Review: Red vs Blue – Family Shatters “Phase’s Reputation”


OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

The Squad (and Zero) discuss rumors about Phase.

OUR TAKE

Well, I guess Phase and East are gonna be combined for the rest of the season? They were separated up until that Freak Friday episode but now they’re together…I guess that’s continuity of some sort. The dynamics of that never really added up for me in the Zero season, so I foolishly expected them to give it some sort of logic in this comedy show. There’s also a lot of talk about Diesel despite him never showing up. I guess Daman Mills doesn’t come cheap when you’re not using them to Christopher Plummer somebody. By the way, just in case it wasn’t clear, I’m trying very hard to avoid discussing the plot of this episode because, well…all I would be doing is just explaining the joke. The cast go over escalatingly weird rumors about Phase that are obviously not true but are funny to describe, even when people like West, her own father, should know are not real, which makes the fact that he’s saying them even funnier! On paper, at least. See, I say “on paper” because this scenario is theoretically hilarious, but as I think has been made apparent by now, I found it to be quite lacking in execution.

So yeah, there really isn’t a ton to analyze here regarding this episode. It’s partly because analyzing and critiquing comedy is a lot trickier than drama, since comedy as a genre is much more subjective and the only way you really know if a joke hits you is if you laugh, which is kinda instinctual, and if you have to think about it or need it explained, it probably wasn’t very funny. But it’s also partly because this episode, like the majority of ones we have covered for Family Shatters, is so bereft of content to properly or even adequately dissect and analyze that the most I can do to squeeze any blood out of this stone is to explain why the joke isn’t funny, and then explain why explaining the joke isn’t funny, and then circle back to points I have already run into the ground in previous reviews. Not even the slight illness brought on by getting my COVID booster and flu shot can make this episode appealing or chuckleworthy. I can at least hope for the best that the remaining three episodes will show some sort of improvement or at least a good note to go out on, though I also kinda worry that we’re going to need a Suicide Hotline PSA by the end. What do I mean by that and how is it relevant? Stay tuned for my gen:LOCK review for this week!