Review: President Curtis “Triangle”
OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)
The Loch Ness monster’s body washes up on shore in a prison jumpsuit, leading President Curtis and his team to investigate the paranormal prison at the Bermuda Triangle.
OUR TAKE
While the pilot last week was a solid, though trope heavy, introduction to this corner of the Rick and Morty universe, this week is the real test, as this gives a chance to see what a “normal” episode of the show will be like week to week and where this show’s strengths will lie. Luckily, this is actually a pretty good showing, as it illustrates the strange exaggerated conspiracy stuff that a show about a secret agent President would be able to do. An MCU style super prison in the Bermuda Triangle full of monster criminals is pretty much a prime example of something only a show with this premise could tackle. And on the character side, it gives each of our three leads a plot to themselves, whereas last week pretty much only gave much in the way of character development to Banks. To be clear, I think Banks is fine for what we’ve seen so far, but I’m glad Curtis and O’Doyle get their own stuff this week. Specifically, Curtis follows up his clear lack of connections from last week by showing how easily he gets wrapped up in befriending the warden of the prison, a former marine like apparently Curtis also is.
Then there’s O’Doyle, who as mentioned is part Leprechaun, and so is used as an undercover prisoner at the prison to find out how prisoners are escaping. Naturally this leads to many prison tropes being mixed with horror movie and monster tropes, but that’s not necessarily bad. It just kinda leads to a lot of “oh yeah, that thing” sort of moments that are mildly entertaining but not so much that I’m actually laughing. And then there’s Banks, who regrets her protocols being overwritten last week and puts up barriers to stop it from happening again, only to keep finding herself in scenarios where she would have to trust her own judgement instead of the protocols. But honestly, the highlight of this episode more comes from the introduction of this show’s version of Amelia Earhart, here played by Kristin Schaal, which is funny to me because I’m reminded of the Bob’s Burgers episode “Amelia” (in my opinion one of the show’s best) wherein Schaal’s character Louise does a report on Earthart where she has to come to terms with the fact that (in real life) Earhart likely died on her voyage, whereas here she gets to play a version who is probably immortal and whose life kicks fucking ass. Anyway, okay outing for President Curtis, let’s hope it continues to improve.
