My Young Stepmom Needs a Date review

The setup

He comes home to what should be a quiet house and meets his stepmom, all dressed up for a dinner that has just fallen through, because his father is stuck at the office overnight. She frames it as a gloomy Friday with only her stepson for company and asks what he thinks of the dress. He retreats to call his friend Danny and describes, with great feeling, exactly how attractive she is. The house has thin walls. She heard all of it, and the episode ends with an invitation into her room that leaves him nowhere to hide.

Episode 2

Episode 2 skips the awkward conversation in about ten seconds. She asks whether he meant what he said to Danny, he admits he did, and the show moves straight into the physical, with her doing most of the directing. He raises the obvious worry about his father walking in. She dismisses it, his father having lost his say for the night, and promises to keep it between them.

Who's who

• The stepmom: in a dinner dress with the dinner canceled and in no mood to let the effort go unused
• The stepson: loud on the phone, quiet in person, and very bad at checking the walls
• Danny: the friend on the other end of the call, unwittingly the matchmaker

Verdict: 7.5 out of 10

The overheard phone call is a good engine, the kind of embarrassment that feels painfully real, and episode 1 uses it well, peaking when he realizes she heard everything. Episode 2 then cashes the premise in immediately, which is efficient but leaves little to anticipate. The stepmom has presence; the stepson has panic. If you want the shortest road from awkward to explicit, this is it, though the paid episodes have less mystery to sell.

Episode guide