This week we've got Entourage, Hung, Top Chef Masters and the season finale of The Mighty Boosh. (Tucker, Nina and D. Brothers are all on vacation this week.)
The Mighty Boosh - "The Nightmare of Milky Joe" by Sean Witzke
The last one. "Feel my coco beats."
The plot of this episode is simple - Howard and Vince leave their snow English setting for a cruise to America. Vince is wearing a blouse. They are going to play a showcase that Whitesnake played once (Howard is afraid of flying, and shows a shocking misunderstanding of North American geography). Vince and Bollo have an emotional goodbye, and Bollo doesn't know Howards name. While they're leaving Bollo has a premi-vision of their boat sinking. But their boat doesn't sink, they get thrown off because Vince cuts his hair while he is sleeping. Into a mullet. They end up on a deserted island. We learn that Vince cuts Howard hair in the middle of the night - which means that all his slams on Howards hair are actually critiques of his own work. No one misses them, and they sit and starve for weeks. There's a sight gag with Vince pulling a tiny ship out of the rear-projected background. Howard slips into crazy cannibal mode, starts talking like all the (mostly Rich Fulcher-played) characters who have tried to rape Vince, calling him "Vincey". In fear, Vince bumps into a tree and discovers coconuts. Howard begins writing about all the women he'll never see again, Vince accuses him of looking like Kris Kristofferson and never having women come after him anyway. Howard draws a sitcom-style line across the beach, splitting the island in two. Vince gets the side with vegetation, builds a cottage out of bamboo and reeds.
Howard starts having philosophical conversations about Camus and Sartre with a coconut who he names Milky Joe and who is french. Vince tries to join in and they tell him he's not welcome. Howard feels content with Milky Joe as his friend in the Coconut Lodge until he sees that Vince has made Ruby, his coconut girlfriend. In order to make Vince jealous, he dresses up Milky Joe in a wig and calls him "Jemima". Vince returns the next day with Ruby and another girl coconut, named Precious. Vince is trying to get into a coconut threeway, as Ruby is "a bit kinky". Howard gets fed up with Milky Joe and his lectures. Milky Joe gets angry at Howard for going on a double-date with Vince and the coconut girls. Howard and Precious get on very well. Cut to a few days later where Howard is now in an abusive relationship with Precious, who has been hitting him and not allowing him to see his friends. Vince has constructed an entire coconut party scene, which actually includes Milky Joe and a videographer to document the scene. Howard accidentally knocks Precious over and murders her. When Howard tells Vince, the coconut videographer catches the two of them disposing of the body on film. Howard and Vince argue over what to tell Precious' best friend Ruby and they get into a high-speed chase with the coconut cops.
Then the coconuts start talking. We fade into the two guys in a coconut court, and Milky Joe testifies against the both of them in a Quebecois accent. A judge sentences them to death, and a coconut Hitcher uses their severed heads in his demented coconut carnival where Ruby hucks softballs at their skulls. Then they wake up screaming, having gone insane from eating rancid coconuts - which as we all know sends you coco-loco.
Rich Fulcher shows up twice - as a ship's captain doing his best Mexican Rod Steiger - which is pretty damn awesome but it's over before you have time to giggle. And as Bob Fossil doing his best Rupert Pupkin as host of the Pieface Showcase for three seconds. Bob Fossil's tv show and final appearance on our shores is introducing Milky Joe's appearance, which is a callback to a song that's been cut entirely from the episode. Speaking of which - Cut this week - A lot of dialog is cut in the first ten minutes but none of it was all that funny, so who cares. Howard's entire song "Isolation" is cut. Which - what the fuck? It's a huge production. Isolation. Isolation. Eye so lay shun. Howard sings his heart out and there's some really amazing yacht-rock sitting against the sunset video clip techniques slammed with Queen multi-projection five-part harmony, accompanied only by pan flute. The callback is Milky Joe and the Co Co Nuts, with Julian Barrat doing his best french Snoop Dogg impression. The moon has not been cut. Once again. This isn't funny ever. Okay, it's funny once where Tony Harrison calls him an alabaster retard. Other than that it has been held up where far funnier jokes were sacrificed in nearly every episode.
So yeah - this is a good episode to go out on - not great. It works in a kind of meta way - this episode is kind of a microcosm of what every Boosh episode does - these two guys argue over crap, despite their awful situation that will most likely kill them. Then they make the situation worse by slipping into fantasy, letting it take over their lives until it goes too far into nightmare-logic (that's when the Hitcher shows up), and then they are saved by a deus ex machina and made to look like fools (sometimes only Howard). But two guys writing a story about two guys who create a fantasy world that then tries to kill them, driven by the one guy's depressive tendencies - sound familiar? I've said a lot about this show being sold over here poorly - this episode is actually presented pretty well barring the cut of "Isolation" for some odd reason. That's something to be said - adult swim's editors clearly favored the plot over the songs every single time, editing them first at every chance they got. They prefer the comedy, I guess, which you can't fault them but IT'S A MUSIC SHOW. That's kind of the point, and they never really understood that, and maybe that's why the show wasn't the hit it could be. It seems to have done okay, but if there's a problem it's that, not the out-of-order presentation, not the cutting for time and standards which I had gripes with - but that adult swim fundamentally misunderstood what it was that they had. If they had Flying Circus they'd cut the Parrot Sketch. But it'd still be Python, and we still got the full run of the Boosh on American tv. All the bad presentation in the world can't stop that fact from shining. Technically you're not a peeping tom if it's one of your relatives. And I need you more tonight. And I need you more than ever. And that's why I can't go for that.
Entourage – “Fore” by Martin Brown
Part of the reason that it’s not possible to ever be entirely satisfied with Entourage (AKA, “Why there are so many haters”) is because it’s a show that’s never quite what you want it to be. It makes itself out to be a show about dudes, for dudes, with all kinds of things that dudes like, like race cars and boobies. Except that it’s secretly also more of a soap opera than Sex in the City. It’s set up as a satire, but one done completely without irony (yet also nowhere near as self-serious as some describe it). It’s built like a sitcom, but sucks at short-form storytelling, excelling instead in its multi-episode and season-long arcs. In terms of whether Entourage will ever be a truly beloved show, the way some of its HBO peers are, it’s totally fucked.
“Fore” is an episode that sees Entourage playing to many of its own weaknesses. A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that Entourage is great at event episodes—and it is, but not when it does them all season long. So far this season, we’ve had The Great Gatsby’s premiere, Turtle’s birthday, the season opener—which is an event episode in timing, if not in content—and “Fore,” which follows the five main characters as they compete in a celebrity golf tournament. Between this and Entourage’s time slot following True Blood and Hung, it’s almost as if the writers have clocked out on their HBO viewership and are writing purely for syndication.
The episode opens with Eric’s ex-girlfriend, Sloan, interrupting a dinner date between Eric and his new girlfriend. Turns out she’s going to be doing whatever the celebrity golf tournament equivalent of hostessing is for them the next day and… tension between… ugh… jesus, does anyone actually care about E’s sex life? Just because dudes may not be versed in soap opera tropes, doesn’t mean that it’s okay to give them a Three’s Company rip off, with less panache—which is exactly what happens when the episode ends with Eric accidentally calling his new girlfriend, “Sloan.”
Also reinforcing the Three’s Company corollary is the appearance of Jeffrey Tambor, as Ari’s client and golf partner. Tambor’s comedic genius goes woefully underutilized in “Fore,” as the writers basically put a bunch of curse words in his mouth, and he mumbles his way through them. The only other subplots that “Fore” can muster up are one where Turtle drives across the golf course to call Tom Brady a dick (he’s a Giants fan), but backs off because Brady invites him over for dinner—Giselle’s cooking—and one where Johnny Drama can’t golf, which culminates in an unfortunate bit of physical comedy where Drama throws a fit and breaks one of Brady’s clubs.
Season six started off with some promise, but, especially paired with last weeks’ largely forgettable “Running on E,” “Fore” indicates that the show is now just treading water.
Hung – “Doris is Dead” or “Are We Rich or Are We Poor?” by Martin Brown
So, is Hung sexist or not? Are the women of Hung poorly drawn stereotypes, merely representing different shades of neediness? Or are they more complicated than that? Is the show, as HBO would have you believe, about a middle-aged guy—one that just happens to be an aspiring male prostitute—who finally learns how to communicate with and understand women? Or is it simply about a gigantic dick that can solve all of women’s problems? Yes.
On one end of the spectrum, Ray Drecker’s ex-wife, Jessica, represents exactly the worst kind of female stereotype: She’s a woman who gets botoxed by her new husband, who she married for his money; she’s pathologically desperate for her kids’ affection, but, like, only recently; she has a weak spot for animals, and a mother who encourages her to root around in her husband’s finances and withhold sex from him until she gets what she wants. On top of all that, thus far she appears to exist in Hung only to uphold that stereotype—like one of the writers was working out a grudge. So far, she hasn’t interacted with the plot in any meaningful way.
A good number of the other women in Hung follow the same pattern. There’s Ray’s daughter, who chases after a boy that cheats on her and treats her like crap; Ray’s next door neighbor, the hot wife of his arch-nemesis, who lusts after him; and Ray’s first two tricks, which have been a manipulative sociopath and an insecure, older housewife. If Hung ever even had a chance of being a non-sexist show about prostitution—one of the deepest quagmires of gender-relations in the first place—things are not looking good for it now.
On the other hand, Hung’s central female character, Tanya, Ray’s pimp, is constantly portrayed as meek and wispy—but she also consistently stands up for herself. She’s not very good at it, but she’s constantly fighting for what she believes in and what she feels she deserves. When her teacher makes a pass at her, she firmly refuses. (Hilarity ensues.) When one of her clients breaks the rules, she demands they be followed. She is as responsible for moving the plot as Ray, making her the co-protagonist, and I suspect that her story-arc will involve her slowly learning the ropes and becoming an excellent pimp.
Finally, there’s Jemma, the woman introduced last episode who hires Ray to participate in her fantasies—which would be awesome for him, except that her fantasies include things like a trip to the psychiatrist’s office. “Doris is Dead” features a scene that reveals Jemma as a respected business woman, but it isn’t really necessary. We know that Jemma is powerful by how clearly she has mapped out her uses for Ray—she has a very particular plan, and she’s executing it precisely. “Doris is Dead” is about what happens when Jemma is so good at role-playing that she makes Ray believe that her fantasies are reality.
The episode culminates with all three of the major female characters (four, if you count Ray’s daughter) watching one of Ray’s basketball games. Over the course of the game, the relationship between each of the three women and Ray becomes extremely complicated, and for maybe the first time in Hung’s history, the show becomes ripe with possibilities of what could happen next. Yes, Hung is built with a handful of sitcom-y character affectations, but if it continues to develop its characters in a way that deepens each of them and their relationships with one another, it stands a chance of transcending its sitcom stock. It’s only a show about a big, magical penis that solves everything if the big, magical penis actually does solve everything. Otherwise, it’s a show about a big, magical penis trying to solve everything but failing—which is infinitely more interesting.
Top Chef Masters – “Dietary Restrictions” by Martin Brown
At this point, Top Chef Masters feels as if it’s been split into two different seasons—the preliminary rounds and the finals. The preliminary rounds had no multi-episode arc, whereas the finals has a condensed one. Last episode packed in the character introductions that would typically come in the first couple episodes of any other reality TV show, and it did so incredibly well. If “Dietary Restrictions” were part of a regular season, it would be episodes 3-10, where the wheat is separated from the chaff, and the true contenders make themselves apparent. It does this pretty well also, it just doesn’t have as much great material to work with as the last episode, with the chefs forced to make a vegan meal with no soy and no gluten and, subsequently, not a whole lot of fun.
So “Dietary Restrictions was mostly about positioning for the final four. Hubert Keller shows some signs of fraying at the edges this episode—any doubts as to whether or not Top Chef Masters’ editors would be taking it easy on the competitors should have been put to rest as “Dietary Restrictions” begins with a Quickfire Challenge that sees Keller talk at length about his restaurant that sells $5000 hamburgers, and then fail to make an enticing hamburger—as does Anita Lo, who seems pretty happy to walk away with $20,000 for her charity and be done with the show. Art Smith got the exit he always deserved. Michael Chiarello stepped his game up, winning both the Quickfire (with a big ass burger) and the Elimination challenges. And Rick Bayless continued to be the consummate craftsman who I may or may not be a little bit in love with. Other than that, it was just a ramp up to this week’s episode, which looks to be absolutely bonkers.
-Sean Witzke & Martin Brown, 2009
The thing is they're all on vacation TOGETHER. It's complicated, they have a compound that you can only get to by snowmobile - you guys ever see the Oprah episode where she went to Tom Cruises' house and Katie Holmes welcomed the camera crew with "I Love You"? It's nothing like that at all.
Posted by: Sean Witzke | 2009.08.12 at 00:21
Martin, if you haven't seen it, Bayless is blogging at www.root4rick.com. He posted a Q&A yesterday, and his "guilty pleasure" answer was shockingly funny.
Posted by: jeffk | 2009.08.12 at 09:05
I haven't checked his blog for a week or so, but you really can't front on the guy's enthusiasm. It's infectuous.
Posted by: Marty | 2009.08.12 at 11:23
How come the weekly mighty boosh recap still gets thrown in with the reviews? There's no analysis of why it's anything but an unfunny flight of the conchords, so we poor readers are forced do the reviewing ourselves and conclude that this is so.
Posted by: tom | 2009.08.12 at 21:54
ok, I read it again and there was some reviewing going on. I apologise, I was blinded by rage. Rage and jealousy of the annoying one from the mighty boosh's lifestyle.
Posted by: tom | 2009.08.12 at 22:00
Tom - Why did you wait until the last one to say this? I review every episode for 3 seasons and now you chose the time to call me out? And do you really want to side-by-side compare Conchords and the Boosh? Because s2 of the Conchords was the biggest letdown on tv in a long damn time.
Posted by: Sean Witzke | 2009.08.13 at 02:00
I didn't watch the second series! I'm being intellectually dishonest! It's a trick we internet commenters use all the time!
Posted by: tom | 2009.08.13 at 03:07
That last one is one of the funniest comments I've read in a while.
Posted by: Marty | 2009.08.13 at 14:51
Even the worst of Season 2 Conchords beats out the best of the Boosh. But it's not really fair to compare the two of them, because the Boosh really isn't a music show. There's a lot of talking about music, and at times the various characters lapse into song, but the songs are rarely funny and never catchy. As oddball humor, the Boosh is great - as anything to do with music, it's kind of embarrassing.
What makes the Boosh interesting, to me, is just how utterly nightmarish its world is: we're presented with these two characters, Howard and Vince, and the show lures us into expecting that it's going to be about them and their wacky adventures running into various oddball side characters. But this isn't the case: the show is really just about Howard, the only person on the show who appears to be remotely human, and the various horrifying things that happen to him week after week. Notice, the plot is almost never about things that Howard does - Howard is almost inevitably a passive observer as various elements of a hostile, incomprehensible and semi-retarded universe visit their arbitrary fury upon him week after week.
One of those elements, of course, is Vince, Howard's own friend, who we initially take to be a sort of co-protagonist in the standard sitcom odd-couple mold. But Vince is a plant: he's every bit the oddball side character that the Hitcher and Old Gregg are, and he serves the same function they do - to goad the plot along by tormenting Howard. (In most of the early episodes he's merely a passive participant in this; by later episodes like "Fountain of Youth" and "Eels," Vince is an active source of misery.)
Initially we're encouraged to believe that the massive imbalance between Howard's and Vince's fortunes is some form of karma, that Vince is simply being rewarded for being cooler, more laid-back, for listening to more current music. But Vince's mullets and eighties power-pop cassettes are as anachronistic as Howard's funk and fusion, and their acceptance as mainstream in the world of the series is as markedly out of place as the show's omnipresent use the euro. It's not that Howard has done something or represents something that needs to be punished - it's that the show's universe, as represented by Vince, the Hitcher, Bollo, etc., has arbitrarily decided to inflict pain upon him, over and over again. In this sense, The Mighty Boosh is a comedy about the singular hell of an ordinary, unremarkable, pitiable human being, which, whatever you want to say about it, is notable, at least.
Posted by: moose n squirrel | 2009.08.15 at 15:48
Damn moose, that is some food for thought.
Posted by: Sean Witzke | 2009.08.16 at 19:56