Review: The Shivering Truth “Carrion My Son”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

The Shivering Truth’s latest brainworm looks at the rich area of relationships and people’s need to be with others, for both better and for worse. Various new forms of technology seem to make people’s lives easier on the issue, but there’s really no substitute for the real thing…

Our Take:

The Shivering Truth peddles a lot of wild ideas, but it’s a show that’s interested in far more than just bombarding the audience with surreal visuals. There’s also a deep message and connective tissue that links together this insanity. Sometimes these themes can be obtuse or esoteric, but it’s always comforting when they can be a message of legitimate positivity when so much of this series seems to wade through crippling nihilism. “Carrion My Son” is a prime example of this as it primarily examines humanity’s inherent need to connect and form meaningful relationships. It’s a rich topic that gives this episode a lot of fuel, even if the main bond that’s looked at here is the connection between mother and son. “Carrion My Son” turns out to be one of the better balanced episodes of The Shivering Truth as well as a surprisingly touching episode of the series.

The opening confessional story chronicles a Stallone-esque individual in pain who inadvertently achieves such a level of physical perfection that he turns into his own Christ figure. The man’s level of peak physicality hits such heights that his muscles are able to heal the crippled. His reps and flexes can reduce boils on a leper or bring an invalid to their feet. It’s a compelling idea, but it feels like one that’s been explored in various capacities on The Shivering Truth before. If there’s any kind of recurring theme on the series it’s that of faith and religion and this introduction checks all of those boxes. It’s not a misfire, but the other examples in the episode that depict a longing for connection are much stronger and crazier.

Part of the charm of The Shivering Truth is that some of its segments and material could easily fuel a Black Mirror episode. This series introduces so many rich and unbelievable concepts, some of which are discarded at an alarming rate. The story that involves an app, which allows people to literally mute their friends is right out of Black Mirror. The idea leads to some fun animation and the stark juxtaposition between the sweatshop environment and lush suburbia go a long ways, but there’s not much done with the idea other than introduce the concept. However, it’s still makes for another stark meditation on people’s need to connect.

The main story in “Carrion My Son” continues on with the Black Mirror trappings as it presents an outlandish take on sex dolls that are meant more for emotional punching bag purposes than anything else. They’re to help your trauma reach climax and see completion, not your genitals. The Shivering Truth always finds strength when it leans into the storefront dynamic and it’s no different here. The idea of 50 cents being too much for dignity is a great allegory for the general decline of humanity. This story seems a little thin at first, but then it adopts a real Lars and the Real Girl on bath salts dynamic that works for it.

This idea then literally gives birth to the final segment of the episode, which is almost like “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” segment from Fantasia, but on bath salts. The idea of the mother sex doll reproducing hundreds of herself like some kind of queen spider is a gloriously disturbing premise. The animation particularly excels in this portion of the episode when all of the “baby moms” scatter and carry out motherly duties throughout the households, like a swarm of helpful parasites. The evolution of this where the father in the equation plays the role of exterminator to fulfill some sick sense of purpose is equally twisted. The precision at which these baby moms work in tandem to solve problems or consume their obstacles is also a sight to behold.

On that note, The Shivering Truth is always a little too much to behold in terms of the staggering high quality of its aesthetic. It doesn’t look like anything has been sacrificed in terms of production value this season, but each episode also looks like it has a lot more crammed into it. Multiple backgrounds in this episode are cluttered with details and busy elements to add more life to these scenes and push these wild ideas as far as possible.

There’s always so much going on in every episode of The Shivering Truth that it can often be easy to overlook the vocal performances in them. The voice acting also finds the right balance between aloof and serious and helps amplify the absurdity of every episode. However, the voice acting is especially on point in this episode as it accentuates the disparity between the two people in the “mute’ segment. There’s also a certain frantic and frail quality to the main character’s voice that also adds a lot to his strange journey.

Some episodes of The Shivering Truth have a thematic roundness that helps bring them together in the end, but other episodes actually achieve sheer beauty with the message that they push. The series’ pilot honestly contains some of the most beautiful visuals paired with storytelling I’ve seen and this episode strives for something similar in its conclusion. The passage of these coffin worms from son to (fake) mother after he’s finally able to find some sense of purpose is beautiful, but the fact that this also pushes him to be the person that he needs to be to win over his high school sweetheart—his real high school sweetheart—is the strange kind of round synchronicity that this show does so well. It’s also a glowing culmination of the episode’s overarching theme of connection, when two displaced lovers connect as closely as possible, on a physical, emotional, and spiritual level. “Carrion My Son” is a stunning episode of this series and is a testament to what The Shivering Truth can achieve with its stories.