My Goth Stepsister review

The setup

She is on the phone dissecting a friend's disappointing hookup when she barrels through a doorway and empties her iced coffee down her stepbrother's front, twenty minutes before his job interview and on his one clean shirt. She blames him for blocking the door. Dad arrives, does not care whose fault it is, and hustles everyone out. The stepbrother swears she will pay for it, and she hints that she always finds ways to make amends. Back on the phone, she declares she hates him, then admits his staring at her chest was sort of cute.

Episode 2

The next morning he barges in on her noisy routine, and she asks if he has heard of knocking. Dad has ordered a car wash, and the stepbrother has assigned it to her, since she still owes him for the coffee. He offers another way to settle the debt, she calls him disgusting, and he plays the angry-dad card until she caves. The car wash ends with him springing a surprise mid-rinse that earns him the word pervert.

Who's who

• The stepsister: sharp-tongued, always in a hurry, and more amused by her stepbrother than she admits
• The stepbrother: a job hunter with one ruined shirt and a long memory for debts

Verdict: 7.2 out of 10

The engine here is spite. A ruined shirt becomes a debt, the debt becomes leverage, and the leverage becomes a car wash, which is about as much plot as two short episodes can hold. The bickering has some bite, and her phone commentary gives the stepsister a funny private voice. His blackmail is cruder than it is clever, though, and the car-wash scene is a cliche the show seems to enjoy for exactly that reason. Light, petty fun on a predictable route.

Episode guide