The Conners Season 6 Episode 6 Review: Hanging in Dorms With Boys and the Secret Life of Men

It’s all about finding a way to get through our biggest fears and regrets for The Conners Season 6 Episode 6, “Hanging in Dorms With Boys and the Secret Life of Men.” It could’ve been an interesting or even funny episode if it had been played a bit better.

The part of the episode centered on Ben having a guy’s night with Dan, Neville, and Tyler could’ve been over-the-top hilarious if the Mark and Harris parts weren’t so nauseatingly boring. It isn’t often that this show stumbles so hard the episode fails to impress, but it does happen at least once a season.

“Hanging in Dorms With Boys and the Secret Life of Men” appears to be Season 6’s failure to launch episode.

Harris and Mark — Can’t Figure Out Their Dynamic

So, what exactly caused the Mark and Harris portion of the episode to fail? I truly believe it was all in the chemistry between McNamara and Kenney. 

In their own right, these two young, up-and-coming actors are very talented and have the ability to charm us and make us laugh. Unfortunately, The Conners hasn’t put them in a scene of consequence together in ages, and it shows with how uncomfortable they seem.

Each scene in Mark’s dorm is excruciatingly awkward to watch and lacks any true emotionality because there seems to be a wall between them. Mark’s anger at Harris and Harris’ insistence that she’s not doing anything wrong appear to be two separate stories never intersecting the correct way.

It isn’t believable that these two are siblings because their fails to be any warmth or familiarity between them in any of the scenes. Mark’s annoyance comes across as uninspired and, like McNamara is phoning it in.

The same could be said about Kenney’s rebellious charm. We know that she can be bigger than life onscreen — especially if we’ve watched her on Shameless — but here it’s as if she’s reading a phone book. 

Have the actors been replaced by pod people? I miss the fire that used to come up between Harris and Mark when they’d get under each other’s skin. It’s as if not living in the same location anymore has prevented them from even knowing one another.

Sick Goats and Good Kittys

What is even more disappointing about the Mark and Harris missteps is that they affect how we view the rest of the episode. It’s hard to lock into what should be a tongue-in-cheek episode about male bonding when our minds are still trying to wrap our heads around how disjointed the siblings are acting.

I mean, who doesn’t want to have all the male bonding in the presence of sick animals and cuddly creatures? Hello! The Conners, why haven’t we seen Neville’s clinic setting sooner?

Not only that, there is something so wholesome about a group of middle-aged, Dan being a bit older but still, hanging around cuddling animals and “not talking” about their feelings.

As stated above, this could’ve been a wonderful concept to explore if only the other half of the episode didn’t exist. The Conners Season 6 Episode 5, “When Sisters Collide and the Return of the Grifters,” proved that Neville and Dan have a strong male bond and interact well together.

So, why couldn’t that same charm work with the whole group together? The answer is that it does, but because the episode doesn’t spend the majority of the time, the scenes lack the impact they could’ve had.

We get glimpses of it when Tyler asks Neville if he can praise the cat or when Dan acknowledges that Ben is right to be annoyed with Darlene’s attempts to talk.

These guys have quite a bit in common, but the best part about that is it can easily be conveyed without any deep heart-to-hearts between them. Give them some focus, and some beers, and let them talk by not actually talking.

Here’s hoping we get to see more male bonding in the episodes to come.

Stray Thoughts:

• It’s a nice touch to have one of the bluesy harmonica transitions be Dan actually playing his harmonica.
• Darlene, Jackie, and Becky thinking their men went to a strip club is hilarious
• “Tyler is not a strip club guy! He lives with his mom. He’s on the road all the time. OH MY GOD! He IS a strip club guy!”
• It’ll be interesting to see if Harris spends some more time exploring what she really wants
• The best exchange was between Ben and Tyler: “My wife thinks I need a male friend.” “That’s funny; my mom says the same thing about me.”

 

What did you think of this episode of The Conners? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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The Conners airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on ABC.

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