You know that comedies are struggling when they begin to stretch the borders of disbelief. Last week's episode of "Everybody Hates Chris" called "Everybody Hates Houseguests" stretched disbelief beyond the breaking point, and whereas the boundaries are returning to their previous shape, they are not quite fixed again.
Chris works at a convenience store called "Doc's". However, he reads in the paper that the minimum wage is $3.35/hour. Chris is only being paid $3/hour and he convinces himself that he should stand up for his rights and ask Doc for a raise. He seems himself as a good worker and believes taht he deserves the money. However, Doc won't budge -- $3 it is. Of course, Chris always has the option of going on strike (and in some bad sitcoms, he would), but he imagines white policemen beating him up and decides to give Doc one more chance by presenting him with an ultimatum -- either Chris earns his raise or walks out the door. Doc simply says, "nice working with you".
This leaves Chris unemployed, and he figures he dare not tell his father that he walked away from a job -- his father works two, three jobs, and sometimes more. Chris, desperate to find another job that will pay minimum wage, goes to work for a Chinese restaurant. Unfortunately for Chris, the owner is a harsh taskmaster, and Chris doesn't have time to rest on his broom. Furthermore, Doc let Chris do his homework during down times, but there are no down times at the restaurant. To add insult, since Chris is not only the only non-Asian employee at the restaurant, but the only black employee, Chris is called "Lionel Richie" by his new boss and Chris suspects that he's referred to in less complementary terms behind his back.
Meanwhile, Rochelle has her sights set on being a hair model in the local hair show presented by the beauty shop, and finally begs a place for herself. We learn that the hair styles at the hair show would make a Japanese topiary specialist suffer a stroke -- Rochelle will be modeling "the Tsunami", which is a rarely used style as the last model who tried it suffered from hairspray poisoning. Rochelle's hair is soon coiffed into a living wave, and all is well -- until Rochelle learns that the show is more than a day away and Rochelle cannot lie down or she'll destroy her do.
Chris tries to see how his old job is coming along. As it turns out, Chris's job is now taken by James, a young boy who likes Chris's sister, Tonya. Chris despairs that he could ever get his old job back without giving up his principles.
Chris's new boss, meanwhile, decides to extend the restaurant to delivery. (Why not? He figures that since Chris is black, he should get along fine.) However, restaurants in Bed-Stuy didn't have delivery service, for good reason. (One of Doc's customers says that he has kids in Bed-Stuy -- but he never visits them because it's too dangerous.) Chris is forced to deliver Chinese food to crack houses and tenement apartments. When he bumps into a domestic dispute with a wife who punctuates her arguments with her husband with a large firearm, Chris flees the scene.
Drew turns out to be failing history, and Rochelle and Julius figure its their job to investigate -- however, Rochelle can't risk her new do, so Julius goes out Drew's school to figure out what's up. It turns out that Drew's teacher is a great-looking woman, and no male in the class can think straight. Transferring Drew to another history class turns out to be the solution, but the effort for Rochelle to remain awake is too much and her do is destroyed.
Chris gets his paycheck -- with taxes, FICA, etc. removed. He's actually earning less at the restaurant! Chris finally quits, and tells his father, who simply informs him that it's never a good idea to trade great working conditions for more money. Humbled, Chris returns to Doc's, who told Chris that the reason he was not paid minimum wage is that Chris would get less than minimum wage after taxes and Doc could not afford the paperwork. Chris is given back his job -- as James has moved on to work for the Chinese restaurant. (And Chris learns, to his dismay, that James is being paid in cash!)
(* * *)
The more "Everybody Hates Chris" deals with real situations and the less it deals in general sitcom wackiness, the stronger it becomes. Chris at the Chinese restaurant introduced much-needed realism to the episode, and I felt sympathy for Chris's plight -- he never expected his new job to be so bad.
However, Rochelle's hair mania dragged the episode down. The sample do's shown (one was shaped like a helicopter, complete with spinning blades) were so ludicrous that they could barely be suffered. Is Rochelle really that desperate to look like a fool? She has to keep a family of three kids and a husband together; would she be able to do that and maintain a stiffly lacquered hairstyle at the same time? Not likely.
Furthermore, the "cute teacher causes failing grades" trope is way overdone. (Julius was able to magically restore Drew's memory of historical events by covering Drew's teacher's face with a flag -- but when the flag was removed, Drew returned in milliseconds to idiot.) And of course, there was a "Greg Wuliger can't talk to the pretty girl" D-plot that was tacked on, simply so Chris could lament his lost conversations with Doc.
My wife not only figured out the twist in the plot right away ("he'll be paid by check and he'll earn less than he did at Doc's") but she said, "do you really want to invest any more time watching this show?" If future episodes are as weak as this one, "Everyone Hates Chris" will live up to its name.
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