SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for Universal Basic Guys Season 3, Episode 3.
Universal Basic Guys Season 3, Episode 3 is the latest in a long line of TV summer camp misadventures. It’s not quite “Kamp Krusty,” but “Lake Piney” hits all the notes FOX viewers will expect. And it’s saying something when Mark Hoagies’ scheme of the week is actually the least interesting part of the episode.
“Lake Piney” is primarily about Tammy and Darren, in what starts as a typical growing-up story. Darren, who’s going off to the local summer camp as a junior lifeguard, just wants space from his mother. Tammy, of course, is overly worried about leaving her son alone at a camp that was previously one step above a disaster area. Mark and Hank’s mom Rhoda sums conflict this up with the episode’s best line: “Why don’t you just shove him back in your uterus?”
The audience knows this plotline will be about Tammy learning to let go as Darren grows up. But because this is Universal Basic Guys, there’s an absurd twist: the head lifeguard Darren is working under turns out to be a maniac. Plus, there’s a guest appearance by the Jersey Devil. Maybe this qualifies as the season’s Halloween episode, with the mysterious lifeguard shed in the woods and Tammy having to rescue her son. But as far as crescendos go, this is relatively tame by UBG standards. The previous episode’s homicidal clown was scarier.
The entertainment value in “Lake Piney” comes mostly from Darren and Tammy’s relationship. The best example is early on, when Mark’s duffel bag of magnets gets stuck to the rear door of the family’s SUV. He walks off, and that suggests he’s going to come back with some kind of ridiculous prop to fix the problem. Instead, Darren gets stuck to the magnets—as Tammy admits she put an AirTag in his shorts. It’s not the visual gag that the audience is expecting, and it works perfectly with Tammy being a well-meaning but overbearing mom. Their banter is fun, but it also feels like a genuine mother-son relationship. The only missed opportunity is that the script doesn’t lean enough into the contrast between how Tammy treats Darren, and how Rhoda treated her sons. There are a couple of jokes about this, but there could’ve been a lot more.
The magnets are related to the subplot, in which Mark convinces Hank to go “magnet fishing,” which is essentially scavenging but using magnets instead of metal detectors. These jokes are more predictable; they’re still funny, but viewers can see many of them coming, like Mark losing his keys to the magnet. The audience knows that Hank’s collection of soup cans is going to come good eventually—but that doesn’t make it any less satisfying when he shows up Mark on Reddit. There’s also the sight gag of the SUV turned into a giant rust bucket after it winds up in the ocean. Since this is an animated sitcom, fans know it’ll be fine next week; that’s one of those jokes animation can do that live-action can’t.
“Lake Piney” further develops the relationship between Tammy and Darren, and it’s nice to see Tammy be the hero of sorts in an episode after she’s had somewhat of a rough start to the season. As many live-action sitcoms have demonstrated, often the wife is just a foil to the husband’s hijinks, and while Tammy certainly is that to Mark, Universal Basic Guys creators Adam and Craig Malamut have put in the effort to make her a well-rounded character. The episode is business as usual for Mark, Hank and even an underused Rhoda, but it’s at least a different kind of story that’s also kind of heartwarming.
Universal Basic Guys airs Sundays at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on FOX. Photo Credit: Courtesy of FOX.
Article content is (c)2020-2026 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.
