Benny is caught in a desperate fight for her life. A fight so desperate that she will be forced to do the worst thing in the world!
Benny is caught in a desperate fight for her life. A fight so desperate that she will be forced to do the worst thing in the world!
The Worst Thing in the World
The Worst Thing in the World is an odd one. Fans/detractors of television will find a lot to comment on, of almost any genre leading from reality television to casual soaps. Dave Stone takes an extremist stance against the ‘drama-mongering’ (word I made up) aspect where directors/writers force unnatural, unrealistic positions forwards to try and heighten the drama and drum up interest in the program. Yes, all fiction does stem from controversy, and if reality TV was devoid of a competitive element there’d be no point watching it, but here he shows a nightmare vision of a world at the other extreme, where the chefs are carrying knives… Sharp deadly knives… And they’re armed to kill…To the max!!! All night long, every Saturday, right across your living room.
Jason seems to have been getting a lot of attention recently, he essentially played the leading role in the Tartarus Gate and here he solidly occupies the first fifteen minutes by discovering the Drome in a misguided attempt to drum up publicity for his books. Dave Stone is not shy of throwing around expletives here, and this may be the most profane Bernice to date, but perhaps it’s just in preparation for what’s coming next (spoilers???). Besides, given a world where everything is TO THE EXTREME and a man who is part A: comedy sidekick and B: Makes a living selling porn, the context is forgivable.
There aren’t many new characters in this story. Dave Stone has created a world, a living breathing world, but its inhabitants are purely functional and are there to show that they exist and this world has quirks. The entire point seems to be that this world is held up like a mirror for Bernice and Jason to stare into and see what comes out. A musical finale with butterflies and cake was not expected.
Oh god, the song. It could, it should, have been awful. It really, really should be absolutely rubbish but my god they somehow got away with it. After an hour long build-up in this mad, hectic rollercoaster of drama how else could it all of ended. Some authors would have Bernice and Jason fleeing, accepting there was nothing they could do to help this poor world or its inhabitants and left it on a ‘sad, downbeat’ ending. Others would have come up with a last minute twist that would allow Bernice to save the day. Only Dave Stone seems to be prepared to admit the whole shebang is completely preposterous and end on that very solid, very unusual note.
I can’t hold this up as the pinnacle of the series, it’s probably not even close, but if you get the references and the sense of humour here then there’s probably something for everyone. The music is completely overdone (the repeating theme tune had me and my brother in stitches, but only because we were stuck in traffic) and the acting, well, everyone’s ‘given it their best’ so to say. When I describe it as hammy this is a rare case when I’m not doing it a disservice.
A very strange sense of humour, but it just about succeeds for sheer ballsiness.
7 / 10