Bryan (Andrew Rannells) and David (Justin Bartha) are a happy Los Angeles gay couple, with successful careers. The only thing missing in their relationship is a baby. They meet Goldie (Georgia King), a single mother and waitress from Ohio, who has moved to L.A. with her eight-year-old daughter Shania (Bebe Wood) to escape their former life and start anew. Jane (Ellen Barkin), Goldie’s conservative grandmother, follows her family to the city against her granddaughter’s wishes. Goldie decides to become Bryan and David’s surrogate, and naturally, her family gets involved.
The show starts out with Goldie going back to her house because she forgot her name tag, only to catch her husband cheating on her. Right then and there, she has an epiphany and realizes she has been wasting her life, and now it’s time for change. She goes back out to the car and tells her grandmother what happens, and Jane goes back in with a gun. She doesn’t kill the husband but she’s open to other options. Jane is a bigot, but her racial slurs make the show 50% funnier. Goldie asks her daughter “do you think about leaving?” She said “every single day.” Shania says she’s always wanted to go to Hawaii. So Goldie takes the car without her grandmother’s permission. I kind of wish that Shania said a more practical place to go since the mom had a car.
Bryan was at the mall shopping when he saw a baby, and realized that he wanted a bundle of joy himself. He goes home to tell David, but he was so sure of the idea. They go to the park and get the view of the other parents in the park. (They legit talk to the camera; I thought that was pretty cool.) So, they call an agency that helps couples conceive. At first, Bryan and David think they’ve found the perfect match because the lady (who is played by Gwyneth Paltrow) says “Yeah, they say I look like Gwyneth Paltrow.” They immediately call the clinic and decide to use her eggs in a surrogate. Bryan and David meet the woman who is going to carry their baby. Everything is going great until she starts black-mailing them. She wants a BMW, or she’ll smoke and drink with the baby. I can’t even imagine someone saying that in real life, but it feels like it does happen.
Jane calls them, and she starts yelling at Goldie saying she’s so tired of making up for everybody’s mistakes. Goldie tells her she doesn’t have to because her and Shania are not coming back; they’re going to stay in California so Goldie can become a lawyer and give her daughter the life she should be living. Bryan, David, and Goldie sit down and discuss why she wants to carry their baby, she tells them the honest truth, and they decide to pick her.
The day of fertilization, all hell breaks loose. The grandmother finds out where Goldie is and comes to bring her home. Still, Goldie tells her she is not leaving. Then Bryan’s assistant come to deliver the eggs and Jane says “YOU ARE NOT PUTTING ONE OF HER EGGS IN MY GRANDDAUGHTER!’’ the assistant, being the sassy black women that she is, responds with some unkind words of her own. The grandmother reveals that Goldie’s grandfather was a homosexual that why she doesn’t like them. At the end of the episode, they don’t tell us if she’s pregnant, but they decided that even if she isn’t they’re going to help her achieve her dreams. Great pilot episode, it’s funny, sweet, and has you coming back for more. Every show has their flaws, but I think it’s the creator (Ryan Murphy) who has to sit down and multitask better. So he can have all his eggs in one basket.
Rating: 9/10 ★★★★★★★★★
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