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Disney sci-fi genius

SINGLE REVIEW

 Tyler, the Creator and A$AP 
Rocky bring the public much 
needed material after having 
spent what felt 
like weeks in the 
studio together. 
With “What 
The Fuck Right 
Now,” they 
bring a musical 
chaos and 
frenzy that fans 
of Tyler have 
been missing 
for some time 
now (with the 
accompanied 
video of Tyler 
and A$AP wilding out in the 
studio being icing on the cake).

 The track’s title and beat are 
both borrowed from Kanye 
West’s “Freestyle 4” — fitting 
considering the release comes 
on the heels of Tyler’s various 
creative collaborations with 
West. While the track itself 
was a nice addition to The Life 
of Pablo, providing listeners a 
candid illustration of Kanye’s 
menacingly confident psyche, it 
also felt a bit bare relative to an 
otherwise frenetic collection of 
songs. In typical Tyler fashion, 
he reworks the beat with surreal 
and raucous lyrics — “I hope 
you dressin’ yourself and not 
followin’ niggas opinions on 
fashion, I hope them cars you 
drivin’ ain’t rented just to get 

some comments on ‘Gram.” 
Elsewhere, you can find A$AP’s 
ever present bombastic persona, 
serving as a hypeman for Tyler 
and the track.
 A$AP Rocky and Tyler’s 
newfound relationship definitely 
seems to have rubbed off on 
Tyler in a positive way. After 
recently publicly announcing 
his ambivalence toward hip-hop 
and his rap career, his release 
of “What The Fuck Right Now” 
denotes a positive musical 
direction for the artist. Hopefully 
this rejuvenation carries enough 
momentum for Tyler to create 
even more material worth of his 
potential.
 - ANAY KAYTAL

Shows of our youth 
more substantial 
than you think

By BEN ROSENSTOCK

Senior Arts Editor

The years of 2003 to 2007 were 

great for science fiction on TV. No, 
I’m not talking about the premiere 
of “Lost” or “Battlestar Galactica.” 
I’m not referring to the relaunch of 
“Doctor Who,” or the one-season 
wonder “Invasion.” No. I’m talk-
ing about “Phil of the Future” and 
“That’s So Raven,” two of the best 
TV shows Disney Channel ever 
created.

Okay, yeah, maybe we all like 

to romanticize the shows we were 
irrationally obsessed with when 
we were kids. But I recently went 
back and re-watched a couple epi-
sodes of “Phil of the Future,” and 
they hold up! Aside from the ridic-
ulous overabundance of sound 
effects that characterized Disney 
shows of the time, the show is fun, 
thoughtful, funny and surprisingly 
emotional.

People tend to dismiss stories 

targeted at children once they get 
older. When I bring up “Phil of 
the Future” in casual conversa-
tion, people laugh, because they 
remember it as a show they kind 
of liked back in elementary school, 
but not one that still holds any sig-
nificance to them. I get the same 
reaction when I tell people that 
last year, I read the entirety of the 
“Animorphs” series, most known 
now for its iconic covers of tweens 
morphing into animals.

Just because something is writ-

ten for kids, though, doesn’t mean 
the writers don’t put real thought 
and care into it. I mean, sure, there 
are some kids’ shows that only do 
the bare minimum to keep kids 
watching with simplistic morality 
lessons and ugly, uninventive ani-
mation. But for every shitty show 
like “Caillou,” there’s something 
thoughtful out there. After all, 
it’s not like these shows are being 
written by kids. They’re written by 
adults with kids in mind, and many 
of them have a lot to offer to adults, 
too. I mean, have you seen “Adven-
ture Time?” It’s imaginative, funny 
and dark when you least expect it.

Last year, I touted “Inside Out” 

as the best science fiction film of 
2015, because it uses its fantasti-
cal concepts to establish essential 
truths about human nature while 

providing a rich world of cool sci-
fi details to take in. “Phil of the 
Future” does the same thing. When 
you sit down and take it seriously 
instead of seeing it as some juve-
nile program from back when our 
brains weren’t developed enough 
to know when TV was good or bad, 
you can see that many of these Dis-
ney Channel shows pull off science 
fiction better than most of the sci-fi 
shows that make it to air now.

There’s a tendency now for sci-

ence fiction to get bogged down in 
a mass of undecipherable mythol-
ogy, even in the best shows. “Lost” 
became notoriously convoluted 
because of the number of questions 
it raised, and “The X-Files” did 
the same, even this year during its 
return. “Orphan Black” is almost 
always better when it backs off 
the complicated conspiracy theo-
ries and luxuriates in the inherent 
coolness of its premise: a bunch of 
clones played by the same (amaz-
ing) actor.

“Phil of the Future” is never 

convoluted, 
and 
sure, 
maybe 

that’s because it’s made for kids, 
but so what? Maybe if the writ-
ers of “Lost” had kept a possible 
adolescent audience in mind, its 
reputation wouldn’t have taken a 
nosedive in the eyes of half its fan 
base.

The first episode of “Phil of 

the Future” I re-watched was 
“Unification Day,” in which Phil 
Diffy (Ricky Ullman, who briefly 
returned to acting for a cameo in 
“Broad City” last season) and his 
family celebrate the day when the 
Earth will, in the future, achieve 
world peace. Phil and his dad 
(Craig Anton, “MADtv”) have 
a tradition of playing a game of 
“laser squash” each Unification 
Day, but this year Phil blows him 
off to go to a party with his friends, 
including 
Keely 
Teslow 
(Aly 

Michalka, “Easy A”). Eventually, 
Phil inevitably decides to ditch the 
party and play some laser squash 
with his dad, and I swear, guys, 
I almost teared up seeing Lloyd 
Diffy smile with pride and relief at 
his son coming back home. Watch-
ing your kids grow up is hard, even 
in the future.

In any normal sitcom, this 

would be a Christmas episode, or 
a Thanksgiving episode. “Phil of 
the Future,” though, manages to 
hit the traditional emotional beats 
of a holiday episode while filter-
ing it through a sci-fi lens. There’s 
something fun and unusual about 
seeing a kid and his dad playing 

laser squash where a regular sit-
com would just use basketball. 
And there are these little giddy 
moments of world-building that 
sci-fi fans crave, like the future 
sport of laser squash, or the spray 
cans of meatloaf that Pim (Amy 
Bruckner, “Rebound”) uses, or 
the strange finger-wiggling ges-
ture Phil and his family casually 
make to somehow indicate their 
appreciation of Unification Day. 
But for the most part, “Phil of the 
Future” is content to use these sci-
fi elements as little cool touches 
to enhance the fun of an episode 
that’s otherwise concerned with 
the same reliable themes of grow-
ing up and parenthood that other 
family sitcoms use.

You can also find this with 

“Wizards of Waverly Place,” or “So 
Weird,” or any other Disney Chan-
nel show with paranormal or fan-
tastical elements. Every episode of 
“That’s So Raven” involves Raven 
(Raven-Symoné, “The View”) get-
ting a glimpse into the future and 
using that information to solve 
some human crisis — urging her 
best friend to break up with the 
boyfriend Raven sees cheating on 
her, for example, or trying to save 
her dad’s job after a vision of him 
getting fired. And the writers are 
still able to imbue these human 
stories with cool world-building 
flourishes. One of the most mem-
orable episodes, for example, is 
“Clothes Minded,” which involves 
Raven getting a vision of the school 
bullies putting a wheel of smelly 
cheese in the hot air vent. Raven 
approaches the group and says, 
“Uh, you guys weren’t planning 
on putting the cheese in the vent, 
were you?” They reply, “Well, we 
weren’t … until you just said that.” 
It doubles as a great joke and a clas-
sic example of the self-fulfilling 
prophecy concept that crops up in 
practically every time travel plot.

Look, I’m not saying people 

should drop whatever they’re 
watching and regress to the TV 
they loved when they were tod-
dlers. We should read widely and 
watch widely. But part of that 
means making a space for sto-
ries traditionally designated “for 
kids.” If you’re an artist, what you 
consume when you’re little can be 
enormously influential in what you 
create as an adult, but you don’t 
have to be a child to form those 
connections. Just because you 
watched it as a kid doesn’t mean 
it can’t offer you anything as an 
adult.

EPISODE REVIEW

Due to its 30-minute run-

time and its 10-episode sea-
sons, “Girls” is a show that 
frequently struggles to give 
each of its many main char-
acters their 
own complete 
story arcs. 
The first 
two episodes 
of this sea-
son were 
so strong 
because they 
had a sense 
of focus and 
efficiency; 
while the 
premiere confined all the 
characters to one convenient 
location, the second episode 
dropped Shoshanna (Zosia 
Mamet, “Mad Men”) and 
Marnie (Allison Williams, 
“Peter Pan Live!”) entirely to 
focus on the other characters.

This week’s episode, 

“Japan,” might’ve worked 
better if it had focused on 

Shosh for the entirety of the 
episode. The change of setting 
works great for “Girls,” and 
it’s fascinating to see Shosh 
flourishing in an entirely new 
environment, making friends 
with a pair of Japanese girls 
and crushing on her boss, 
Yoshi (Hiro Mizushima, 
“Black Butler”). Even more 
pleasantly surprising, Shosh 
makes the choice to stay in 
Japan, going against “Girls” 
’s tendency to reset the sta-
tus quo every time there’s a 
change of scenery (see: Han-
nah’s brief stay in Iowa last 
season). If we’re lucky this 
time, we’re in for some more 
episodes set in Japan.

Instead of confining the 

whole episode to Japan, there 
are two subplots crammed 
in. Adam (Adam Driver, “Star 
Wars: The Force Awakens”) 
and Jessa (Jemima Kirke, 
“Tiny Furniture”) are devel-
oping some really nice chem-
istry, so the lack of progress in 

their budding romance is for-
givable. The subplot involv-
ing Hannah (Lena Dunham, 
“Happy Christmas”) discover-
ing naked pictures of Fran’s 
(Jake Lacy, “Carol”) exes is 
less substantial, though it still 
leads to some great moments 
of comedy as Hannah makes 
Ray (Alex Karpovsky, “Inside 
Llewyn Davis”) and Elijah 
(Andrew Rannells, “The New 
Normal”) take nude pictures 
of her. There’s also the Skype 
call between Hannah and 
Marnie, whose pronunciation 
of ‘Ecuador’ is such a brilliant 
and hilarious encapsulation of 
her character.

Despite lacking the focus of 

the first two episodes, “Japan” 
tells an unusually effective 
Shoshanna story and provides 
plenty of comedy to go along 
with it. And, if nothing else, 
you can replay the clip of 
Marnie saying “Ecuador” a 
hundred times like I did.

- BEN ROSENSTOCK

B+

Girls

Season 5 
Episode 3

 Sundays at 
10 p.m.

HBO

Thursday, March 10, 2016 — 3B

‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ 

100th Episode 

in this series, three daily arts writers in 

varying states of mind do the same activity 

and write about their experiences.

this week’s event:

I. love. this. fucking show. I have given my metaphorical blood sweat and tears to every season 

of this show (except 1 and 3, sorry bout it), and i am 110% excited for season 8. you all have no idea what 
this show means to me.

II. 
Here is my ranking of the best entraces: Naomi Smalls kicking off, mmm girl, serving fish to the 

maxxx. Dax exclamation point: sickening. Acid Betty in and out of drag, absolutely terrifying. 

Robbie Turner giving me a mix of Violet Chachki and Jinx Monsoon and I don’t hate it. 

Kim Chi: 1000% fab. Bob the Drag Queen, I know i will love you this season already. 

Laila mcqueen: You’re actually pretty hot out of drag. Not Pearl hot mind 

you, but there’s something for this straight gal. Derick, are you fucking 

Courtenay Act??? I had to make sure it wasn’t the same person.

Honestly, RuPaul comes into the workroom and I am l 

i v i n g. But mostly because I can’t figure out what 

the fuck is going on with this outfit. circus 

pimp realness perhaps.

So the first challenge starts 

and it’s a photoshoot with all 

the previous winners! Yay! But what 

happened to Sharon Needles?? And where is 

Bianca??? My fave queen is nowhere to be found 

:(.

so the main challenge begins and its a shit show. nobody 

knows what they’re doing per usual, we figure out which queens 

cannot sew (if you’ve been watching this show and want to be on it, 

you know that you won’t last 5 episodes if you can’t sew). One of them gets 

the dog challenge where they dress like a poodle then walk said poodle down the 

runway with you. This challenge sounds amazing, but i would be disqualified for not 

making my look and just petting the dog.

The results are in: Kim Chi wins! Yay! Layla something loses. Sad. But to be honest she was the 

most boring one in my opinion, and now that she’s gone everyone is exciting and I can keep them apart 

in my head. that was fun. time to sleep

-Daily Arts Writer

What a time to be alive.
- Caroline Filips, Senior Arts Editor

Neon sign that says werk!!! Need in my home bc lauren 

conraad wrote a blog post once about how crucial neon 
signs are to decorate your home with bless her paper 
crown for kohl’s heart tbh. Four scorn and two weeks ago I 
procrastinated my Shakespeare essay and had the revelation 
that he literally invented the drag queen, so thanks be to you 
RuPaul for honoring that guy who probably doesn’t need any 
more praise. I’ve never watched this show, and here I am 
watching the 100th episode. Drag “race”? What’s the race? 
Where are they going? What’s the prize? Oh my god someone 
just said, “Go back to party city where you belong” … that 
is an iconic insult that I will definitely use tomorrow on an 
innocent victim. Drag names are iconic. I want a drag name. 
Oh my god this first contestant got his drag name from Naomi 
Campbell. When will I get mine? When will you get yours? 
You won’t, because you belong at Party City and I belong with 
kate middletons parents and their party goodie bag company. 
OK this first guy is so objectively attractive as both a man and 
a woman good for him because I cant even master my #lewk. 
He’s obsessed with ‘90s supermodels! So am i! Everyone 
loves Naomi ugh no one walks like Naomi ugh. HAHA Dax 
ExclamationPoint rn: “what’s up nerds!!!” Dax also wants 
brunch. Dax I will brunch with you. And this entire cast for 
that matter. OMF Acid Betty just made an entrance af. Robbie 
Turner is literally wearing the robe you would wear to answer 

baked.buzzed.bored.

A-

What 
the Fuck 
Right 
Now

Tyler the 
Creator

Odd Future

DISNEY CHANNEL

Now he’s Phil of the Past.

TV NOTEBOOK

the door when the authorities come to deliver you the news of your oil empire husband dying under 
mysterious circumstances.

-Daily Arts Writer

