Review: Animals “Pigeons”

Spoilers Below

“Pigeons”

A Pigeon named Phil wakes up to find a golf ball in its nest, but mistakes it for an egg. His pal Mike questions the validity of Phil’s claim that he’s now a dad, but no matter what he says, he can’t get through to his friend. The duo decide to go to a game featuring Mike’s kid Jacob.

Mike’s kid is trying to learn how to fly which happens to be a rather competitive event with other dads like Jerry talking a bunch of trash.

All of the pigeons head back to Mike’s house and we see him work out like crazy in anticipation of his fly-off with Jerry. Phil offers to help by seducing Jerry and we learn that both pigeons are actually from NJ! To try to get an advantage, Mike’s turning to steroids, but Phil’s busy getting it on with Jerry.

Mike’s drug use has pretty much ruined his relationship with the rest of his family ahead of his race but he’s determined to finish. On the day of the event, everyone shows up, including Phil, Jerry, and Jerry’s kid, plus the surprise appearance of Mike’s wife Meghan and his son Jacob. Just as the race is about to get on, Jerry gets rocked in the face with a golf ball, and Phil comes to the realization that he isn’t really a mommy, rather he just had a “White Guy’s White Ball”. Phil comes clean to Jerry, but Jerry’s kind of cool with it so everyone celebrates with a rooftop wedding.

“Caterpillars”

A caterpillar named Allen tries to teach another caterpillar named Brian to have some game when talking to the ladies. The next day, Allen shows up as a butterfly, and all of the sudden HE’S the one getting in with the girls. Allen’s a bit older an fatter, so it’s unclear if he can ever be a butterfly, but clearly he’s jealous of Brian’s new found game.

Brian literally drags Allen to a party, but of course Allen’s a wet blanket. To try and cheer him up, Brian convinces Allen to do his patented dance moves.

Our Take

This week’s episode of Animals featured another split in terms of quality. The caterpillar “B” plot was ok, but I didn’t feel like there was a good resolution. Fortunately, we got some good jokes out of it, with my favorites having anything to do with the biology of the caterpillar or when Brian refers to Allen as his “Joey”. Ike Barinholtz was great as Allen, but he’s such a talented voice I don’t know why the producers didn’t ask him to play a more difficult character. Personally, asking Ike to do his voice on a voice over is like asking Iron Maiden to just play new songs at concerts….it doesn’t make sense.

Ever since the show was announced, by far the pigeons have been the most symbolic of where this show wants to go, and with good reason. The titular episode was certainly the meat and potatoes this week and featured great contributions not just from guest stars Scott Aukerman and Nick Kroll, but Mike and Phil the show’s creators. These guys know how to write funny ass dialogue, and it’s served warm when delivered by them. The two bounce jokes and insults off of each other much the same way Aisha Tyler and Jon Benjamin do it on Archer, and the chemistry shows both on and off camera.