[9.7/10] What a brilliant episode, one that totally gets the show’s characters, bends the format, and finds hilarious and escalatingly absurd situations to put everyone into, all prompted by a pretty standard robbery.
Each little vignette was great. I got a big kick out of Mac imagining himself in a standard-issue kung fu movie, where he talks like Steven Segal and can actually do the karate moves he imagines himself busting out. There’s some well-done action sequences and it’s a loving homage to those movies. And the gag that even in his own fantasy, Mac’s too much of a dope to really understand puns is the icing on the cake.
Dee’s vignette was my absolute favorite though. The way she went from killing her “friends”, turning in her robber, and then parlaying that into a witness protection-prompted dream job as an actress does a nice job of capturing the absurd cause and effect of these sorts of fantasies. But then the episode kicks it up a notch, between her Mrs. Doubtfiring her way as a butler n TV to becoming a serious actress who’s dating Josh Groban (who, as she reminds us, likes his women to pop). The episode manages the transition from scene to scene beautifully, and each link in the chain is more delightfully absurd than the last.
Dennis’s vignette was superb as well, with him getting shot, having his life flash before his eyes, and then being nursed back to health by the buxom weather girl he previously failed to seduce is another bit of pie-in-the-sky fantasy for one of The Gang. The montages are silly as hell, and the One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest homage fits Dennis’s myopic sociopathy.
Frank’s bit was nicely anticlimactic, and the way his grand fantasy is eating a hotdog regardless of the fact that everyone he knows is getting killed makes for a nice breather.
Charlie’s fantasy is absolutely outstanding. I didn’t realize I wanted a sweet but kind of demented parody of Up, but here we are. The animation is a little cheap-looking, but the way the segment captures the Pixar vibe, while mixing in Charlie’s complete naivete and ignorance about the world (“Marriage Store” anyone?), and having his fantasy be so childlike yet earnest is an inspired way to go.
And the button, that after such grand plans they all just steal stuff and run out, is perfect.
Overall, this is an episode of the show that is not only wildly inventive, and shows how much range the people behind this series have, but one that shows how fully formed and recognizable each of these characters are, to where their most out there fantasies are still as true to each character as they are utterly ridiculous. A tour de force.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2018-03-21T04:57:32Z
[9.7/10] What a brilliant episode, one that totally gets the show’s characters, bends the format, and finds hilarious and escalatingly absurd situations to put everyone into, all prompted by a pretty standard robbery.
Each little vignette was great. I got a big kick out of Mac imagining himself in a standard-issue kung fu movie, where he talks like Steven Segal and can actually do the karate moves he imagines himself busting out. There’s some well-done action sequences and it’s a loving homage to those movies. And the gag that even in his own fantasy, Mac’s too much of a dope to really understand puns is the icing on the cake.
Dee’s vignette was my absolute favorite though. The way she went from killing her “friends”, turning in her robber, and then parlaying that into a witness protection-prompted dream job as an actress does a nice job of capturing the absurd cause and effect of these sorts of fantasies. But then the episode kicks it up a notch, between her Mrs. Doubtfiring her way as a butler n TV to becoming a serious actress who’s dating Josh Groban (who, as she reminds us, likes his women to pop). The episode manages the transition from scene to scene beautifully, and each link in the chain is more delightfully absurd than the last.
Dennis’s vignette was superb as well, with him getting shot, having his life flash before his eyes, and then being nursed back to health by the buxom weather girl he previously failed to seduce is another bit of pie-in-the-sky fantasy for one of The Gang. The montages are silly as hell, and the One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest homage fits Dennis’s myopic sociopathy.
Frank’s bit was nicely anticlimactic, and the way his grand fantasy is eating a hotdog regardless of the fact that everyone he knows is getting killed makes for a nice breather.
Charlie’s fantasy is absolutely outstanding. I didn’t realize I wanted a sweet but kind of demented parody of Up, but here we are. The animation is a little cheap-looking, but the way the segment captures the Pixar vibe, while mixing in Charlie’s complete naivete and ignorance about the world (“Marriage Store” anyone?), and having his fantasy be so childlike yet earnest is an inspired way to go.
And the button, that after such grand plans they all just steal stuff and run out, is perfect.
Overall, this is an episode of the show that is not only wildly inventive, and shows how much range the people behind this series have, but one that shows how fully formed and recognizable each of these characters are, to where their most out there fantasies are still as true to each character as they are utterly ridiculous. A tour de force.