Fantastico Disasterpiece Theatre: Good Adams Family Fun
Gringo Fantastico is a retired luchador presenting Troma films from the safety of a deteriorating recreation center tucked into chaotic Tromaville. He is begrudgingly accompanied by the French-Canadian demon piñata Francois who criticizes and disparages Fantastico throughout each episode. This week’s special guests are the Adams family (Wonder Wheel Productions). New episodes release on the first of each month on Troma NOW.
Chapter Tres
Fantastico Disasterpiece Theatre returns for Chapter Tres with “Hellbender and the Mixologist’s Mirror.” Initially premiering on October 1st, Gringo Fantastico (Nate Turnpaugh) hosts Charles Kaufman’s Mother’s Day (1980). The film is based around a rape-revenge plot and is Toby Poser’s personal pick because the “vengeance in it is satisfying.” This one very much deserves a content warning for being a prime example of a Troma film.
Behind the Mask
Cutting into footage that once again feels ripped directly from the past, the episode begins with Fantastico apologizing for his prior poor behavior. Rather, he emphasizes he has been “told to apologize.” Things appear to go well before agitation kicks in and Fantastico attacks the interviewer. Better luck next time, I guess.
Fantastico’s anger is once again centered around his mask. Audiences can feel the growing desperation to free himself from his alias. Throughout these segments, Turnpaugh crafts a surprisingly emotional look at Fantastico’s psyche. Who among us hasn’t wanted to rip off the socially-acceptable mask they’ve created to reveal the feral human beneath it? I never thought I’d relate to a luchador so much.
Humor and Hijinks
Entering Tromaville’s recreation center, the audience can see Halloween decorations. These touches help the set feel lived-in and create mental images of Fantastico and Francois bickering over their placement. Bringing in another Halloween tradition, Fantastico looks into a mirror and repeats “Bloody Mary” three times. Imagine my surprise when he walks out with an actual bloody mary. Which Francois promptly turns to “just a goddamned V8.”
Speaking with Turnpaugh, he reveals the entire episode’s script came out of him thinking of this particular joke. “I’m not going to waste this joke just as a throwaway gag.” When his wife learns of his intentions, she apparently says, “That’s really funny. You’re really stupid.” The joke expands and changes throughout the episode, and leaves me laughing each time.
Humor and fun is a key tenet when it comes to Turnpaugh’s production style. As he puts it to his crew, “We need to do it and we need to do it well, but it needs to be fun for everyone.” His primary concern with production is always ensuring he’s meeting his crews needs. With this episode in particular, he wanted his guests to have the best possible experience. He even calls in a mutated janitor to set up their chairs.
The Adams Family
Toby Poser, John Adams and Lulu Adams are three-fourths of the family which makes up both the film company Wonder Wheel Productions and the band Hellbender. Zelda Adams is unfortunately unavailable to join the rest of the family for their interview. When Fantastico asks how they made it through Tromaville to the rec center, they assure him they’ve had plenty of “inoculations.”
The Adams family has previously been interviewed on The Last Drive-In, albeit in a different configuration in season three. Toby, John and Zelda are present for that interview and it is Lulu who is unable to attend. Turnpaugh’s interview style gives Joe Bob’s a run for the money when presented with a comparison between the two. The most notable difference which works in Turnpaugh’s favor, is his choice to have all present members of the family together from the start of the interview.
Hoosier Hospitality
The family does seem to be a little too excited to be in Indiana, where Turnpaugh films Disasterpiece Theatre. John says, “We’ve driven through Indiana so many times and we have to look at it. Now we’re part of it.” Turnpaugh reveals in our interview he had treated the family to a full course of Hoosier hospitality in a very short amount of time.
“I had a one day window to get them in, shoot them in, and ensure they got back in time,” he says. After picking them up from the airport, they all go to a restaurant for what should be a quick meal before bed. It instead turns into a three-hour conversation over food and drinks. When the family is in need of good coffee and tea the next morning, Turnpaugh knows just where to go.
“I drive them out and I take them to my parent’s house.” He describes the ensuing encounter much like any between family friends, despite just meeting each other. Lulu plays with the family dog, John discusses carpentry with his father, and Toby and his mother share conversation. “My parents have been big supporters of this show, which helps.”
Good Bones
All of this culminates into a fantastico interview with the trio that feels like a good conversation between friends. The family fully buys into the conceit of the show, often throwing in references to Tromavilla and jabs at Francois. At one point Toby offers to kill Francois for Fantastico and the demon piñata is actually speechless.
As the family answers Fantastico’s questions, they build effortlessly off of each other. They tell stories about their family, past travels and productions and future plans. It is obvious they have a solid foundation of admiration and respect for each other. Wonder Wheel Productions itself gets its name from a series of sentimental family moments which they share in the interview. When they need more bodies for their films, they joke “How many cousins do we have?”
Future Releases
Toby, John, and Lulu also discuss their upcoming works Where the Devil Roams under Wonder Wheel Productions and Hell Hole under Blood and Honey Pictures. Where the Devil Roams is a film “with more our DNA in it” according to Toby, while Hell Hole is the largest production they have worked on.
Where the Devil Roams was originally set to be a Tubi exclusive, but it appears it will be premiering in independent theaters on November 3rd before becoming available to rent/buy the digital version on November 7th. Release information for Hell Hole is not yet available.
Punk Rock is an Attitude
This episode marks the first in-person guest interview Turnpaugh has done as Fantastico. He and Toby have built a friendship over time, and Toby believes Disasterpiece Theatre is “like watching your favorite band in a dive bar.” The show is punk-rock as fuck.
I can’t agree more. In its absolute defiance of normalcy, it is endlessly entertaining and informative. Fantastico’s development as a character is paying off and Turnpaugh’s abilities as showrunner, producer, host etc. continue to shine.
My rating for Chapter Tres of Fantastico Disasterpiece Theatre:
(4.7 / 5)
Follow @realfantastico on the platform formerly known as Twitter to know when to join in with the rest of the Fantasticats as they live-tweet each episode.
We have come now to the finale of season four of The Boys. And while it didn’t have the literal blood fireworks I wanted, someone did get ripped in half in the air. So, that’s pretty close.
As a note, I will try to avoid spoilers as much as possible. This ending was a hell of a gut punch that should be experienced as blindly as possible. That being said, I will not be able to avoid spoilers and still give a full legitimate review. Proceed at your own risk.
The story
The main storyline for this episode is the attempted assassination of President-Elect Robert Singer. The Boys join forces with the Secret Service to protect him. But, as we learned last episode, Annie has been replaced with a shapeshifter. A shapeshifter that was welcome not just into Hughie’s anus, but into the protective bunker in which the President-Elect is hiding.
What worked
The first thing I want to discuss about this episode is the ending. But we need to do this carefully.
The important thing here is that the ending breaks your heart on so many levels. So many terrible things are happening to characters that it’s almost hard to keep track. And each moment is significant to each character.
I cannot give a specific example. But no matter who your favorite character is, you’re going to weep for them.
Unless your favorite character is Sage. And this is the next thing that made this episode so fantastic.
I don’t think I’m spoiling anything to say that Sage’s plans worked out exactly as she wanted them to. And she got exactly what she wanted.
What she wanted wasn’t power. It wasn’t money or fame or vengeance. It wasn’t to win the love of anyone. She just wanted to see if she could do it.
That is a terrific, terrifying motivation! Because all she wants is to play a massive game of chess with people as pieces. She doesn’t care about anyone. She just wants to see how many people she can manipulate. She just wants to set things on fire to see if she can.
Fantastic. A plus villain work.
The next thing I want to discuss is a cornerstone of the whole series.
The morality of The Boys shifts through the series. While it’s very much a battle to save the world from overpowered super monsters, it’s also a battle for the souls of our real heroes. And in that battle, there are two warring factors. We have Hughie, always trying to bring everyone up to a better level. And we have Butcher, who has no problem at all hitting rock bottom with a shovel in hand to do some more digging.
In this episode, we saw almost every member of The Boys challenged. Will they rise to their higher angels, or sink with their demons?
On a similar note, I am so glad that the writers kind of addressed my issues with Annie. They did this by having the shapeshifter get right into her face and accuse her of thinking that she’s better than everyone.
While that was devastating for the character, it was a little cathartic for those of us who felt like Annie was a little too good of a good guy.
What didn’t work
This is a small matter, but it is an issue that I want to address. After Annie finds out that Hughie slept with her doppelganger, she is furious at him.
In addition to this being unfair, it’s also a very cliche element to add. In almost every instance of a lookalike in fiction, there’s a moment where the love interest of the victim is fooled. Or almost fooled. And it’s always the same fight. It’s just played out and predictable. I’m just glad that it didn’t last very long.
Now that we’ve come to the end of the season, I can officially say that it was amazing. The story was deep and rich. The special effects were a stomach-turning good time. The character development was spot-on and satisfying. And, of course, it left me just about gagging to see what happens next. Unfortunately, it looks like we’ll have a bit of a wait. Because as of right now, the fifth season isn’t expected until 2026.
(5 / 5)
We’ve reached the second to last episode of The Boys, season four. And, as is appropriate for the penultimate episode of any show, things have to get a lot worse before they can get better.
Let’s discuss.
The story
Christmas is coming, and the whole world is getting ready. Ryan, despite being very clear that he didn’t want to appear on any TV shows or movies, has been strong-armed into participating in a Vought puppet Christmas special. He draws the line, though, when asked to sing about turning one’s parents in if they start talking about woke things.
Meanwhile, The Boys are trying to keep each other together. Butcher decides to take Sameer to the rest of the team. He also gets Frenchie out of prison, hoping they can make the Sup virus necessary to finally take down Homelander. Instead, this decision means disaster for one member of the team.
What worked
I first want to talk about Ryan’s speech near the end of the episode. Because it was exactly the moral of this whole story.
Ryan’s dad is a monster. His stepdad is also kind of a monster. But Ryan is a good kid. He cares about people, about family. And while he loves Homelander and Butcher, he doesn’t want to be like them.
Even better, this speech sounded like something a kid would say. Ryan didn’t open his mouth and start sounding like a college student all of a sudden. He sounds like a kid who misses his mom and wants to live up to the good standards she set for him. And I think that’s terrific.
Speaking of Homelander, he shot himself in the foot in this episode. I said earlier in the season that his hubris was going to be his downfall, and I was right. Without Sage, he just has the same weaknesses he’s always had. He’s going to fail because he just isn’t clever enough or patient enough to succeed.
Without Sage, I think a win is in the bag for The Boys. This isn’t to say that Homelander by himself isn’t dangerous. It’s just that he’s more like a wildfire than a controlled burn. He’s going to cause a lot of damage, but not get anything he wants out of it.
More’s the pity for him and everyone else who has to share his world.
Finally, I am thrilled with A-Train’s redemption story. I love that he wants to be a good person not to save himself, but to be a good person. His honest, pure and warm reaction to that little kid smiling at him in the last episode was heartwarming. It changed him in a moment, bringing to light a goodness that he’s been keeping under wraps for a long time.
This, along with Ryan’s courageous speech, proves once again what The Boys does so well. Yes, it’s gruesome. Yes, there’s blood and balls and batshit events. Yes, someone occasionally gets ripped in half. But there is a true human goodness in the story. One that we catch glimpses of. There are good people among the monsters. There is hope for redemption.
What didn’t work
Of course, so few things in this life are perfect, and this episode was no exception. For instance, I was irritated by the insinuation that Butcher cheated on his wife.
That just doesn’t make any sense. We’ve seen flashbacks of Billy and Becca. They were happy. He was happy. He was head over heels for her. And I don’t think it’s realistic or necessary for the character to throw in that he cheated. It does nothing to add to the story, it’s just a weird and offputting moment.
Doesn’t Butcher have enough to hate about himself? Can’t we just give him that at least he was a good husband?
Finally, I kind of hate that we ended up with Annie being caught. It’s just cliche, which is something I don’t normally say about this show. It feels lazy unless they do something very clever with it in the last episode. Which, I suppose, they might.
Next up is the season finale. And with this season being as insane as it has been, I’m expecting nothing short of bloody fireworks. And I mean literal fireworks of blood. At this point, would it surprise anyone?
(4 / 5)
Episode six of The Boys was one of the most surprising episodes of the series so far. And that is certainly saying something. Because this season has so far been bonkers.
The story
Our episode today revolves around a party at Tek Knight’s lovely mansion. Yes, it does look just like Wayne Manor.
The Boys know that Tek Knight is working with Homelander on something, but they don’t know the details. So they decide to send Hughie in to bug the mansion.
Because that’s worked so well the other two times he’s tried to hide a bug!
It should surprise no one that this time goes no better. Hughie finds himself in Tek Knight’s basement. And by that I mean his BDSM dungeon.
Meanwhile, the party upstairs is no less disturbing. Homelander and Sage are trying to convince some well-off political donors to support a cue after the election. When pressed for details on his plan, Homelander freezes. He looks to Sage for help, but she wasn’t recently shot in the head and still in the junk food stage of her healing.
Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your point of view, Neuman jumps in and saves the day.
What works
If I’m going to say one thing about this episode, it didn’t hold back at all. I didn’t expect them to show a character masturbating, sitting their bare behind on a cake, or spraying breastmilk into someone’s face. But every time I thought they’d cut the scene and let something be left to our imagination, they did not do that.
This is a dangerous move. Whenever you show the monster, you run the risk of them not being scary enough, or gross enough. As Stephen King says in Danse Macabre, to leave this sort of thing to the imagination if the reader makes things so much worse. So when they finally experience the monster, they might say that this isn’t so bad. It could have been so much worse.
But in this case, they managed to avoid that by making the scenes, especially the ones in Tek Knight’s dungeon, so much worse than I imagined it would be.
What doesn’t work
While this was a deeply disturbing episode in many ways, there was one really innocent and sweet moment.
And yes, I did have a problem with it.
Confronted by Firecracker, Annie decides to apologize for spreading rumors about her when they were kids. She tells her that she is genuinely sorry.
And I believe her. I don’t think Firecracker did, but I did.
So why is this an issue? Because I’m starting to think that Annie is maybe too nice. She is too good.
I know that Annie is our good guy. But every one of the other good guys has flaws. Hughie let his pride get in the way and took Temp V. MM hid himself from his daughter instead of teaching her to work through her emotions. Kimiko is far too closed off and has a hard time trusting others. Frenchie numbs himself with drugs. And well, what hasn’t Butcher done?
It is unrealistic that Annie is just so kind and so flawless. We all have shadows in our personalities. We all have weaknesses, we all mess up. We all do things we wish we could take back. The fact that Annie doesn’t seem to have anything like that is not just unrealistic. It’s infantilizing.
Give her some deep dark secrets. Give her something real to regret.
This was a shocking episode, even for someone fairly jaded like me. I wasn’t expecting the sort of weird sexual depravity, though I guess maybe I should have seen it coming. It was dark, upsetting, tense, and funny as hell. And with just two episodes left in the season, I can imagine the stakes are only going to get higher.
(4 / 5)
By the way, if you like my writing you can get my short story, Man In The Woods, on Smashwords and Amazon.
