Review of King of Queens

For those who didn’t know, a new episode of “King of Queens” aired last night, and the premise was that Arthur (the father-in-law) had came back from his Florida vacation with bed bug-infested hotel sheets. The bugs spread all over Doug and Carrie’s house and when Doug found out the exterminator (played by Chris Elliot) wanted to charge $1,100 to cleanse the house of bed bugs, Doug decided to use a bug bomb. Just like in real life, those bug bombs do absolutely nothing to kill the bugs. And according to the exterminator, it just made them horny. I don’t know how true that is.

Then the exterminator informs them that because the horny bed bugs mated and laid eggs, there are even more of them than before, and the cost of removing them all will now cost $2,500. With no other choice Doug lets the exterminator do his job while he and Carrie find a place to spend the night.

Overall, I thought the bed bug episode was really good, considering this is supposed to be a sitcom. When Doug called Carrie’s job and told them she had bed bugs, the stigma of bed bugs truly came out as people treated her like a leper. Finally she goes into New York mode and turns to the people in the elevator who were afraid to even be near her and goes, “Yeah, I got bed bugs. What? You want some?” I laughed my ass off.

The constant itching by Doug and Carrie from the bed bugs was also a good dose of reality, although Doug went a little overboard with the physical reactions. When he went to Deacon’s apartment to see if he could sleep on the couch, it looked more like he was convulsing than itching. Then again, that character is an exaggerated one to begin with.

Television shows are often criticized with not showing a true depiction of the issues and scenarios in its storylines. I think this is one episode where the writers can rest easy and know that they did a good accurate job and still managed to keep me laughing.