I love a good courtroom drama. I mean a good courtroom drama. Stuff like 12 Angry Men or The Firm are deeply satisfying, largely because you feel like you’re a part of that courtroom and helping solve this murder (or whatever) too, and that’s an exciting feeling as most of us in our lifetime probably won’t be a member of the jury on a murder trial. So Space Dandy taking this construct as their plaything this week got me quite excited, and unsurprisingly it’s a great fit for the show. The episode even stylistically splits itself into Law and Order-esque title cards outlining the different sections of the court process to give everything a little more weight. Although it’s a missed opportunity that the “Recess” section didn’t coincide with the act break. There’s some typically Space Dandy science at play here too which effectively complicates Reginald’s murder and gives it its Dandy stamp of approval. The chemical pionium is present, which is essentially the God particle, and just having the intent to kill when around it could do something like, say, send a baseball murder weapon through dimensions and complete this goal. The idea of this phantom intent to kill almost being like Kennedy’s magic bullet is really smart stuff, and soon the trial switches from trying to blame Dandy or Rose for the murder, but rather who is wielding this kill lust. Very early on in this episode there’s an increasing social media presence, which at first seems like a joke, but as Meow finds Hiroshi and Jack on Twitter, there’s an incredible turn where this is where the real mystery is playing out. It’s through this Twitter browsing, that’s going around the actual trial at hand, that this is going to be solved. Similarly, turning this episode into a story that’s actually all about Hiroshi and Jack’s friendship (and the hatred within it, which again falls back on being about social media), rather than Reginald and Rose’s marriage, is super smart stuff. It’s again turning the tables and spinning the focus in a genre that’s very well defined. This results in everything getting wrapped up exactly as it should, and it being a very satisfying answer to everything that’s happened. The reveal of Guy Reginald actually having sleep apnea feels like a cop out and a weak ending, but it also feels like it’s paying respect to the idea of constant plot twists and left-field complications in stories from this genre. On the other hand, Dandy having been asleep through the whole trial, missing it all, and having no idea of the serious situation he was in is just vintage Dandy in all its greatness. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for all news updates related to the world of geek. And Google+, if that’s your thing!
