Episode Report Card Demian: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Something Better Change
By Demian | Season 7 | Episode 12 | Aired on 01.22.2005
...all of central San Francisco. The stream of mojo erupts into the air from one of the streets leading up to the Transamerica Pyramid, and I'm going to ignore that entirely, because it means Not!warts is now located smack in the middle of downtown, and that's just stupid. Sigh. And it was going so well up to this point. The stream quickly expands to form a curtain of golden light that stretches to the horizons before washing eastwards, leaving the streets and buildings it passes tinted with a bit of a golden hue. The shot cuts again to take in the United Nations and Chrysler buildings from the East River as the curtain sweeps quickly through New York City before leaping the Atlantic to wipe past Parliament in London (where, incidentally, it's 6:45 PM). The curtain then passes through both Red Square in Moscow and central Tokyo before arriving back at its starting point. As San Francisco is re-enveloped by the cloud, the scene cuts to a city sidewalk, where a throng of pedestrians absorb the mojo and promptly -- but gently -- collapse to the sidewalk. One fucking idiot of an extra very carefully places his coffee cup on the ground before passing out, pretty much ruining the shot. Thanks for nothing, jackass. At a nearby outdoor cafe, two yuppies drop forward unconscious in their seats, their spilled lattes running across the table to stain the woman's skirt. The two subsequent vignettes show pedestrians falling in the streets as various cars and buses draw first to complete stops before their drivers pass out as well. The camera cranes up from the last vignette to take in a couple of now-silent city streets, and congratulations to the effects staff. The foreground of this shot was clearly filmed on the Paramount backlot -- you can see the facade of "Columbia" "University" at one point -- but it's been seamlessly married to background shots of San Francisco itself, so that the backlot street now appears to stretch all the way down to the bay, with Alcatraz Island visible in the far, hazy distance. Okay, guys, now that we know you can pull this stuff off, could you please stop half-assing your way through your jobs and do it every week?
Back in Not!warts, the mojo stream descends from the ceiling to vanish back into the cartouche as the camera pans through the Glamorous Ladies to land on I'm Not Candy, who whispers, "It has begun!" He smiles, and while it appears to be genuine this time, it's no less creepy than his fake one. We get a good, long look at his crooked teeth before he vanishes into the commercial break.