Review: Red vs Blue – Family Shatters “Freaky Friday”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Phase and East switch bodies and have to deal with no one being able to tell them apart.

OUR TAKE

This week brings us another short that is within the range of five minutes, much like the Dad Joke episode that I actually liked, which seems to prove that five minutes is a good range for what these shorts should be going for. I say this mainly because, like the second episode, this one actually feels like it has a beginning, middle, and end that feels like it has a conflict it introduces, escalates and explores the situation, and then gives it a solid resolution. How it executes all those things is another matter that I’ll get into, but my point is that these two episodes actually felt like they had completed stories instead of having maybe half a joke that’s farted out and over before we know it, like the first, third, and fourth episode have been like. And it’s a solid idea for a comedy short with these characters, since Phase and East do have a unique relationship as twins/two halves of a person and there’s plenty of potential comedy like this they can tap into, so this definitely feels like a good idea they took a swing at, again much like the Dad Joke episode with Axel.

Now, when it comes to how well they did with the idea for this episode, I think my feelings on that can be summed up as “almost, but not quite”. The summary of the idea makes sense, but there do seem to be ways they could have streamlined or sharpened it up. For one, while I like that the joke of “they switched bodies, but they’re basically the same anyway” is used, I feel like it doesn’t go far enough with it, like maybe they could have asked them questions or made them do things that just kept proving that they are way more similar than they want to admit. Also, don’t even change their voices (which I know is hard to tell because they sound intentionally similar), but it would lay on the joke even more if they sounded the same. And I think the point of Raymond already being able to tell them apart is a sign that he pays attention to East more than others, probably crushing on her and such, but I don’t know how I feel about that. Either way, definitely a better episode than most of the past four, but this should really be the bare minimum for these things. Hopefully the rest of the season shows that.