‘Welcome to Flatch’ is back! Here’s what you missed in the premiere

CHICAGO - Welcome back to "Welcome to Flatch" recaps! In the season two premiere, "Welcome to (Barb) Flatch," a prodigal heiress returns to Flatch just as our cast of characters begin settling into new opportunities and responsibilities. Just starting the show? Here’s our recap of the premiere. Ready to binge? The show’s first season is now streaming on Hulu, and you can watch new episodes On Demand or via FOX Now.

Welcome to "Welcome to Flatch".... again! This show’s charming first season was a refreshing spin on the mockumentary format popularized by "The Office" and "Parks and Recreation," thanks in particular to its frank but optimistic look at small Midwestern communities hovering at or below the poverty line. Now, with a full season under its belt, the show is back with a clearer sense of self, as evidenced in its season premiere, "Welcome to (Barb) Flatch." 

"Welcome to Flatch": Get ready for Barb

It’s been a few months since the characters of "Flatch" have graced our screens, and it turns out that it’s been a few months for them too — and a lot has changed. Since we saw him last, Shrub Mallet (Sam Straley) ditched art school to take a "gap year" (read: try to win the heart of longtime crush Beth, played by Erin Bowles); now he’s kicking his feet up at his newly-retired nana’s place, making her as-yet-unsold house his "Shrub hub" alongside cousin and partner-in-crime Kelly (Holmes).

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Most everyone else has babies on the brain: Father Joe (Seann William Scott) and Cheryl (Aya Cash) are back together, navigating a new relationship, while the latter obsesses over mail-order chicks from chicks2you.com (don’t check chicks2you.net, says Cheryl; we’ll take her word for it). 

Nadine (Taylor Ortega) is many months pregnant and ready to pop, holding out as long as she can to deliver her baby later because she "does not need another Virgo in [her] life." Kelly is taking the opposite tack, looking after her infant half-sister-ish while her father takes time to court his latest girlfriend, and Kelly is clearly resentful that she continues to come in last with him.

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But a new face (new to us, at least) is speeding towards town in her hot-pink convertible: volatile, bleach-blonde Flatch heiress Barb (Jaime Pressly), who’s reeling from a separation and ready to make a new start in her old hometown after fleeing Pompano Beach (aka "the Pomp").

The season premiere sees the town in numerous forms of transition: Just as some townspeople take on new responsibilities, the old guard is ready to pass on the torch in the form of the town’s cane, which the oldest person in town always holds.

Now that Shrub’s nan has moved away, it must be passed to Old Mama Flatch, the next oldest. That means it’s time for the most hallowed of small-town traditions: the makeshift parade!

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"Welcome to Flatch": Cane you dig it?

In typical "Flatch" fashion, the Cane Parade acts as a nexus for the small-town hijinks and pressure tests for our characters face in this episode. Shrub’s asked to write the Cane speech, which he’s blanking on: "What rhymes with cane? I can’t think of anything, which is insane." What’s more, his efforts with Beth are stymied by the fact she’s still with his guileless rival Mickey (Justin Linville). 

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Big Mandy (Krissy Chula) declares herself "traffic warden and unofficial parade marshal" to prevent the pitfalls of parades pas. She places Joe and Cheryl at the caboose, which rankles Joe, who thinks he should be leading his flock as they roll slowly down main street in golf carts and old tractors decked out with balloons and streamers. 

How does this go? About as well as you’d expect. Joe and Cheryl immediately bail on the parade after Cheryl finds out her new batch of mail-order chickens have arrived at the post office and could die from the heat ("I can’t roast those chickens, Joe!"). So they speed ahead of Mandy, forcing the rest of the parade to follow him.

Meanwhile, Kelly finds out the hard way that babies poop sometimes, even if you’ve run out of diapers. When Shrub tells her to tell the baby to suck it up, she cracks back, "If she sucks up all that poop into her body, she could die!"

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Still, Shrub finds courage in this moment, and delivers an off-the-cuff speech to the crowd that is stirring — in a Shrub kind of way. He encourages everyone to carpe diem, "an ancient saying that means ‘seize your carpet,’ which loosely translates to ‘live your dreams."

Spurred by Shrub’s words, they make it to their eventual destination — Kelly’s dad’s apartment complex, where she finds out the real reason she’s been saddled with her baby sorta half-sister for so long: He was preparing to propose to his girlfriend. She says yes to the tune of Boyz II Men’s "I Swear," and Kelly looks bittersweetly at the new family her dad is creating, one getting the love that she never truly got from him. 

"Welcome to Flatch": The Flatch is back

"Welcome to (Barb) Flatch" is a quick and dirty restructuring of the status quo, with a time-jump that lets the writers set up numerous new challenges for our favorite small town to explore. Will Joe and Cheryl’s new relationship grow stagnant or flourish? WIll Kelly find the sense of purpose that Shrub has, even in his choice to stay put in Flatch? And what new levels of chaos will Barb bring to the town, especially since she’s bought Nana’s "Shrub hub" and is putting down stakes in the town? 

We’ll have to wait for episode two to find out!

"Welcome to Flatch" airs Thursdays on FOX. Recaps run weekly. 

About the writer: Clint Worthington is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Spool, and a Senior Writer at Consequence. You can find his other work at Vulture, Nerdist, RogerEbert.com, and elsewhere.

Your next binge: The original "Shameless," streaming free on Tubi

"Shameless": Before "Shamless" was a hit Showtime series starring Emmy Rossum and William H. Macy, it was a British dramedy featuring (among others) a young James McAvoy. Set on the fictional Chatsworth council estate in Manchester, "Shameless" chronicles the lives of the Gallagher family and their neighbors, zeroing in on the nuances of British working-class culture. Frank Gallagher (David Threlfall) is an alcoholic single dad trying (and mostly failing) to raise his six kids right. Instead it’s his eldest daughter Fiona (Anne-Marie Duff) who actually keeps things in order. "Shameless" deploys such a unique tone that it even managed to win both Best Drama Series at the BAFTA TV Awards and Best TV Comedy Drama at the British Comedy Awards. Rated TV-MA. 11 seasons, 139 episodes. Also featuring Rebecca Atkinson, Alice Barry.

How to watch "Welcome to Flatch"

"Welcome to Flatch" airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. EST on FOX. If you’d prefer to stream, you can follow the Cane Parade on over to FOXNow or watch via Hulu. 

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