A dead passenger breathes life into a fun second episode of LA to Vegas.

On this week’s episode of LA to Vegas, “The Yips and the Dead” Ronnie must keep the crew together as Captain Dave gets nervous about appearing in a magazine, Colin wonders why she bailed on their date and a passenger dies in midair.    

CONTAINS SPOILERS

“The Yips and the Dead” did a much better job of splitting time on plane and off than the pilot episode. We open in the terminal, where an ominous abandoned bag sets a darker tone, easing us into a potentially macabre episode. The crew members speculate on the bag’s owner and whether or not to call airport security, demonstrating good cast chemistry with the whole ensemble on screen at once.  Soon Captain Dave fesses up to owning the pink sequin tote and our episode takes off. (Last airplane pun, I swear).   

Colin is hesitant in showing his interest in Ronnie to Artem, but it’s obvious he wants to talk to her.  Meanwhile, mystery surrounds a date Ronnie cancelled.  Art imitates life as Captain Dave announces he has been named one of Aviator Magazine’s 10 Pilots to Watch.  During LA to Vegas’ development cycle, creator Lon Zimmet was named one of Variety’s 10 TV Writer’s to Watch for 2017.  With Dave’s bravado at an all-time high, Zimmet’s ability to craft swagger-filled one-liners shines. Again working with Steve Levitan as Director, and paired with McDermott’s chops, the three craft a character in Captain Dave who is lovably arrogant because it’s obvious he’s so pathetic. He's a pompous blowhard but he's frequently the butt of jokes; given the commitment McDermott brings to his performance, such humor will likely remain a centerpiece of this series.

We soon learn Ronnie and Colin had planned to go out, but she bailed on him at the last minute.  Colin is hoping to get an answer, but work distracts her as Ronnie must deal with young Jewish boys on the flight for their bar mitzvah in Las Vegas, which is apparently a real thing.  Trouble arises when Nichole discovers an older passenger has died. 

In act two, in classic sitcom fashion, Ronnie and Bernard struggle to keep the death of the passenger a secret from the remaining living passengers.  Ronnie is forced to juggle many plates as it’s in the midst of these WEEKEND AT BERNIE’S high-jinks Colin demands to know why she cancelled on him. Captain Dave, meanwhile, has grown nervous about his impending photo shoot and has developed the yips, an inability to use his hands to steer the plane. Ronnie does a good job managing the situation, explaining to Colin that he over-planned things before the dead passenger is discovered and the passengers freak out. 

By the time we come back from commercial, the passengers are more comfortable with the death.  Some are even taking selfies with the corpse, which I found hilarious and is a bold, important tonal choice for this series.  The over-the-top antics continue as Co-pilot Alan makes a brave attempt to land the plane, but trips on the dead body and knocks himself out before he makes it to the cockpit.  On a plane with no pilot, Artem talks with the Jewish boys about the nature of death and our episode’s theme is laid bare as they tell him to make the most of life while you have it. With a sense of sentiment that manages to feel sincere despite being delivered with tongue firmly in cheek, the whole plane sings Hava Nagila and Ronnie helps Dave land by giving him a pep talk reminding him of his greatness.  After the flight, she’s so excited and full of zeal, she tells Colin she’d love to have a relationship with him, laying out all the potential pitfalls of their romance and saying she doesn’t care.  Colin, however, doesn’t think it’s a good idea and walks away. The tag gives us the promise of the premise, as we watch Captain Dave mug for his photo shoot for Aviator Magazine. 

END SPOILERS

With a dead passenger on the plane plot in episode two, LA to Vegas is setting itself up to tell edgy stories and push boundaries.  That type of farcical storytelling, coupled with mocking Captain Dave, seem to be the key to this show’s narrative and comedic success.  In an episode that mostly worked for me, there was only one joke that stood out as particularly off-key. 

When he learns Captain Dave has been named one of Aviator Magazine’s Top Ten Pilots to Watch, Bernard, a black man, sarcastically remarks, “Sounds like a straight white guy’s doing great, so at least there’s some justice in the world.”  This joke is meant to signify the show’s wokeness; however, considering this show’s creative team of Zimmet, Ferrell, McKay and Levitan are themselves all straight white men “doing great,” it rings out as an empty gesture, a vapid, capricious mentioning of the unjust social systems on which this show’s creators are profiting enormously. In today’s increasingly splintered culture, everything needs to be political because politics is one of the few things we are paying attention to en masse. Given this climate, it’s easy to imagine a network executive giving a note asking if the show could be “86% more woke.” But, beyond the thematic significance of sticking it to a high-status white guy like Captain Dave every week, political humor is not this show’s comedic wheelhouse.

In many ways, “The Yips and The Dead” was stronger than the pilot.  The above example notwithstanding, the jokes worked well and the chemistry between Ronnie and Colin felt more believable. The story again unfolded surprisingly, told with acumen and sophistication, and the spiritual, ‘carpe diem’ theme of the episode demonstrated dimensions notably absent from the show’s debut episode.  McDermott continues to soar as Captain Dave and Nathan Lee Graham’s Bernard got some razor-sharp zingers this week.

In finding its identity, La to Vegas is setting Kim Matula’s Ronnie up to be the center of the show, our relatively normal, relatable central character who has to manage the zany goings-on of this group of eccentric characters around her.  She’s in a Liz Lemon type role and in this episode, Ronnie does a solid job handling multiple challenges with comedic grace.  The moment when she uses a wet wipe to clean up after handling a dead body is a small stroke of pure blocking genius many viewers may have missed.  Matula plays frazzled empathetically and demonstrates good comic instincts and timing – she knows where the jokes are and she makes a good straight-woman. Still, something in her character feels inconsistent. I think it’s her aesthetic. We’re told she’s impetuous, impulsive and prone to overreact, but she is impeccably manicured. Ronnie’s look seems to be modeled on a 1960s version of a stewardess and it doesn’t match the manic nature of her character.  Moreover, no flight attendant making 25 grand a year and spending most of her time on planes could afford Ronnie’s skincare, haircare and eyebrow regiment. Then again, I’ve never seen an econ professor who looks like Ed Meeks.