"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Thursday, June 25, 2020

The Book of Rannells: Welcome to the Wayne: Season 1, Episode 11 – “Hit It, Toofus!” (2019)


Okay, so the originally-unaired episodes of Welcome to the Wayne are hiding Andrew Rannells voiceover gold!  This is probably Andrei’s biggest episode since “Some Kind of Tap-Dancing, Bee-Keeping Whaler,” and it’s a ton of fun to boot.

The kids’ attempt to protect Andrei from the spy, who’s still determined to get him in her clutches, collides with the dinner party Olly has arranged between his family and Ansi’s.  No one is happy with this arrangement – Ansi is worried about what his overly-analytical psychiatrist dad will make of Olly, and Saraline doesn’t want her and Olly’s parents getting wind of their paranormal activities, easier said than done when they bring along a vampire as a dinner guest and the spy and one of her accomplices show up uninvited.

While this isn’t the first time Olly and Saraline’s parents have appeared on the show, we definitely get a lot more of them here than we have before.  A pair of inventors of varying levels of eccentricity, it’s clear that Saraline and Olly come by their gadget skills honestly.  And naturally, the whole Timbers clan is quite the sight for Ansi’s dad.  Between the robot that lovingly removes people’s shoes, the laser that slices cheese, and the holographic-rat-based board game, the household inventions are a lot to take.  (I’m very pleased, by the way, that this series gave me cause to compose that sentence.)  In addition to being a fun “mismatched dinner party” story, the plotline also offers a good conflict between Ansi and Olly.  Being around his dad ramps up Ansi’s usual anxiety, and amid Ansi’s pleas for him to act “normal,” Olly starts to worry that his best friend is embarrassed by him.

As I said, this is a major episode for Rannells’s Andrei.  The dinner party puts him in the position of having to pretend to be a regular guy, which is tall order when a) he seems to have interacted with very few people other than the kids, b) he still has amnesia, and c) after the events of the last episode, he has a tendency to levitate when he gets nervous.  Throw in the spy, and it’s not a good combination.  (Side note:  I like that, while Andrei is very obviously stronger, more powerful, and more capable in a fight than the kids, he’s still kind of a scaredy-cat.  It’s sweet when the kids are protective of him.)

As such, it’s great fun watching him very awkwardly try to fit in with people who don’t know he’s a vampire.  The amnesia gets more play than anything else – I like his sheepish admission that he can’t remember how to throw a ball, and meeting Olly and Saraline’s mom gets him in the feels about the family he presumably has but can’t remember.  These thoughts have him alternately latching onto Mrs. Timbers, feeling sad, and being his usual, slightly-awkward self – Rannells’s delivery of, “Families, am I right?  I don’t know if I’m right – I don’t have a family,” is my favorite part of the episode.

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