Avenue 5 Review: This Is Physically Hurting Me (Season 1 Episode 8)
VFX stands for visual effects, but on Avenue 5 Season 1 Episode 8, “This Is Physically Hurting Me,” we’re witnessing the very real breakdown of normalcy, and no special effects can save the crew and passengers from that.
Comedy takes a back seat on the episode to really sell the loss of sanity that has set in. It’s a stretched out realization that things are not as they appear. But before that, at least there’s Captain Clark finally fully snapping as he is fired.
It’s like a great cathartic release, Hugh Laurie letting loose and unleashing a season’s worth of frustration and anger. Clark’s hairpiece coming off is like a last unveiling of reality, and everyone’s reaction at the slow peel-back is easily the funniest moment on the episode.
But the issue is that now most of the passengers know how fake everything is, or as Judd would call it, the cost-cutting techniques. Even the statues are incredibly lightweight. It definitely goes too far when reality and simulations come into play, though, thanks to Matt.
Matt’s sudden realization that he may have been the cause for seven deaths brings a late-game morality to the show’s most chaotic character. He exists to cause problems, usually to our benefit, but now there are deaths on his head, and Zach Woods plays that horrific dawning with a sense of isolation. He’s spent so long trying to make things better (in his own way), and so reality is finally hitting him.
If only the rest of the people on Avenue 5 could reach the same conclusion. They’re all still fairly uncertain on where things are by episode’s end, where the VFX reasoning has been poked through, but there is still this strange gaslighting, as though they have been fooled so many times over the season that nothing matters anymore: there’s no calm solution anymore.
It makes you wonder if there is a happy ending to Avenue 5. After the number of deaths and the finale setting up the one shuttle seat, it appears only one person may have a happy ending, at least this season. That is, of course, if the shuttle survives. You can never be sure with the amount of madness going on and after a few frozen people smashed into the front of it.
Clark appears to be back as captain, at least temporarily, but the illusion is now shattered. What exactly is he the captain of anymore? There’s the possibility things descend further, but it’s at the point where passengers are freely choosing the vacuum of space (with false pretenses) over simply waiting everything out. There’s not much bottom left.
It’s what makes Avenue 5 Season 1 Episode 8, “This Is Physically Hurting Me,” such an interesting episode, even if it’s not overwhelmingly a comedy. It’s more a social experiment with funny people, watching as the depths of humanity are peeled back. Judd may have lost his nemesis, but it’s likely not to be the only thing he loses before the season draws to a close.
What did you think of this episode of Avenue 5? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Avenue 5 airs Sundays at 10/9c on HBO.
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Kevin Lever
Kevin Lever has been following television closely for most of his life, but in starting to cover it, he has grown a further appreciation. He strives to give the blockbusters their due, and give the lesser known shows a spotlight to find more fans.