Episode Report Card Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Liar, Liar
By Cate | Season 4 | Episode 20 | Aired on 05.07.2000
I cheer up a little when I notice some commercials coming on, but then I see that the first one is that I-Zone camera one where the actors make dumb faces for every single photo that is taken of them. I'm really trying to clean up my language, but there's no way to describe that commercial other than "fucking appalling." I'm sure you'll be happy to know that after going out to the car to engage in a few hours of primal scream therapy, I am able to continue with the recap.
Dopey's trying to straighten up the apartment before the newspaper people arrive. John comes in and says something about the politician he's stalking. I'm remembering the time, years ago, when my sister and I went to see the movie Swing Kids. It had an interesting premise that wasn't very well done, and by the time the end came around, we were pretty pissed that we'd spent a thousand dollars, or whatever two tickets to the movies cost back then. The only thing that redeemed it, though, was a scene where a little kid starts waving an umbrella in the air while screaming, "Swing heil! Swing heil!" It was supposed to be triumphant and poignant and all, but it was such a crappy use of symbolism that my sister and I burst out laughing. As you can probably guess, we tried desperately to keep quiet, which just made the situation worse. Now, don't get me wrong -- I wasn't laughing at anything but bad filmmaking. I mean, say what you will about Spielberg, but Schindler's List still made me cry. My point is that, in the wrong hands, anything serious can be trivialized. Speaking of which, I totally missed John's speech. Oops! Dopey tries to get him to help with the cleaning. John blames the mess on Dopey and elects to leave, but not before making some crack about Dopey screwing up the interview like he screws up everything else. That may be true, but it's still a little cold to hear from your roommate. The newspaper guys arrive, and Sam nudges the photographer to take a picture of the messy apartment. Matt tries and fails to stop him. What I want to know is why they would stop with just a newspaper article for the "minister's son is a slob" angle. With a killer story like that, shouldn't they be trying to option the movie rights?
Over in the CamKitchen, RevCam and SuperMom still haven't figured out that the reporter is a slimeball. They're starting to get a slight inkling that something's wrong, since Sam spent so little time interviewing them, but RevCam brushes it all off by noting how glad he is that he will get story approval. Sucker. Ms. Beasley calls to bitch about Ruthie, but we don't immediately find out what the little demon spawn has done. See, it's Sweeps-ariffic suspense! RevCam doesn't care what Ruthie has done, but he's very interested in why Annie has rearranged the living-room furniture. SuperMom starts telling a story about being in the middle of rearranging when Dopey's boss called. RevCam shows more interest in Dopey's problems than in Ruthie's, even though Dopey is old enough to live on his own and, presumably, to solve his own problems. SuperMom goes into doormat mode and apologizes for not telling RevCam earlier, then relates that Dopey's boss is worried about him. This fascinating conversation is interrupted by the arrival of Ruthie. SuperMom reveals what Ms. Beasley told her: that Ruthie tried to steal the five-dollar story prize away from Chrissie. Ruthie gets all self-righteous as she explains about Chrissie stealing her story. She also informs them that she shared the delightful Aunt Julie story with the newspaper reporter. This finally reminds the CamRents to ask their rotten children about the interview experience. Way to go, CamRents!
"Humorous" music plays while the kids relate all the shitty things they said about their father. Unfortunately, this is an excuse for Annie to make way too many funny faces. I was starting to feel slightly bad for RevCam, but then I remembered how he forced his kids to participate in the interviews against their will. He was probably hoping to show off their clean-cut prissiness, even though he tried to play it off as drawing people into the church. So now I can't say that I'm able to dredge up much sympathy for him. Annie is not so discriminating, though. She indulges in some heavy-handed metaphor as she tells him that she and the kids are going to straighten out the living room furniture: "We're gonna put it all back, all back the way it was." You know, I can't help but wonder who the moron was that advised the writers of this episode to go comedic with it.