Ty Watches "Mermaid"

I am a fan of Johnny Pemberton. I became a fan when I first saw him on "Superstore". He played Bo, Cheyenne's boyfriend then husband, and his character cracked me up. He was silly and made tons of jokes. I then saw he was cast in "Fallout". I like that show as well, and he is just as funny as he is in his other work. He brings comedic elements to a show that can be pretty intense from time to time. He has popped up in other stuff here and there, but it is usually just a small comedic thing. Then I listened to him on a bunch of recent podcast appearances and he kept talking about his new movie, "Mermaid".

I heard “Mermaid” described as a horror/comedy. When Pemberton was talking about the movie during these appearances, I could not glean how much he was going to be in it. Well, the other day I noticed that it was streaming for free on Prime, so I decided to watch.

Pemberton is the main character in this movie. He is the star and he drives the whole thing. First off, that made me happy. I feel like he has been around long enough, paid his dues and was bound to get a leading role sooner or later. But he is playing a totally different character here. Pemberton plays Doug, a divorced dad of one who gets fired from his job as a fish tank cleaner and is addicted to pills. And while there are some comedic elements in this movie and this role, Pemberton plays this character very quietly and makes him very odd. That is the consensus of all of the people who spend time with him in this movie. They are constantly asking him if he is okay or if something is wrong.

The first 45 minutes of this movie give us Doug's backstory after he gets fired. We see him spending time with his daughter, getting into a fight with his ex, drinking beers and taking pills. Then one of his dealers and his crony show up at his house trying to get paid. This is where Robert Patrick comes into play. He is the dealer and he is a bad, bad dude. After they rough up Doug, Patrick pours bleach into his fish tank. This really upsets Doug, as fish are the only thing he communicates with on a regular basis. From here on out the movie takes us on a wild ride.

Doug is in the process of trying to kill himself, and then he chances upon a mermaid in the ocean. We see this mermaid during the first scene of the movie, a chance encounter with Tom Arnold. Doug takes the mermaid into his home, it is injured, and he starts to care for it. The movie then kind of starts to go nuts when the mermaid shows up and has a starring role next to Pemberton. This mermaid is very scary looking. It's not like most mermaids we get to see on screen. The usual mermaids we see are beautiful, with great voices and a heart of gold. This mermaid is terrifying. The mermaid has super sharp teeth, its body looks like it has been mutated, the fin and tail look normal-ish, but the rest of the mermaid looks scary. I like that they go to these lengths to make this mermaid look different. And the relationship between Doug and the mermaid is well done here. Doug takes proper care of her and truly cares for her. But it is the stuff they add on here that makes this wild. The puking, the birthday party scene, the montage of them hanging out, it is crazy. We then have an auction in the final plot point of the movie. This is where the movie officially goes off the rails. It is truly nuts.

This movie was hit and miss for me. There was some stuff that I truly liked. As mentioned before, I thought Pemberton did a really good job with this role. He gets to do something different and he really goes for it here. I liked the design of the mermaid. I thought Tom Arnold had a great scene. I liked Kevin Nealon as well as his relationship with Doug's ex and his daughter. Robert Patrick plays a superb villain as well. But there was some other stuff that I just couldn't get into. I thought Kirk Fox was underutilized. Sometimes the movie got gross just to be gross. There was about 15 to 20 minutes that they could have easily cut out of the movie to make it a clean 90 minutes. And I wanted to see more with the other sea creature that came to help, or maybe hurt the mermaid and Pemberton. It kind of felt uneven. But my favorite thing in this whole movie was the opening credits had some writing on the screen that read, "this is my love letter to Florida". And Kevin Nunn goes out on a banger of a line, that you have to see because it rules.

"Mermaid" was fine, but I don't think I'll ever watch it again. And I'm glad that Pemberton is getting more work. I just read that he is going to be in another horror movie coming out sometime in the near future. Give it a watch if you're curious. That is my glowing recommendation for "Mermaid". 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "Fallout"

Recently my wife and I started to watch "Fallout" due to RD giving it some rave reviews. I didn't know much about the show, but I did hear Johnny Pemberton talk about it on a recent episode of the podcast "Doughboys". I have been a Johnny Pemberton fan ever since I first saw him on "Superstore". He was hilarious on that show, and that gave me the push to watch his standup and his other movie and tv appearances. I was an instant fan. Then, after listening to "Doughboys", RD and I were recording a podcast of our own, and he kept asking me if I had seen "Fallout", or if I was going to check it out. I mentioned the Johnny Pemberton stuff, and with the push from RD, that was all I needed to check it out. I told my wife I was going to start it, but she asked me to wait. She wanted to watch it as well. It was a wonderful surprise.

So, over the weekend, we started, and three episodes in, I'm all in. This is a good show. It is gory. It is violent. It is profane. It is bleak. It is hilarious. And it is doing some cool, interesting things for a newish tv show. I have never played the videogame that it is based on. I don't think RD has either. I know my wife hasn't either. But, I don't think you need to to watch this show. The characters look like what I have looked up on the internet from the game, but that is where it seems to end. This is a whole story outside the game from what I gather. This is new and unique to the show. And it works. I have been so excited to watch with each passing night. I'm doing a thing where I don't want to binge watch shows. That means one show a night. It makes for a much more fun experience watching a show. It reminds me of how I used to watch tv as a kid. It also helps build suspense. I am so ready to focus on the episode when we turn it on. I am fully locked in on what is happening on the screen. No phone, no Nintendo Switch. It is just me, my wife and "Fallout". I love it that way.

Outside Pemberton, who plays an army brat, the cast is pretty great. Ella Purnell is the lead. She is really awesome as a vault dweller. Her naivate is great to watch on screen. Kyle MacLachian plays her dad, and he has only been in the first episode so far, but it is clear there is more of him to come. Moises Arias plays her brother, and while he seems meek, his arc looks like it is going to take a cool turn. Leslie Uggams and Zach Cherry are on the vault board, and they are in over their heads. Aaron Moten plays Maximus, another Army brat, who is out doing his own thing in this wild post apocalyptic world.

And then we have Walton Goggins.

Walton Goggins may be the coolest person on Earth. He is so, so wonderful here as "The Ghoul". I have a whole piece coming up strictly dedicated to his acting career. That is for another day. But in "Fallout", Goggins continues to be so incredible. He makes a show instantly watchable when he is on screen. He is the absolute best.

Outside the acting, the scenery is rad. The world they created is dark and bleak and arid. It is a good look at a crazy possible outcome of a bomb. And even in the dark times the show has created, there is still humor peppered in and out of each episode. I find myself laughing a few times each episode.

I'm very glad this show is in my life now. I highly recommend people watch it if you have Prime. "Fallout" is very, very well made. Check it out. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

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Ty Watches Gorburger

Recently I have become more and more engrossed by the show "Gorburger"  on Comedy Central. I knew of the character of Gorburger prior to the show, but the show was my gateway. TJ Miller, of whom I'm a very big fan, had this blood thirsty, alien monster that hosted a talk show on Tokyo television. I saw some of the old clips online, but when the show was announced, I was very much on board. I like the idea very much, and I love when younger comedians spoof old time television.

So naturally, I tuned in to the series premiere 4 weeks ago. I did not know what to expect, but what I saw for 22 minutes kept me onboard. The show starts out as a game show in Tokyo, but then Gorburger gets blasted down to the set, quenches his blood thirst by devouring almost everyone on stage, then walks up to the 2 hosts and tells them that this is his show now, and he says that he will keep the very few people that you see standing on stage. One of those people is the announcer, and the other is the pop duo, Tokyo Fever, who whenever you say their name, they have to repeat in Japanese, "We are Tokyo Fever!". It is so bizarre, but I laugh every time.

The pilot episode features Reggie Watts, another guy that I am a big, big fan of. The whole plot is based on vaping. Gorburger even has a buddy of his, some guy that is famous on YouTube for the things he can do with vapor smoke, named Trevbone, that just sits there, vapes and does weird shit with the vapor smoke. It was distractingly weird, but it was also fun to see Reggie Watts looked just as confused as everyone else seemed to be. Reggie Watts was a good sport though, and he went along with all the weird stuff that Gorburger wanted him to do, including some absurd games. There was also a pre taped segment where Gorburger visited a real doll factory. It was disgusting, but also very funny, because TJ Miller, dressed as Gorburger, was given a full tour and got the whole spiel from the owner. It was wild. The episode ended with Reggie Watts and Thundercat doing an improvised song together, which was dope as hell. But, to keep it crazy, poor Trevbone was delivered a fatal blow to the head with a brick.

Like I said, the show does not make a whole lot of sense, but I found myself thinking about the pilot a few days after watching it. The more I thought about it, the more it was like a full sitcom version of an Adult Swim show. "Gorburger" was like watching a 22 minute long episode of "The Eric Andre Show" or "Aqua Teen Hunger Force", or even "Space Ghost: Coast to Coast". I love all those shows, so a 22 minute version of one was a great surprise.

Since the pilot, I have obviously watched the next 3 episodes. The second episode had Dr. Drew as the guest, again, being a very good sport, and the central plot was Gorburger's obsession with smooth jazz. The entire episode had Kenny G, who was literally wearing cement shoes, playing music anytime Gorburger wanted, because if he didn't, he would be hit with a brick, a la Trevbone. During the show, Gorburger visited a "twerking" class. That segment was nuts, but also very funny. "Twerking" is such a thing of the past, but to see this enormous alien try to "twerk", and the teachers really trying to teach him was a thing of comic beauty. Before the episode ended, Dr. Drew helped cure Gorburger's bloodlust, and played another absurd game. But, poor Kenny G had to keep playing jazz, Gorburger couldn't stop, and he met the same fate as Trevbone at the end of this episode.

Episode three had one of my favorite comedians, Tig Notaro, as the guest. Throughout the entire episode, little "gorbabies" keep showing up because it was shedding season for Gorburger, and they have been known to only give bad advice. During the interview segment, Notaro played a hilarious game called "Christian Bale or Christian Male", where she had to guess a quote Gorburger gave her as to if Bale, or a Christian male said it. It was laugh out loud hilarious. Later, Gorburger visited a wild life zoo, and again, it was bizarrely hilarious. The fact that these people want to be on TV so bad that they will let a guy dressed as an enormous blue alien monster come to their place just to get exposure. The interviews are always weird, but that is the point. The end of this episode was like the first 2, with Notaro playing another game, but it coming to a terrible demise for her and another gentlemen, when she took a Gorbaby's advice to smash herself through a brick wall. I'm sure this will be a running theme for the rest of the season.

The most recent episode featured Zach Woods and Johnny Pemberton, two of my favorite improv comedians/actors. They were game for all the weirdness that was "Gorburger". This has been, by far, the best episode to date. It was Grizzlebub's Day, which is like Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa for wherever in the hell Gorburger is from. They sang carols and played games and did other nonsense for the whole 22 minutes. The interview was very funny, playing another name game that immediately went off the rails. There was another death because Gorburger thought that Grizzlebub was coming due to a loud clanking sound, and the only way to appease him is a human sacrifice. It was disturbing, but dammit, I was laughing. The show ended with a performance from Portugal the Man, and the song was pretty good. We also come to find out that the clanking noise was the air conditioning guy fixing the AC unit, so the sacrifice wasn't needed.

I know this all sounds very bizarre, but for fans of absurdist humor, "Gorburger" is a homerun. I'm pretty sure season one is only 6 episodes, and they're already 4 in. I hope the people at Comedy Central keep this show going because I will watch the hell out of it, if it comes back for a second season. "Gorburger" is great. Weird, but great.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. One time he hot a guy in the face with a brick just for playing jazz. Ty does not fool around when jazz is being played. 

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