3/13/2008 Episode: "Jackie Khones and Case of the Overdue Library Crook"

[One Radical Dude]

Spoiler Below

Honestly, I was expecting Bloo to be responsible for the overdue book. But holy smokes, it turned out to be the detective Khones...Jackie Khones! I was surprised. I really thought the parts with Jackie in the RC and Mac controlling it were brilliantly done. As PBL mentioned there was quite a bit of toilet humor there. I also liked the disguises, especially of the Blockhead/Mac one! Man, this had quite the laughs here. This totally gives Season 6 a solid start! I'm happy to hear that this was a Darrick Bachman episode (which lately, he's gotten some criticism in the past few episodes), and this one is definitely on the upside!

[Cassini90125]

Originally Posted by Imaginary Light

I love Jackie.

My favorite part had to be when Jackie was hanging over the toilet and...um, yeah...what they thought he was really doing with the grunts and whatnot. Okay, so I admit it; I like a little toilet humor (haha, literally this time).

That was my favorite part as well.

[Lynnie]

That was pretty good. We can see better now that Jackie is arrogant and naive like Bloo, just in a different way. And it works. My favorite parts were the entire intro again (yay!), learning Mac's phone number, the entire scene with Wilt, Jackie driving around in a remote control car- controlled by Mac, Mac picking Jackie up by the head, Mac's hair all messy when he's hiding in the bushes, Jackie dressed as a book called "Private Lies" and Mac as a "Blockheads guide to Disguises" by Derek Bachman, Bloo crying and sobbing and hugging Mac, seeing Mac's handwriting (awww! )

And also the quick cameo of Baby Paco. Even though he was getting hit by the remote control car.

Favorite quotes-
Jackie- What you talkin' about?

Song: He keeps his eye on the mayo! The bad guys always get K.O.ed!

Mac: Calm down.... Just breathe..... Just breathe!

Mac: Jackie! Are you alright?
Jackie: NO! I had my head in a toilet!

Jackie: You crazy, Bro?
Mac: Like a fox!

Wilt: I'm sorry to disappoint you but...

Bloo: I know! I never should have used your name! I should have used.... Frankie's!

Am I the only one who thinks they're starting to take Ed too far with crying? It's just getting a tad old. There were a few other little things that didn't make sense and might have lowered the quality of the eppie a bit for me, but I know I can analyze things too much, so I'm not going to make an issue out of them. Over all, I think it was a very enjoyable episode, it felt very "Fostery" to me. Now I hope we don't have to wait much longer for the rest of S6 to continue.

[cartman414]

I wonder if Wilt is gonna start acting up against Jackie with all the hate Jackie has on him. (Though Wilt apparently really did pilfer those deviled eggs... did he?)

[pitbulllady]

Originally Posted by cartman414

I wonder if Wilt is gonna start acting up against Jackie with all the hate Jackie has on him. (Though Wilt apparently really did pilfer those deviled eggs... did he?)

I don't know if Wilt stole the deviled eggs or not. I can't recall exactly HOW long ago Jackie said they'd been made, but it seemed to be some time ago, so if those WERE the same eggs...uh, yeah, they would definitely have gone "bad", big-time! Still, Wilt DID act guilty as charged, whereas he refused to accept blame for all the other things Jackie had apparently been accusing him of. It also certainly looked like Jackie is starting to get on the Wilt-Man's Last Good Nerve, too. That was a pretty cold shoulder Wilt was turning when he started up the stairs after being confronted by Jackie the first time, though when you think about it, the fact that this foot-tall green stick figure would try to push around a guy who's 10 feet tall is the ultimate example of a Napoleonic complex if I've ever heard of one!

Funniest line there, from Jackie: "Guy who says 'I'm sorry' THAT much HAS to have done SUMP'M!"

pitbulllady

[WiltsAKGirl17]

Gah, I wish I could have seen this episode! *shakes fist* I am absol-freakin'-lutely DYING up here wanting to see it!

Originally Posted by pitbulllady

I don't know if Wilt stole the deviled eggs or not. I can't recall exactly HOW long ago Jackie said they'd been made, but it seemed to be some time ago, so if those WERE the same eggs...uh, yeah, they would definitely have gone "bad", big-time! Still, Wilt DID act guilty as charged, whereas he refused to accept blame for all the other things Jackie had apparently been accusing him of. It also certainly looked like Jackie is starting to get on the Wilt-Man's Last Good Nerve, too. That was a pretty cold shoulder Wilt was turning when he started up the stairs after being confronted by Jackie the first time, though when you think about it, the fact that this foot-tall green stick figure would try to push around a guy who's 10 feet tall is the ultimate example of a Napoleonic complex if I've ever heard of one!

Funniest line there, from Jackie: "Guy who says 'I'm sorry' THAT much HAS to have done SUMP'M!"

pitbulllady

Hmm... Wilt strikes me as being the deviled eggs type. (Which depresses me, as I hate deviled eggs. But I'm also quite weird. )

As to Jackie's opinion on Wilt's fixation on "I'm sorry"... Perhaps he should skim the Wilt thread? Sorry, off-topic.

Sounds like S6 got off to a great start. Here's hoping that it keeps going! <Knock on wood> And that I'll be able to catch some of it.

[Ditchy McAbandonpants]

Aww, man, I'm desperate to see this one, but I can't find it anywhere online. Anybody got any leads? Sparky, did you manage to record this one for upload? It sucks being a poor British student with no access to cable sometimes...

[Sparky]

No I do not yet have this one on my computer. I was processing another job at the time so I could not capture it. I got it on tape so when I get time I will record it to my computer.

[bloonuggets]

Take your time. We'll wait...

[Ditchy McAbandonpants]

Thank you for the upload, Sparky! I probably wouldn't have been able to see either this or "Let Your Hare Down" for months if not for your generosity and diligence. You treat us lowlifes far better than we deserve, you know that?

As for the episode? Good stuff; one of the straight-out funniest episodes of Foster's for a good long while.

When first I heard about this episode's outline, I was what can best be described as cautiously optimistic. Jackie Khones has always been the funniest and most memorable of the second-tier characters, and his growing presence was one of the unmitigated successes of Season Five, but I was a touch wary about dedicating an entire episode to a single character, not least in the context of a full-length genre parody; the last time they attempted this was Season Five's "The Bloo Superdude and the Magic Potato of Power", an undoubtedly unique and imaginative effort, but one whose narrow character focus and atypical setting felt a little out of kilter with the show's established identity. The title and concept were strong enough to assure me that this episode would be at least witty, but after the unbalanced Season Five premiere "Cheese A Go-Go", I was keen for Season Six to kick off with something a slightly more grassroots Foster's experience.

That wasn't, in the end, what we got, but you'd have to be pretty churlish to resent it for that, given what a consistently funny, absurd and winningly daft story this turned out to be, and one which can legitimately be said to have broadened the show's horizons. Most of this, of course, can be credited to the hilarious, character-enhancing work the occasionally controversial Darrick Bachman does with our eponymous hero Jackie Khones. We all knew and loved Jackie already for his deadpan sardonicism and ridiculous voice (for his appearance), but aside from an occasionally referenced penchant for sandwiches, he wasn't that clearly defined; Bachman takes full advantage of that clean slate, fully fleshing out Jackie as a largely clueless yet defiantly self-obsessed and strutting would-be smooth operator, who seems to believe that a women's lavatory is an appropriate place to base a detective agency, and whose fondness for food seems in actuality to border on obsessive compulsion. This is, needless to say, really funny, and provides no end of laughs; his inattentiveness to Mac's dilemma, unjustified air of self-satisfaction and overblown driving montages were constantly amusing, whilst Wilt's line about his non-culpability in initiating World War I - a joke which I liked all the more for playing on our understanding of Wilt and Jackie's characters - was funny enough for me to have to pause for thirty seconds so I could finish laughing at it. What's perhaps even better, though, is the fact that this episode has now provided the Season Six writers with another complete character to work with; Jackie is now a developed enough personality to warrant regular inclusion as a narrative and comedic driving force, rather than as the basic punchline character he was before. Here's hoping we'll see that potential fulfilled over the coming weeks.

Great though Mr Khones was, though, he wasn't the only success story here. As, er...mixed as the reception for "The Little Peas" was, I think we can all agree that no one will be forgetting Jackie's "interactions" with Fluffer Nutter any time soon; sure enough, his partner-in-crime returns here, and occasionally threatens to steal his show from beneath him. Fluffer's another character who's potentially well on her way to stardom; I had her pegged as a blandly cute background character until she revealed her underlying spikiness in "Schlock Star", and she's great here as Jackie's long-suffering PA (as has been pointed out, her "Yeah, he's...doin' somethin' else" line is brilliantly understated). With Madame Foster and Coco increasingly marginalised and Duchess and Goo essentially AWOL, an expanded role for such a great female character wouldn't go amiss right now...Mac and Bloo get a relatively small but significant look in, too, which helped in grounding the episode in familiarity; Mac was a little shrieky at times, but otherwise did his weary straight man thing to good effect, whilst Bloo had a very entertaining red herring cameo that actually had me fooled for a while. Oh, and Wilt? Deviled eggs. Enough said, really; man, I've missed Wilt.

Still, there were a couple of minor issues with the episode that are worth mentioning. Maybe it's because I was spoiled by "Let Your Hare Down", which seemed to bend over backwards to encompass every part of the Foster's experience, but "Library Crook", with its greatly reduced castlist, did occasionally feel like something was missing from it. To an extent, it's a harsh point to make, as this was always going to be a specialised episode, but for me it was a weakness across the whole of Season Five that certain characters were neglected or underused, robbing the show of some of its dimensions. With Season Six kicking off with an episode lacking even an appearance from Frankie, Coco, Madame Foster or Mr. Herriman, I feel it's natural to have a few reservations, though hopefully they'll prove to be unfounded. I've also got to concur with Lynnie that Eduardo, over the last year or so, feels as though he's been written into a corner somewhat; with the exception of his Season Five spotlight episode "Better Off Ed", it just seems like he's being painted with broader and broader brushstrokes, so he's starting to become more of a one-note hysterical man-child rather than the naively innocent creature he's supposed to be. Neither of these problems is beyond salvage, though, so I'll wait and see what happens.

Well, I got a little carried away with typing there, but I'm taking that as a good sign. Foster's is well and truly back on my radar again, and my thoughts, based on the evidence, are largely optimistic; if the last two episodes are anything to go by, the show is in the rudest health it's been in for some time, which bodes very well for the weeks to come.

Boo-yah, indeed.