Ian
MAGGIE (CONT'D)
It's an chance to prove you can
do something besides field
reporting.
- Has she been doing the farming reports since her episode with the ventriloquist I wonder?
PETE
Chef, not Chief.
- Oh no, this is the beginning of it. She’s off to another wrong footed start. Although the chef is to blame a bit more here.
I understand and appreciate what you are attempting here with the trilogy of skits featuring the often volatile/always incompetent central character as she succeeds time and again in screwing up these career opportunities. Whether it’s by not capturing the all important video footage of sasquatch in “Looking For Bigfoot” to her inability to resist the urge to pick fights with her guests both in this and “Interview With The Ventriloquist”.
To your credit, above anything, you do have catchy script titles
However, I’m afraid your brand of humor falls short, it’s just too silly and obvious for my tastes. Here you rely mostly on slapstick which can work sometimes but often I feel it’s the last resort for a cheap laugh, an easy gag. We see people slipping on olive oil, burning hands on pan handles (or was it the cooking oil again?) squirting lime juice and splashing water before getting into a flour fight on live TV. It’s all rather puerile.
You have to wonder why Lorraine keeps getting these chances; she clearly has some emotional baggage that needs shedding. I still don’t get why she is so aggressive and brusque with her guests. In her defense, she is sometimes goaded or provoked into a spat but mostly she is far too easily sucked in and suddenly you got two people sniping at one another for the camera. I realise that its done for laughs but it just comes off as unwarranted thus contrived. I wonder could you come up with a more gradual and nuanced way of Lorraine rubbing her guest up the wrong way and vice versa than having her spill olive oil.
It’s absurd and amusing in its own way and I see that this is how you want to portray the character, always shooting herself in the foot, saying the wrong things, blowing her big break, etc but we see it once: ok, see it twice: right, it’s starting to wear thin but for it to happen a third time: it’s just plain tiresome.
Especially since this transpired in much the same way as “Interview with the Ventriloquist” Although, there was less wit and laughs in this one. For one, you didn’t have a voice throwing ventriloquist
Here you just have a chef with a chip on his shoulder
I mean, was Pete really so put out by Carl’s absence that he immediately took to antagonizing Lorraine? Seems harsh.
To your credit, this does end differently in that Lorraine and Pete reconcile while their antics go viral (in a positive way) on social media so I’ll give you props for throwing that curve ball to distinguish it from ignominy of her last outing but overall the humour fell very flat for me.
Anyway, heres to Lorraine Sanchez getting therapy and perhaps attending some anger management classes in the near future
Col.