Lyre, Lyre, Heart's on Fire

Written by Adam Armus & Nora Kay Foster
Directed by Mark Beesley

William H. Macy has received much critical acclaim for his work on films like Fargo, Pleasantville, and Magnolia. He has also done excellent work on television shows like ER and Sports Night. When he appeared in the not-so-critically acclaimed superhero parody Mystery Men, he was asked why, when he was so highly regarded as a dramatic actor.

"I'll admit it's a stupid movie," he said. "But then, I like stupid movies."

Which sums up pretty well the way I feel about this episode. It certainly isn't a gem in Tapert's crown of the series, I'll freely admit that. It is stupid, ridiculous nonsense.

It's what I expect when I see Armus & Foster's names on the writing credits. They have treated us to more stupid, goofy episodes of this series than any other writer (or writers). We have In Sickness & In Hell, Fins, Femmes, and Gems, King of Assassins and Warrior... Priestess... Tramp (among others). Do we see a pattern emerging here?

Sears and Stewart have their own areas of expertise, but nobody does stupid comedy like Armus and Foster (well, maybe Hilary Bader, but she doesn't have as long a list of writing credits).

Perhaps I was warmed up by the ribald goofiness of Jack of All Trades (Bruce Campbell tends to put me in that frame of mind), but it did not take me long to get into the whole spirit of this episode. This is a classic example of actors goofing around. Not all of the stuff they come up with is funny, but this thing felt like a half-staged, half-improvised cast party. Perhaps it's my theatrical backgound, but I felt (for the first time in a while) the desire to tread the boards with my old mates and just ham it up.

You want serious plots? Go watch The Debt. I honestly don't know why people went into this episode expecting another The Bitter Suite. There is no way in Tarterus that they could have pulled that off with any kind of success (at least, not the way things stand in the series right now). I found myself drawn in by the sheer absurdity of it all, and just enjoyed the hell out of it.

There are no significantly deep themes explored here, though the story of Joxer and Jace and their reconciliation was well done (kudos to Ted Raimi, probably one of the more under-appreciated comic actors in the business). The musical numbers were hardly original, but the humor in the episode is wonderfully multi-textured; they are not only spoofing the staples of the rock musical and MTV video genres, they are also spoofing themselves at the same time. I don't think this episode was intended to be "original" in any way, shape or form. And yet, in some ways, it was.

If there is a message hidden in this stupid, goofy lark of an episode, it's a message intended to remind us to stop taking the show (and ourselves) so seriously. Stop decrying the death of subtext and the bemoaning the emotional gutting of the series. Try to just sit back and enjoy it for a change. I found my energy blissfully restored, and stayed up way too late because my sheer enjoyment of life was renewed.

This was a stupid episode, but then sometimes I like stupid episodes. It's nothing spectacularly groundbreaking, but it is good, clean, goofy, stupid fun. Just what I like to get from an Armus and Foster script.

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