Thursday, April 21, 2022

What I’m Watching: Roar

Roar: Season 1, Episode 5 “The Woman Who Was Fed By a Duck” (A-)

I’m such a big fan of Merritt Wever and would happily watch her in anything. For a while, I was expecting her to get two Emmy nominations a few years ago, for “Run” and “Unbelievable,” and then the former got cancelled and she got snubbed for the latter. There’s something about her onscreen presence that is just spectacular, and this episode was no exception. She was able to create chemistry with a duck who wasn’t even visibly moving its bill, which I think was a smart choice given that the mere fact that she could hear him was the important part. It took me until just before the end of the episode to land on exactly who was voicing him and I figured it out in the nick of time. Justin Kirk is also superb, and he was a great choice to play the duck who initially seemed like the best guy in the world until he revealed his baser, manipulative, male instincts. The dialogue in this episode was fantastic, and I’m still impressed that this concept didn’t seem all that strange even though it was surely absolutely ridiculous on paper. I was also happy to see the reliable Jason Mantzoukas as Dave from animal control, who might have had a shot at the end with her if he had acknowledged what she noted, that she was going to be the doctor, and Riki Lindhome as her sister, who knew that Larry was bad news even if she didn’t realize that he was a duck who was literally defecating all over her apartment when she went out for a few hours. This episode wasn’t as dark as other installments but probably my favorite so far.

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