I like the challenge of having to explain this summer project to people. It's hard making it sound like it's not a complete and utter waste of my time. And who knows, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it really is a complete and utter waste of time and it's true that I'm flushing the Summer of 2022 down the fucking toilet by watching a single episode of Reba over and over until I go insane. It's okay—I'm committed, and I'm going to defend my decisions.
I had to make the defense last night when chilling with the in-laws. My father-in-law gets especially curious/skeptical after a few Corona Lights, and could not understand what I was trying to do. I said I like the challenge of having to explain, and I enjoyed it last night, because sometimes when I'm making the defense (a handful of beers deep myself), some new insight just comes out in the spur of the moment, something I would not have thought of had I not been challenged to fight for my position.
The charge was as follows: it seems to be that I am overthinking this. The rebuttal: it is in that overthinking that I am attempting to find beauty. The proposition is that overthinking is a good thing. It is weird, it is deranged, but it is also profound. In viewing something from at least 100 angles and finding something new every single time is akin to viewing the divine.
So what of today, as I watch "Grannies Gone Wild" at five in the morning while the rest of the vacation house sleeps in? What new angle was this episode of network television viewed from? In what way did I touch the divine?
Honestly, today I hated Van. Right, yeah, what else is new.
I specifically focused on what I've been calling Van's Frankenstein Face. The exchange between Van and Brock from 08:29 to 08:46 is basically Van wishing that Brock was dead and saying it to Brock's face. That's weird in and of itself, but that's not the part that makes me hate Van (after all, these men will die about 20 seconds apart, 60 years later, so it makes sense that their fates would become intertwined in this way).
What makes me hate Van, and I guess Steve Howey by proxy, is the goddamn face that Van makes after he drops the quip: "One day" (after Brock says: "It reminds me that one day, I'll be old"). The joke itself is fine. It might even be a joke that I myself would make to my own father-in-law, if the situation arose (it did not last night). But Howey decides to underline the joke by... I dunno, twisting his face to make it look like he's a Frankenstein monster that was just stitched together and brought to life. I really don't get it. Here are various screenshots of his face during the three-ish seconds that he makes it:
These all happen within one single laugh of the laugh track, and some of these screenshots look like they are from completely different scenes! One looks like Van just found out his childhood dog died. One looks like he just walked in on his mom and dad having sex. One looks like he has decided to become the Joker. I don't understand ANY of these choices.
And that's not even mentioning the sequel face after the next joke, which is something like "No you won't because you'll be dead" or whatever.
Ugh. I hate it. And I don't even know how to explain it any more than showing you those pictures, and imploring you to watch the clip in the episode. I don't even want to say that Steve Howey is "overacting," because he's not overacting, and he's not underacting, he's more... just acting very strangely. Like, what could have possibly been the direction from director Will Mackenzie? "Hey Steve, when you say this joke, act like you're having a stroke"?
Maybe one day, I'll make it to L.A. and ask Steve Howey myself. There is so much I need to know. Until then, I'll be here in Williamsburg, VA, drinking a few beers and talking about Reba around the dining room table.
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