ABC's Suburgatory was a one of the few new comedies from last year that really resonated with me. The story of Tessa Altman (Jane Levy) and her father George (Jeremy Sisto) moving from Manhattan to the suburb town of Chatswin looked terrible before I actually watched an episode and discovered that it was a quirky fish out of water story. Tessa's characters was the right amount of silly and pretentious outsider that really worked when contrasted against the other inhabitants of Chatswin. It was easy to understand how it was renewed for a second season.
Suburgatory is now four episodes into its second season and I am getting the feeling it is losing what made it interesting; Tessa. The writers seem determined to give Tessa almost no interesting plot points and instead have concentrated the show around everyone else. George and Dallas have a budding relationship going with some funny quirks associated with it. Tessa's friend Lisa and her family have their own interesting story with the discovery that the older brother Ryan is adopted. Tessa is floating through scenes not even offering up any sort wry and witty comedic one liners like she did in the first season. Another issue is Tessa's foil, Dahlia, who once was a source of salient knowledge delivered through a comedic shallow girl attitude (you have to see it understand what I mean here), has been unused to any effect this season.
I hope the writers can turn this around this season, I hate to see a show with such potential ruin it in only the second season.
