I usually don't write reviews on imdb, so hopefully you won't mind my sudden appearance. But because Episodes 1-6 of Season 5 (this current season) were the best episodes they ever produced to this show (I rated each one 10/10, something I don't usually do), I felt I needed to say something. Compared to these early episodes, this episode stands out like a sore thumb due to the huge quality drop it has. Allow me to explain further.
The best part of this episode (by far) comes from the Colin Robison and Nandor plot. Not only the jokes landed, but also Mark Proksch and Kayvan Novak made the otherwise lackluster material that was handed to them shine. So let's give this part a generous 8/10 (good, but not great). Mildly funny plot, but otherwise unremarkable and easily forgettable.
Unfortunately, that cannot be said to the horrendous and unsalvageable segment handed to Natasia Demetriou. She is one of the best parts of the show, however, not even a great actress as she can save when is dealt with a complete nothing burger. In fact, I feel disrespected by her. You make your incredible lead actress going around looking for donuts the entire episode?? WTF. If this came out in the 60's, people today would comment something like: "Ohh look at the generic portrayal of women.... This is clearly a sign of those chauvinistic times, where women were giving these 'womenly' tasks". I can't believe we are in 2023 and someone thought that this was okay to write this part and air. So I'm giving this part a 1/10 (complete disaster). A filler segment that is a complete waste of my time, the production's time, Natasia's time (I bet) and just completely dumb. I'm just not giving this a 0/10 because of Natasia's incredible New York accent line delivery. Otherwise, what were they thinking?!
Finally, Harvey Guillén and Matt Berry are dealt the episode's A plot, but because this episode is a mess, it's more like a C plot. For real, did we need two scenes establishing the premise? Even though, I didn't find it particularly funny or remarkable, some jokes did land and at least the meager material was enough for both actors to shine in some spots. I am going to be fair, and give this part a generous 6/10 (above average). After all, the costumes and the creature design were great! It's just that, like the first two previously mentioned plots, the writing just wasn't there.
So basically, who wrote this? I feel like I can honestly do better, and I'm not a screenwriter! This felt much more like one of the mild episodes of last season (which I felt people online didn't like as much) than the great pacing and story of the early episodes this season had. Even though I feel like this episode had its fair writing problems, I'm going to give a generous 7/10, because everything else was spectacular, like always. Hopefully this is the outlier of the season and the last 3 episodes will be as great as the first 6!
