Monsters of Television

“Aw, geeze, he must’ve gotten sucked into my enigma hole.”

I missed last week’s very fun send-up of noirs with Hank due to schedule craziness (read: I was dead tired). I really enjoyed the episode though as it tied up some dangling mysteries (never thought for a second that Dermott belonged to Brock) and paired Hank and Al together in a very productive (and meaningful way). But that episode has nothing on the sheer lunacy and cleverness of “Bright Lights, Dean City.”

Admittedly, much of my enjoyment of the episode comes from seeing the Revenge Society (though I do also like The Violet Hour a great deal) at work, going through the motions of being a start-up evil organization. Especially in this economy, as Dean notes, that has to be really difficult (does the Guild offer unarching insurance?). The sequences draw strength from the fact that show has never forgotten who Professor Impossible, Baron Ünderbheit, and Phantom Limb truly are: menacing foes.

Their confrontation with Rusty at the end (with the aid of Fat Chance and Ladyhawke Johnson and Lyndon Bee)  is properly harrowing, since it seems like they’ve actually got their act together, down to the one-liners and closing in on Rusty in a slow circle. It reminds us just how useless Rusty is without a body guard, thrown into even starker relief by his self-aggrandizing (and soon to be hit) song, “Rusty (I’m Rusty).”

And Rusty’s beat in the episode works well enough, though I’d rather see some follow-through or development from the constant shattering of his ego. It’s something I keep expecting of Rusty (especially after Dr. Killinger’s intervention) that the show never really maintains. Which is frustrating, but probably in keeping with Rusty’s refusal to grow up. Ever. Everyone else on the show can grow as the show goes on (even Sgt. Hatred to a degree), so why not Rusty?

But perhaps the episode’s biggest achievement is a thematic accomplishment: Dean gets overshadowed by everyone around him, just like always. If Hank’s episode last week showcased how, if he actually put his mind to it, Hank could accomplish anything (including having sex with his dad’s sultry one-night stand), this episode only drives home how lost Dean is in own life (as he has been for a while now). And while, like Rusty’s delusions of grandeur, this is a recurring theme for the show, Dean at least has the potential to grow here, as he realizes that super science isn’t for him.

Finally, the episode tag. I’m a bit relieved that it turned out to be an alternate dimension Rusty Venture and not Rusty himself that came out of that riff. But leave to the writers of the show to take that excellent idea for an entire episode and make it into a pretty solid one-off gag: “Explain to the untalented Mr. Ripley here that he can’t just waltz into my dimension, try to kill me with a rock, and take my place.” Unlike the disappointment that was the ORB (so much promise in that little sphere), the promise of an alternate dimension Rusty pays off well enough that I’m not sad that we don’t get to really explore that dimension.

Eager for next week’s episode, as it sounds like, finally, I’ll get some Dr. Orpheus. Finally.