Mikes Film Talk

In “Deadbeat” this week, Pac moves in with Clyde and the theme of this episode, “Digging Up the Past” is more about revenge than retribution.  Pac’s newest friend reveals that he made a fortune by buying up celebrity name websites in the ’90s and then selling them on.

“ShannenDoherty.com paid for my rug…”

He then shows Pac his bong collection and the first bong he ever made, in sixth grade. They find a half a gram still in the bong and after Clyde’s hit leaves him coughing, he goes to the kitchen. Just has Pac starts to take his “hit,” the ghost of a man ripped to shreds appears.

After an initial misunderstanding,  the ghost tells Pac that Clyde did this to him and Kevin justifiably freaks out, the spirit goes on to explain that guerrillas in Africa tore him up. Kevin is relieved:

Pac: (Laughing nervously): “Oh man, for a second there I was like, ‘I am a f***ing sh*t magnet for people these days.’”

The ghost was Clyde’s middle school counselor.  The man in question comes back in and is excited to learn Pac is talking to Mr. Faggy, a nickname Clyde gave him.  The younger version of Clyde accused the counselor of showing him his balls.

Mr. “Fa-jzeh” reveals he cannot pass on until Clyde reaches his true potential. He insists that his former student enter an idea contest:

“Big Apple Idea Fair, where imagination meets wonder and blows your mind.”

The men try to think up great ideas and come up short. Smoking weed and showering together  fails to yield any ideas so Clyde and Kevin dig up the park looking for ideas that Clyde had before he started smoking weed.

One of the items they find is Clyde’s old yearbook and he tells Kevin about the bully who made his life a misery in school, Brodie Keller.  This revelation leads the two to come up with an anti-bullying suit.

Cue a comic montage where the two work out the outfit.. After crossing off every target spot on their new invention they go to visit the grown up Brodie Keller (Eric Sheffer Stevens). The former school bully professes he is a changed man and refuses to test the anti-bullying outfit. At the last minute he gives the two men wedgies and Clyde has an idea.

After a quick change of plan the men go to the competition only to learn it is for children. They then advertise for a boy for an “underwear experiment” and are ensnared by the “America’s Dumbest Predators” program. Realizing how bad their answers sound to the show’s host, Pac suggest they run. They are caught by police that the program have deposited around the house.

Accused of soliciting  a minor for sex, Clyde and Kevin are arrested. Mr. “Faggy” now has his revenge for Clyde accusing him of showing the boy his balls.  The episode ends with Clyde asking Kevin to go into the “unfinished business” with him.

As stated in the last review of “Deadbeat” Tyler Labine and Kal Penn are perfect together in this bromance series. The two men are like identical peas in a pod with their mutual love of weed and sloth.

The irreverence continues as does the inane gags. For instance, the two are talking about how “Mr. Faggy” died; being torn to bits by a guerrillas:

Pac: “Holy sh*t, it was a band of guerrillas.”

Clyde: “Oh sh*t. What kind of music?”

Pac: “I don’t know, he did not specify.”

The two characters almost feel like a modern, and reduced, version of the Marx Brothers. How can you not like that?

“Deadbeat” airs on Hulu and, similar to Netflix, all 13 episodes are available to watch at once. So settle back and binge to your heart’s content or space yourself.  Go ahead, you deserve a treat.