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2ACV11: How Hermes Requisitioned His
Groove Back
First UK airing: Sky One, 7:00pm, 4-6-00
"Jamaican? I thought you were
some kind of outer space potato man!"
Well, Dilbert may have been cancelled, but at least
all those unused storylines of outrageous bureaucratic nightmares
didn't go to waste. In fact, the head bureaucrat actually looked
as though he could have come from the pen of Scott Adams rather
than Matt Groening. If that was a deliberate joke, it's one aimed
solely at cartoonists!
'Groove' (I'm not typing that title out again) was
a so-so storyline livened up by some good gags. The main problem
was that as a character, Hermes hasn't really been given enough
setup -- even a year and a half into the show -- to carry an
episode of his own. The other secondary cast members, Amy, Zoidberg
and the Professor, have all had enough character snippets given
to them in past episodes that when they actually got their own
storylines they worked -- and besides, the three leads are always
there to support them. But what do we know about Hermes? He's
officious, he's Jamaican, he limbos and he's prone to being targetted
by brain slugs. That's pretty much it. And when he finally gets
an episode, he spends half of it away from the rest of the gang
without any opportunities to bounce jokes off them. Zoidberg,
on the other hand, is getting more outrageously desperate and
pathetic by the week, to the point where he's making even Fry
start to look smooth. (In fact, Fry's starting to catch up with
Amy in the love interest stakes!)
When the jokes worked, they were good -- especially
Bender's bolt in the locker, which led to the best masturbation
gag since 2ACV05. The earwax candle and the Professor's insane
freakout were genuine laugh-raisers too (and we found out that
it's not just Amy the Professor's hired for reasons other than
competence). And I have to admit that I found Hermes' song pretty
catchy. But overall, it really did have the feel of a
Dilbert episode -- one of those not-very-funny ones where it
goes eight steps beyond the edge and involves the destruction
of Western civilisation. I guess that when it comes down to it,
limbo dancing is funnier than paperwork.
Still, it gets an extra mark for the Big Trouble In
Little China reference.
A couple of final trivial notes -- poor Amy's getting
left behind after her big role in 'Put Your Head On My Shoulders'
-- she only got seven (count 'em) actual lines, and for some
of those the animators didn't even bother opening her mouth!
Maybe she's training to become a ventriloquist. One last thing,
which I'm almost certain wasn't deliberate since nobody in America
knows who he is, but one of the bureaucrats (the one with the
beard) is the spitting image of British Foreign Secretary Robin
Cook, a ginger gargoyle of a man. Oddest thing I've seen for
ages!
Rating: 
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