GCB: Performing for the Church & for Cable TV

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

I'm pretty close to declaring this the worst episode yet. Amanda wants to help the pastor show up an old competitor by organizing an original musical. Carlene and Cricket both want to play the main character. In trying to make everyone happy, everyone quits. The girls have a mud fight. All the while, Sharon is doing her own thing - trying to get her business of selling "Holy Meals" off the ground. The one plus? We're not dealing with a half-dozen secondary characters for once! The odds are starting to look bleak for GCB, but we may not know its fate until the 15th of next month so hang in there... but don't get attached... as if you could...

GCB "Pride Comes Before a Fall" (S01E08): While taking literature from the foyer of the church to which their congregates are flocking, Amanda and the pastor run into an old rival of his. [I'm amazed when two pastors know each other from long ago... it's not THAT SMALL of a world, and pastors are always called to serve in other communities and whatnot...] To help out her pastor, Amanda claims that they have an original musical in the works. Well, in order to make this true, she pulls out a play that Heather wrote in tenth grade. But, Amanda has to be the director, as they recently lost the choir director. [hahaha, this should be rich!] Cricket and Carlene both want to play the lead character, The Holy Spirit, and Cricket tries to solidify the role by offering to fund all sorts of spectacle. Carlene gets the part, so Cricket drops out completely. [you know, just like seventh grade.] Amanda asks Cricket to come back, bring the special elements she originally suggested, and she can be The Holy Spirit.

Carlene, not wanting the part of the lowly leper, cuts a deal with Heather - she'll give the real estate agent first crack at selling the condos in her Christian Living project if she can return to being the lead. [you know, assuming that the illegal project ever takes off and that Heather is licensed to sell in Mexico.] Heather re-writes the play so that the leper is the narrator, but Amanda doesn't like the idea. All deals are destroyed and everyone walks out. Amanda sends anonymous texts to Heather,

(ABC/KAREN NEAL)

Cricket, and Carlene, dresses in her old cheerleader uniform, and invites them to pour mud on her like she did to them in the old days. [really? gross.] It takes some more prodding, but soon there's a mud fight and they agree to put the show back together. [because, just like in seventh grade, it doesn't take too long to make up again.] But, at the show, the fly is still weighted for Cricket so Carlene goes soaring and crashes through some stained glass. [it was funny. trust me, I tried to find a picture of that!] 

Where's Sharon during all of this? Well, she's enlisted Gigi to help her sell her Holy Weight Loss Meal Plans on television. Gigi gives her tips like lowering her voice, not saying y'all, and changing the curl in her hair, but Sharon comes off as unnatural and boring, so she goes back to her old self. [$1299.99 per month?!?] When over 500 sell, Sharon suddenly realizes that she will need to whip up a TON of food! [cue next week... and another eye roll!]