differences. She calls him a "self-absorbed, insecure, smug little princess," because he is, and Bryan points out that Francis has turned David into her boyfriend. (Gross, gross, gross.) But the confrontation seems to work, as Francis finally starts to call Bryan her son, even giving him the nicest piece of salmon. (This is honestly how we Jews express affection.) Back at her hotel, Nana has another run-in with the vitamin salesman, who turns out to be a total prick. He only slept with old Jane because young Jane wouldn't have given him the time of day. Even monsters have feeling, and Jane's cold, racist heart breaks a little.
In the end, Jane gets the upper hand, finding a younger, hotter mate to make the vitamin salesman jealous. It looks like The New Normal will be taking a page from Ryan Murphy's other shows and making some big plot jumps just to wrap up a storyline -- oh, well. I guess I'm not watching this for realism. And however unconventional, it was nice to see a self-contained sitcom episode, complete with jokes. I didn't love the focus on the show's most loathsome character, but I'm glad we're moving away from the moralizing.
Louis Peitzman is a freelance writer in Los Angeles, spending most of his time as the weekend editor at Gawker and a contributor to WitStream and TV.com. He’s a little bit Dorothy, a little bit Blanche. You can follow him on Twitter.
