Episode 15 - The Chain Of Screaming
12 January 2009
Review
Synopsis: Ted buys a new car. Marshall gets screamed at at work. He is struggling to cope with it and gets conflicting advice from his friends. Barney insists that he must continue on the chain of screaming and release his pent up anger. But when he shouts at Barney it leads him to realise he doesn’t want to become like him and so he quits.
The Good: There are two funny things here. They build up Marshall crying instead of punching his boss really well (see Comic Highlight). The way they use all the details of his life to convey what should be his anger is clever. Then later on he gets screamed at by the waiter. Again it is a fun twist and as the waiter was blameless it is just.
As for the story, it’s nice to see the friends rally around Marshall and be supportive. Lily being so sweet to him is enjoyable to see.
The Bad: Though it does seem odd that he is leaving this job so soon after getting it. The writers seem determined to crap on their marriage.
The rest of the humour in this episode just isn’t good enough and there is a lot of it. When Marshall works up the emotion to yell at Barney his choice of words seem way too accurate and mean. He starts out by calling Barney’s mum a slut which is clearly somewhat true. It doesn’t seem like something Marshall would say to Barney in this mock angry situation. You can see that the writers had worked out a clever way to make Marshall quit but he is such a nice guy that this doesn’t seem natural.
Barney’s circle or chain of screaming is a decent explanation of workplace anger. But they don’t address what the best way to deal with it is nor is it very funny. His story about Gary Bloughman is more sad than funny.
Ted’s preoccupation with his car and Lily’s lust are both fine for their characters but they are obvious jokes which won’t make you laugh out loud. There are also a collection of cheap jokes which are too silly to really work: take your daughter to work day, the Ninja report, Robin and her gun and Ted’s speech.
Comic Highlight: Marshall is being yelled at and says he couldn’t take it. He says he felt “it”. It being all the bad stuff that has happened to him (not working for the NRDC, big mortgage, slanted floor). He clenches his fist, the music gets dramatic and he starts to cry. It’s a funny anticlimax.
How I rate your episode: The show continues with its newfound concept of focussing on one character per episode. Despite the flaws in this story, I still feel this change is worth persisting with. We get more depth to Marshall’s story and more jokes than we would normally (because other plots would take their place). It’s just a shame that the jokes are not very good.
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