While Chris was spending all of his time helping out others, he neglected to maintain his own studies and ended up failing an important test, one which Greg did quite well on. I’m glad that Greg’s back to being a normal kid. Those first few episodes of this season had him acting quite differently and didn’t really work.

Terry Crews as Julius Rock

Julius is no stranger to taking on additional jobs to help pay the bills. He took on a third job in this episode, helping out Mr. Omar with his funeral service. Julius was tasked with picking up and delivering dead bodies. The new line of work not only gave Julius a new revenue stream, but it also gave him a new look at life.

It’s easy to see how being surrounded by death for a few hours every day can make one change their view of things, but this was quite a transformation. I never thought I’d see a man like Terry Crews hop and skip around in joy. He typically plays hardened criminals in films, so this was a very different Terry Crews, even if it was just for a few seconds.

I didn’t find the plot to be all that funny. It didn’t have enough comedic substance to really belong as the main story for a sitcom episode. Frankly, the subplot surrounding Julius had more funny moments. One of my favorites was a question posed by Julius’ daughter, Tonya. When she saw how happy and joyous her father was, she asked him if he was planning on leaving the family for a white woman. Haha! The writers may not be very good at making great episodes, but they do manage to bring a great one-liner once in a while.

Rating: 5.3

Julius decided to help resolve the family’s money problems by raising Mr. Omar’s rent. He didn’t want to do it, and it ended up backfiring. Mr. Omar had his apartment inspected and the inspector told Julius that the apartment was uninhabitable until a dozen or so code violations were corrected. In the meantime, Mr. Omar had to live with the Rock family.

Terry Crews as Julius Rock

Elsewhere, Chris became bored with his English class and suggested doing reports on movies instead of books. This came after Chris took an ill-advised shortcut and ended up getting an incomplete in his class. This story wasn’t all that funny, but I did like the joke about how the teacher couldn’t be deported because it turned out she was an American citizen.

Drew’s blackjack subplot was a nice, little story. I wasn’t aware of his intellect when it came to numbers, but it served him quite well here as he took a lot of money from Mr. Omar. It also put him in good standing to loan him money for the circuit breaker box in his apartment.

Everybody Hates Chris is a funny little show, but one of the issues I have with it is the speed of everything. The pace of the show can be quite fast at times, leaving very little time for the viewer to laugh and savor some of the cleverly-written jokes.

Rating: 7.2

Jenise, a recent transfer student, is set up to go out with Chris when all of the other black guys are taken (by white girls, of course). I found those circumstances to be rather funny, but Chris’ setup led to some unexpected humor at home. The very thought of Chris taking a “perfectly normal” girl to the dance made his entire family stop eating dinner and burst out laughing. I found their reaction to be funnier than the assertion that there’s no way a normal girl would go out with him.

Jenise’s family was rather unique. Everybody Hates Chris paid tribute to Bill Cosby by recreating the Huxtables. I’m a big fan of Orlando Jones, but like everyone’s impression of Bill Cosby, it was good at first and just became a little over the top and annoying as time went on. Jenise’s family was obviously too good for Chris, but he was still allowed to take Jenise to the dance after all.

Devicka Parikh (Blaire Huckstable), Orlando Jones (Clint Huckstable), and Tyler James Williams (Chris)

Greg has become an annoying little brat this season and Chris finally put him in his place when he was forced to find Greg and stand up his date for the Homecoming Dance. I hope his attitude changes for the long-term sooner rather than later.

While Chris was busy with Greg and Jenise, Drew and Tonya had their own issues. Tonya liked being walked home by one boy from school, but a tougher boy wants to be her boyfriend and muscled the other one out. It wasn’t much of a story, really, but it was a way to keep Tonya involved in the show’s plot.

The same goes for Drew. I’m still new to watching Everybody Hates Chris, but so far this season, Drew hasn’t been responsible for much. Here, he convinced Doc to let him re-arrange his store. It meant a boom in business but Doc couldn’t find anything, so he had to change it back.

Of the three episodes which have aired this season, this would have to be the funniest episode thus far. I just hope Greg gets his act together soon.

Rating: 6.7

Still getting used to the school, Chris decided to hang out with some new groups, but he didn’t seem to fit in with the slackers or break-dancers, so he decided to take Home-Ec. It seemed like a good fit for him as he seems to know how to cook and bake, but he gets to be in a room full of girls. There’s always a few boys who try this to improve their odds of getting a girlfriend.

Tichina Arnold as Rochelle

Chris seemed to do well in the class, but he never seemed to be able to impress one of the girls. It wasn’t until striking a deal with an androgynous student that Chris was able to get her attention. Naturally, the girl had other intentions when she agreed to be tutored by Chris to bake a cake. While Chris had his eyes on the girl, she had her eyes on a star football player.

I was disappointed by the lack of humor brought forth by the subplot surrounding Mr. Omar’s leaving his fish in the hands of Drew and Tonya. There just wasn’t much to laugh about and the plot was easy to telegraph how it was going to play out.

Some of the best comedy came from Chris’ mother and her new “friend.” Rochelle and Peaches seem to have a lot in common, but Peaches became rather annoying, but Rochelle had a difficult time asking her for some space. Just out of prison, Peaches obviously needs a friend or two to help her get back on her feet. They had a fight or two, but hilariously share a hatred for the meter maid. I really enjoyed those scenes.

Rating: 5.6

In “Everybody Hates Tattaglia” Chris, played by New York-born Tyler James Williams, is now in high school, and has his mind made up that he’s still going to be the only black kid in school. He’s shocked when he finds out he’s surrounded by minorities. I kind of laughed when he asked the white kid why he didn’t punch him the second he walked by. It just hadn’t sunk in yet.

Tyler James Williams as Chris and Paul Ben-Victor as Mr. Thurman

Though Chris didn’t seem to be the only black kid in school, his homeroom teacher seemed to have an issue with Chris’ skin color. Every kid in that class was white except for Chris. The teacher was really on Chris’ case, but it wasn’t so mean spirited as silly. The teacher had a number of quirks, namely his inability to stand or sit still for more than half a second. It got to be annoying in the later scenes wherein Chris applied for the football team’s equipment manager. Chris couldn’t get away from his homeroom teacher when it turned out he’s also the football coach.

I really like the casting of Terry Crews as the father. I’ve got memories of him playing any number of mean, aggressive characters is various films. He seemed quite different here, playing the father, encouraging his daughter to get a new job to help support the family.

I don’t know with any certainty if I will continue to watch Everybody Hates Chris. Chris Rock’s voiceovers are always funny, but what you see on the screen itself isn’t nearly as funny. The two are on entirely two different levels.

Rating: 5.5