IR TV Review: SCOTT PILGRIM TAKES OFF [Netflix]
Scott Pilgrim, as an idea, is a boy in search of love with a distinct endgame in Ramona Flowers as his goal. Within the movie,the narrative progression was a path of a video game progressing through different levels to eventually come against the big bad. The hybrid anime series "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off" premiering on Netflix as 8 half-hour episodes is a different monster that readjusts the narrative in an almost alternate reality to approach what was actually the only major problem with "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World" which was the flatness of Ramona Flowers (in terms of her arch). Why was she such a figure to Pilgrim and all these other men (and a womea). You got a glimpse maybe in the movie but what this series shows is Ramona. Her quest is different since the first episode takes the context of the first fight from the movie and changes it. It becomes more existential and meta in terms of the approach for Ramona.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona is much more center stage than Scott (who disappears for many episodes). The show tries to upend most of everything we expected with all the evil exes but also of Scott's friends and their strengths and weaknesses. It would have been nice to get some more perspective from Kim Pine (Alison Pill) since she had the most balanced view of the universe anyway in the movie. The strongest character as always who grounds the inate irony of the piece is Wallace Wells (Kierin Culkin). This is only helped by Culkin's turn on "Succession" which gives this kind of performance even more bite. The McGuffin of this story, progressed by a script that one of the characters Young Neil writes, is a little too coincidental even though its reasong is explained in a later episode. It is the point of connection that brings all the characters together and pushes them apart.
The relationship and tug of war between Gideon and Patel also has promise and delivers somewhat. However it is the fall of Gideon that has the most potential (but as it is an anime series and aimed at a little younger demographic so there was probably a line of structure and taste that was adhered to). Some of the other elements including a vegan portal per se, might have sounded better on paper but its relation to why and how doesn't quite connect in the series. Ultimately though it is the mindset of Ramona as we see her getting up every day, coloring her hair differently and going on her quest that is satisfying. There are some musical interludes. The best by far is Lucas Lee (Chris Evans) in a skating montage set to Godsmack's "Whatever" which perfectly captures the absurdity of the Pilgrim world without having to pull attention to it (while still giving a nice homage to "Johnny Bravo" as well). "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off" is a different animal than the movie, fun and still in the same consistently but nowhere near as visceral and brilliant. B
By Tim Wassberg
