Avenue 5 (1×02) And Then He’s Gonna Shoot Off, Review

For our review of the last episode of Avenue 5, click here.

Synopsis: As Rav and her team meet with a NASA representative to plot a potential rescue mission, Ryan learns that Cyrus an engineer working in a hidden part of the ship, has a surprisingly optimistic theory about the ship’s future. Judd donates a lavish personal item to help commemorate a fallen crew member. Karen becomes a vocal advocate for passengers. Mia and Doug receive marital counseling from Matt. (HBO)

Last week’s series premiere introduced to the space cruise ship known as Avenue 5 as well as its eccentric cast of characters as they experience an unforeseen setback. Being the first episode, last week’s focus on establishing the setting and the characters arguably got in the way of connecting on any kind of level. As far as this episode was concerned, it was more of the same, featuring some funny moments but that mentioned connection simply isn’t there yet.

And Then He’s Gonna Shoot Off, started where the last episode left off with Clark attempting to speak to all the worried passengers while Karen (Rebecca Front) continued to make things difficult. As a result, Clark threw the ship’s engineer Billie McEvoy (Lenora Crichlow) under the bus and at the mercy of Karen and the other passengers (it wasn’t easy).

The situation may not be doom and gloom after all as another engineer from another section on the ship named Cyrus (Neil Casey) believed that the delay was only 6 months. This estimation was met by plenty of skepticism from Billie. Clark perhaps made a wrong decision by sharing this news with Karen (who of course told everyone else). Meanwhile, Judd and his right-hand woman Iris (Suzy Nakamura) were preparing for any potential blowback (prematurely sharing the 6 months news would be a good way against that).

The focus then shifted towards the funeral of Joe, the former lead engineer of Avenue 5 who unfortunately died in last week’s episode. Judd was convinced to give Joe the casket that he transported everywhere he went but the problem with that was its weight. Because it was so heavy, the casket got caught in the ship’s gravitational pull after it was shot out into space. Meanwhile, mission control enlisted the help of NASA (all their other options would bankrupt the Judd corporation). However, though unconfirmed, Judd was so confident in the 6 months news that he comically alienated them.

Judd was immediately confronted for his treatment of NASA and became defensive about the challenging of his supposed authority. He’s a moron so he continue to act on brand. Meanwhile, another funeral was held for three passengers who succumb to their injuries from the gravity incident in last week’s episode (using much lighter caskets). Mission control reset the gravity on the ship which in turn botched the release of the caskets, dismembering the corpses and leaving the caskets in the ship’s orbit.

The episode ended with Iris dealing with a potential uprising by the passengers.

There’s still some funny moments here and Laurie is compelling to watch but it’s still hard to get invested on any level. Gad is still bad and what’s the deal with Mia (Jessica St. Clair) and Doug (Kyle Bornheimer) other than being a connection to Rav who got them on the ship?

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.