'Avenue 5' Episode 2 is 'random, pointless, without redeeming value' and Billy tells it like it is
"My concern is that you have no skills as a captain beyond fuzzy charm which is already kinda getting old. You can't seem to hold the same accent, which is kind of crazy. Also, if you hand me the mic again to talk to those passengers again, I will beat you over the head with it, I will ram it down your esophagus," says Billy McEvoy when Captain Ryan Clark asks her if she is doing well and has any concerns. Strangely enough, the frustration that she is spewing out is exactly what I felt after watching the second episode of 'Avenue 5', which is unfortunate because I did enjoy the first episode.
Billy continues, this time addressing Iris and says, "You. You need to handle Judd, the business bossquatch coz otherwise he starts flinging this shit telling NASA to go f**k themselves. You know he is like... the best analogy that I can think of is he is like an idiot in charge of this spaceship but that is not an analogy. That is just a fact."
Well by now, I am truly cheering for Billy because she just read my mind. This has made me wonder if the show intends to be self-deprecating to find fodder for humor. If that is the case, it has failed miserably because at this point, it is hard to watch any more of these people trying to figure out what is wrong with the spaceship where people in charge do not understand something as simple as call latency.
Then at an opportune moment (or not), Matt Spencer points out three coffins with dead people in it and says, "Ladies and gentlemen this might seem like we are sending the bodies, scrunched up dead in a box. It might seem random, pointless, without redeeming value. Goodbye." Zach Woods who plays Matt in the show states this with a straight face, as he states a lot of absurd things. This one, though, hits the bullseye about what the show is at the moment.
While he mentions this, we cut back to Billy arguing with Judd about why he shouldn't have told NASA to go "Fu** itself" where she is trying to explain how gravity and mass are two different things. Then, of course, everyone forgets about the voice lag and mission control room on Earth initiates a gravity reset, which results in more people on board Avenue 5 getting hurt. At this point, all of this does seem "random, pointless, without redeeming value".
The entire episode is high on absurdity as if the makers had hoped that it would sell, but it doesn't pan out as expected because somehow there is not much that is funny about the show at the moment. Judd's overbearing stupidity makes one want to punch his face, which I am sure Billy would love to do. For now, here's hoping for a better future at Avenue 5 because watching more coffins and dead bodies float in space is definitely not my cup of tea!
'Avenue 5' will air on HBO on Sundays at 10 pm ET.