Review:
The Cleveland Show: Episode Six

106: Ladies’ Night

‘Did you have fun watching Grey’s AnatoMOOOOONRIIIIIVEEER!’ – Cleveland

After presenting a slight teaser for the real depths of Donna’s character last week, it’s now time for the writers to do an episode that focuses on exactly who she is. The best part is, it’s all completely believable and utterly hilarious.

While Cleveland is having a great time with his friends from the neighbourhood, Donna doesn’t seem to be having quite as much fun. When her husband continually pressures her to have fun with his friends’ wives, Donna finally has enough and sneaks off to her own group of gal pals.

Meanwhile, Roberta’s friends nominate Cleveland Jr. for School President for a joke. Fearing that his own reputation is at stake, Rallo lends a hand to his step-brother and turns the campaign trail into a mud-slinging war of words.

It’s a fantastic episode with so many cracking facets and avenues for the cast to really come to life and grow onscreen, all in the course of the episode. The idea of Donna not actually getting on that well with the neighbour’s wives is both convincing and sensible, and is carried off with a really smart twist, managing to convince the viewer that she might be seeing another man. It’s this extra layer of mystery, which, while admittedly very short, manages to lift the episode up from all the others that have gone before it.

The real strength of the episode is that Donna’s group of ‘man-hating bitches’, as Cleveland himself put it, are so completely believable. It’s the first time we’ve been permitted to access to the life she had before Cleveland came along and it’s really great to see. Represented by Yvette, the single mothers group is antagonistic and amusing, with the emphasis firmly on the plausible. Considering that Yvette even stabs a man in the hand, this is no mean feat.