The New Adventures Of Old Christine: Rage Against The Christine (Recap)

By Tom Rose
Fancast.com

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, someboby on the writing staff for The New Adventures of Old Christine wants to be Larry David… badly.

On last night’s episode too many callbacks to Seinfeld gave me an eerie feeling of deja vu, and not in a good way. In the opening above Old Christine wins a tennis match against (old) new boyfriend Patrick (Tim DeKay) causing him to fly into a fit of nerdy, self-destructive rage.

Aside from using the actor who nearly usurped Elaine from Jerry’s circle (by being Bizarro Jerry - an exact opposite) there was a slo-mo shot of his tennis racket flying across the court. Had it knocked Ben Stein on the noggin, I would have turned off the TV and dug out my “Best Of” DVDs instead.

Thankfully, the action switches back to OC and her penchant for “enraging” everyone she knows.

Matthew (Hamish Linklater) Richard (Clark Gregg) and New Christine (Emily Rutherfurd) can all relate: Christine rolls her eyes at absurd statements, calls Richard a “turkey neck” and claims biofuels are bad because “they’re harmful to the biosphere.” All delivered with the polished Julia Louis-Dreyfus trademark panache and brio. Sorry. I’ve always wanted to say that.

The Seinfeld Chronicles continue when Matthew gets the idea that his infatuation with new girlfriend/old patient/new ethics challenge Lucy (Michaela Watkins) is caused by a secret attraction to Old Christine, his sister.

Shades of George’s man love for Jerry’s latest girlfriend “Lady-Jerry” (Ozzie and Harriett heiress Tracy Nelson) but the saving grace is that Lucy was once mistaken for Julia Roberts (nowhere close to Lady-Jerry’s likeness) so “how can I look like your sister?”

Somehow the explanation soothes Matthew’s fears.

To force the issue of exploring Patrick’s rage (was it a one time thing?) OC calls for Game Night with the gang and before Patrick arrives she sets him up for the fall, imploring them all to make sure he loses somehow. But Matthew’s psychic abilities thwart the effort (he can tell the answer just by the look on OC’s face) and New Christine has a surprising knack for guessing the right answer from meaningless clues (He’s on the nickel: Richard Nixon. Yes!) and the game goes to Patrick’s team. The loss causes OC to fly into a rage instead.

But Richard saves the day when he bets Patrick 20 bucks that the wine they’re drinking is a burgandy, not a pinot. When Patrick loses, he flies into the obligatory fit… he’s a winery owner after all. OC proves the point but now is in fear for her life. He may be a psychotic, but he’s my psychotic.

Still, there is Little Ritchie (Trevor Gagnon - M.I.A again) to consider so OC has to break it off. She gets Richard to wait in the wings in case of a fight but he explains he’s more of a lover than a fighter. “You’re not much of a lover either” she tells him. Y’know, she does have the enraging knack. But Patrick takes the news calmly, with no hint of losing control. I guess he was just not that into her.

So now it’s Matthew and Lucy who are a hot item, and off to a tennis match themselves. When Lucy shows up, she’s wearing a dress just like OC’s and we get a minute of The Patty Duke Show (they laugh alike, they walk alike, at times they even talk alike — what a wild duet!) until OC offers a glass of wine. Turns out Lucy doesn’t drink. “You’re nothing like my sister!” exclaims Matthew and the romance is officially on.

If everything goes according to the Larry David Plan for Sitcom World Domination, the next arc should be an easy one to predict.

Now let’s see, what’s Janeane Garofalo up to these days?

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