Jean-Claude Van Johnson: If You're Lucky

February 11, 2018 10:57 AM - Season 1, Episode 4

Vanessa and JCVD hatch a plan to rescue Luis. We learn what Vanessa is running towards, Luis is running from, and whether JCVD is really a man out of time trying to relive his days as JCVJ. From the Visionary mind of Mark Twain comes a world where only one man can save us. Uncover the Truth about the Legend. Are you ready to get Hucked?

Is time a flat circle or a tetrahedron?
How much does JCVD weigh?
What is that device? What is that device? and finally, what is that device?
Can Huck defeat the Confederacy and end slavery all by himself?
How much are tickets to and when is Bulgarian ComiCon?
Is C-word Jim any less tone-deaf than N-word Jim?
Why is Victor still in town?
Timecop? Looper?
If you're really me from the future, tell me something I would know?

Movies Mentioned: Timecop (and Looper... but that features Bruce Willis... so...) , Bloodsport (Really the Dim Mak, or 'death touch')
Still no additions to the split count.
Bonus: Timecop poster at Filip's House

posted by Nanukthedog (3 comments total)

Best part about that trailer is that is looks exactly like something Holywood would do with their edgy reboot fever. So good, guards even abandon their patrols for a poorly edited preview trailer (I mean, on the main shot, it's N-word Jim, or the close-up, it's C-Word Jim ).

Vanessa's cliché-festival of a backstory was also amusing. Particularly when General Dad tells her mom was cleaning her room and found out her dirty mags - Guns n' Ammo. You have certain urges, it's natural.

The scene with Something-like-Timecop (Time Policeman, technically) JCVD, JCVD and Filip was amazing. The timing between serious (You have a big hole in your heart...) and comedy (JCVD realizing he became a Looper, Filip's little vocalizations) was perfect.

I think this was my favourite episode. It has everything that makes the show so good.
posted by lmfsilva at 1:20 PM on February 11, 2018

Good catch on the trailer, lmfsilva, with the in-show already shot N-word Jim in the wide shot and C-word Jim in the close up.

I've had my share of chink and ching-chong-Chinaman yelled at me as a kid, and even had a college friend's granpa ask me within the first five minutes of meeting me whether I was a gook or a chink "I'm Cantonese, Sir." "Oh, that's good. Here's my (loaded and unlocked) Colt Commander that I used in the Korean war." <hands me the handgun>

So.. would it be Chinaman Jim, Chinky Jim, Celestial Jim, or Jimmy the Chink, or...?

Vanessa's cliché backstory (and much of the show) really works because, although the show doesn't take itself seriously, it never breaks.

Interesting; Kat Foster does her stunts in her high heels (albeit the heel's pretty chunky, but it's also rather high - she's also the only woman at the party in pants).

(Future) JC's watch was not a Timecop piece... it looked like it uses the Predator number system (in two colours).

The twist and then the twist and then the twist with future JC was perfect.
posted by porpoise at 1:06 PM on February 12, 2018

This episode was very different for me. The ones up to this, the jokes have been very much JCVD in our face - no wait we have to fight him one man at a time, that piece of electronics isn't important because everything now is on the cloud, Looper vs Timecop, not all action heroes can drive stick, and so on and so on...

I'm not saying the jokes wrapped up, but - the jokes weren't as open ended as before. There was some serious closure with a lot of it, and yeah - they threaded seriousness through a comedy with actual care. This was a very different episode than the zaniness of prior episodes. With the exception of Timecop JCVD weighing the same as Luis and subsequently exploding into ... hair after he received the gun... it was a definite turn.
posted by Nanukthedog at 9:31 PM on February 12, 2018