"You remember that time at Frank's with the jungle juice? This kind of drunk taught that kind of drunk how to ride bikes."
"Fun Party," episode 4 of The Outs—which premiered live at a birthday celebration for series creator Adam Goldman in beloved Brooklyn yesterday and debuted online today—is full of good lines and great moments. This is the first episode of Part 2 of The Outs, beginning the second set of episodes independently crowd-funded via phenomenally successful Kickstarter campaigns. At the beginning of July, they blew the roof off of their initial Part 2 fundrasing goal of $8,000, ultimately raising more than $20,000 to finish the series. Raves for the series came from all sides, including The Huffington Post, Towleroad, Out.com, Buzzfeed, Paper, MTV, and yours truly, Geeks OUT.
What's especially great to see, then, is that rather than Going Bigger! and More Hilarious! after becoming super-famous, The Outs has made intelligent use of its increased resources and higher profile to do what it does well even better. From the opening, slightly uncanny piano arpeggio that becomes a ringtone to the sweet ending reveal, "Fun Party" might be the best episode of the series, yet.
In their Part 2 fundraising video, Goldman and series co-writer and co-star Sasha Winters identified two main goals for any overage (which came to $12,000+): compensating the all-volunteer cast and crew for their time and top-notch equipment. Money well spent!
The actors really earn it. "Fun Party," without spoiling too much, finally puts exes Mitchell (Goldman) and Jack (Hunter Canning, particularly good here) back in the same room after "State of the Union," (ep 1). Mitchell's wasted in the bathtub after a party, see title, and makes that most horrible of horrible decisions: He drunk dials his ex, Jack, to come take him home. After a great, angry, funny hello-fuck you-goodbye scene between Jack and a sleepy, steely Oona ("I'm going to get Mitchell's cardigan, and then you should leave."), it's Goldman and Canning's show and they run with it.
While the script is as witty and incisive as we've come to expect from The Outs, it's the physical performances that really shine here—which is a compliment to the ensemble (clearly very comfortable with each other by now) and to Goldman as director for getting the words out of the way sometimes. Not for nothing, stage training! Playing drunk is really damn hard and Goldman does it well here, clumsy but not clownish. It's perfectly plausible that Mitchell would be this articulate while shit-faced, since we know he's a smarty, already. Also, c'mon, it's a web series and a comedy. Canning's Jack has always been tightly wound, befitting someone who's watching his every move after some serious mistakes (and likes to calculate his words for maximum effect), and he uses that discipline and stillness well here. Also he smirks cutely. Their body language together is the right mix of familiarity and estrangement, tenderness and wariness. Seeing them not-venomous like this, as a semi-functional couple (and with the actors' natural chemistry), we appreciate more acutely what's missing.
Series co-writer Winters is also very good in "Fun Party" as Oona, both fiercely loyal to messy Mitchell and gettin-real-tired-of-your-shit, Mitchell; while also bedding dreamy Russel (Shawn Frank, gif-worthy in boxer briefs). Are these best friends on diverging paths now? Is Mitchell wallowing while Oona moves on?
Small, storybook props like keys and shoes highlight subtle fairy tale themes in this episode—it's all after midnight!—as do subliminal costume details, like Mitchell's scarlet red party cardigan (seen in "Whiskey Dick") and Jack's fuzzy hoodie. If Mitchell is the drunken damsel in distress, is Jack—who literally brings Mitchell a shoe that fits—the prince or the wolf?
"Fun Party" is also beautifully shot. It's clear they know what they're doing on the production side, too—or are learning fast!—and are making good use of their Kickstarter bounty.
