Roadies: Episode 2 – What Would Phil Do? (Review)

Roadies continues this  week with everyone reeling from Phil’s sudden departure. Double D (Rafe Spall) fired him on the pilot episode and  “What Would Phil Do” sees the roadies banding together in their dislike of Reg, aka “Double D.” Bill (Luke Wilson) is undergoing Phil withdrawal and struggling to fill the void.

The opening act The Head and the Heart are pranking the roadies, emboldened (says Milo) by Phil’s absence.   Shelli (Carla Gugino) insists that Bill sort the opening act out. He does and they quit. He now needs to find a new opening band. 

Phil helps out from the Taylor Swift tour by bringing in the blues rock band Reignwolf. Kelly Ann (Imogen Poots) is regretting her decision to come back, although she did not make it out of the parking lot. 

Reg tells Bill that another person has to go to make the budget and Double D makes the remainder of the crew explain what they do. Donna (Keisha Castle-Hughes) is mighty with her diatribe about her first band crying when she left. She also hysterically baffles Reg with her “Even my girlfriend who can make me come without touching me, does not know what I do.’  Brilliant. 

After speaking with everyone the English financial expert is struggling to find someone to let go.

Kelly Ann is put in charge of the teleprompter, much to her disgust, and she has to speak with Christopher (Tanc Sade)  about what songs to include. He offers her a raisin and she declines after doing into a long winded explanation as why she does not like them. Chris decides she is speaking metaphorically bout Reg and believes Kelly Ann has suggested he be fired. The singer moves to terminate Double D.

There is pressure to get rid of the “kiss-finger” gesture by Preston and this causes Bill even more anxiety, over and above the morning circle issue.

(Although Preston is not listed on the credits so far, he looks  like Dream On star Brian Benben. If anyone can verify this please do so down in the comments.  Brian was a personal favorite back in the day when “Dromen,” as the series was called in Holland, starred in the quirky show.)

Bill’s growing pains slowly abate, after a health scare, and he begins to  settle into becoming the new “Phil.”  Reg manages to save his job and blames Kelly Ann who explains that she really was talking about raisins and not him.  The financial expert is disappointed in their lack of friendship but he does tell Kelly Ann that he had the WWPD t-shirts made to bring the crew closer together.

Reignwolf step in and do so well  in rehearsal that Bill welcomes them to the tour. He then learns that they are only there for the night. Reg forces Milo (Peter Cambor) to drop his faux English accent and manages to meet the budget  without firing anyone else. 

Roadies is entertaining even though the second episode lacked the fire and the pace of the season one opener.  With the loss of Phil (Ron White) and the lack of stalker Natalie Shin (Jacqueline Byers) “What Would Phil Do?” makes for a less exciting installment. 

Regardless of the more relaxed pace and lack of pathos the show focusses on Kelly Ann and Reg with a peripheral interest in Shelli and Bill, as potential couple.  There are some things that are puzzling though.  Such as why Double D spurns all human touch for example.

With a slight drop in popularity the show will need to pull out all stops. While the music is a plus as is the use of real bands as the opening  acts, the pace really needs to  pick up.  The writing is clever and funny however and this will help somewhat.

Roadies airs Sundays on Showtime. Tune in and see what you think.

Author: Michael Knox-Smith

Former Actor, Former Writer, Former Journalist, USAF Veteran, Former Member Nevada Film Critics Society (As Michael Smith) View all posts by Michael Knox-Smith