1. A legitimately fun mystery
“Mystery in Wax” has the sort of fun, pulpy plot I want from all of these episodes: a fortune teller with a wax museum is predicting people’s suicides, and they are coming true. Supernatural mumbo jumbo or murder? The episode does all the right things in the build up: it introduces doubt, shows ‘evidence,’ and showcases some really interesting characters that all seem shady enough for any of the options to be legit. In terms of setup, this is one of the most effective first acts the show has done thus far.
2. Insanely specific plotting
Where the wheels begin to fall off is when the mechanic of the ‘suicide’ starts to get explained. So, there’s a man who makes wax masks of each of the ‘victims,’ and then walks off the same pier, and swims into a tunnel, which leads back to under the museum. But they explain that because the man is – and I forget the exact details – five foot six and 165 pounds, all the victims have to be approximately the same height and weight as well. This is discussed/figured out with total ease. I’m sure that if you’re looking at vitals for all the victims, this would pop out, but they talk about it as if all of their names were John Smith.
This is also when the fortune teller begins to chew any bit of scenery she can find, making the whole thing even more absurd. But even with the specificity and intensity, this is one of the more enjoyable episodes of this first season, and certainly account for a better time than the episode that follows it.
3. Everyone trusts Clark
I’ve been noticing it more and more, but it became extra apparent in “The Runaway Robot,” but everybody trusts Clark in this show. No one seems to really like him, nor do they think all that much of him as a ‘man’ (he’s constantly called a coward), but everyone trusts the guy. This week, a man is released from police custody under his supervision. He’s not a doctor, or a member of the law enforcement community. He’s just a reporter in an ill-fitting suit that seems to disappear when shit goes down. Sure, let’s let a suspected criminal just chill at his apartment.
4. A shitty, shitty robot
“The Runaway Robot” isn’t nearly as interesting or fun as “Mystery in Wax,” but it does include one of my favorite film/TV tropes of the era: the terrible robot. These robots are always described as state of the art, indestructible, and the wave of the future. Well, to a tee, each of these are unsure on their feet, unable to navigate anything as complex as a low bridge or an ottoman, and look like they could be knocked over by a solid fart.
Hero, the robot in question here, is hailed as an unstoppable force, one that needs to be returned to his owner for everyone’s protection, is about the saddest looking robot you’ve ever seen. If you ever want to see why Bender from Futurama looks the way he does, it is because that is literally how all robots looked in the 1950s.
Poor Hero doesn’t make it through the episode, though you may think he does, since the episode doesn’t end with the heat death of the universe, and that seems to be the only thing people in the 50s thought could bring down a robot (always pronounced rob-ut).
5. Booty humor
Oh, and this episode ends with a cop being burned in the ass by the (dead) robot’s blow torch, and then he threatens to arrest anyone who laughs. You can’t make this shit up.
