Thanksgiving With My Best Friend's Mom review

The setup

Ryan has come home with his best friend for Thanksgiving, and the friend has to tell him, within seconds of arrival, to quit ogling his mother. She announces dinner at six and drafts Ryan into turkey duty while her son stays parked in front of the football. What follows is a holiday cooking segment written entirely in double meanings: butter on her hands, an apron to tie, a spoonful to sample and then a counteroffer to sample him. When the football crowd calls for Ryan, she declares the kitchen closed until dinner.

Episode 2

Dessert takes over. A pie comes out of the oven, and she warns that it is scorching. Her son complains from the other room that Ryan is skipping the football, and Ryan replies that he is occupied. The turkey returns as an excuse, an offer of help gets accepted with a boast about skilled hands, and the final line proposes an early sample before the meal: a cliffhanger with all the tension of a gravy boat.

Who's who

• Ryan: the holiday guest, polite at the door and hopeless once the apron comes out
• His friend's mom: a holiday host with buttery hands and a talent for reassigning chores
• The best friend: her son, glued to the football and the last to notice anything

Verdict: 4.0 out of 10

Every holiday double entendre you could guess is here, and most arrive in the first minute. The setup is sound: a crowded house, a distracted son, a kitchen declared off-limits, and the clock ticking toward dinner. The execution is all innuendo and no tension, though, because the son never comes close to walking in and the dialogue never moves past food jokes. Seasonal comfort viewing for the pun-tolerant; the paid episodes would need a real near miss to justify a second helping.

Episode guide