TV Recap: 2 Broke Girls, "The Hoarder Culture"

The eighth episode of2 Broke Girlscame a little bit closer to providing viewers with some element of storyline satisfaction. Our ingenue Max has been flirting up a storm with hip-star Johnny (Nick Zano), one of the more appealing elements the sitcom has going for it. When he comes by the diner to pick up his usual order of coffee and cheap cupcakes, Sweet Caroline insists that he's well, just that into her, a theory that strengthens when they find him taking a3ampee break in their horse-partment (read: Caroline's horse resides in their Bushwick backyard) while painting over a nearby building exterior. In a wildly romantic gesture, Johnny suggest Max plays watch-out for him the next evening.

During this de facto date, the pair take a beer break (soBrooklyn!), and while admiring the view ofManhattan, Max leans in for the kiss. Mistake! In a painfully awkward turn of events, Johnny rejects her advance and suggests they call it a night.

Sweet Caroline, meanwhile, takes to Craigslist to look for some extra dough (a source which prompts yet another gratuitous rape joke, courtesy of Max) as a personal organizer. Her first client turns out to be a major hoarder, with piles of crap all over his small apartment ? and even kittens!

Un-characteristically giddy, Max expresses a childlike excitement to the possibility of interacting with a real-life (not TLC network) hoarder. 2BG needs more moments like this where Max abandons her sullen attitude and expresses something closer to sincerity. And for her part, Kat Dennings is more believable when playing up the angle of a twenty-something with a curios fascination, than as a world-weary worker.

But let's get back to the Max-Johnny storyline. After continued prodding from Sweet Caroline to make a move, the two roommates encounter Johnny on the street, and Max works up the nerve to greet him with a kiss. And then, bam! He introduces her to his never-before-mentioned GF, Cashandra (Kelly Beckett). Thinking on her toes Max also greets Cashandra with a peck on the lips. An action any quick-thinking girl would choose, no?

There are two reasons why this bothered me. First, it's stock sitcom stuff:Friendseven built a whole episode around Chandler kissing the three women on the show to cover up his clandestine relationship with Monica. Secondly, and more importantly, why did Johnny keep Cashandra a secret the whole time? He claims that he never knew the right way to bring her up, or how to break up with her, and that he does want to kiss Max, only when the timing is right. Totally predictable, but it's also kind of cute, and the more we see Max as vulnerable, the funnier her delivery is and the more I like her.

The episodes end with the girls now having $623.25 and leaves me with one lingering question: will Sweet Caroline eventually get a guy too? Or is social redemption really what she wants?