Review: Mike Tyson Mysteries “All About That Bass”

They should’ve f*cked.

Spoilers Below

It’s ironic that, in this world of rapidly advancing technology and ever increasing outlets to share personal aspects of us with the world, that communication itself has become much more muddled than ever in some ways. Sometimes feelings we don’t understand cloud our sense of what we think of someone, and we only learn what they meant to us far too late.

This episode starts off with a different pace than most of an honest to goodness cold open, taking place at the Sam Rayburn Reservoir Professional Bass Fishing Tournament. The announcer calls up the final contestant Fred Gandy, who lands a record-shattering to the cheers of all…but one Bill Van Bibber another contestant. The two have it out on the stage with Bill calling shenanigans and vowing he will solve this mystery before storming out. Cue opening credits!

We come back to about a year later (or however often fishing tournaments take) with Bill getting a haircut but still not knowing how Fred managed to cheat. He then sees a commercial for Mike’s Mystery Team, instructing him to not get knocked down, but knocked UP. By Mike! The team then gets his pigeon message in the mail, attached to a dead pigeon, to everyone’s disgust. They meet with Bill, now with tips thoroughly frosted, before Fred walks in and stirs up their rivalry. At the tournament, Mike and the team set out to keep an eye on Fred to see how he cheats, but he’s already found a secluded area to unsheathe a magic sword that gathers fish to him. Bill finds him, however, and a confrontation ensues, only interrupted by Mike doing the boat equivalent of t-boning before jumping out of his boat in a panic. Fred gets Bill to shore, only for Bill to find the sword sticking out of Fred’s abdomen. He pulls it out, causing Fred to collapse, but finally giving the two a chance to reconcile and admit their feelings for each other, Fred speculating if they had just fucked they might’ve gotten the aggression out of their systems faster. He tells Bill to take the sword to a quiet place in the lake to throw into, with Bill picking Three Wiener Cove. Just before throwing it, Bill uses its powers to attract fish, finally having a chance to win the tournament if only he cared about it now. A lone white hand rises from the depths, confirming to Bill that the blade is Excaliber, which he throws to the hand and watches it sink back into the water. He returns to where he left Fred’s body only to find a wooden boat with three women dressed in white carrying Fred into the sunset. And also Mike is there.

Pretty much every other episode only uses the weekly client to give the characters situations to work off of and be funny and subversive. This week, that client IS the story, with Mike and the team mainly in the background. I’m not sure if Bill was meant to be “in the closet” about being gay, though he and Fred did have pretty obvious lisps, so…take that as you will. But what’s really notable about this is that, for a show that basically powers itself on parody, this is a surprisingly played, well, STRAIGHT story about two rivals who only learn how much they matter to each other and what could have been. Meanwhile, the comedy regarding the usual main characters is used sparingly enough and timed well enough that it works really well. So…Kudos, Mike Tyson Mysteries!

Next time, the recurring joke about Yung He being mistaken for a boy reaches its natural end point!