Twenties 1×08 Review: Living The Dream

While the Season One finale of Twenties left a couple of strings hanging, ‘Living The Dream’ did offer some nice narrative choices which I can’t wait for the second season to build on. Fingers crossed that Twenties does come back for another outing!

‘Living The Dream’ opened with Ida B (Sophina Brown) having a sexually charged dream about Hattie (Jonica T. Gibbs). Now, the previous episodes did make it clear there were sparks between the two. However, I wasn’t sure if Ida B was really into Hattie or just finding ways to play with her feelings. Truth be told, I’m still not sure.

Could she really be in love with Hattie? Does Ida B think that Hattie and she are similar? I have no idea. But with how things ended up with them during the final moments of this episode, I’m really interested in seeing where they will go next.

While on the topic of Hattie’s love life, I liked her conversation with Idina (Shylo Shaner). I could understand where both of them were coming from. Hattie wanted to only stay friends with Idina because Hattie didn’t have queer friends in her life. Or maybe because Hattie wasn’t into ‘masculine’ presenting lesbians?

I did nod to myself when Idina told Hattie she shouldn’t make assumptions about others and that Hattie should be more open to dating different kinds of people. I wouldn’t be surprised if Idina continued to appear in Twenties and play a part in developing Hattie as a character.

As for Nia (Gabrielle Graham), she got herself a role in Ida B’s show. Nia’s back to having an acting career and I was glad for her- even though she did use Ida B’s script to offer a monologue and got Hattie fired in the process. Having said that, I can’t make myself be angry at Nia for such a decision. It wasn’t as if Hattie told her never to read from the script in front of someone else, right?

With Nia working for Ida B, it will be interesting to see if having such connected professional lives will change things between Nia and Hattie.

‘Living The Dream’ also gave us some weird moments between Marie (Christina Elmore) and Chuck (Jevon McFerrin). Due to it being her birthday, Marie’s boss gave her a present. I have seen some people online saying there’s chemistry between them. And I saw it too during the previous episode. I don’t know how to feel about Marie and Zach being a thing. Such kind of development feels random to me.

Anyway, I had been waiting for Twenties to address the issue with Chuck’s bisexuality and his tendency to flirt with everyone even though Marie’s asked him to stop. It looks like this is a plot point that will follow Marie into the second season.

Also, how many of you assumed Marie and Chuck were already married? Because I thought they were. And I’m not the only one. Some people online thought they were already married, too. So, it came as a surprise when Chuck proposed to Marie during her birthday celebration.

Seeing Marie say yes to marrying him made me roll my eyes. I don’t know about you, but I think you would talk to your husband-to-be about him likely being bisexual before tying the knot, right? Marie clearly had an issue with Chuck’s sexuality and hearing her say yes without having a serious conversation raised red flags for me.

I wanted to tell her to stop when she took out her frustrations on Hattie. I think Marie’s so scared of being alone she would rather continue with a troubling relationship instead of risk breaking up by addressing some of her concerns regarding Chuck.

‘Living The Dream’ left Marie in a mess and I hope she’s able to handle it well.

Other thoughts and opinions:

• Seeing Vanessa Willams and Rick Fox play Chuck’s parents was a fun casting choice. The two actors were married in real life, too.
• Marie has to do something about her mother!
• So, I guess we’re putting off Ben’s invitation to help Nia’s career for the second season?
• Nia and Marie joking about Hattie having a crush on them was quite a hilarious interaction. What is it with certain straight people thinking their queer friends have a crush on them? 

The ratings for Twenties have been good as far BET is concerned. So, we might just get a second season! I’ll let you all know as soon as the official word gets out.

Until then, thank you to Lena Waithe and her team for creating a show that has been extremely fun to watch and doesn’t shy away from being hella queer!

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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