by Emma Platt & Chris Kelly
Lee embarks on a dramatic new career path, and though the others fear for his sanity he seems happy for the first time in a long while. So how long until the bubble bursts for our harassed leader?
Back with The High Life, whose troubled schedule has proven no obstacle to the continuing adventures of MZP's inner circle. Lee continues to slowly disintegrate into madness, Ian has happily been there for some time now, drama queen Emma pops her stack with alarming regularity, Waylon and Chris continue their comedy double act and Claire remains the sensible one amongst it all - though not without problems of her own. Episode six finds Lee approaching an interesting new career choice in the wake of his dismissal after the disastrous dinner in 'Meet The Roomies,' so let's find out what happens to him. Er, me. You know what I mean.
Waylon and Chris are lying awake in the living room, discussing Lee's new lack of direction following his sacking from the production company. Waylon's concerned that he'll have competition for house slob, but we all know he's too darn good at it for that to ever happen. The duo keep going off topic to make some of those dry in-jokes that always pepper Kelly's scripts, but as Lee storms out to yell at them they realise he could hear every word they were saying. The duo are unrepentant as always, prompting Lee to give Waylon a soaking before retiring for the night.
The next morning, everyone is surprised to find Lee favouring a day slobbing on the couch with Waylon over going job hunting. Lee can't understand why everyone is making such a big deal out of it, but as Waylon explains it it's his motivation that makes up such a big part of who he is. If Lee's content to sit around doing nothing, what hope is there for the rest of them? Emma and Claire get ready for their day, Emma moaning (as she does) and Claire worried most about the relationship she's having with her boss and the shift in power this could have on her job, but as she heads back outside everyone's back to ripping into Lee and his attempts to relax. The others leave Waylon and Lee to their day and head for work, Chris and Ian complaining about their jobs again before Emma gets another chance to have a girly chat with Claire, attempting to goad her into letting her hair down for once but finding Claire's natural sense of reserve too much to overcome. Back at the apartment, Lee can't handle just sitting around all day (it's true, I can't) and chugs off to get some air, much to Waylon's disapproval, but as he disappears into his bedroom and reappears with... something, we end on a cliffhanger. In The High Life? Like, I know!
Ian's attending his first anger management class at the hospital, but it's already not going well as he's gotten lost on the way and is in a bad mood before he even steps through the doors. Finding the rest of his class taking a picnic outside, he stomps out to join them and finds group leader Serena as placid and welcoming as ever. Ian's in no mood to play along, however, and despite Serena's best efforts to get him integrated with the group, Ian would rather reveal the reason for his anger. Wibbly flashback time! Seems Ian flipped out when he went into work in a bad mood, having been told that South Park was getting axed, and after snapping at several library customers he was brought before the boss, who decided it was for the best that Ian get sent to anger management. Ian's ignorant, defiant attitude to anybody daring to disagree with him is your source of humour here - pigheaded people always make for good comedy. Especially angry pigheaded people. Ian's story isn't quite finished yet, however, as we return to the apartment and find the others being the only people to offer Ian any kind of emotional support, but this isn't enough to get Ian out of his seminar. He returns to the apartment with a 'homework' assignment to write about his 'feelings' towards other people. Lee enters carrying a guitar case, and as the others ask why he never told them he had a guitar, he recounts a story of how they smashed one of his favourite depressing CDs a few days ago. Possessions are never sacred when you share a house with five other people. Seems Lee's been earning a steady wage for himself busking down by the pier, and feels that he's finally found something that he's good at, enjoys and makes money from, never having found all three in one profession before. Leaving Lee, Ian and Waylon to their grief, Emma tries and fails to get any more details out of Claire about her romantic life, while Lee declares that he's now found his niche in life and is going to remain a busker, to disbelief from Ian and Waylon.
Act III opens on a Saturday morning as everybody comes out to see the surprisingly successful Lee at his new spot down on the boardwalk, but as everyone slips off for resfreshments and leaves Chris and Waylon to guard the money, the resident Abbott & Costello spy a hundred dollar bill in amongst the rest of Lee's takings. They're busy deliberating over whether or not to take it when a bright-eyed little girl named Kira skips along. She sings a sad song about how destitute her family is, and Waylon falls for her big old puppy dog eyes as he gives her the hundred dollars. However! The kid's rich, and having suckered our duo she skips away with the cash, forcing Chris and Waylon into hot pursuit. The others hit the apartment, with Emma still trying and failing to get any gossip out of Claire before we return to Waylon and Chris's chase. They track her back to her home, but seeing the affluent suburb she lives in they know they have to try a different tactic to get Lee's cash back...
Knocking on the door, Waylon is struck dumb at the MILF that steps out, and Chris does his best to salvage the situation from Waylon's slack-jawed gaze. Posing as window salesmen, Waylon's over-enthusiastic praise of Kira's mother gets them invited in, and with Waylon convinced he's pulled it's down to Chris to get the job done. At the apartment, Lee discovers that South Park isn't actually cancelled after all, and sets off to find Ian and tell him the good news before his exponentially increasing anger lands him in even deeper trouble, but as we catch up with Ian he's already gone too far - he's quit his job at the library! Or at least, he tries too. His old boss, Mr. Clark, has been replaced by the more pragmatic Mr. Windmill, a man who respects Ian's attitude and encourages it, having no patience for customers himself. With Ian actually earning a promotion and not quite believing his luck, we return to Kira's house as Chris sneaks off to begin his recovery mission. He confronts Kira and demonstrates a frighteningly accurate ability to remember exactly who owes him and what for, before he snatches the cash and runs as Kira yells for her mum. The duo run like the clappers and end up back in a park, but as a stray gust of wind blows the bill out of Chris' hands and into those of a nearby hobo, the chase is back on again as the exhausted duo race after the fleeing hobo.
Another decent showing for High Life, with the writing getting better with each episodes and the different characteristics of the six players continuing to develop. There's a lot going on in this episode, and while it's in danger of jumping around a bit too much at times, there's always something going on and it's only the second Act that really slows down at all. The in-jokes are starting to get better as the show runs on, and the aforementioned gradual improvement in writing quality means this holds together a bit better than last week's show. High Life is recovering well from the loss of its chief writer, and it looks like the episode quality will continue to improve as the weeks roll on now.
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