NEWS
Kidding Recap: S1E7 (Kintsugi)
22 Oct 2018 By Lucas Allen (Web correspondent)
The new episode of Showtime's "Kidding" offers some brutal honesty in ways that takes the entirety of the series in a left turn. Never has a show like this try to show a light of happiness only to overpower it with some darkness. Not to mention, the episode depicts a clash of cultures with a dash of satire.
Jeff and his son Will travelled by plane to a beach side resort that’s being paid for by a major toy company that’s producing the talking Mr. Pickles doll. Will shows his father how to work an iPad so that Vivian can see the trip from Jeff’s point of view. At the company, the executives gives Jeff a script to record dialogue for the doll. However, Jeff wants to go off script by saying what he wants to say.
Back at the studio, Jeff goes off-script again this time saying some facts about how our world does a lot of bad things in history. The writers are growing frustrated by the changes, while Seb tries to put the show back in control. But then he gets into a panic when he realizes that Jeff has to appear in a live televised Tree Lighting Ceremony in December.
Meanwhile, Deirdre’s family gets a visit from Mr. Pickles-San (Louis Ozawa Changchien) the host of Japan’s version of Puppet Time he recently passed over from his father (Taki Arai). His purpose is to learn from the American version of the show not realizing what Jeff’s been doing. Deirdre starts to connect with him especially when he helps her cope with her dissolving relationship with her husband Scott.
At the hospital while waiting for Vivian’s results, Jeff gets some comforting supporting from his ex-wife Jill. He then reveals that he compares meeting Peter to the Challenger explosion almost like seeing his own life becoming a disaster. When Vivian returns, she reveals that she’s now in remission with her white blood cells battling the cancer. Everything comes to ahead when the entire Pickles family, Vivian, and Mr. Pickles-San celebrate Thanksgiving. Jeff suggested that the entire family should take a vacation together in Honduras. However, Vivian said she would rather go there all by herself to deal with her cancer quietly and alone. But in an unexpected turn, everyone but Jeff cursed her out of the house.
Afterwards, Deirdre is treated to a shadow puppet performance by Mr. Pickles-San about an ancient warrior battling a great demon only to be interrupted by Scott. While Vivian flies to Honduras alone, this finally broke Jeff emotionally as he has to perform on the show with the Viva puppet. Jeff truly loves Vivian, so not being around her with a short life left to live is truly heartbreaking.
The final scene has Jeff calling his accountant to make sure that Vivian’s trip is well paid for. Suddenly, his pent-up anger is unleashed as he starts trashing his father’s office and breaking everything in the place. There’s a moment when he sees his sad self on the TV screen and used a chair to break the screen. His smashed face seems to symbolize his TV persona coming apart and his real self is taking over. That scene alone is why Jim still has the physicality to perform such an intense scene with amazing results.
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