‘Avenue 5’ Recap: ‘This Is Physically Hurting Me’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM. YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

For the most part, comedy stories in general, tend to shy away from social commentary. Simply because they really are designed to leave the audience in stitches and brighten their day, so they often just stick to the jokes and leave the heavy lifting to other genres. But as it turns out, some comedic stories out there, find a way to say something about our world and its current state, something that a vast majority of these tales accomplish by way of parody or satire. But the finest comedies out there, well they find a way to say something quite profound about life or our world in general and it just so happens that Avenue 5 found a way to sneak in some painfully accurate commentary about modern America in its next episode.
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Which is quite the feat, since initially it seemed as though ‘This Is Physically Hurting Me’ was going to stay the course (pun intended) in regard to how the show loves to offer up innocent moments that are immediately interrupted by chaos. For this particular tale saw everyone going about some everyday business, since Captain Clark took the time to learn how to land the ship, and Karen worked to get items ready for ejection into deep space so everyone could get home as quickly as possible. And the formula came into play here, by way of a fight between Judd and Clark, one that saw Ryan relieved of his command and replaced by Spike. Leaving one to wonder how long before Ryan would be reinstated, since Spike expected the ship to run like a well-oiled machine. 

But it was Spike’s concerns about the overall functionality of the ship that helped to bring about the commentary in question. Because the bridge crew’s odd behavior, and some of the restlessness of the guests, gave life to a rather dangerous conspiracy theory aboard the ship. In that, somehow this was all part of a reality show, and the Avenue 5 never left the comforts of Earth, and all the passengers had to do to reclaim their lives was step out of the airlock and they would find themselves back in the world and this was… horrifying to watch. Because the growing mob wanted out and that’s oddly what got Clark reinstated as the ship’s captain, since he is damn good at talking people down off of a stupid ledge, but alas, disaster still struck.

Because Matt thought he needed to step in and help, and he gave everyone the airlock code and well, what you think happened, happened. And seven more souls perished in horrifyingly icy fashion by walking out of the damn airlock and the commentary was clear at this point. Because this kind of mob mentality and rule of stupid is something we are seeing play out in everyday life by way of the news, and social media and it just was incredible to see the series call this problem out in such stunning fashion and honestly, it’s a good thing that they did. Because the rule of dumb isn’t helping anyone, and the sooner it disappears from the limelight, the better, since it is hurting people along the way.

However, all commentary aside, this was by far the darkest and most twisted episode of this series to date, and that is a compliment. Because it oddly found a way to make its ugliest moments, funny, and that speaks volumes to the genius writing present on this series and well, in the wake of Matt’s miscalculation it should be interesting to see what life aboard this ship is going to be like going forward. Since a fair chunk of the passengers just watched more of their fellow shipmates freeze and float into the void because of their own narrow-mindedness. Plus, Rav and the shuttle have almost arrived at the ship, meaning that all kinds of surprises and unexpected moments should come together nicely in the season one finale. Until next time.    

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