Hot in Cleveland: Changing Yourself

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

I didn't really like this episode. There were a few good jokes, of course. Elka was her usual, hilarious and spunky self. But the main story and the remaining stars all had material this week that left something to be desired. The idea that the neighborhood women want the ladies' help in making themselves over was plausible. The fact that ALL THREE of the husbands demanded that they not change was not. And that just made it too disappointing to really enjoy, I guess. Am I wrong?

Hot in Cleveland "Happy Fat" (S03E04): Joy comes into the house and is followed by a neighborhood woman who yells at Joy for bending over to pick up her mail while wearing shorts. [this sounds a little too much like Suburgatory to me...] The woman claims that all of the men in the neighborhood stare at Joy, Victoria, and Melanie "with their fancy clothes and Hollywood hair." They decide to give the woman a makeover, with Victoria in charge of diet and culture, Melanie in charge of exercise and constructive self-loathing, and Joy in charge of hair and makeup. (all free of charge, mind you.) [this all seemed very Clueless, but I think that's just because I compare all freebie makeovers to Cher and Dionne. Blame my age.] The neighbor brings two other ladies with her when they actually begin. First, they go on a diet that allows you to put food in your mouth but not actually eat it. [greeeeat. Let's prompt eating disorders.] They're told to skip breakfast, have a simple salad for lunch, and veggies and fish OR A MARTINI for dinner. [I think that the caps stress my thoughts on this one...]

A week later, the ladies come back from a jog and weigh-in. There's been some progress, but it's slow, so the ladies tell the neighborhood women to wear six-inch heels around the neighborhood to look thinner. [haha at the "I add raisins, then it's a salad" comment! and at Victoria's ability to guess how many calories are in something by smelling it.] Joy talks about botox, lasers, etc. but is interrupted when the husbands barge in, wanting their "old wives" back, who weren't cranky and hungry all the time. [hahaha.] They all end up leaving, having been validated that their husbands like them. [that was annoying. it's like the episode was pointless.]

While all of this has been going on, Roy and Elka have been going on adventurous dates, like riding motorcycles. Elka is getting worn out, but is worried that he'll find out that she's older than him if she seems tired. The answer? LIE! The ladies tell her to lie about her age, weight, energy level, everything. [I laughed at the suggestion to pick a nice, round number to use as a birth year to make math easy.] Roy starts telling Elka the story of his life and she keeps responding to years with what "fake" age she was then. [funny at first, but quickly became obnoxious...] Roy soon suggests that they go skydiving, and Elka says she's up for it. But when she tells the girls the plan, they tell her to get out of it. [I laughed quite a bit about Melanie's suggestion that she has her period.] Up in the plane, ready to jump, Roy admits that he never really skydived before, he was making up part of his background to make himself seem more exciting. [figures. didn't see it coming, tho!] They end up jumping anyway, and talk in flight. [not really possible when you're free-falling, by the way.] They begin to drift in the wrong direction, and Elka knows it's because she lied about her weight on the forms. [hahaha, this made me laugh pretty hard.]

Elka comes home and tells the girls that she told Roy the truth about everything, and between this and the way the neighborhood makeovers ended, Victoria is shocked that men are now accepting women as they are. [ha!] Elka lectures the girls, and they decide that maybe they should eat a little more. [is that really all that they took away from it??] They have some fattening "walking taco" that one of the neighbors had brought over, but then realize that they need to be themselves, however nightmarish that would be. [too moral of an ending for this show!]