8x08 Charlie Rules the World

[7.8/10] Interesting, kind of weird, but also oddly engrossing episode of IASIP. I love the subtle theme this season that Charlie, when he’s able to focus on something, is frighteningly effective and unnervingly Machiavellian at what he sets his mind to.

I also liked the overall theme of this one, with people substituting various realities they find preferable for their real lives. That can mean watching reality TV to feel superior to other people, living out your fantasies in the digital world, catfishing admirers in an MMRPG, or just glancing at your phone while walking through the mall like a new take on Dawn of the Dead. I don’t know that IASIP has anything particularly insightful to say on the topic, but it gives the episode a certain unity that helps the disparate bits hang together.

Again, I enjoyed how Charlie took over Dee’s game and went a little power mad, replete with Dee and Mac quaking as his underlings, and him turning the possiblity of real life connections with real life people into powerplays in his game.

Dennis’s frustrations and journey of self-discovery was mostly strange, but again, oddly compelling. His vaguely 2001-esque journey of the self grabbed your attention with its weirdness, and there was even something vaguely outré and self-aware about him deleting all the others’ game characters and noting that sometimes “things just end” without a big to-do.

Overall, this felt like one that followed the IASIP formula a bit, but which also broke out of the mold at the margins just enough to stand out from the crowd. Anyway, back to living vicariously through these weirdos on TV.