As the season progresses, Tessa finds herself attracted to Ryan, then interested in the hot boy Dalia sets her mind to, Scott Strauss. But Tessa soon finds that looks aren't everything. Meanwhile, George realizes that "fishing in the local waters" with waitress Jocelyn (Arden Myrin) could complicate things unnecessarily. While he finds himself attracted to Dallas and the feeling seems mutual, he stays away from the perky married woman. By the time Dallas realizes she's better off without Steve, George has discovered Eden (Alicia Silverstone), a vegetarian hippie type who steals his heart. But nothing is without complication in Chatswin and George and Noah are both stunned to discover that George's new girlfriend is Noah's baby's surrogate birth mother! The season wraps up with Tessa deciding once and for all that she's just not happy in Chatswin. Perhaps a meet and greet with her mother who abandoned her so long ago is in order...
While there were definitely some amusing moments in Suburgatory: The Complete First Season, it just didn't grab me the way some comedies do (like The Big Bang Theory, for instance). There were funny scenes and I do like Jeremy Sisto, but Jane Levy just reminded me too much of Emma Stone in Easy A, almost as if she was channeling her, at times. Levy is a competent actress and adorable, to boot, but I just wanted Tessa to be her own character and she just seemed like a shadow of Stone. Alan Tudyk is insane in this series and, although he is always quite the character, he was a bit much to take, even for fans.
Aside from that, I thought Suburgatory was a little oversexualized. Whether it was the flamboyant guidance counselor, Mr. Wolfe (Rex Lee) who decides he is gay mid-season although everyone else already knows it, or all of the kids asking Tessa if she is a lesbian because of the clothes she wears, or even Lisa and her boyfriend, Malik, who insist on swirling their tongues on a regular basis, it was just a bit much. There's a scene towards the end of the season in which Tessa is down in the dumps and Ryan takes her to dinner to cheer her up. All he asks for in return is to touch her boob for a few minutes and she lets him. What kind of message is this sending to teenage girls that they have to subject themselves to being treated as nothing more than a sexual object, just because a guy buys them dinner to cheer them up? Since this is obviously a show made to appeal to both adults and teenagers, I thought it was a terrible message and it really turned me off.
Special features include deleted scenes, a gag reel and a featurette on the creation of the series. Overall, Suburgatory: The Complete First Season is amusing, but it's not something I would necessarily recommend. It actually reminds me a good deal of GCB, which also had a garish cast of characters that were more caricature than real. GCB got cancelled, while Suburgatory got renewed. See if you can catch an episode on Hulu before you make the investment of the season on DVD.
