Review
“Catfish/Haunted House”
Season 2, Episode 5
That’s the best $40,000 I’ve ever spent in my life.
For the past fifteen episodes, we’ve seen Forrest MacNeil fall from grace. Losing his wife may have appeared to be rock bottom but subsequent adventures have seen the host of a life review show dig himself deeper into a hole of self-pity and despair. Each week, MacNeil bounces back with a lack of morality that comes with learning from his pervious experiences. This episode, he finally reaches a low not yet seen even after getting shot and looking for sex in the highest of places. The two segments in tonight’s episode both deal with Forrest’s growing sadness from the separation with his wife. Said divorce doesn’t seem to be doing either of them well as Forrest finds his wife on a dating site following his creation of a fake account which was supposed to be used in order to catfish someone. Prior to this, MacNeil’s knowledge of “catfishing” goes as far as mine does (that is to say not far at all).
With the help of current room/officemates MacNeil Sr, intern Josh, Tina and his assistant, Forrest is able to create a profile that would capture the heart of any woman. The creation process actually does nothing to help Forrest’s personal issues as everyone describes a man who is the exact opposite of the host. The only thing left to his devices is the name. He comes up with a name clever enough to fool anyone who’s not a master anagram dissolver; Ace Shrift is coming for you, ladies – screenname Ace_is_wild. Forrest eventually finds wife Suzanne’s profile and sets out on harmless payback. Yet he finds himself falling back in love – as if he ever fell out – with both his wife and the fake man he created. Days past and she eventually wants to Skype which complicates things. He eventually hires a man, actually an MLB player whose picture he used on his profile, to be him during the video chat but the man continues to prove to be the exact opposite of Forrest. He ends the conversation not wanting to lead this poor woman who fell in love on.
Forrest’s self-deprecating passion bleeds into the next segment in which the host looks to spend the night in a haunted house. Leaving his dad in an abandoned house, Forrest returns to his previous home as he thinks it will truly be haunted. After breaking in, Forrest gets drunk and goes around the house creating his own “phantoms” of his past. His delusion leads to wallowing which finds him eventually getting hurt again.
Should you watch “Catfish/Haunted House?”
The saga continues as Forrest MacNeil continues to go down a path of self-destruction over and over. Other than the story, other jokesdealing with a long Google url read out and a great tracking shot as Forrest explains the reasoning behind his user name solidify another amazing episode.