IR TV Review: THE SHIVERING TRUTH - EPISODE 1 ("The Burn Earner Splits") [Adult Swim-S2]

The essence of "The Shivering Truth" is metaphor draped in an essence of lurid darkness. The best abstract material always lies within the visual discrepancies between what is being shown and what the overarching meaning could be. With "The Burn Eater Splits", the beginning is draped in the notion of prayer as a wish fulfillment where the idea of what one person wants is packed upon another. Even the person who altruistically wants to give a prayer is left handless where his own extensions turn against him and he is left with tentacles. Finally the balance of the fact that the people are simply using each other come to bear, they start failing out of the sky. The story then goes to focus on the one altruistic character who is being forced in many ways to betray his own best instincts. He goes to buy a TV only to just be manipulated into thinking he is a bad person. The ode to "Poltergiest" is made within the context of selling a TV and oddly reflects the barrage of commercialism which is more meant to be escapism. Said character is then inflicted with more would-be sores on his face which tend to be representations of the Twin Towers. The ending in a grocery store where the teller tends to infect everyone with the scratching of his eye seems undeniably true to the corona even though it was probably made before. Eventually the essence of a would-be rapture and the altruistic character rising above it leads to a conclusion that perception with the world is indeed off.B-

By Tim Wassberg