Summary
The Franchise sags a little in Episode 4, with a mean-spirited streak that is less fun than even the obvious satire.
The superhero movie is, for better or worse, inextricable from the cameo. Recognizable actors showing up in costume either in the middle of a movie or – more likely – during the credits is now par for the course; theatergoers don’t dare get out of their seats until the next screening’s audience starts filing in. Episode 4 of The Franchise, “Scene 83: Enter the Gurgler”, gives us the set’s-eye-view of how these kinds of cameos work, and just like everything else to do with Tecto, it’s a complete disaster.
This was the first episode of the season that I felt a bit wearied by. I still laughed a lot, obviously, but even though the previous outing was plucking low-hanging fruit when satirizing big studios’ so-called “woman problem”, it still reinforced a broader point. Here we just take a much more mean-spirited turn, with the cameo character, The Gurgler, being ridiculous and the actor – Kyle, played by a guest-starring Nick Kroll – being deeply awful.
“Scene 83: Enter the Gurgler” finds us over halfway through the production of Tecto: Eye of the Storm, and by this point, any pretense of civility has completely eroded. Everyone hates each other. Most people are just counting down the days until the whole thing is over with and forgotten about, perhaps overlooking the job implications that the movie flopping – let alone being outright canned – might have. The originally scheduled cameo was supposed to be a shot of adrenaline to the production’s heart. The arrival of Kroll’s Gurgler is a death knell.
Kyle hates Adam in particular since they both used to star in a sitcom called Brad & Butter that Adam used as a springboard to prominent movie roles while Kyle was left behind to languish on network television, shaving six times a day to pass as a 14-year-old. He’s only agreeing to cameo in the movie to torture Adam, whose worsening self-image anxieties are already crippling him.
Justin Edwards and Ruaridh Mollica in The Franchise | Image via HBO
This is obvious throughout, but it comes to the fore in a mean-spirited improv take where Kyle eviscerates Adam. You’d think nobody would stand to suffer more from his presence than Adam does, especially when Kyle’s interpretation of an apology is sexual assault, but the person who’s really affected by all this is Eric.
Eric’s problems begin with the Gurgler, but they’re doubled when he delivers Eric’s ridiculous invented McGuffin, the Reality Crystal, to the set of Centurios 2. Creating this thing gave respiratory issues to half the crew, so Eric’s sad to see it go. The only person faring worse is Rufus, aka Mollusc Man, who has to be completely shaved so he can be fitted into a full-body cast for reasons I’m not sure anyone entirely understands.
When Eric learns that the Reality Crystal is going to be used on Centurios 2, which releases before Tecto, is already over budget, which nobody seems to be worried about, and has used up Europe’s entire supply of glittery paint, he is so angry with his matte black replacement that he drives a golf cart directly onto – and indeed into – the Centurios 2 set.
This is just about where The Franchise Episode 4 ends, with things worse than ever. Shane is furious, Anita is about to get the brunt of it – which means Daniel and the rest of the Tecto crew will get the rest – and the production is in more peril than ever before. Given how much everyone has given for this ill-fated movie thus far, will they be able to deal with the idea of it all being for naught?
