SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for American Classic Season 1, Episode 5.

Episode 5 is when American Classic goes full madcap comedy. The MGM+ series has never been more freewheeling than in “Schicklgruber.” This is the episode where all the problems viewers saw coming actually happen, and the audience can only sit back and giggle at the results.

Here is where Richard Bean’s overly ambitious production of Our Town finally gets moving, and bringing so many characters together is how the jealousies and potential rivalries from previous episodes bear fruit. A large part of the story is about how Miranda’s boyfriend Randall is convinced that she’s going to leave him for handsome actor Heath—to the point where Randall tells Miranda’s mother that her daughter isn’t going to college. This is all incredibly juvenile on Randall’s part, which makes it the least interesting plot in the episode; viewers will just want Miranda to dump him already.

But this pushes forward the inevitable conflict between Miranda and Kristen, which turns into Kristen getting scolded by Richard for giving up on her own talent in the scene that American Classic viewers always knew would happen. That takes place after a bombshell between Kristen and Richard’s ex-wife Polly (a returning Jessica Hecht), who tells Kristen that “you were the great love of his life. I was just someone to drink with.” To hear that harsh criticism from Richard after that food for thought is a perfect one-two punch for Kristen’s character development, and Laura Linney plays those moments so well; the audience can read the emotions on her face, without her having to say very much at all.

There’s an interesting contrast in Episode 5 between Kristen having those what-ifs thrown back at her and Miranda’s unashamed determination to build her acting career in New York. To see the girl who wants to be a star, versus her mother who could very well have been one—if only? And that will hit home with anyone who’s ever dreamed of being any kind of artist, because everyone’s been there. What’s made American Classic such a feel-good show is that it’s about the opportunity to chase those dreams, no matter how haphazard. And in “Schicklgruber,” there’s plenty of haphazard.

The citizens of Millersburg get a little more screen time in this episode with Our Town in rehearsals, and it’s as offbeat as it ought to be. Besides Randall openly hating Heath, there’s the Pattersons (who both happen to be named Pat) realizing that playing a married couple isn’t great for their actual marriage. Yaeger T. Welch’s Dr. Seale, who was a scene-stealer in Episode 4, opens up a little more here. And it’s pretty funny when Kenny admits to the room that being an undertaker has actually made him afraid of death, but that also makes sense when fans think about it. This is meant to be a collection of quirky people, so American Classic provides plenty of odd laughs when they’re together.

But then there’s the Nadia of it all. It’s surprising that the show has the truth about how Nadia got into the cast come out so quickly; it could have milked that for dramatic tension another episode or two. Instead, Richard winds up telling Nadia she can’t act when she mistakenly thinks that he wants to sleep with her. Kudos to Elise Kibler for once again being committed to the ludicrousness of her character, whether it’s pretty much yelling half of her lines or the physical comedy of climbing out Richard’s bedroom window (which is implied to not end well). It’s all-out war between the Bean family and Team Boyle now, especially since Connor set up Richard’s brother Jon with a trip to Atlantic City that just happened to result in Jon losing more than $43,000 while gambling.

In any direction, the relationships of American Classic are now a mess, with Boyle and Nadia having leverage (for now). Kristen will be furious with Jon on top of her frustration with Miranda and Richard. There’s obviously a bit of jealousy in Jon toward Richard that Boyle was able to capitalize on. This is the part of the play where all seems lost, and the family has to rally and put their differences aside to defeat the bad guys. How American Classic gets there is just through a screwball domino effect that involves a nosebleed, Jon Tenney cuddling a pillow, and an actual pony. This is a show that isn’t afraid to be a little absurd or self-deprecating, and Episode 5 is both of those things to great effect.

American Classic airs Sundays at 9:00 p.m. on MGM+. Photo Credit: David Giesbrecht/Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios.

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