Main cast: Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Gail), Topher Grace (Rob), John DiMaggio (Mike), and Roger Craig Smith (Sam)
Director: Tim Miller
Ice Age is what happens when Gail and Rob move into their new home and discover a miniature tableau of life as we know it on Earth unfolding in rapid acceleration in an antique fridge that comes with the place. These two even take on the appearances of their voice actors, so this is as close as one can get to a fanfic of that dude from That ′70s Show and uh… is Mary Elizabeth Winstead of any relevance aside from being the wench that stole Ewan McGregor from his wife?
I’m sure there is a fanfic of these two somewhere—we’re talking about the Internet, after all—and well, those folks that ship these two can rejoice because… oh wait, this is one of those philosophical episodes so nothing really happens aside from a deep dive into Eric Forman’s navel.
Well, this is a visually attractive episode, although the human characters have pure uncanny valley realness to them, but Topher Grace sounds like he’s reading out lines from a sheet of paper while under a good amount of sedation. Did they drug and kidnap him to the studio, and then force him to read out his lines, or something?
I do wonder if his detached-sounding self was a deliberate creative choice, as I suppose one can argue that this whole episode could be an allegory about divine power creating life and then, at first, going “This is so cute!” and then, eventually closing the fridge door and pretend nothing is happening in there. If that were the case, then Eric sounding so detached and aloof could make sound.
Ms Winstead, however, is doing her best to emote like a human being, so I’m sure then what her deal is. Maybe she just got paid more than Mr Grace.
It’s also a shame that the couple don’t seem to care about the possibility that they have been given a glimpse into how life on Earth will end one day.
The whole thing is watchable, but it’s definitely a filler episode.
In a way, Ice Age is a nice encapsulation of the essence of this episode itself. It has something that could have been profound in its hands, but it just kind of throws up everything in a rather negligent and absent-minded way, and ends up being far more superficial and even banal than it thinks it is. How’s that for being meta?
