I watched this some time ago and immediately (and too hastily . . . and inaccurately) classified it as "Parasitical Shakespeare"—using Shakespeare as window dressing, grabbing a recognizable title and employing it for nothing more than a quick joke or for the cultural cashet it implies.
On a second viewing, I realized that I was wrong.
On a third viewing, I realized I couldn't be more wrong!
In the "King Lear Jet" episode of Just Shoot Me, we're provided with a careful integration of the plot of King Lear into the existing elements of the show. Perhaps my unfamiliarity with the show itself was what led me to dismiss the episode so easily.
The plot involves the relationship between Jack Gallo, the owner of a fashion magazine, and Maya Gallo, his daughter and an employee. Maya is tired of being called silly pet names by her boss (who is also her dad), and asks that she not be given preferential treatment. Taking this advice to heart, Jack gives tickets to King Lear to Nina (another writer for the magazine) and Elliot (one of the magazine's photographers), not realizing that they are far more interested in flying to London on a private jet than in seeing Shakespeare at the National Theatre.
These three, then, stand in for Lear's daughters, and the plot of the show follows the plot of the play—though in comic rather than tragic fashion.
The clip below provides the relevant portions of the show. Maya explains the plot of King Lear, and this is interspersed with events in the world of the show (which I've largely excised). The one other thing you need to know before viewing the clip is that Jack has lately installed a remote-control power door to his office and that it's malfunctioning to a greater and greater degree as the episode progresses.
The show provides an intriguing humorous version of King Lear, leaving out neither the flattery involved in answering "Which of you shall we say doth love us most?" nor the Storm (both literal and allegorical).
I'm particularly fond of how the people in the bar (or café?—I'm still not familiar with the broader outlines of the show) become increasingly captivated by the plot of King Lear—showing that it is anything but boring. I also admire the choice not to have a typically-happy sitcom ending. We would expect that Maya, the Cordelia analogue, would somehow get to see the National Theatre production of King Lear. Instead, all three "daughters" are deprived of the opportunity. But we also get a happy ending—in which Dennis Finch, Jack's executive assistant, manages the double victory of seeing King Lear and seeing it with Carmen Electra.
One Additional Note: The quote Maya delivers (contrary to many websites on this episode) is not from King Lear. It's from Richard III:
Your grace attended to their sugar'd words,But look'd not on the poison of their heartsGod keep you from them, and from such false friends! (III.i.13–15)
Links: The Episode at IMDB.
Click below to purchase the entire run of the show from amazon.com
(and to support Bardfilm as you do so).
(and to support Bardfilm as you do so).
No comments:
Post a Comment