I think to this point, I’ve reviewed everything available
from Atomic Swan. Lots of misses but with the ones that hit, they hit right. So
I’m always happy to check out anything Tyler Zickafoose sends my way.
That said, I guess I’m a little confused by this one. It seems they were trying to make a web series but it also incorporated a lot of what felt like the Atomic Swan style for their movies - read: improvisation. I can’t say that it worked really well here.
The basic premise is a show about Merle and Wayne, best
friends just trying to navigate the ups and downs of life. Losing jobs,
absentee parents, toxic relationships, money problems, anger management,
getting framed for crimes they didn’t commit, and even death.
That might seem like a lot but there are eight episodes, plus one set-up episode, to contain it all. I’m not going to break down the entire series but let’s cover some highlights, yes?
The first episode introduces us to the main characters, Merle and Wayne, and what’s going on in life for them at the time. Merle lives with his wife and baby boy but he’s out of work and the heat was just shut off at his house, letting us know Merle is struggling financially. Wayne is his best friend and we get more of his story in the 2nd episode, where he is fired from his job as a pizza delivery guy because the boss thinks Wayne is fucking the pizza.
I’m sorry, what?
So the first volume of “Rats” shows us Merle and Wayne and all the zany characters they know or meet along the way.
Volume 2 develops our two main characters more. Wayne meets his long absent father; Wayne also moves out of his mom’s house and in with Merle and his family; the identity of the REAL pizza fucker (spoiler - it wasn’t Wayne) is uncovered so eventually Wayne’s job/financial status improves. But Merle’s life starts to spiral when his wife leaves, taking their baby with her, and moves to Iowa (which is odd since in Volume 1 she said her family is in Calif).
MAJOR SPOILER: the whole series ends with Merle’s death.
What the actual fuck???????
While I do have quite a few issues with this series, the fact that I ACTUALLY CRIED twice while watching tells me that at least these guys know how to create characters the viewer can care about. My favorite ones were Merle, the Yoga/Anger Management guy, and Lee Li (played by my fav, Tuan Edwards, who always looks like he’s about to bust up laughing). The two times I cried were first when Merle worried he was turning into his father (i.e., not being a good dad) and second after his wife left him and he broke down. Charles Shaver did a fantastic job in the role.
I did get some honest amusement in this. The Anger Management character stole his scene with Wayne. And when Lee Li sets the alarm on his skateboard, I had to pause the DVD for a minute while I laughed.
That said…two of my biggest pet peeves were the length certain scenes or conversations lasted, and the dialogue improvisation. Every episode had a section, usually involving improvised dialogue, that went on for way too long. Did we really need half an episode taken up by who’s fucking who or how shitty someone is? Does the audience really need to know the deep details of how someone fucks a pizza? Shouldn’t the fighting commenced sooner between the group of guys at the pool hall instead of them talking about absolutely nothing or throwing barbs and insults at each other for fifteen minutes?
Fifteen minutes of nothing is the equivalent of a lifetime in movies and tv.
It’s hard to get invested in a movie or show when even the actors are just making shit up as they go. My instinct is telling me that there were story plot points to cover but how the actors arrived at each one involved so much meandering and repetitive, jungle-thick crap that Crocodile Dundee would have had a hard time finding the point. Please actually write 90% script and let the actors improv the remaining 10%, not the other way around.
EDIT: I just got confirmation from the director that 99% of the entire series was improvised. I feel so big brain right now…
AND WHAT WAS WITH ALL THE YELLING?? I understand sound being unbalanced, or not having access to high-tech microphones so one might need to project a little stronger to make sure the audio records. But gods dammit, folks. I think my neighbors three houses down could hear my tv. With the windows closed! Please stop projecting your dialogue as if you’re trying to talk over the mosh-pitting crowd at a GWAR concert.
All in all, it wasn’t totally bad. Rough around the edges? Yes. Amateur acting? Sure, mostly. Too much improvised dialogue that went on too long to say too little? Absofuckinglutely. Am I mad I watched it? No, not really. I do enjoy most projects that comes out of Atomic Swan. It’s clear the people working on these movies and shorts and everything in between love to make them, they love working with each other, and it shows. And there’s no way you can fault that.
1.5 hatchets (out of 5)
Here's a link to AS You Tube channel. Volume 1 episodes are uploaded there!
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