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Five Thoughts On Frisky Dingo‘s “XPO,” “Kidnapped!,” and “Emergency Room”

By | May 31st, 2018
Posted in Television | % Comments

Welcome back to our review of Frisky Dingo, the Adult Swim series with a non-sequiter title for TV bingers on the go.

Episodes four through six really kick the first season’s plot into high gear and double down on the absurd and deranged backbone of the show. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights.

1. Operation Snooperfax
The plot to secure a signed release to make Killface action figures to go along with Xander Crews’s Awesome-X dolls was, in hindsight, as Crews states in episode five, “A bit convoluted,” but Killface is in dire need of a cash infusion to finish his doomsday device, the Annihilatrix, so he’s easily lured to Las Vegas to participate in a phony contest for inventors promising a $12 billion prize, the exact amount he needs to finish construction. It’s a detail that Killface’s Annihilatrix program manager points out as highly suspicious only to have it dismissed as a coincidence by Killface en route to Vegas. Dubbing the ruse Operation Snooperfax for the fax machine that transmits the overly-glittered and “Mucilaged” invitation to Killface’s condo, the ploy perfectly encapsulates the ridiculous artifice that is created when a more simple solution would do. Crews, dim bulb that he is, will realize that in the next episode, but by then the machinations and poor decisions in episode four lead to the unnecessary conflicts to come.

2. “Did you just lay a clutch of eggs?”
Poor Watley. In a failed attempt to create a supervillain for Awesome-X action figures, Arthur Watley, one of Crews’s low-level employees, becomes the victim of a genetic experiment gone awry—The Dread Lobster. Trading his arms for giant crab claws and ejecting piles of crustacean eggs under duress, Watley’s plight would be tragic if he wasn’t so hopelessly optimistic. Inexplicably, Killface’s cyborg assistant, Sinn, even falls in love with the guy on first sight. Perhaps she recognizes his good-hearted nature, but that’s a stretch. Honestly, I’ve got nothing. When protrusions appear on his forehead, his observation that he “thinks they’re going to be eye stalks” is both hilarious and pitiful. When he wins the fake contest with the sublimely simplistic Ant Farm Keyboard (which is exactly what it sounds like), his glory is short-lived, setting up a larger failure for Crews Industries when they attempt to mass market them and an even more colossal failure when Watley tries to dispose of them.

3. Previously On Frisky Dingo
Episode five begins with a “Previously on Frisky Dingo” segment that reveals scenes that were not presented in any of the previous episodes. I remember the first time I watched this on DVD (yes, on DVD). I paused the show and went back to the previous episode, thinking that an episode had inadvertently been skipped or that the disc was defective. Slowly, the joke sunk in. More accurately, it was a prank by the creators, assuredly knowing that many would have the same reaction I did. I had never seen any television series do this, and I haven’t seen this done again since.

In retrospect, the contrivance does serve the purpose of expediting the plot for a series where time is of the essence. Having said that, as short as the episodes are, Reed and Thompson are not afraid to frequently use pregnant pauses for a laugh. Whether it’s Killface slowly raising his arm to turn off his car alarm after someone has puked on it from a great height or reacting to someone’s query about workman’s comp, it seems antithetical to the brevity of the episodes. The episode length is even the source of a joke when Killface attempts to abduct Xander Crews for ransom and announces that they “only have eleven minutes [pause] for this part of the kidnapping.” The joke is naturally followed by a fourth-wall-breaking look into the camera and another pregnant pause.

4. Grace Ryan, from Force 10 News
Grace Ryan is hopelessly in love, a bit obnoxious, and unpopular with her news crew. After she secures an exclusive interview with the villain Killface, she thinks things might be taking a turn for the better, but after her plunge from the Annihilatrix catwalk into vats filled with radioactive waste-covered ants, she’s forced to reevaluate her career and life choices. Of course, her fall was the result of a melee that ensued when her one night stand from Vegas reappeared to cause trouble, and as she waits to be treated for her injuries in episode six, you get the sense that she might be wondering if her nonreciprocal affection for Xander Crews might be a mistake.

Continued below

On a separate note, Grace, Sinn, and Valerie (absent from these episodes) are the three primary females in season one, and it’s a bit problematic that each is depicted as somewhat subservient, either voluntarily or otherwise. It’s a depiction that future episodes will correct to varying degrees.

5. Stan makes his play.
By the end of episode six, the long-suffering and titanium-boned Stan decides to make a move on Crews Industries and have Xander Crews declared legally dead. Of course, Crews has only been abducted by the Xtacles after their wages are cut, by Stan. There’s only one problem: Stan tells Crews that he’s having him declared dead. On the phone. In front of the Xtacles. If this is a power play, it seems a bit half-baked and not in keeping with old man Stan’s usual Machiavellian level-headedness. Maybe after the Xtacles get tired of pummeling Crews they’ll band together to foil Stan. But that would make too much sense for a show like Frisky Dingo.

Join us next week for a look at episodes seven through nine, when Frisky Dingo becomes the subtle character-driven drama we all knew it would be.


//TAGS | 2018 Summer TV Binge | Frisky Dingo

Jonathan O'Neal

Jonathan is a Tennessee native. He likes comics and baseball, two of America's greatest art forms.

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