Time keeps ticking for Lavinia as Trial & Error kicks the craziness up several more notches

“The following documentary tells the story of the People v. Lavinia Peck-Foster.”

If we accept as a truism the musing by noted
British wordsmiths David St. Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel that “it’s such a fine
line between clever and stupid,” then Trial
& Error spent its first season riding that line like an elephant on a
unicycle, only to return for season two with the elephant wearing a tutu: having
already impressed the audience with its balancing act, it’s now focusing
specifically on the percentage of spectators who are howling, “Holy shit, now the elephant’s wearing a fucking tutu!”

Has this new development made the elephant wobbly? That’s a question better asked of those who are focusing on the unicycle. Me, I’m still laughing at the tutu.

Trying to prove that Lavinia couldn’t have killed her husband Edgar
remains first and foremost in Josh’s mind, but it’s still proving harder than
herding cats to get his team to focus on finding the necessary evidence to
prove her innocence. (Dwayne’s ineptitude as an investigator is only matched by
his incompetence as a police officer, but damned if he doesn’t consistently manage
to find the balance between the two.) If it wasn’t for Anne’s crazy condition
of the week – this time it’s random dog-level hearing – it’s likely that they
wouldn’t have stumbled upon Edgar’s clock workshop until Lavinia felt that it
was in her best interest for them to do so. The result of the stumbling,
however, was the discovery of a logbook, which led to various other
discoveries, including Edgar’s affair, Edgar’s $50 million insurance policy, and
Edgar’s beneficiary: Ronnie del Mundo, a.k.a. Lavinia wearing a trucker’s cap
and a fake mustache.

It’s hard to imagine how this season would’ve played out with
anyone other than Kristin Chenoweth playing Lavinia, given how successfully she
plays the various facets of the character’s personality. Of course she’s
skilled at playing the diva, but she’s particularly impressive when delivering
a quick bounce between emotions. When she’s giving the tour of the house, she remarks
on “the unused nursery for the children we never had” and “the playroom for the
very same children,” after which she makes note of a table filled with picture
frames for children which are “empty, like my womb,” only to abruptly dismiss the
observation by shrugging, “What’re you gonna do?” In regards to her
aforementioned disguise, that’s what she’s wearing when she’s arrested for
shoplifting, which she explains away as her way to keep from being
photographed. There’s clearly more to it than that, though, and as contrived as
as it sounds that there was actually a real Ronnie del Mundo who was an
employee of her family, I won’t be at all surprised if it turns out to be true.

Over the course of this week’s pair of new episodes, we got a
number of completely ridiculous additions to the list of East Peck’s eccentricities,
the most insane of which was arguably Moose Day, with its “wait, what?” premise involving Mickey Moose
seeing his breath and telling them how many Saturdays they’ll have in a month. Also
of note: the fact that students who attend East Peck Community College can
apparently study both Air Conditioning and
Repair. The “Lady Driver!” flagman returned twice – once in “The Murder Clock,”
once in “A Hole in the Case” – so those who you who said you’d be just fine if
we got that joke in every episode, congratulations. In the midst of seeing Josh’s
domicile, which looks like the home of someone’s grandmother (because that’s
right about where Josh’s sensibilities sit), we also got a reminder of East
Peck’s daily cannon firings, which have been going on since the Civil War
despite having caused “death by cannonball” to become the city’s third leading
cause of death.

The Josh / Carol Anne / Nina love triangle still hasn’t taken
off in full force – right now, it still feels like Nina’s presence is less
about possible romance and more about her comedic worth as the host of a
true-crime podcast – but I’ll allow it for the moment because of Josh’s efforts
to keep a lid on his past (and present) dalliances with Carol Ann, which have
been equal parts awkward and hysterical. It seems unlikely that the series will
allow him to settle down with either of his possible romantic interest until
the end of the trial, however, so my expectation is that Nina becomes a much
more important player sooner than later. It’s just a matter of seeing whether
it’ll be in the bedroom or the courtroom. As for Carol Anne, her pregnancy
storyline took a hard left turn toward Crazy Town this week, what with the
OBVIN and all. And what was with that jump she made while running through the
woods? I have a feeling that we’ll learn more about that in the very near
future, too, and given that getting a lot of charley horses doesn’t normally
make you capable of jumping like a horse, I’m a little frightened to find out
what’s going on.

To jump back to the courtroom, even Josh’s razzle dazzle in the
courtroom can’t initially save Lavinia’s claims about Edgar’s insurance policy from
being torn apart by handwriting expert Michael Poisson (guest star Jim O’Heir),
but after Josh accepts a personal invitation to spend an evening, if not the
night, with Lavinia, he’s able to salvage the situation. Not that it lasts, of
course: just before the closing credits of “A Hole in the Case,” we find out
that the titular hole is in the wall of the pool room, and it leads to an
escape tube that suddenly makes it quite plausible for Lavinia to have transported
Edgar’s body and gotten back to her gala in a timely fashion…and that’s no
matter which Peck time zone the
murder clock was set for.

Yes, craziness abounds, but even in the midst of the craziness,
I’m still not sure whether Lavinia did it or not. As far as I’m concerned, that
means the unicycle is just as steady as it ever was.

Stray observations:

• Call me crazy, but Lavinia’s remarks
  about her cat Fluffy make me wonder if cloning might play into this season
  somehow. That, or he really is
  immortal. (With this show, it could go either way.)
• “You carry a plate in your purse, but no wallet?”
• “I knew the case would
  eventually take a turn in our favor. Well, I didn’t know it. But, man, I
  hoped for it really hard.”
• Apparently Edgar was quite the
  clocksman.
• I don’t need a subscription to Furtility Magazine. Just knowing
  that there’s a fictional publication of that name is enough for me.
• I’m going to need my own t-shirt
  that says “My Other Shirt is Pants.” If I could get a 2XL, that’d be
  great, thanks.
• “Ronnie died doing what he
  loved the most: screaming in front of a car.”
• I laughed very, very hard at the
  one-two punch of Dwayne describing his penis hat as “a perfect
  conversation starter” being followed by his co-worker saying, “They want
  to talk to you in H.R.”
• Clocks for Kids: “What would
  you like to say to Mr. Foster?” “I’m so hungry!”
• Two words: John Lithgoat.