22x09 Unfulfilled

[7.6/10] For all the delicate political and social commentary, I think my favorite part of this episode was just Josh the box spouting Marxist rhetoric while a news reporter just asks him what the hell it’s like being a box. It’s the kind of real sentiments mixed with absurdity that this show does so well.

But apart from the pure silliness, I like the social commentary of this episode a good amount too, while still appreciating the dose of lunacy Trey and Matt make sure to add. There’s something interesting and compelling about the drudgery and ubiquity of Amazon as presented in the episode (and the “Sixteen Tons” montage is well done at illustrating that). I appreciate the explicit comparisons to immigrant workers in factories and the strikes of that era, and as a Star Trek fan, depicting Jeff Bezos as one of the Talosians from “The Menagerie” is a treat in a show that’s rife with references to The Original Series. It works as a nice layered bit of commentary in the way that episode is also tied to a “pleasure, but at a cost” routine.

To the same end, I appreciate the way this one teases out the tensions between people just wanting their stuff, while the human cost to it is mostly invisible, with even those workers being squeezed when they can’t otherwise afford to get things from the company they work for. At the same time, I also like the four main boys reminiscing about when they used to do things together, struggling to remember what they did before online shopping, and venturing to a mall that’s now only populated with wide-eyed subterranean mallworkers/mole people.

Overall, a lot of the ultimate success of this one will depend on whether the show can stick the landing, but there’s a lot of worthwhile ideas being toyed with in this one, and a lot of very funny gags to liven things up too. Reminds me a little of “Something Wal-Mart This Way Comes” which seemed to make a similar point.