United States of Al Season 2 Episode 10 Review

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Back from the holiday break, USofAL takes an interesting turn. Al (Adhir Kalyan) invites his psychology professor (John Ross Bowie) over for dinner while Riley (Parker Young) finds he can't "perform" with his new girlfriend, Holly (Amanda Payton). This is the first episode of the season that doesn't mention Afghan refugees at all.

Since Riley has been painted as a super stud in the past, it's amusing to find him suddenly suffering from performance anxiety. His therapist (Blake Clark) chalks it up to Holly being more than a one night stand.

Meanwhile, Al, who was originally skeptical of the concept of psychology, is impressed with his professor until he shows interest in dating Lizzie (Elizabeth Alderfer). Is Al jealous or just offended?

There's some missed opportunity to tease out Riley's performance issues with innuendo and wordplay, but the writers chose to steer clear of bawdy low brow humor, and of course, the virginal Al wouldn't be talking sex with Riley at all.  This is USofAL, not TWO AND A HALF MEN after all, even though both shows are Chuck Lorre productions! There's not even a mention of viagra! The end result is an average half hour without any current affairs overshadowing the chortles.

Harrison Cheung is the author of the award-winning biography of Christian Bale (BenBella Books) and a contributor to Brave New Hollywood and The TV Ratings Guide.

@harrisonic (Twitter)

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