One of the great benefits of telling a story with a TV show rather than a movie is that you can take advantage of episode breaks to reset the storytelling and move in a different direction. Scott Pilgrim Takes Off has done a great job giving each episode its own distinct arc, and with “Lights. Camera. Sparks?!”, the writers break from the season’s first half to work within a new genre: documentary. The visual language here is handheld cameras and talking heads, and it’s a fitting shift for an episode all about behind-the-scenes drama.
“Lights. Camera. Sparks?!” begins with a prologue, read by Weird Al Yankovic, describing what we are about to watch: a promotional featurette created for a major Canadian motion picture that fell apart in production. Telling the audience that the movie is doomed from the start is a smart move, building anticipation for the production’s collapse as we see new things go wrong. With Lucas Lee out as Scott Pilgrim, Ramona’s third evil ex, Todd Ingram, steps into the role, playing opposite his longtime love, Envy Adams. Ramona becomes Envy’s stuntwoman so she can stay on set and investigate her new suspects, giving us a tangled web of on-set relationships that gets even more complicated by the chaos agent that is Wallace Wells.
I haven’t written about Mary Elizabeth Winstead very much yet, but she’s proving to be a rock-solid anchor for this series. She’s able to talk about absurd circumstances with a very casual demeanor that makes every crazy thing feel totally normal. Most importantly, Ramona’s voice has a lot of affection when she talks about Scott. I’m impressed by how this series has flipped the dynamic of the original story, putting Ramona in the position of fulfilling a mission for a person she barely knows. Scott is forced to fight all of Ramona’s exes after one date, and his commitment stems almost entirely from her cool-girl persona. From the first moment he sees her, he is obsessed with her, but Ramona falls for Scott when she spends time with him. There’s a deeper connection there, and you can hear it in Winstead’s performance.
We got some tongue-in-cheek queer pandering with Roxy and Kim’s kiss in “Ramona Rents a Video,” but this episode takes it way further with the partnering of Wallace Wells and Todd Ingram. When Todd and Envy’s uncontrollable chemistry leads to 43 unusable takes for one scene, Wallace convinces the director to change the scene so Todd kisses him instead, setting off sparks and full-on fireworks (for Todd). It’s pure fan service for the people who think Scott and Wallace do more than just sleep in bed together. Still, I also appreciate that this show is spending more time on queer relationships, deepening Roxy and Ramona’s backstory, and giving us a full-blown gay showmance with Wallace and Todd.
By the end of day two, the movie is $17 million over budget, only three shots are in the can, and Wallace and Todd are spending most of their time in Todd’s trailer “running lines.” While most people probably know Brandon Routh from his one-movie Superman stint, he spent a lot of time over in the CW’s Arrowverse playing the Atom, a size-changing superhero with the personality of a very good dog. The Atom’s vibe is warm, earnest, and eager to please everyone, and that’s the direction that Todd’s character goes once he falls in love with Wallace. Except the only person he’s desperate to please is Wallace. Routh spends a lot of time groaning as Todd tries to bottle up his feelings for Wallace, accompanied by increasingly exaggerated facial expressions that keep building until he can’t take it anymore and must proclaim his love.
The problem is that Todd’s love is entirely one-sided. Wallace, ever the cool cucumber, tells him this is just an on-set fling that ends when the production is over, causing Todd to go into a complete shutdown that leads to him breaking vegan and downing a bucket of poutine in his trailer. Envy is pissed that Wallace broke her boyfriend, triggering this episode’s big fight scene. As much as I love the idea of Wallace vs. Envy, I wish they actually went after each other. Instead, we get Wallace’s four stuntmen facing off against Ramona, which is repetitive.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World did the stuntman-fight concept with Lucas Lee, and the last episode gave us a showdown in the studio backlot. There’s nothing especially exciting here, which might be deliberate because of the documentary format. The fight feels like an afterthought in this episode, which is fine because the rest of the script is so entertaining. Fights aren’t as important to the Scott Pilgrim Takes Off narrative. Some people will see that as a weakness, but as someone who just wants to see these characters interact with each other, I have no problem with it.
Wallace is so mean to his stuntmen that they cave under his verbal abuse, and his impact on Todd is similarly devastating. Todd is in shambles after being dismissed, and he’s cleared off the suspect list when Envy tells Ramona that Todd would never be able to create a vegan portal as nice as the one Scott went through. Envy tries to convince Ramona to give up her quest to find Scott because “sometimes you have to leave losers in the past,” but she’s in way too deep now. Even if she didn’t care for Scott, looking for him has led her to bury the hatchet with her exes, putting her on a healing path that doesn’t need to end just yet.
The documentary ends when Matthew Patel shows up and shuts down the entire movie production, claiming that the script is character assassination against him. This is the first time we’ve seen Matthew since he took over Gideon’s empire, and he gets a little nervous when he finds out that Scott Pilgrim is still alive. Killing him was what gave Matthew the confidence to take down Gideon, so he’s not thrilled to hear that Scott is out there and potentially mad at him.
Matthew tells Ramona about Gordon Goose and that he’s staying with Julie Powers, giving her two new suspects that continue taking the show into new storytelling territory. Gordon and Julie is a dynamic we haven’t seen in any Scott Pilgrim story before, and the combination of Jason Schwartzman and Aubrey Plaza is very appealing. Will Julie’s sinister energy revive a despondent Gordon? Will he inspire her to take her nasty attitude to the next level and wreak havoc on the world? Probably!
Precious Little Thoughts
• Getting Weird Al to read the documentary prologue is a wonderful full-circle moment because he’s been cited as one of the main influences for Scott Pilgrim’s humor.
• The documentarian is voiced by Nelson Franklin, who appeared in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World as Michael Comeau, the guy who knows everyone. Does this mean that Comeau is filming the featurette?
• No Ramona hair-color change in this episode. Robot-01 shows up and isn’t humiliated. I miss our recurring bits!
• The beloved Pee Bar is back in this episode! It’s an iconic Scott Pilgrim visual, and I’m glad the writers found a way to fit it in (literally all they need is someone in a bathroom).
• Young Neil’s “Cronenberg for President” T-shirt exists, and you can buy it online.
• Documentarian: “Is it true neither of you have acted before?” Envy: “Yes, but we’re very, very famous, and that’s basically the same thing.”
• “Who did he cast to play Toronto?”
• “Why be Wallace Wells for free?” It’s hard to separate Kieran Culkin’s voice from Roman Roy’s now, and this line feels especially Roman-y. Side note: three alliterative names!
• “It’s like a cross between the last number in All That Jazz and the first number in Grease 2.” The way I screamed when I heard this line, written by people who clearly appreciate both the highs and lows of musicals. This is a hilarious mash-up that I need to hear so badly.
• Envy: “You’ve known him for three ****ing days.” Ramona: “Is that all it’s been?”
