Rules of Engagement: Where's Jennifer?

Good day my friends,

Rules of Engagement is far from the most sophisticated television show, but it’s funny.  And really, don’t we need to laugh a little every day?  ROE is a show about two couples, one married & the other engaged, and their lecherous single friend.  Last night’s episode was particularly amusing despite the fact that the very best part of the show was missing.  No Jennifer?  What’s going on?

The show takes place in New York City and stars Patrick Warburton (David Puddy from Seinfeld) and the very hot Megyn Price as the long married couple Jeff & Audrey; Oliver Hudson (son of Goldie Hawn and brother of Kate Hudson) and the stunningly gorgeous and sexy Bianca Kajilich as engaged sweethearts Adam & Jennifer; David Spade as the lecherous single guy Russell and Adhir Kalyan as his assistant Timmy.  Many scenes take place in a local diner where our cast frequents.  (Frankly I think we all need a diner close by to hang out in, but ultimately that does get a bit dull not to mention expensive)  Somehow they always seem to get seated at the same table.  How exactly does that happen?

Before I get too far into last night’s episodes I must sing the praises of Bianca Kajilich.  She is absolutely beautiful and my favorite part of the show other than the comedy and the voluptuous Megyn.  If Bianca has a flaw it is the hideous tattoo she has on her upper right arm.  On the show the tattoo is often hidden by clothes or by having her face the other direction, but there are times when she is wearing a top that shows off her arm and in those cases they use makeup to cover it up.  It always looks like she just has a smudge on her arm as the makeup does not quite cover it completely.  Why a woman this beautiful decided to ugly herself up with a huge arm tattoo is beyond me, but then again Sir Griffin has never been a fan of tattoos to begin with.  Nonetheless she is still hot beyond words and I really missed her last night.  I don’t ever recall hearing her name mentioned at all so no explanation was ever given as to why Jennifer was conspicuously absent. 

Regardless, it was a good episode and the producers were obviously compensating for the absence of Jennifer by putting Audrey in a running outfit with her boobs lifted up and out as far as possible.  Sir Griffin was impressed.  Please keep doing this.

Anyway, as in most situation comedies there was more than one storyline going.  One involved Russell getting treated by a woman the same way he had been treating women for years and the other involved Jeff being bombarded at the office by monetary requests for baby gifts, birthdays, raffle tickets, etc.  If you have ever worked in an office you know how annoying this is, unless of course you are that one annoying person that always does the collecting and gets the cakes and such.  Not a week goes by when Sir Griffin is not hit up for a donation for somebody and apparently the same was true for Jeff and he had had enough.  After being asked for and declining a raffle ticket Jeff announced to the entire office that he was done with giving money for every little thing around the office.  This is something I have always wanted to do as well, but unfortunately Jeff’s timing was a bit off.  Not only did Jeff interrupt Todd’s birthday party (and took the first piece of cake) but then Audrey signed up for a 10k run for charity and said she was going to stop by Jeff’s office and ask all of his co-workers for a pledge to support her.  Oops.

Meanwhile Russell has gotten completely out of character and has fallen for a girl, while not unattractive, but certainly in a lesser league than his normal conquests.  I suppose that was the point though.  For Russell to go head over heels for a woman that was more his equal in attitude sort of makes sense if you think about it; however I was not really thinking about that last night.  Adam, who has gotten dumber and dumber as this series has progressed, followed Russell around like a little puppy dog last night.  Whilst that is not out of the norm per se, it did seem like it was compensating in some sort of for the missing Jennifer.  Timmy, of course, was his usual level headed and witty self and tried to get Russell to catch on, but to no avail.

Jeff ended up faking the pledge sheet as there was no way he could go to the office and ask for money from a bunch of people he had recently berated for asking for money.  So he devised a plan.  Fake the pledge sheet and then make sure that Audrey missed the race so that no one would have to pay up.  Jeff put a sleeping pill in Audrey’s water to get her to oversleep, but then Audrey herself took a sleeping pill to make sure she was well rested in the morning.  Jeff spent a good portion of the night making sure Audrey was still good and asleep (and alive too I am guessing) but fell asleep himself right before Audrey started sleepwalking. 

Now I am not sure that we had ever before determined that Audrey was a sleepwalker and it certainly could have been the result of the two sleeping pills, but regardless it was quite funny.  Audrey did not just sleepwalk, but rather she left her home and did her entire 10k run while asleep.  The sight of Audrey running through the streets of NYC in her pajamas was most amusing.  My favorite part was when she went through a yellow police line and acted like it was the finish.  Well, that and the part where she took the cup from the homeless guy and dumped coins on her head. 

So Audrey ended up oversleeping and missing the real race so Jeff thought he was free and clear.  Unfortunately Audrey, being the solid and honest person that she is, determined that the charity should not suffer due to her oversleeping and sent in a check herself to cover all of the pledges.  As with most men, Jeff simply cannot win. 

And much to Timmy’s dismay we learned at the end that all of the stuff Russell believed about his new girl were true and she was not blowing him off in the least.  Maybe.  We saw in the closing of the show yet another classic blow off and Russell hugged the note she left on the pillow.  To be continued I guess.

But the question remains…where was Jennifer?  Was she injured?  Family emergency?  On strike?  Or maybe just not needed in the script?  No, I cannot allow myself to believe that last one is true.  She is an integral part of the show.  Without her there is no engaged couple down the hall, just Adam.  And with Adam getting dumber and dumber Jennifer is needed to keep him from turning into too much of a cartoon. 

Please come back soon Bianca.  We miss you.

It’s not just a shoehorn; it’s a shoehorn on a stick.