Grid Effect

So I’m not entirely sure what the fuck we watched last night, but I’m pretty sure I wasn’t supposed to enjoy it. They essentially took the usual two or three storylines and condensed it down to one and that is something we generally like from this series (see Vegas episode), but when it is so outlandishly stupid, well, no format is going to save them.

Sure, we got Lloyd throwing a gay party at Ari’s house after Ari demanded he watch his dog. Why Lloyd couldn’t just take the dog back to his apartment I guess would be just too easy of a conflict resolution. But the entire plot there consisted of Ari screaming into the phone at Lloyd, so it didn’t really add much to the episode since every scene he was in was just cutback after cutback from Lloyd’s apartment/Ari’s house and back to the desert with Ari.

Perry Reeves showing up at the worst possible time was predictable, and I still can’t figure out why Ari wouldn’t have just told her that he was out on business, which he kind of was. Speaking of which, does Ari ever have to devote any of his time to any of his other clients? I know the show has made the point that Ari has an affection for Vince that he doesn’t share with other clients, but he is now spending weekends doing shrooms with him. I don’t know, between this and Mad Men the pacing and tone of both of these shows had us wondering if it was actually Sunday night, they were so different than what we usually get from the two.

Who the fuck is this guy? And why was it funny to have him threaten Ari 150 times?

What little plot they did have was categorically ridiculous, with Vince deciding to not do Benji after seeing a fire on the way back to LA and seeing himself as the firefighter. Here we have another instance of Vince making an egregious demand for something that isn’t available to him, and now everyone bending over backwards to make it happen. I liked Ari’s explanation for why he should take the gig, “You are taking this job for the same reason that 99% of people in the world take jobs: You need the money”. That was the high watermark for this episode.

Anyhow, we don’t really have much to say about this episode. Nothing much really happened in the way of plot, it wasn’t terribly funny, and we were just befuddled by the entire spectacle. We don’t expect this to be a sign of anything greater as far as the series is concerned, since it was such an offbeat effort, so we’re not worried on that front. But since we haven’t done shrooms, we basically felt like the entire episode was one giant inside joke that we weren’t privy to. And if it wasn’t an accurate depiction of what being on Shrooms is like, then we just don’t know what to say.

Back with Life and Times of Tim recap later.