This week, 12 oz. Mouse advances its impenetrably strange plot with a string of events that seem significant, but without explanation.
Early on in the show, we find out that Shark now has his own television show, fittingly called The Shark Show. Fitz and Skillet become a bit unnerved while watching this when a new character named Pronto is introduced. “He’s an archerist, Mouse,” says Shark. “And he’s the best.” Nothing more comes of this strange introduction, but if the past is any indication, Pronto will likely show later on.
Having nothing but a hand and a cold phone in their refrigerator, Fitz and Skillet head out in the jet car to get some food. This brings us to the centerpiece of the episode, which focuses on an old joke the folks at Williams Street seem to enjoy: doing the same thing for too long. It’s been used in Space Ghost Coast to Coast and Aqua Teen Hunger Force, so I suppose it’s only fitting that it turned up here as well.
Roughly one third of the episode is spent switching back and forth between a gunfight Fitz and Skillet are having with an unseen foe and Peanut Cop holding up an apparently vacant diner. One half works well.
In the case of Fitz and Skillet’s gun battle, each sequence builds on the previous one with clever sight gags and bigger guns. The sequence with Peanut Cop, on the other hand, becomes decreasingly funny each time the ‘camera’ returns to him.
Aside from this, we get a bunch of entertaining dialogue between Shark and the Rich Businessman, who are apparently performing some sort of brainwashing on the citizens. Liquor, Rhoda and the Man/Woman all make funny appearances as well.
The episode leaves us with the first cliffhanger in the series, as Rhoda the bartender lies dead in a pool of blood. Significant? Probably not. In the past, big problems in the show have been solved by some sort of ridiculous event happening which instantaneously relieves any tension. Of course, what matters is that it’s funny in the process, and at that the show generally succeeds.