Episode Report Card Deborah: B- | 1 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Three's A Crowd
By Deborah | Season 2 | Episode 7 | Aired on 11.04.2004
Behind her, Adam "Bitches, Man" Kaufman from 24 asks her if she's interested in a videography project. He offers her a video camera. He's got kind of a creepy tone. I can't tell if he's supposed to be a teenage boy, or slightly older, and not a student. Zachary Quinto, the actor, will be twenty-six soon. Joan, glancing at the big hand-drawn "Public Videography Project" banner above him: "Uh…fascinating, but no." As she walks away, he makes a stronger pitch: "It may even fulfill some of that extracurricular stuff you're lacking, Joan." So what's that now? Three new cute teenage boy/young guy Gods in seven episodes? Why do I feel like Barbara Hall got a memo from somebody high up at CBS about jazzing the show up with more eye candy? It's okay, but it's overkill. Bring back Vagrant God, I say. I like me some old-timey talk.
Joan walks back: "So…you're working for public television now?" He equivocates, saying he's just a volunteer: "Sometimes I work the phone banks." She looks at him dubiously. He offers the camera again: "How about it?" Joan replies, "Look. You know everything. You know my schedule. I'm a junior in high school. I don't even have time to pee on the weekends." Video Project God agrees it's a very stressful time: "Sometimes, taking a step back, seeing life through the lens, lets you see things clearer." Joan is skeptical. He adds, "Beats napping." As someone who's been living a sort of late-to-bed-early-to-rise routine for most of Ramadan, I have to say: I very much doubt that. I'll be lucky if I get through this recap without sustaining a concussion from my head crashing down on my desk. But never mind that. Not the show's fault. Trying to get Professor Frink to keep reasonable hours is like trying to get cats to walk in a parade. Joan finally takes the camera and starts fooling around with it. One hopes she'll fare better in this visual medium than she did as a photographer. She removes the lens cap, so that's a good start. She turns the camera on herself, and then turns the viewer around so she can see herself. She gives herself a kind of coy look, as if she's checking herself out, then slowly sticks her tongue at the camera before suddenly becoming self-conscious again and putting it away. Heh. Theme song.