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| Left to right: Marc Maron and Bobcat Goldthwait |
Welcome to a new recap series on the IFC series Maron in which comedian/podcaster Marc Maron lives life and tries to learn how to be a better person. To pay homage to the series, these recaps will be released on Tuesdays and chronicle the various life lessons that are presented in the 30 minute format on a weekly basis as well as a meter that determines just how angry our protagonist seems to be. Join us as we tackle the psyche of the popular angry man and pray that he doesn't lose it entirely.
Plot: Marc has a meeting with an old friend who now directs bad comedies (Eric Stoltz) while imaging himself in other people's conversations.
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| Back: Maron, Front: Andy Kindler |
A Line That Sums Up the Episode: "There's no scenario in which your life wouldn't be completely miserable." - Andy Kindler
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| Bobby Slayton |
Guests Review: Right off the bat, we get a great, lively conversation with Bobby Slayton that sets the episode off right. Rarely do we get people as guests on the show that talk as much as Slayton does. He is rapid fire and very funny. We also meet Marc's neighbor (E.J. Callahan), who is just as great and hopefully will be more integral in the upcoming season. The universe that has been built in Maron has only began to be explored, but so far, the non-celebrity roles have been fascinatingly casted. Andy Kindler, as usual, is the highlight of the episode as the man with a lot of advice to share as he tries on novelty gear in a logo shop. Eric Stoltz as Maron's old friend is probably the least interesting, though it could largely be because he is supposed to be a sleazy director. Also, it is nice to just see Bobcat Goldthwait out and about after directing a handful of episodes this season. The gag at the end may lead to nowhere, but it was nice to see him act alongside Maron in whatever that movie was supposed to. Still funny that Stoltz thought his film was art.
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| Left to right: Maron and Julie Warner |
It is hard to really gauge this episode's anger on the sheer fact that most of the frustrating moments were done in the projection scenes. Whether he is a husband, gay boyfriend, or a waiter, he has varying degrees of anger, and the highest that he got was as a husband to a family that seems to be all over the place. We have seen him deal with rascal kids before on the show, but as a parental figure, it breathes some new life into the gag. Of course, the general premise alone deserves a high grade. Why would he want to ruin his integrity by doing somebody's bad movie?
We Good?: I must admit that I like that the show thinks that it needs to break out into existential episodes like this. It manages to break the convention that the early episodes had and it gives us a sense of who Maron the character is supposed to be. There's a lot of small, inspired fantasy roles in here that are rather comical. Still, on a whole as an episode, the existential debate works, but not to a hilarious degree. It makes for interesting TV, but the comedy feels kind of lacking and more reliant on the varying premises. I won't knock the episode, but give it credit for trying to be more than conventional, and that is something that I hope it does in the upcoming season.
Overall rating: 3.5 out of 5
*Note: Since there were two episodes this week, look for the next column of Life Lessons from Maron to drop tomorrow afternoon.
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