Sirens: “Shotgun Wedding”

The final episode of Sirens’ inaugural season doesn’t end with a bang. In fact, it opens with one. Theresa and her knuckleheaded partner Billy respond to an armed robbery call, and she takes some buckshot in the arm. She’s not seriously hurt, but after a night of Percocet-fueled sex with Johnny, she comes to the conclusion that she needs to stop waiting and move to D.C. to pursue her dreams of being in the FBI. Johnny, in a small panic, responds the only way he knows how: asking her to marry him.

The rest of the episode is just a comedy of errors, held quietly together by the winning performances by all the actors involved. Johnny and Theresa try to have a quiet, unfussy ceremony at city hall, but they learn there’s a 24-hour waiting period and all their co-workers and families end up showing up to celebrate.

They eventually find a church to perform the wedding. And then everything goes further awry. The in-laws bicker from the get-go. The priest won’t stop quoting lines from Kevin Costner movies. Hank gets caught fooling around with the priest’s son. And the priest has a heart attack after being arrested for running an illegal cockfighting ring in the church basement. I’m also still not sure if Johnny and Theresa actually ended up married or not.

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Sitcom episodes like this are increasingly hard to write about because there are no larger themes to extrapolate or that they dare touch on. The best you could glean is an encouragement to seize the day and not shy away from challenging or scary things because, before you know it, you could end up taking a shotgun blast to the face (Theresa’s words, not mine).

What tonight’s edition did emphasize is what a treat it is to have Sirens on the weekly TV schedule. It’s a rare show with heart and a real sense of chemistry between all the characters in it. Quirks, as I’ve said before, are kept to a minimum, which means no one is going to be a big breakout star from the first season. But that fits the core of the show: it’s about camaraderie and how satisfying and aggravating a group dynamic can be. It’s the kind of show that almost … almost … makes me miss spending my weekdays in an office. Instead, I’ll just stop by this show when it hopefully returns for a second season, get my little shot of the office life, and then get back to my self-employed life.

Robert Ham is a Portland-based freelance writer and regular contributor to Paste. You can follow him on Twitter.

Sirens: “Shotgun Wedding”

(Episode 1.10)