Episode 112: Law And Boarder

Cast:
Brendon Small – Brendon Small
Jason Penopolis – H. Jon Benjamin
Melissa Robbins – Melissa Bardin Galsky
Coach Jon McGuirk – H. Jon Benjamin
Paula Small – Janine Ditullo
Josie Small – Loren Bouchard
Stephanie – Kelly Kimball
Police Officer – Mitch Hedberg
Judge – Bill Braudis

Synopsis: Brendon's problems with his newest film, "The Slapstick Barbarian Project", are made worse when he is hit by a car and blamed for the accident. Paula's old friend, Stephanie, doesn't make matters much better.

History:
· We meet Stephanie in this episode, who makes a few more appearances in the show.

Lawn Gnomes: (Click for picture)
· A Lawn Gnome can be seen on the right during the filming of “The Slapstick Barbarian Project”

Brendon’s Filmography:
· “The Slapstick Barbarian Project”: Can I AX you a question?
· “Brendon’s Accident Essay”: A video essay shown in court in order to show what really happened in the car accident.

The Movie-Episode Connection:
· Slapstick violence, both in the movie and the video essay, mirror Brendon's own interpretation of the accident.

The Plotline Connection: (TheJazzFighter)
· Stephanie screws up everything up. She messes up Paula's house and ends up making McGuirk take Brendon to the Court Date (which results in essays for the both of them).

Song Lyrics:
· Don’t Kill Children
Don’t kill children
Don’t run them over
Let them live their life
Let them get older
Don’t kill children
Don’t run them over
Let them live their life
Let them get older
Brendon Small!
He didn’t do anything wrong!
He was riding his bike!
They tried to take his life!

Random Observations & Facts:
· The rich people have apparently just bought their car from Villiano’s Autos.
· Some of Brendon’s hair is wrapped in bandages.
· Brendon’s chair has a piece of paper with “Brendon” written on it on the back.
· The Slapstick Barbarian Project costumes are use for the Season One DVD cover.
· Jason drew a picture on his paper within about 10 seconds of getting the crayon.
· Stephanie’s eyes gradually change shape when she first talks about Richard.
· There are some crumbled up pieces of paper on the table in the second “Slapstick Barbarian Project” scene.
· Paula appears to be wearing the “Paula Poundstone Paula” shirt when she’s sleeping.
· The drunk guy drinks “Red Wiskey”, a product that's used similarly to Black Hole Brew on the show.
· There is a certain rhythm to way they say “Ow!” in the “Slapstick Barbarian Project”.
· We see Stephanie break 13 plates.
· There is a picture of a duck (or bird) on Brendon’s “podium” in “Brendon’s Accident Essay”.
· As the statue, Melissa scratches her nose and drops something in “Brendon’s Accident Essay”.
· The car in “Brendon’s Accident Essay” has the same money sign as the real car. Jason and Melissa wear almost the exact same thing the rich people wore. Also, the headlights look like angry eyes.
· There is a cloud and a sun with a happy face hanging from the ceiling in “Brendon’s Accident Essay”.
· In the “Don’t Kill Children” video, Dwayne holds a poster with a crude drawing of Brendon being hit by a car crossed out.

Movie Connections
· The intro to episode 112: Law And Boarder is an homage to Krzysztof Kieslowski's film, Blue, which is part of his Blue, White, and Red movie trilogy. Blue starts out with a married couple in a car running into a boy on a bike, which kills the husband. (thanks to stiff)

End Credits: “Don’t Kill Children”

Reviews: WARNING: Spoilers

The Condiment King: This or "Pizza Club" for my favorite episode of Home Movies. Despite the fact that Stephanie was here, perhaps the worst character in the history of the show, to bring it down, the main stories were strong enough to make it one of the best episodes of the series.

Yeah, I really hated the Stephanie character. When she's happy, she's really annoyingly trying to get Paula to go dancing with her. Its just sad when Paula refuses and she begrudgingly goes. When she's angry, its also annoying with her eyes in a rage over anything and everything with her husband. Yeah, I just hated this character, and I don't really see how she accomplished much outside of being a distraction to the rest of the proceedings. Another failed Paula plot.

I love the more apathetic and rebellious Brendon Small that we get in this episode after being run over by a car. It leads to some of the most hilarious scenes and lines of the series. Brendon is bored easily with Paula, Stephanie, McGuirk, Jason/Melissa arguing, everything, and it just makes the payoff that much better.

The Slapstick Barbarian Project is minimal, but it does become a part of the absolutely fantastic video essay of Brendon to finish the episode. Perhaps the best segway of the series is when we go from Paula and Stephanie saying "I'm not a victim." to Brendon yelling, "I AM A VICTIM." This leads into the best Skab song, "Don't Kill Children".

The entire court scene was fantastic, especially with Coach McGuirk representing Brendon as his lawyer, where we learn that Brendon is completely guilty and it was Bruce Boxlightner who was in Tron among other things. The straight-edge judge works perfect with the lunacy of Brendon, McGuirk, and Paula. I like that Brendon felt the need to earn his own personal victory of claiming that he learned absolutely nothing from the day's proceedings.

The cop with the lisp was one of the better one-note gags of the series, accusing Brendon of "racketeering" and McGuirk of "murder 1". Paula's line of accusing him of a lisp was one of her better and quicker comebacks. Coach McGuirk trying to feign out of the confrontation by taking advantage of the cop's lisp on McGuirk, McGwirk.

Of course, this episode had the best ending of the series which goes without saying. The irony of McGuirk entering and leaving the bathroom and trying to figure out what to do with a dead fish, and of course yelling, "Sammy!!" at the end of the episode. How epic. Fantastic episode. *****

StrangerAtaru: One of the more interesting episodes where the second half turns out to be stronger than the first, even though there was some good stuff in both areas. Let me start off by getting this out of the way: Stephanie is not one of my favorite characters. Sure she is quirky and such, but unfortunately she was too much of a nuisence for me. Although I did like how Paula did work with her character (putting up with someone who has this very faulty memory of bygone days), she just seemed too loopy in part one, but then turns too overmelodramatic by the second half. (Quick note: while this show is one of the few that deals with divorce and seperation in a comedically mature way, I just could not get into the whole Stephanie situation) Now that that's out of the way, I love the whole situation involving Brendon's, um, lawsuit. It starts off with a more serious, artistic intro showing the accident (this, as well as the montage at the end of "Impressions", are some good examples of this), but what happens next is one comedic calamity after another! McGurk, though we don't see him much in this episode, enhances the courtroom sequence where it seems he is just as much of a problem as they thought Brendon was. Then there was the protest video, which involves the incorperation of the "Slapstick Barbarian Project" in the best way (the original movie by itself was funny, but this sort of was getting a message across. And while we are at it, the conversation about the movie in act 1 got its point across on something that starts off funny, but then becomes pathetic, making it even funnier), then with the infamous "Don't Kill Children". All in all, this episode is up there with the best of the first season, but doesn't jump out as "classic" to me alongside "Director's Cut" or "Brendon Gets Rabies".

The Landstander: Probably the second best of the season. Much like Mortgages & Marbles it follows a bizarre Brendon situation through some kind of twisted logic. Brendon gets hit by a car, is considered at fault, is forced to write an essay (in part because of McGuirk's complete lack of help), writes an essay legitimately saying what he feels, and then gets punished for it. The great line here is how Brendon has learned absolutely nothing from this experience. Within this comic movement there is plenty of good humor; after Slapstick Barbarian Project falls through, Brendon just mixes the ideas with his current legal situation. Also like the previous episode is a hilarious Dwayne song that's both completely unexpected and fits perfectly. McGuirk is put on the sidelines and it works fine; his monologue about his runaway experience is among my favorite quotes of his.

The other plotline with Stephanie works alright, but doesn't compare to the main plot. I think the only problem is that it plays a bit TOO serious; I always liked how HM finds humor in places other shows don't even go too, but Stephanie's marraige doesn't quite match the humor content. But I'm being too harsh; Paula's reactions, Stephanie's odd memories, and drunken trumpet playing was all pretty good.

On the whole, the episode is very funny and quite in the unusual HM spirit. One of their finest. Highly Recommended.