In the first story, Tyler and Clementine tell Tim and Heather about their plans to rent out their tiny house in order to pay off their debt. That night, a woman shows up in Tim and Heather's house. The woman, Mavis, is renting the tiny house and came over to use the tub. Tim and Heather are understandably angry about this and tell them to make a change, but Mavis then shows up that night. Heather calls Tyler, but he's way too high to comprehend anything. The next day, Tim and Heather reprimand Tyler and Clementine, and things start to change. They're then informed that Mavis is moving in for six months, which means that Tyler and Clementine are moving back in!
In the second story, one of Jen's clients, Erikson, asks to pay her with a painting, since he doesn't have any money. Greg looks at some of Erikson's paintings, and he doesn't "get" them. Erikson then pops in to observe them for the family portrait they're going to have painted of them. Jen isn't too fond of the idea, so she gives him some pictures of the family instead. Later, Erikson shows up with the painting. It's horrible, and Jen hates it, but Greg likes it. He vows to fix it, but his "fix" is to put it in the bedroom. Matt comes over to look at it, and he's shocked that they scored an original Erikson. He tells them to hold onto it, but Jen holds her ground and wants it gone. So they give it to John and Joan, who proudly display it in their home.
In the third story, Matt and Colleen tell Sophia about their idea for a new children's book. Sophia's not impressed, but she tells her about her idea for a story. It's a good idea, but it's also a stolen idea. Matt and Colleen want to turn it into a story, but Sophia doesn't want to. They don't understand why, but the viewers know. Later, Heather indirectly tells her that plagiarism is okay, as long as you change a few details. Sophia tries to convince Matt and Colleen to change the topic of the story, but they don't want to, since they love the original plan. She decides to tell her friend from school about stealing his idea, and he acts upset. However, it is soon discovered that Socktopia is already a book.
In the fourth story, John gets a scam call from the IRS (which he obviously falls for), and he tries to find money to wire to them. However, Joan tells him to call their accountant Celeste. John tells her that he fired Celeste, and she isn't happy. She decides to check their taxes, and discovers that John made a mistake when he did them himself. She tries to wire money to the IRS, but she gets distracted by John, who is hiding things from the IRS. THen, they get a knock at the door. They suspect it's the IRS, but it's even worse: it's Heather (the horror!!!!). She tells them that it's a scam, which she knows since her own idiot husband (John's words, also mine) fell for it too.
Wrap-Up:
This episode sure was an improvement on the one that preceded it, but that's not an accomplishment at all. The first episodes were pretty good, but weren't really that great. There were parts of all of them that I liked, but I also had significant problems with each. The fourth, however, was amazing. I laughed so much at it and it really reminded me of why I used to love this show so much. It felt like a classic Life In Pieces segment, and was much better than just about anything this show has produced in all of 2018. That helped boost this show up from a just-okay score to one that's slightly above average for this underwhelming season.
Score: 7.5/10
Grade: B-
