Maximum Overdrive (1986) · 8:00am Nov 12th, 2015
So, I kept hearing about the What About Discord? episode this past week. Mostly it was from various forums and the general consensus seemed to be that it was a middling to bad episode. So of course I had to watch it. I mean what sort of person who writes about random stuff would I be if I didn't watch it? It's a Discord episode also, I mean it couldn't be that bad right?
I sat down with my Cuba Libre (because I somehow had the ingredients for one at the time) and I watched it. I nodded along, made some mental notes and drank my beverage while I occasionally wondered if KSU had covered the spread. While I never got the answer to my question about the spread I did come to a couple of conclusions about the episode in question. Was it as bad or as some put it, "meh," as I had been led to believe? No, but at the same time it was an episode that really could have been something special that just didn't pan out and the reasons for this are two fold.
First, the setup for Discord was all sorts of off. As an audience we've never seen him really interact with any of the main characters other than Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy. Out of the main cast the only two who seem to want anything to do with him are Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy (Twilight Sparkle will do so begrudgingly but not happily). The rest of the cast can't stand the guy. What this episode needed to do was spend the first five minutes showing the audience how Discord and company got together, some of the the shenanigans they have and the fact that Twilight isn't invited.
Seriously, all it would take is five minutes to establish that this wild and crazy weekend was great fun and let the audience in on the fun because even when he's villainous, Discord is a fun guy. Once this is established, whatever callbacks they do we can enjoy them in a there goes the Coyote off the cliff again sort of way.
Second, Twilight needed to overreact and not in the, "Let's recreate this moment for science," sort of way. She needed to overreact in the, "I don't get to go anywhere, do anything, the map doesn't invite me places, my friends are always busy, and I'm always left alone," sort of jealous rant. She needed to tie how she's feeling in this episode back to what has been happening in this particular season. Then the lesson could end up being two pronged in that yes it's okay to be jealous at times but, not let it eat away at her and then in the same token that it would be okay to throw your own get-togethers and invite all sorts of friends (after all I think Moon Dancer and company might get a kick out a party or two with the main characters in their own ways).
I'm not even paid to figure these things out and I can point them out. Sort of how thirty years later we're still not sure if it was a comet or a UFO that was shot down by a Russian "weather satellite" that caused all the machines to go crazy in Maximum Overdrive but by God it happened.
After years of Stephen King movies not performing well at the box office. Dino DeLaurentis decided to give the writer his shot at directing his own horror movie. What King envisioned and initially filmed grossed out George Romero and unfortunately the MPAA who made him tone it down much to his chagrin. In the end what we got were a bunch of machines trying to take over the world, a great soundtrack (AC/DC will always rock) and one of the best attacks by vending machine I ever saw. Thinking about it makes me laugh to this day. It's still probably one of the finest films shot in Wilmington, North Carolina.
The Stats: 20 dead Bodies, 1 breast, 1 dead dog, 28 dead vehicles, 12 exploding trucks, 2 car chases, video game electrocution, little league massacre, wrist carving, bike riding, Steam Roller Fu, Bazooka Fu, Circling Trucks Fu, Watermelon Fu.
Shoutouts:
Marla Maples as Woman number 2 for screaming her head off as she gets smashed by watermelons.
Emilio Estevez as Bill Robinson the bad boy hero who talks to trucks and says things like, "I've got the best shit on the east coast, practically uncut," to them and so they show up... for gas.
Pat Hingle as Hendershot the owner of the Dixie Boy Truck Stop who's got a weapon stash in the basement and says, "You want a war?"
Yeardley Smith as Connie who sounds like Lisa Simpson no matter what and says, "They're gonna gang up on us and squash us!"
Holter Graham as Deke who rides his bike through what might as well have been the entire state of North Carolina during the machine apocalypse.
Stephen King as the idiot at the ATM who says, "Honey this machine just called me an asshole."
Ellen McElduff as Wanda June for screaming "We made you!'
I'm gonna have to re-watch What About Discord? at least once to solidify my view of it, but broadly speaking, I think you're onto something. I was a bit more willing to take the premise at face-value. Still, it would have been nice to see any part of Disco's shenanigans with the other five firsthand.
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Well at least we would have been in on the jokes. The audience wants to be in on the joke and then the humor stems from someone else not getting the joke or situation and it frustrating them. If the audience isn't in on the joke then there has to be a payoff for the audience at some point. Unfortunately, and this is just my opinion, there really isn't that. In this episode for me stuff happened, they say don't get jealous, the credits roll.