1x11 New Dimensions

[6.2/10] There’s some good ideas here, both in terms of character arcs and sci-fi concepts, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. There’s a parallel between Mercer and LaMarr about what their potential is, and I like that tack for each character, but what the show does with each of them is spotty.

For Mercer, it comes down to yet another confrontation with Grayson, who lets slip that she put him up for the captaincy position. There’s some decent storytelling here. Mercer has a good emotional arc, from resenting Grayson for it and lamenting that he can’t have confidence in himself because he got his command as a “handout from his ex-wife” to eventually thanking her for what she did and recognizing that everyone has help to get where they are, whether they realize it or not. That’s a strong moral and a good place to take the character given what the show setup in the first episode.

But again, Seth MacFarlane is just not good at writing these dramatic scenes. All the conversations that he and Grayson have about it feel cartoony and less-than-real. Nevermind that it dives back into the unconvincing romantic tension the show keeps trying to spoon feed us. They just don’t scan as conversations real human beings would have, and to the limited extent they do, Mercer comes off as whiny and petulant while Grayson comes off as impossibly devoted to a dude who doesn’t seem worthy of it. The show as a whole spends more time telling us why Mercer is worthy of such adoration than ever showing it.

The LaMarr story has a different problem. Grayson realizing that LaMarr is a genius and trying to promote him to handle more technical work, despite his desire for the simple life, raises interesting issues over whether one’s obligated to rise to their greatest potential or whether they can forge a simpler existence that allows them to do what makes them happy. There’s a good foundation here, of LaMarr being resistant and nervous about command, but eventually finding his way by using his desire to just have a normal life.

The catch is that, as much comic chemistry as J. Lee and Scott Grimes have together, Lee isn’t really up to the dramatic moments this episode tries to give him. He seems oddly muted about everything, and it weakens the otherwise neat moments where he shows off his scientific ability and resolves his character conflict.

Having MacFarlane back at the pen also means there’s a greater quotient of his humor here, which isn’t good. It means more masturbation jokes, and gags about part of Yaphet being in Bortus’s colon, and the schticky observational humor that MacFarlane tries to work in. Little of it is any good. The only bit I did like was the return of the awkward but genial large-headed alien, who got elevator music installed in a previous episode and who now confesses his love of both pranks and woodworking. That guy’s a keeper.

The sci-fi anomaly here is a solid one, but the show doesn’t do much that’s interesting with it. The concept of two-dimensional space gets your attention (Mercer even namedrops Flatland!), but the show seems inconsistent about its rules. Does going to 2D kill you or just give you nosebleeds? And the various solutions seem deus ex machina, with a standard array of Treknobabble rather than any particularly clever solution. Still, it at least gives Mercer and LaMarr the chance to prove their worth. I wasn’t crazy about the design of the 2D plane either, and some of the flattening effects for the ship and the crew were pretty cheesy.

Overall, the ingredients are here in this one, but weak writing, weak acting, and the underutilization of a cool concept bring this one down.