Review: Dead Pixels “Patricide”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

It’s Valentine’s Day, and our lovable cast is spending the special event in their own unique ways. Alison brings a guy named Spencer home and encounters Meg sitting in the living room. The two of them have a little face off, and Meg realizes she’s spending Valentine’s Day alone. She decides to have some fun with Russell and takes him to a sex club instead of battle training.

Meanwhile, Nicky visits his mother and father for supper, and it’s clear he and his dad don’t get along. After some urging from his wife, Nicky’s dad tries out Kingdom Hearts in an effort to connect, but Nicky winds up killing in the game, and giving himself a strange newfound confidence in the process. He’s a new man now, one who isn’t afraid to cut his own hair or buy a new coat. But when he sees Meg and Russell doing the dirty deed together, he’s not sure how to feel.

Our Take:

The penultimate episode of Dead Pixels is already here. It’s strange already being on the verge of the finale when it feels like we’ve only just begun getting to know the inner lives of these characters. Dead Pixels is a fun show, but getting us invested in the span of only six half-hour episodes is a tough challenge. Luckily, Patricide is one of the funniest and most unique episodes the show has crafted, and it sets up the finale to be an interesting one for Meg and Nicky.

Nicky’s storyline is definitely the better of the two main plots this week. His inability to relate with his dad is something a lot of kids go through, and seeing the two of them trying to navigate around each other while maintaining their own egos is both funny and a little sad. When Nicky kills his dad in Kingdom Hearts, I was expecting his dad to get better at the game and bond with him that way, but the show doesn’t give them quite that idealistic of an ending. I doubt we’ll see Nicky Sr. show up again, but this was still a worthwhile outing because of the new insight it gives us into Nicky’s character and the relationships that have shaped his outlook on life.

Meg is in a lot of turmoil when it comes to relationships. It’s Valentine’s Day and she’s alone, which she tries to ignore, but in the end, she goes a little crazy with Russell. I’m usually all for Meg getting too insane, but this plot just left me feeling a little empty. She’s toyed with Russell before, but I can’t gauge exactly how she’s feeling about him and his virtual counterpart. It’s hard to enjoy the situation when you can’t get a handle on what the characters are feeling. I’m guessing that Meg is realizing she doesn’t like Russell as much as she does, say, Nicky, but it’s a question left to next week.

Usman doesn’t get quite as much screen time as usual, but I will never fail to laugh at the lengths the show goes to painting him as the most deadbeat of dads and husbands. Now his wife’s co-worker is mowing their lawn and putting their kids to bed, all the while Usman cheers his good fortune for getting out of responsibilities. In a way, he’s what Meg or Nicky could turn out to be, and it’s a little scary. This running gag has always been a little depressing, but when his new competition calls his daughter “honey” right in front of him, it reached new depths. I don’t know what to expect from the finale for Usman, but I hope he wakes up a little bit and gets his life back in order.

Patricide is a great episode of Dead Pixels — maybe the best in the show’s limited run so far. The finale doesn’t have long to resolve the conflicts and questions that still hang around surrounding Nicky, Meg, Usman, and Russell, but I can’t wait to see what the show comes up with before the end credits start rolling.