HBO’s ‘Divorce’ episode 2 preview: Doors and granola

The first episode of “Divorce” aired on HBO this past Sunday, and by and large, we’d consider it a mixed bag. While there were some genuine moments of humor throughout the half-hour, there were also some frustrations with the overall tone, which felt almost at times too depressing for its own good.

Basically, the challenge for a comedy pilot is rather simple in that you have to set up the premise, explain the relationships, and try to find room for comedy somewhere in there. We imagine that it is so much harder to do that when you’re dealing with a premise like this, one that is in many ways inherently depressing. Divorce is obviously not something anyone wants to think about, and the same goes for someone hearing their partner say that they are going to turn the children against you. Yet, that’s precisely what happened to Frances at the end of this past episode, following the revelation that she had an affair.

On the next new episode Sunday, that revelation is going to spiral out further as Robert starts to realize that he is the last one to know that this was happening, which is only going to make matters worse. At this point, it’s hard to imagine how things are going to get any better between these two — yet, we’re only an episode in. There are still nine more to come, and the thing about relationships is that you sometimes say things out of anger and then try to figure out how to recover from there.

Hopefully, this coming episode will give us a better sense of what the entire series will be like, and hopefully those who were hard on the pilot will choose to give it another shot.

If you missed it, you can check out our review for the “Divorce” pilot now over at this link. (Photo: HBO.)