Thursday, March 27, 2014

Farmed and Dangerous Recap: Episode 2: Passing the Buck

I apologize for my last recap. I had been expecting something that took itself a little more seriously, and I wasn't ready to fully embrace the goofy, campy spirit of Farmed and Dangerous. The reason the script and character development have little more depth than they would in a commercial is that Farmed and Dangerous IS a commercial. Kind of. It doesn't quite know what it is, and that's part of the fun. We're at a weird place in the history of media, just like we're at a weird place in the history of food, so I guess it follows that a show like this should take some weird ideas, run with them, and see what happens. The jokes are bad, but if you come at them with the right attitude, they're the kind of jokes that are so bad they're good. I should get off my grass-fed high horse and stop pretending that that isn't exactly the kind of joke I like.

So about Episode 2: "Passing the Buck." First of all, let me explain that the title of this episode refers to the facts that, in the episode, several characters shy away from responsibility by giving it to someone else, a practice commonly knows as "passing the buck," and also that the main character's name is Buck. Get it? You're welcome.

ANYWAY, we find our antagonist, Buck Marshall, still in hot polluted water over the video of the cow exploding from eating Petro Pellets that his little buddy Chip from the Sustainable Family Farm Something Something Association leaked on the internet last week. The video has gone viral, and Chip is asked to come on a Today Show-esque program and publicize the thing even more, much to the chagrin of Buck and his client, Animoil, whose head honcho, by the way, just happens to be Buck's daughter Sophia's boyfriend's father. Because character relationships. And conflict. And intrigue.

The episode culminates, as last week's did, with Chip and Sophia on a pseudo-date, this time upping the ante from hip organic bistro to fancy tequila bar.

Let the record show that I don't buy that Chip hangs out in places like this. I don't buy that Chip can afford places like this. Unless the writers are giving a deliberate nod to the time-honored tradition of sitcom characters living outside their means in the name of wacky antics, the night's bar tab makes me really skeptical of just where Chip's funding come from. Could it be that his organization is just as corrupt as Animoil? PLOT TWIST!

The star-crossed lovers' farm facts drinking game was a perfect example of what I love/hate about this show. Instead of crafting an actual conversation that two people who disagree about these issues might have, the writers just had the characters take turns listing facts. (The rules of the game were drink every time the other person had a good point. There were a lot of empty glasses by the end of the night, which you would think meant that our heroes reached some some sort of philosophical compromise, but I don't think that's what actually happened.) Their little diorama of how land is used made out of beer nuts and cocktail olives was adorable though.

Are we having fun yet? Who do you think that guy constantly lurking in the shadows is? Will Chip and Sophia end up together? Is any of this making you hungry for a Chipotle burrito?

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