Hart of Dixie Season 3 Catch-up

This show is my number one girly pleasure – not exactly guilty…but juicy enough that it satisfies my desire for cheesy TV. I love that it’s a return to classic WB style shows for The CW. Brings back the good ol’ days of Everwood and Gilmore Girls.

Where we left off: At the end of Season 2 Zoe was off to New York for the summer to escape her clusterfuck of a love life. Wade apologized for cheating and confessed his love but she wasn’t ready to let him back into her heart. George fell apart when Tansy left town, wrote an angry drunken anthem about wishing he never met Dr. Hart, and skipped town to be Lily Ann Lonergan’s back-up singer.

Where we are now: We’re 5 episodes into Hart of Dixie‘s new season and here’s what’s gone down so far:

Zoe’s 3-month summer in NY turned into a 5-month getaway with an option on forever. She was back on the surgical rotation, enjoying trendy cold salmon lunches…and cozying up to her new writer beau Joel. Everything was going swimmingly for Dr. Hart who was on the cusp of settling down in a new apartment with her sweetie. Except she couldn’t seem to shake the strange recurring dreams and visions of the quirky resident of Bluebell.

When Rose showed up to chew Zoe out for missing her 16th birthday and Brick refused to sign a letter of recommendation for the condo board, Zoe decided to head back to Alabama to get a little closure. With her designer suitcase and bagel peace offerings in hand, Zoe strutted back into town. Unfortunately nobody was happy to see her. Apparently they didn’t appreciate her abrupt goodbye via email. And more importantly they were pissed that she drove George Tucker out of town and left them vulnerable to frivolous lawsuits from the rival town of Fillmore.

In order to earn back the affection of the townspeople and convince a newly single (and severely grumpy) Brick to sign her letter, Zoe tracked down an unshaven, heartbroken George at a skeezy motel where he was living on pizza and adventure golf shows. With Lemon’s help she lured him back to the real world so he could kick some legal ass and stop Founder’s Day from being shut down. In the process Zoe realized that she wasn’t quite done with Bluebell and convinced Joel to uproot his big city life and move to Alabama with her.

ROMANCE

The townspeople aren’t sure what to make of Zoe’snew squeeze Joel – with his accidental sarcasm, his Wi-Fi needs and his food allergies. Zoe is working overtime to try to make him feel more at home, but there have been more than a few hiccups. He sat on fire ant rock, had a severe allergic reaction at a dinner party, and started a bickering match with Lavon because the mayor hated his first novel. Zoe was crushed when a poll on Dash’s blog revealed that only 13% of Bluebellians believed Joel was the right guy for her. But with a little help from the Reverend and a heroic attempt at zip lining by Joel, things are looking up.

George tried to reunite with Tansy over the summer, but she slapped him in the face over his hit song about Zoe and hooked up with Fillmore’s most annoying lawyer. While drowning his sorrows, George crossed paths with Lavon’s niece – a bratty new character called little Lynly, even though she’s 25 damn years old! They exchanged no names or problems, but they did have a steamy one-night stand, which Lynly took a little too seriously. He made her eggs guys!!! Poor George discovered who he’d diddled with and feared the wrath of her overprotective uncle. Lynly seized the opportunity to blackmail George into tutoring her for the LSATs. Lavon was thrilled to have one of his best friends helping out his sweet little niece. Too bad he was totally clueless that Lynly was more interested in pulling a Fatal Attraction than studying. George nearly lost a finger trying to frantically zip her back into her dress after she ‘surprised’ him by showing up on his houseboat in her underwear. Not exactly an auspicious start to a relationship. But things took a turn for the flirty when Lynly toned down the crazy a little and partnered with George in a trivia competition. Could it be that her determination to wear him down might actually be working?

Things were a little awkward between Zoe and Wade when she first returned to town. She did leave him hanging after a love confession and quickly moved on to a new sweetheart. Lemon went into shenanigan mode and pretended that she and Wade were a hot new item to help him save face. But when Zoe decided to move back permanently, Lemon and Wade found themselves in the middle of a full-blown fake romance. Instead of their admitting their deception, they revealed their ‘love affair’ to the whole town. They each had their own motives – Wade wanted to keep making Zoe jealous and Lemon was trying to force herself to stop having sex with her secret lover Meatball (yeah, you read that right). Unfortunately Zoe caught the scent of a calculated scheme and was determined to prove Lemon and Wade were not really a couple. It all came to head at a dinner party when a drunken Meatball crashed the festivities to warn Wade that Lemon had been cheating on him.

Lavon and Annabeth are still adorably cute together. On Halloween night he planned a romantic surprise for her, which she mistakenly believed was going to be a proposal. A potential health scare freaked her out and she enlisted Zoe’s help in stalling Lavon until her test results came back. Annabeth got a clean bill of health, but Lavon was a little disappointed that they didn’t get to watch Night of the Living Dead together…which was his very special Halloween surprise. Doh!

Zoe and George didn’t revisit any romantic feelings, but they did finally bury the hatchet after George admitted that ALL this problems might not be Zoe’s fault. It’s too bad because according to Dash’s blog, the entire town is still rooting for them to get together.

Jobs and Town Politics

• After Zoe bailed and forfeited her half of the practice, Brick was ecstatic to finally have it all to himself. But Zoe was busy trying to sweet talk her way back in; diagnose a few of her old patients, make nice with Brick, remind him of what a great team they were. It was all sort of going according to plan until Joel picked a fight with Brick and suggested Zoe should just open up her own practice. George hit Zoe with the harsh truth about a non-compete clause that prohibited her from opening up a practice within 20 miles of Bluebell within a year of leaving the partnership. Eventually Zoe managed to soften Brick up and appeal to him as a friend. He let her back into the practice as a regular doctor, who would have to work her way up.
• Lemon found herself on the outs with the Belle’s when she questioned Cricket’s floral decisions and created an underground resistance. Cricket pulled out ancient Belle by-laws and forced Lemon to work her way back into their good graces by scrubbing walls, scraping gum and pressure washing the church steps. As usual, Lemon took her punishment as a challenge and made the whole town sparkle with minty fresh clean. But she also graffiti-ed “I Quit” onto the wall and told Cricket (and the creepy Backer sisters who are working her like a puppet) to shove it. Annabeth walked off with her in solidarity. Unfortunately Lemon’s diminished social status immediately caused her problems when she found herself off the list for exclusive parties and functions.

I have to admit that these first five episodes have been a little baffling to me. On one hand the comedy factor was raised considerably and there were some seriously hysterical scenes and plotlines:

• Lemon and Wade’s fake relationship was genius – when they cringe smiled through every forced kiss, when Brick barged into the Rammer Jammer and gave Wade the terrifying “you’re dating my daughter” speech, when they couldn’t decide whether they were fake blissfully happy or fake fighting at any given moment. Personally I love Lemon and Wade as a team. I could never vote for a hook-up because I’m Zade forever, but the writers need to throw them together as a comic team whenever possible. And I think it’s really sweet that they’re becoming genuine friends, trying to protect each other whenever they can.
• When did Meatball get so charming? I rolled my eyes at him all last season but his bizarre affair with Lemon was kinda cute and his romantic proposition to her actually made him…dare I say…appealing?
• I LOVED Joel’s initial reaction to Wade before he found out that he and Zoe used to date – talking about his abs, calling him a lumberjack, “I can’t believe guys like that actually exist”. And then they became friends, which freaked Zoe out, but was actually kind of amusing. Wade punching Joel in the stomach so he could fake an illness to distract Brick was priceless
• Frank the Private Investigator was a cute little bit . I like when the series plays with its minor characters and gives them more to do. Same goes for Dash’s one man Frankenstein play on Halloween.

But despite how funny the show has been, I really feel like the storytelling has been all over the place:

• The first episode in particular was really awkward. Zoe’s return from Bluebell to an unrealistically irate town, who then instantly forgave her when she brought George Tucker back to them – it was a little over the top. I don’t mind fast forwards when shows return for a new season, but it was disorienting to pick up Zoe’s life in New York with this random new guy that we didn’t have any loyalty to or affinity for. Although he has his moments, I feel that Joel’s presence on the show is mostly awkward and tonally at odd with the series. Zoe has always been a fish out of water and now she’s got this sarcastic NY sidekick. I get that they want to introduce a new love interest who will break up the predictable Wade/Zoe/George love triangle, but why not bring someone in who we get to see Zoe fall in love with? So we don’t feel like we’re coming into the middle of their relationship and we’re not invested or convinced of their chemistry.
• The addition of Lynly to the cast also feels a little weak. New characters have to be carefully handled, but much like Joel, Lynly was just of kind of just…there. And we have to adjust to her without a proper introduction. The addition of Ruby Jeffries last year (love her or hate her) was much more seamless because she showed up in the characters lives and the viewers lives at the same time and we got to watch them react to her.

It feels like there’s a lot of change happening at once and I think the show hasn’t quite regained its rhythm yet. I’m still enjoying it, but there’s just something a little ‘off’.

What do you guys think? Are you happy with how the season started?