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yusukekitagawaIn Which Chiyo Wastes Your Time For A Joke
*bre,,,,gaymie,,,,,olivia...im so sorry in advance that you had to read this.
this next one is a thing i did partially as a joke partially as i was fueled by some weird Hyperfixation for like a month i think. This is the result. i cannot figure out how to add pictures so.,.,yeah
“Hey it’s me, Charles Stiles, I’m with a company called Mystery Diners.”
Whether you asked or not, he will always greet you with this single phrase. Mystery Diners is a “reality TV show” that focuses on weeding out the bad seeds of a certain food service. Many episodes revolve around finding the culprit responsible for a host of problems that the food service is having. Usually, via a three act structure, the problem is solved within the 20 minute time frame. The show is Produced by the T Group Productions, makers of such classics as Swamp Hunters and I Catfished My Kid. Many have accused the show of being staged, though Charles Stiles of Mystery Diners denies these claims. Who is this Charles Stiles? Well, he is the owner of California-based Business Evaluation Services and Mystery Shopper Services. These services are for companies to secretly test that their customer service is up to par by hiring “Mystery Shoppeers” to evaluate them. From the website:
“Mystery shopping is one of the most traditional and effective methods for gathering feedback on your guests’ experience. You can gain valuable insight into how your customers feel about doing business with your company.”
The show is an extension of these services, televised and dramaticized for our viewing pleasure. There’s many things a bit...off about the show. It’s a bit hard to put your finger in it, but once you sit and watch a few minutes, it starts to become clear. It’s very obviously a put on. Many episodes have “conflicts” that are are so absurd, one wonders how anyone could actually take it seriously. The “Action Burger” episode is quite a good place to start for how ridiculous this show can be.
Before tackling this episode, you must first understand the structure of the show. This is VITAL. The sho is split into three separate sections: The Consultation, The Sting and The Confrontation. Sometimes an optional fourth chapter is added to the story, The Restaurant Update. OH. There’s one thing before the show can actually start! The One Minute Advertisement. This is where the food service owner has a short section to sell their product. It usually ends up being them talking about thier most popular dishes. The Consultation is next. This is where Charles Stiles of Mystery Diners sits down with the disgruntled owners and talks about the issue. Problems range from “I think someone is rigging my poetry night,” “There’s a Suspicious Christmas Elf outside my shop,” or “I think my mother is stealing my secret Krabby Patty Formula.” No matter the problem, 90% of them boil down to a petty money making scheme by one of the employees or a scam. During this section, we also see the Control Room Charles Stiles of Mystery Diners sets up. He goes over how many hidden cameras he has placed throughout the perimeter of the area. He also introduces his Mystery Diners here. These are the people who infiltrate the restaurant to uncover clues that will help solve the mystery. They pose as guests or workers to do so.
Next we have the Sting, which is the true meat and potatoes of each Episode. This is where the juicy stuff happens. Charles Stiles of Mystery Diners and the owner sit in the control room and survey the restaurant on a usual day of service. It becomes quickly obvious to the viewer just who the culprit is usually within the first few moments. Sometimes a red herring will be thrown in, like a skeevy worker who seems to be stealing or talking negatively about the restaurant. Almost always, this person is revealed to either an accomplice to the crimes, or a misunderstood worker. Surveillance work is a unpredictable job. Cameras or microphone can fail, and unforeseen situations may arise. In these cases, Charles Stiles of Mystery Diners may have a ace in the hole. Things like drones, roller skate robots or hacking devices are not uncommon in the later seasons. Even with all these gadgets, the unpredictable may still happen. In these cases the Sting is usually cut short with Charles Stiles of Mystery Diners proudly proclaiming, “I think we have enough evidence to close this case. Why don’t you go down there and stop *whatever is going on* and bring them back up here!” This is immediately followed by--
The Confrontation! This is the most EXPLOSIVE part of any episode. Tensions are running high as the owner confronts the inept, wrongdoers. Often, this can lead to hands flying and tears streaming. Sometimes other customers get involved, sometimes other scams are revealed. In all cases, the offenders are fired or quit and those who were wrapped into a world of debauchery by the offenders are let off with a mild talking to. This section usually ends with the owner offering his eternal gratitude to Charle Stiles of Mystery Diners. They may even throw in a meal, on the house of course! A few weeks later an update of the restaurant is given. All problems are solved and nothing is awry. All’s well that ends well.
With the basic structure of the show down, it is time to take a closer look at an episode, “Action Burger.” Well...the offical episode title is actually “Comic Book Caper.” This is episode 6 (133 overall) in season 11 released December 30, 2015.
After the intro, we meet Vlane Carter, our protagonist for today.
(Vlane Carter, our tragic Hero)
His restaurant is a combination of his passions in life, “sci-fi comics, and FOOD.” One mouth watering explanation of his menu later (it’s spit into “villain” dishes and “hero” dishes. From how he explains it, it seems that villain dishes are quite fattening and greasy while hero dishes are more on the healthy side.), we get yet ANOTHER explanation (though not as tasty) about Vlane’s comic, Bio-Sapien. Charles Stiles of Mystery Diners is in awe of our great protagonist’s skills. Through this Consultation, we learn that a few of Vlane’s valuable comics keep going missing.
(valued at $155)
(valued at $75)
(valued at $750)
He suspects, Gary the Manager, Keenan(?) the Cashier and John the Cook. He also wants to know about the more mundane issue of employees arguing with customers over comic books. Denis, our P.I., infers that maybe someone is stealing the comics….to re sell them! He’s gotta look more into that though, one can never be sure with crimes like these. Charles Stiles of Mystery Diners ensures Vlane that “...At the end of the day, you’ll have your answers, I can assure you of that!” and we are thrust into the STING.
(today’s Control Room. Vlane’s exclamations of “SO HIGH TECH” leave the viewer breathless at such an astonishing show of technology.)
We go over camera placements (not as detail heavy as earlier episodes, lasting only a few seconds) and once again go over our suspects. Gary is said to be our least likely suspect, thought Vlane doesn’t have many negative comments regarding any of the suspects. Denis returns with nothing bad to say about the employees either. He says that all the local pawn shops no nothing of the stolen artifacts and it seems like this case may be lost forever… Until he whips out his 1999 Padger to show that he did indeed find the comics being auctioned off online. It seems as though the
comics have already been *gasp* sold! Denis leaves his “pad” with Charles Stiles of Mystery Diners just in case any other comics pop up.
(Our Mystery Diner for today.)
We are introduced to our Mystery Diner Beatrice (who makes sure let the audience how tasty the food is and how knowledgeable the staff is about comics). THis mini commercial is cut show by Gary arguing who the better batman is with a customer. The tensions run high in this scene, and they soon burst as the custmer Omar storms out. Or rather, is basically thrown out by Gary.
(Even the customers tremble at such a heated debate.)
We are then introduced to the most bizarre thing in this restaurant, Bellona. This is a young woman hired by Vlane to cosplay as his comic book character and walk around the shop for a few hours a few times a week. While Charles Stiles of Mystery Diners believes they should keep a close eye on her, Vlane is adamant in defending his “heroine.” Charles Stiles of Mystery Diners solemnly reminds our hero that “Even superheroes have their weakness.” Faux Bellona, or Jessica, seems to be well liked by the staff and customers alike (probably because of her super costume….), though there is one issue. She gives away copies of Vlane’s comic for free and eats lunch there without paying (to which Vlane remarks that eating burgers is far out of character for Bellona, a devout vegetarian.). This seems to be the first seeds of doubt that have sprung into our protagonist’s heart.
(Our Second Mystery Diner)
After a sequence with more hijinks and misconduct with Jessica, we are introduced to our second Mystery DIner, whose job it is to tempt the employees into buying a very rare comic.
THe idea is that the crooked criminal will tell the clueless customer that his comic is worth very little, when in fact its worht $300. That, and Action Burger is NOT a collector. Keenan, our cashier, passes the test but one other unlikely--it’s Jessica. She tells the simple minded store goer that the comic is worthless (which CHareles Stiles of Mystery Diners assures us that he checked HIMSELF! ITS IN MINT CONDITION!) and to sell it her for a few bucks. Very….suspicious.,.......could she be….no….not the heroine! Maybe this isn’t the case.
Jessica goes into Vlane’s office (a huge no-no) and snaps a pic of the comic to post online. THrough the “pad,” Charles Stiles of Mystery Diners informs VLane that the comic has just appeared on the auction website for sale!!!!!!!! Having had enough Vlane storms done to the office, ready to confront the super hero gone bad. This is the explosive confrontation that everythinghas been leading up to! At the Control room is where all this tension...BURSTS! Jessica insists that she’s giving away comics to promote business and accuses Vlane of not feeding her on the clock. Vlane corrects her saying that Bellona doesn’t need food, what with being a biomechanical alien and all. Oh and uh, also that giving books away fro free isn’t cool. Or something. Jessica then proceeds to call the Mystery Diner a dumb ass and VLane once again has to correct her in saying that super heroes dont take advantage of people! Seems like Jessica was always rotten to the core. After telling her that she is undeserving of such a noble outfit, he fires her and she storms out. Oh and she steals the costume. Next he confronts Gary….It’s pretty boring. Gary just makes a few excuses and is put on probation for a few months. Vlane promises to name a burger after CHarles Stiles Mystery Diners, Jessica pays the money back, the staff is reprimanded, he hires a new actor and everything isfine. That guitar riff closes the door on this case.
And that was that, my god where to begin? First off one of the main issues with this episode, and this show in general, is the man himself: Charles Fucking Stiles. With any other show of this nature, the one thing that usually holds it together is a fun host. Say what you will about Guy Fieri, he is still entertaining to watch. He emotes and reacts is ways that are fun for the audience and can keep your attention for the full length of the show. Charles Stiles of Mystery Diners is none of these things. He cannot act. Which isn’t saying much considering no one in this how has any acting abilities (yes, even the hired actors suck.). But Charles Stiles of Mystery Diners is a special kind of bad acting: he’s bland as hell. There is little to no emotion in any line he says. It is always in the same tone of voice and the same inflection. This becomes really noticeable when you realize all of his dialogue is the same few lines with the name of the current restaurant stuck into them. It is quite similar to an rpg where every playthru the npc says the same thing; the only difference in thier dialogue would be that your name is changed. His facial expression is blank the entire show. One has to wonder why the camera even bothers cutting to him half of the time. It doesn’t matter if there is a brawl going on or “hilarious” hijinks with the employees, his face will never change. Maybe a smile may peek through but it is pretty hard to tell.
As mentioned before, not only is our host about as engaging as a rock, the others in the show don’t do much better in the acting department. The restaraunt owners, employees, mystery diners and sometimes other players in the episode are all acting, that is obvious. The thing is, all of them either under act or over act. Take this episode, Action Burger, for example. It is obvious that Vlane was given lines to recite but his delivery is absolutely horrible, though that is not really his fault. He’s not an actor so of course he wouldn’t give a great performance. I think what makes it so bad is that it seems like none of the crew gave this man any direction. This is also an issue in many episodes. There are instances of Charles Stiles of Mystery Diners telling someone to look somewhere but both end up looking in two totally different places. At one point in the episode, Vlane says a line that I think is supposed to be for the audience to laugh at but Charles Stiles of Mystery Diners just looks at him, looks away, and then immediatly looks back at him as if he did a double take. In fact, i don’t think ANYONE is given much direction. Poor Vlane sometimes has no idea what reaction to give to some lines so he just stares blankly awaiting his cue for his turn to recite his memorized lines. Again, I believe this is mostly due to incompetence on the crew’s part. There is a scene where Gary argues with a customer about the best batman and the customer’s acting is so forced it’s unbelievable. The man seems like he’s sleepwalking through the scene. Some extras in the background have no idea what to do and where to go; alot of them either stand around or flail around. Though, I have read that most fo the people seen in the background aren’t actors but actual restaurant goers. I am not sure how true this information is, though. Either way, it’s bad. Jessica’s acting is...wow. It trully is something. At the end during the Confrontation, she tries to “tell off” everyone but it comes off as awkward and weird. She walks up to a customer who is ordering her food and talks over her to her son. It is the most awkward way to approach someone for a conversation not to mention just...confusing.
Here we see her talking right in front of the mother to the son. Why didn’t she just walk up to the son? And no, she was not right there and just struck up a conversation. SHe got up from across the restaurant and walked purposefully to that spot, and THEN started talking. And yes the mother is trying to order food while Jessica is talking to the son.
Here, she reaches over the mother to give the son a book. Who in the world shot this and thought it was fine, this is the most awkward thing to watch! First off she is FAR too close to the mother, who is a STRANGER that she doesn’t know. Second, she just reaches over her like that and the mother doesn’t react at all! She also continues talking while the mother is trying to order. I know this is meant to be “reality” but scenes like this show just how little direction these actors were given. It’s so clunky and awkward it becomes hard to watch. It’s embarrassing. This is not an isolated thing, many episodes have bad actor placements like this. People just don’t know where to stand or what to do with their bodies, giving scenes very boxed in feeling or a cramped feeling. It’s weird and awkward and thoroughly unpleasant to sit through at times!
While this episode wasn’t a big offender of it, the sound mixing in this show can be passable to laughable. At times it’s obvious that lines are added in or dubbed over in post. Sometimes, with his back turned, Charles Stiles of Mystery Diners’ disembodied voice is heard, even though it is very obvious that he didn’t actualy say anything. He comments on things often time with no reaction from anyone almost as if he wasn’t….in the room! Plus, whenever a line is added in there is a noticeable change in audio quality. Once you pick up on it, it’s impossible NOT to notice. The editing can get a lil weird too, cutting to angles of the same scene that just loook….weird. This one is a bit harder to explain in words but just watch a few episodes. The camera cuts to something else obviously trying to not focus on something, but the thing we aren’t supposed to be focusing on is still in the shot, maybe a little off to the side! Which makes you want to focus on it MORE. Again, watch an episode and you will know what i mean.
There is sometimes this uncomfortable image of employees that this show often shows. It makes it seem like if an employee doesn’t absolutely love their job and everything it stands for, then they are bad and probably a crook. Many times a boss will jump to wanting to straight up fire an employee for making one negative remark. And it’s often these “negative” employees that end up being the criminal masterminds in charge of some intricate scam to con custmers and the boss out of money. It all seems a bit mean spirited towards workers. It’s like this weird sort of fear mongering for employers, “BE CAUTIOUS OF ANY EMPLOYEE THAT DOESN'T BEND OVER BACKWARDS FOR YOUR COMPANY!” Maybe i’m over thinking it. I mean, i hve to be if i sat and wrote this, right?
*bre,,,,gaymie,,,,,olivia...im so sorry in advance that you had to read this.
this next one is a thing i did partially as a joke partially as i was fueled by some weird Hyperfixation for like a month i think. This is the result. i cannot figure out how to add pictures so.,.,yeah
“Hey it’s me, Charles Stiles, I’m with a company called Mystery Diners.”
Whether you asked or not, he will always greet you with this single phrase. Mystery Diners is a “reality TV show” that focuses on weeding out the bad seeds of a certain food service. Many episodes revolve around finding the culprit responsible for a host of problems that the food service is having. Usually, via a three act structure, the problem is solved within the 20 minute time frame. The show is Produced by the T Group Productions, makers of such classics as Swamp Hunters and I Catfished My Kid. Many have accused the show of being staged, though Charles Stiles of Mystery Diners denies these claims. Who is this Charles Stiles? Well, he is the owner of California-based Business Evaluation Services and Mystery Shopper Services. These services are for companies to secretly test that their customer service is up to par by hiring “Mystery Shoppeers” to evaluate them. From the website:
“Mystery shopping is one of the most traditional and effective methods for gathering feedback on your guests’ experience. You can gain valuable insight into how your customers feel about doing business with your company.”
The show is an extension of these services, televised and dramaticized for our viewing pleasure. There’s many things a bit...off about the show. It’s a bit hard to put your finger in it, but once you sit and watch a few minutes, it starts to become clear. It’s very obviously a put on. Many episodes have “conflicts” that are are so absurd, one wonders how anyone could actually take it seriously. The “Action Burger” episode is quite a good place to start for how ridiculous this show can be.
Before tackling this episode, you must first understand the structure of the show. This is VITAL. The sho is split into three separate sections: The Consultation, The Sting and The Confrontation. Sometimes an optional fourth chapter is added to the story, The Restaurant Update. OH. There’s one thing before the show can actually start! The One Minute Advertisement. This is where the food service owner has a short section to sell their product. It usually ends up being them talking about thier most popular dishes. The Consultation is next. This is where Charles Stiles of Mystery Diners sits down with the disgruntled owners and talks about the issue. Problems range from “I think someone is rigging my poetry night,” “There’s a Suspicious Christmas Elf outside my shop,” or “I think my mother is stealing my secret Krabby Patty Formula.” No matter the problem, 90% of them boil down to a petty money making scheme by one of the employees or a scam. During this section, we also see the Control Room Charles Stiles of Mystery Diners sets up. He goes over how many hidden cameras he has placed throughout the perimeter of the area. He also introduces his Mystery Diners here. These are the people who infiltrate the restaurant to uncover clues that will help solve the mystery. They pose as guests or workers to do so.
Next we have the Sting, which is the true meat and potatoes of each Episode. This is where the juicy stuff happens. Charles Stiles of Mystery Diners and the owner sit in the control room and survey the restaurant on a usual day of service. It becomes quickly obvious to the viewer just who the culprit is usually within the first few moments. Sometimes a red herring will be thrown in, like a skeevy worker who seems to be stealing or talking negatively about the restaurant. Almost always, this person is revealed to either an accomplice to the crimes, or a misunderstood worker. Surveillance work is a unpredictable job. Cameras or microphone can fail, and unforeseen situations may arise. In these cases, Charles Stiles of Mystery Diners may have a ace in the hole. Things like drones, roller skate robots or hacking devices are not uncommon in the later seasons. Even with all these gadgets, the unpredictable may still happen. In these cases the Sting is usually cut short with Charles Stiles of Mystery Diners proudly proclaiming, “I think we have enough evidence to close this case. Why don’t you go down there and stop *whatever is going on* and bring them back up here!” This is immediately followed by--
The Confrontation! This is the most EXPLOSIVE part of any episode. Tensions are running high as the owner confronts the inept, wrongdoers. Often, this can lead to hands flying and tears streaming. Sometimes other customers get involved, sometimes other scams are revealed. In all cases, the offenders are fired or quit and those who were wrapped into a world of debauchery by the offenders are let off with a mild talking to. This section usually ends with the owner offering his eternal gratitude to Charle Stiles of Mystery Diners. They may even throw in a meal, on the house of course! A few weeks later an update of the restaurant is given. All problems are solved and nothing is awry. All’s well that ends well.
With the basic structure of the show down, it is time to take a closer look at an episode, “Action Burger.” Well...the offical episode title is actually “Comic Book Caper.” This is episode 6 (133 overall) in season 11 released December 30, 2015.
After the intro, we meet Vlane Carter, our protagonist for today.
(Vlane Carter, our tragic Hero)
His restaurant is a combination of his passions in life, “sci-fi comics, and FOOD.” One mouth watering explanation of his menu later (it’s spit into “villain” dishes and “hero” dishes. From how he explains it, it seems that villain dishes are quite fattening and greasy while hero dishes are more on the healthy side.), we get yet ANOTHER explanation (though not as tasty) about Vlane’s comic, Bio-Sapien. Charles Stiles of Mystery Diners is in awe of our great protagonist’s skills. Through this Consultation, we learn that a few of Vlane’s valuable comics keep going missing.
(valued at $155)
(valued at $75)
(valued at $750)
He suspects, Gary the Manager, Keenan(?) the Cashier and John the Cook. He also wants to know about the more mundane issue of employees arguing with customers over comic books. Denis, our P.I., infers that maybe someone is stealing the comics….to re sell them! He’s gotta look more into that though, one can never be sure with crimes like these. Charles Stiles of Mystery Diners ensures Vlane that “...At the end of the day, you’ll have your answers, I can assure you of that!” and we are thrust into the STING.
(today’s Control Room. Vlane’s exclamations of “SO HIGH TECH” leave the viewer breathless at such an astonishing show of technology.)
We go over camera placements (not as detail heavy as earlier episodes, lasting only a few seconds) and once again go over our suspects. Gary is said to be our least likely suspect, thought Vlane doesn’t have many negative comments regarding any of the suspects. Denis returns with nothing bad to say about the employees either. He says that all the local pawn shops no nothing of the stolen artifacts and it seems like this case may be lost forever… Until he whips out his 1999 Padger to show that he did indeed find the comics being auctioned off online. It seems as though the
comics have already been *gasp* sold! Denis leaves his “pad” with Charles Stiles of Mystery Diners just in case any other comics pop up.
(Our Mystery Diner for today.)
We are introduced to our Mystery Diner Beatrice (who makes sure let the audience how tasty the food is and how knowledgeable the staff is about comics). THis mini commercial is cut show by Gary arguing who the better batman is with a customer. The tensions run high in this scene, and they soon burst as the custmer Omar storms out. Or rather, is basically thrown out by Gary.
(Even the customers tremble at such a heated debate.)
We are then introduced to the most bizarre thing in this restaurant, Bellona. This is a young woman hired by Vlane to cosplay as his comic book character and walk around the shop for a few hours a few times a week. While Charles Stiles of Mystery Diners believes they should keep a close eye on her, Vlane is adamant in defending his “heroine.” Charles Stiles of Mystery Diners solemnly reminds our hero that “Even superheroes have their weakness.” Faux Bellona, or Jessica, seems to be well liked by the staff and customers alike (probably because of her super costume….), though there is one issue. She gives away copies of Vlane’s comic for free and eats lunch there without paying (to which Vlane remarks that eating burgers is far out of character for Bellona, a devout vegetarian.). This seems to be the first seeds of doubt that have sprung into our protagonist’s heart.
(Our Second Mystery Diner)
After a sequence with more hijinks and misconduct with Jessica, we are introduced to our second Mystery DIner, whose job it is to tempt the employees into buying a very rare comic.
THe idea is that the crooked criminal will tell the clueless customer that his comic is worth very little, when in fact its worht $300. That, and Action Burger is NOT a collector. Keenan, our cashier, passes the test but one other unlikely--it’s Jessica. She tells the simple minded store goer that the comic is worthless (which CHareles Stiles of Mystery Diners assures us that he checked HIMSELF! ITS IN MINT CONDITION!) and to sell it her for a few bucks. Very….suspicious.,.......could she be….no….not the heroine! Maybe this isn’t the case.
Jessica goes into Vlane’s office (a huge no-no) and snaps a pic of the comic to post online. THrough the “pad,” Charles Stiles of Mystery Diners informs VLane that the comic has just appeared on the auction website for sale!!!!!!!! Having had enough Vlane storms done to the office, ready to confront the super hero gone bad. This is the explosive confrontation that everythinghas been leading up to! At the Control room is where all this tension...BURSTS! Jessica insists that she’s giving away comics to promote business and accuses Vlane of not feeding her on the clock. Vlane corrects her saying that Bellona doesn’t need food, what with being a biomechanical alien and all. Oh and uh, also that giving books away fro free isn’t cool. Or something. Jessica then proceeds to call the Mystery Diner a dumb ass and VLane once again has to correct her in saying that super heroes dont take advantage of people! Seems like Jessica was always rotten to the core. After telling her that she is undeserving of such a noble outfit, he fires her and she storms out. Oh and she steals the costume. Next he confronts Gary….It’s pretty boring. Gary just makes a few excuses and is put on probation for a few months. Vlane promises to name a burger after CHarles Stiles Mystery Diners, Jessica pays the money back, the staff is reprimanded, he hires a new actor and everything isfine. That guitar riff closes the door on this case.
And that was that, my god where to begin? First off one of the main issues with this episode, and this show in general, is the man himself: Charles Fucking Stiles. With any other show of this nature, the one thing that usually holds it together is a fun host. Say what you will about Guy Fieri, he is still entertaining to watch. He emotes and reacts is ways that are fun for the audience and can keep your attention for the full length of the show. Charles Stiles of Mystery Diners is none of these things. He cannot act. Which isn’t saying much considering no one in this how has any acting abilities (yes, even the hired actors suck.). But Charles Stiles of Mystery Diners is a special kind of bad acting: he’s bland as hell. There is little to no emotion in any line he says. It is always in the same tone of voice and the same inflection. This becomes really noticeable when you realize all of his dialogue is the same few lines with the name of the current restaurant stuck into them. It is quite similar to an rpg where every playthru the npc says the same thing; the only difference in thier dialogue would be that your name is changed. His facial expression is blank the entire show. One has to wonder why the camera even bothers cutting to him half of the time. It doesn’t matter if there is a brawl going on or “hilarious” hijinks with the employees, his face will never change. Maybe a smile may peek through but it is pretty hard to tell.
As mentioned before, not only is our host about as engaging as a rock, the others in the show don’t do much better in the acting department. The restaraunt owners, employees, mystery diners and sometimes other players in the episode are all acting, that is obvious. The thing is, all of them either under act or over act. Take this episode, Action Burger, for example. It is obvious that Vlane was given lines to recite but his delivery is absolutely horrible, though that is not really his fault. He’s not an actor so of course he wouldn’t give a great performance. I think what makes it so bad is that it seems like none of the crew gave this man any direction. This is also an issue in many episodes. There are instances of Charles Stiles of Mystery Diners telling someone to look somewhere but both end up looking in two totally different places. At one point in the episode, Vlane says a line that I think is supposed to be for the audience to laugh at but Charles Stiles of Mystery Diners just looks at him, looks away, and then immediatly looks back at him as if he did a double take. In fact, i don’t think ANYONE is given much direction. Poor Vlane sometimes has no idea what reaction to give to some lines so he just stares blankly awaiting his cue for his turn to recite his memorized lines. Again, I believe this is mostly due to incompetence on the crew’s part. There is a scene where Gary argues with a customer about the best batman and the customer’s acting is so forced it’s unbelievable. The man seems like he’s sleepwalking through the scene. Some extras in the background have no idea what to do and where to go; alot of them either stand around or flail around. Though, I have read that most fo the people seen in the background aren’t actors but actual restaurant goers. I am not sure how true this information is, though. Either way, it’s bad. Jessica’s acting is...wow. It trully is something. At the end during the Confrontation, she tries to “tell off” everyone but it comes off as awkward and weird. She walks up to a customer who is ordering her food and talks over her to her son. It is the most awkward way to approach someone for a conversation not to mention just...confusing.
Here we see her talking right in front of the mother to the son. Why didn’t she just walk up to the son? And no, she was not right there and just struck up a conversation. SHe got up from across the restaurant and walked purposefully to that spot, and THEN started talking. And yes the mother is trying to order food while Jessica is talking to the son.
Here, she reaches over the mother to give the son a book. Who in the world shot this and thought it was fine, this is the most awkward thing to watch! First off she is FAR too close to the mother, who is a STRANGER that she doesn’t know. Second, she just reaches over her like that and the mother doesn’t react at all! She also continues talking while the mother is trying to order. I know this is meant to be “reality” but scenes like this show just how little direction these actors were given. It’s so clunky and awkward it becomes hard to watch. It’s embarrassing. This is not an isolated thing, many episodes have bad actor placements like this. People just don’t know where to stand or what to do with their bodies, giving scenes very boxed in feeling or a cramped feeling. It’s weird and awkward and thoroughly unpleasant to sit through at times!
While this episode wasn’t a big offender of it, the sound mixing in this show can be passable to laughable. At times it’s obvious that lines are added in or dubbed over in post. Sometimes, with his back turned, Charles Stiles of Mystery Diners’ disembodied voice is heard, even though it is very obvious that he didn’t actualy say anything. He comments on things often time with no reaction from anyone almost as if he wasn’t….in the room! Plus, whenever a line is added in there is a noticeable change in audio quality. Once you pick up on it, it’s impossible NOT to notice. The editing can get a lil weird too, cutting to angles of the same scene that just loook….weird. This one is a bit harder to explain in words but just watch a few episodes. The camera cuts to something else obviously trying to not focus on something, but the thing we aren’t supposed to be focusing on is still in the shot, maybe a little off to the side! Which makes you want to focus on it MORE. Again, watch an episode and you will know what i mean.
There is sometimes this uncomfortable image of employees that this show often shows. It makes it seem like if an employee doesn’t absolutely love their job and everything it stands for, then they are bad and probably a crook. Many times a boss will jump to wanting to straight up fire an employee for making one negative remark. And it’s often these “negative” employees that end up being the criminal masterminds in charge of some intricate scam to con custmers and the boss out of money. It all seems a bit mean spirited towards workers. It’s like this weird sort of fear mongering for employers, “BE CAUTIOUS OF ANY EMPLOYEE THAT DOESN'T BEND OVER BACKWARDS FOR YOUR COMPANY!” Maybe i’m over thinking it. I mean, i hve to be if i sat and wrote this, right?
