Joel Fry-days: Difficult Second Coming: Episode 3 – “The Angel & the Girl” (2016)

There’s one non-Joel Fry episode in between that I also watched, and now this is the third and final episode of Difficult Second Coming. Overall? Eh. The concept is mildly entertaining, but the show doesn’t really do much with it.

JC has been seeing a girl named Holly, and although He really likes her, He’s not sure how to tell her His true identity. During a kickback at the flat, He attempts to open up to her.

I’m not sure if the creators of the series only planned to make three episodes or if they just made as much as they had money for. At any rate, it feels more like a short series of sketches than a genuine show, meandering subdued slice-of-life comedy with a bit of “second coming of Christ” threaded in. Of the three episodes, this one feels the least defined and, for me, the least interesting.

A few nice moments here. I enjoy JC sitting outside for a smoke with one of His flatmates, asking, “At what point in a relationship would you introduce that you are the Son of God?” And I like that he begins his heart-to-heart with Holly via an awkward, “So, you know the Bible….” On the whole, though, this episode is more about vibes than story.

Not much of Mark/Joel Fry. Although he actually has more lines and a bit more screentime than in episode 1, he’s mostly just there as ambience for the kickback, smoking and chatting with another of the flatmates. His best moment comes when Carl butts in to tell them a joke, assuring Mark, “This is right up your street—you’ll like this.” Of course, the joke crashes and burns, and we get a nice bit of comedic timing from Fry with Mark’s wordless reaction to the punchline before launching right back into his earlier conversation.

Final thoughts:

Accent Watch

London.

Recommend?

In General – Nah. It just didn’t grab me.

Joel Fry – Not a must. Mark is entertaining when he has a chance to be, but this is a very minor role without much going on.

Warnings

Language (including the R-word,) drug use, mild sexual content, and thematic elements.

Joel Fry-days: Difficult Second Coming: Episode 1 – “Grassroots Shit” (2016)

Joel Fry was in a couple episodes of this short web series. First impressions? Kind of amusing but hasn’t pulled me in yet. We’ll see how it goes.

In the 21st century, the Son of God returns as a stressed London millennial. JC wants to ease the suffering in the world, but He has a hard time wrangling His unruly flatmates/possible disciples(?) to give Him a hand.

That’s basically the bit, modern-day Jesus in a world where no one cares. In this episode, JC tries His hand at feeding the hungry and healing the overdosed, but nothing really goes according to plan. The series leans into awkward humor and the irony of, for instance, someone accusing JC of being a pervert when He lays hands on them to heal them.

Dylan Edwards directs, co-writes, and stars as JC. After a brief opening scene at the flat, we mainly see Him with Matthew Aubrey’s Carl, an annoying disciple who hangs onto JC’s coattails without actually doing much to help the less fortunate.

Joel Fry plays Mark, another of JC’s flatmates. Mark is that friend who doesn’t have it together—all party drugs, bad nutrition habits, and underdeveloped adulting skills. When JC is looking for volunteers to help Him pass out food to the homeless, He looks at Mark and just shakes His head, not even bothering to ask him.

Although Fry only appears briefly in the episode, he’s fun in it. He gives us an immediate picture of Mark when he trudges into the kitchen eating toothpaste after staying up all night (because “peppermint settles the stomach, innit?”) I’m not sold on the series yet, but I enjoy Mark.

First impressions:

Accent Watch

London.

Recommend?

In General – Not necessarily. Mildly amusing, but it doesn’t grab me that much.

Joel Fry – Maybe. I’ll report back once I’ve seen more of him in this role!

Warnings

Language (including the R-word,) drug use, and thematic elements. 

Joel Fry-days: Diggers (2023)

This is an odd little short, more about mood/notion than tangible story. It’s also the shortest one I’ve watched so far, with the credits starting right around the six-and-a-half-minute mark. So yeah, this review may very well be longer than the short itself.

Two men walk into the woods to dig a hole. In between their work, they discuss their lives.

As I said, not much in the way of a story here. Certain questions are left ambiguous, and certain surprises pop up late in the game. For the most part, though, this is just a little piece between these two characters, with the question of the hole they’re digging widening amid their gentle banter. Joel Fry and Cary Crankson (the other actor in this short) both get a story credit alongside the writer/director. Not sure if that means they were actually writing it together or if it means a fair amount of the dialogue is improvised.

But for all that there’s not a lot here, I still found myself liking it. It put me in the mind of Shakespearian grave diggers, or maybe Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Watching them dig and talk, there’s some softly pleasant humor as they misunderstand each other, and they hint a little at the philosophical of the mundane. Not I think this approaches the feat of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, obviously, but that’s the vibe I got.

Joel Fry plays Griffin. From the banter, we know more facts about him than we do about the other digger, Michaels. Griffin’s been saying for years that he’s going to quit smoking, he’s a relatively new dad, and his wife makes him put piccalilli on his sandwiches. These small details give us a bit of a snapshot of this man, while the tone and tenor of Fry’s performance gives some texture to those details. 

Griffin is dwelling heavily on how being a dad changes things for him, but he balks when Michaels asks him about fatherhood. “Well, when you say ‘fatherhood,’ it makes it sound like I’ve been doing it for ages,” he counters. “It’s only been six months.” He’s not able to engage with the question until Michaels amends it to “dadness.”

Accent Watch

London.

Recommend?

In General – Maybe. I like the feel of it.

Joel Fry – Maybe. It’s not a must, but I enjoy what he does here.

Warnings

Thematic elements.

Y tu Luna también: Crow: The Legend (2018)

This story is purported to be an origin myth from the Lenape tribe, although that’s been heavily disputed. It may be a modification of a Cherokee story, or it might have been dreamed up by a white author who claims to have been “retold” it by a Lenape chief. But while the actual derivation of the story is shaky, this animated rendition of it is both entertaining and lovely.

Of all the animals in the forest, Crow is most admired for his beautiful rainbow plumage and enchanting voice. Everyone looks up to him, and when a long cold winter threatens everyone’s well-being, he’s the one they ask to go in search of a solution. He’s indeed gifted the answer to their problem—fire—but getting it back to the forest might require the self-centered Crow to give up something precious.

This is a neat little short. It’s both produced by and stars John Legend, who does a nice job as the Crow with hidden potential that even he doesn’t realize he has. And of course, the singing is on point. The story is gentle, with silly jokes and a nice message backed up by some cool animation—the sights Crow sees on his journey are great. I’ve always enjoyed origin myths, and while it’s a bummer that we’re not sure where this one really came from, I still enjoy the spirit behind it.

As for the rest of the voice cast, Constance Wu is very endearing as Skunk, who’s Crow’s biggest fan but takes him to task when she thinks he can be better. We also get Oprah as The One Who Creates Everything by Thinking, which very much within her recent acting wheelhouse, after she also played Mrs. Which in A Wrinkle in Time.

Diego Luna plays Moth, who’s a fun character. He’s cynical and not the most self-aware, but he’s basically a good guy at heart and tries to pitch in, even when he’s not the ideal animal to do so. A recurring gag of the short revolves around the fact that no one wants him to be the one to go on the quest to save them from winter, since the journey will involve flying past the sun—everyone’s convinced he’ll get hypnotized by its light and fly right into it.

Not a whole lot to this character, but Luna is effective, by turns funny and sweet.

Recommend?

In General – I would. It’s only 18 minutes out of your day, and it’s cute.

Diego Luna – I wouldn’t say it’s a must, but I’d still recommend it. Again, it’s so short that it’s easy to spend a little time listening to Luna’s voice acting as this entertaining character.

Warnings

Thematic elements and maybe a bit of scariness for kids.