Review: Mike Tyson Mysteries “Landon’s End; The Stein Way”

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

After deciding not to get a dog, Mike kills a pigeon that was carrying their latest mystery. This one brings them to Santa Barbara. There, a widower is struggling to raise two children, one of which he suspects of abusing opioids. Landon, the son, insists he isn’t an addict, and the father believes him—until Marquess opens his damn mouth. Apparently, back in 1869, Marquess and a former lover got really into opium on a trip to China. While the future ghost was able to kick the habit by the end of the journey, his lover got hooked, stole all his money, and eventually succumbed to the addiction.

So, Mike and the father take Landon to a rehabilitation center while Yung, Marquess, and Pigeon watch young Sophie. She inadvertently reveals that the kids have been hiding an alien named Afos whose been taking the dead mother’s pain pills after hurting his leg in a spaceship crash. This prompts everyone to rush to rehab to tell everyone Landon wasn’t the addict after all. Unfortunately, it’s too late; the doctors have already given him an experimental procedure that fries his brain because he wasn’t addicted to opioids.

In an attempt to make amends, the gang takes Afos back to Las Vegas where Mike accidentally grills up and eats him. Why? Because the family didn’t bother to discuss with him that Afos was meant to be cherished, not eaten.

In the next episode, Mike celebrates April Fool’s Day in June by telling Deezy his brother has died. The famous boxer doesn’t reveal his secret to the rest of the team until after Deezy has already flown to St. Louis. They are mortified.

Then, Mike’s lawyer calls. It’s not about the manslaughter case Mike’s involved with—which doesn’t “look good” and is likely the consequences of a previous episode. Nope, this is a personal call. The lawyer suspects his secretary of stealing. However, being a lawyer, he’s worried about slandering the poor woman. Mike, who lacks tact in most situations, accuses her directly after she is unable to make him an acai berry smoothie. She confesses, but reveals her reasons aren’t selfish.

Turns out, the cryogenic laboratory that’s preserving her husband is extorting her for more money. When the team goes to the lab, the proprietor informs them his father started the business and hasn’t been running it responsibly. And so, the secretary opts to take her husband’s head—which is all he had frozen—to give it a proper burial. But the head is missing.

We then find out the proprietor’s father took all the bodies in the lab to create a monster—and that his name is Frank N. Stein. The monster comes to life as soon as the team arrives, and kills its creator immediately. It then escapes and goes on a rampage in the Vegas suburbs. There, it runs into Deezy’s brother—who just arrived from St. Louis—and kills him for real.

 

Our Take

In tonight’s second episode—the one with the Frankenstein and all that business—Mike broke the fourth wall on a number of occasions. He mentions how being in the cartoon keeps him young forever, and he even had one of the animators draw him an acai berry smoothie. This device works on Mike Tyson Mysteries because it can be viewed as breaking the fourth wall, or, if you prefer, it can be logically explained on account of Mike being crazy. That way, depending on your perspective, this show straddles the line between melodrama and fantasy. Seriously, if you try hard enough you could even justify the space alien and Frankenstein as “possible, just not likely” anomalies in the scientific field.

Speaking of useless wastes of space, I don’t even know what Pigeon’s purpose is anymore. He used to be an integral part of the team: nobly assisting with mysteries, finding clues, making astute observations, and oftentimes unearthing the true culprits. Nowadays all he does is sit around and make lewd comments. Oh wait, never mind, that’s the way he’s always been. He never, “nobly assisted with the mysteries,” or any of that other crap. What the hell was I thinking?

Tonight we had a couple of dark episodes in a row. People were killed or irreversibly damaged due to no fault of their own. The only thing they did wrong was associate themselves with the Mike Tyson Mystery Team. I’m sensing a pattern. Makes you wonder why Mike only has one manslaughter case pending against him?