The Conners Season 5 Premiere Slapped Fans With The Series' Cringiest Moment Yet
This article contains spoilers for "The Conners" Season 5, Episode 1
Fans of "The Conners" have much to rejoice right now, as the "Roseanne" spin-off has returned to its fifth season. The ABC sitcom is known for its wild title game, and the season premiere, "Double Honeymoon and Seeing Double," doesn't disappoint on this front. Likewise, the premiere makes extremely clear that the show's tendency to go all-in on awkward and difficult everyday troubles remains intact.
As the title implies, one of the episode's chief plotlines involves a double wedding where Jackie (Laurie Metcalf) and Neville (Nat Faxon) get hitched at the same time as Ben (Jay R. Ferguson) and Darlene (Sara Gilbert). The two couples also end up sharing a honeymoon cabin, and because nothing's ever simple in the world of "The Conners," events conspire to create what just might be the most cringeworthy moment the show has given us so far.
A squeaky bed can be a recipe for disaster
The two couples don't enter the cabin on the best of terms, due to Ben and Darlene's earlier condescending comments about Jackie's past romantic misfortunes. Things soon escalate when Jackie and Neville have their revenge by thoroughly enjoying their honeymoon. On an extremely squeaky bed. In a cabin with an unfortunate layout that means there are no proper bedrooms. If that's not enough to send chills of cringe down your spine, the thoroughly fed up Darlene eventually retaliates with some noises of her own. Things then escalate to a full-on argument, cranking the embarrassment factor even further.
The entire scenario is plenty cringeworthy on its own, because the viewer can focus on any character's viewpoint and discover new layers of awkwardness. This is only further driven home by the fact that Laurie Metcalf and Sara Gilbert are stone cold professionals who've worked with each other for a long time, and "The Conners" stars know how to truly amp up the awfulness of the situation.
The end result is a cringe cake that wouldn't even necessarily need a cherry on top, but the show still opts to add one by packing the cabin with certain careful details. These transform it from your average sitcom set to the kind of mildly worrying combination of "rustic cabin" and "revolting hovel" that a budget traveller might all-too-easily encounter in the real world, as well. It's one thing to lie in the dark while listening to a relative's nearby, loudly squeaking bed — but another thing entirely to do so while knowing that at some point you have to visit the bathroom, and the only available bar of soap is covered in a past visitor's hair. Well played, "The Conners." Well played.