What I’m Watching: Wet Hot American Summer

Wet Hot American Summer: Season 1, Episode 4 “Auditions” (C)

I think this may be the point where this show crosses the line from stupid in a funny way to just plain stupid, but I’m not ready to give up just yet since I’m still having some fun. Much of what’s transpired already, like Coop’s relationship with Donna and Lindsay’s scoop, are forgotten in this episode which, unfortunately, features a focus on auditions for the play, which I find to be the weakest plotline of this entire show. I love Amy Poehler, John Slattery, and Michaela Watkins, but there’s something about it all that just doesn’t succeed for me. Ben’s veiled conversation with McKinley was entertaining, but I didn’t go for the overenthusiasm of the first cast actor and his anger then acceptance when Andy wandered in and got the part so that he could make out with Katie. Blake seems to have a fitting replacement for his soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend in Kristen Wiig’s Courtney, but he doesn’t appear to be too interested at the moment. Gail is doing too much research into her fiancé’s past, and Randall Park’s Jeff has helped her to uncover some disconcerting information about who he really is. The Falcon is wholly ridiculous, tripping four punks with one kick and posing as a famed hypnotist to get into camp, but I think he’s emblematic of this show, a send-up of camp that’s funny enough when it’s pretty literal but always feels the need to go the extra mile to make sure that it can’t possibly be taken seriously.