Scott Pilgrim Takes Off Gets Ridiculously Meta In Its Fourth Episode
Heavy spoilers for "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off" to follow.
Doing adaptations of work that have already been adapted into a beloved piece of media is a near-impossible task. How do you stand apart from the version audiences are so familiar with without trying to compete or tamper with that version? How do you do things differently without being unrecognizable? How do you do things similar enough without feeling like a copy?
The best new adaptations are those that reinvent the original material, those that look at what the more popular adaptation skipped or didn't do, and take the chance to explore different aspects of the source material. It's how the "Watchmen" TV show managed to be both a remake, a prequel, and a sequel to the iconic comic. Or how the live-action "One Piece" managed to tell things the anime didn't get to.
Now, the "Scott Pilgrim" comic book is getting the adaptation no one asked for, yet we needed. The anime "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off" is a rare adaptation that brings back the exact same cast as the previous adaptation — the excellent live-action film by Edgar Wright — but also tells a vastly different story. What starts as a more straight adaptation of the Bryan Lee O'Malley comic quickly veers off as the show tells its own original story while still following the same beats as the comic.
And yet, there is one episode where we do get a glance at the version of the story fans had known for the past 13 years, in an episode that is hilariously meta.
The set-up
At the end of the first episode, Scott Pilgrim loses his first fight and seemingly dies. This has big repercussions for everyone, including "Young" Neil, Sex Bob-omb's roadie/fanboy. For him, Scott's death is a wake/up call. Neil ends up getting some divine inspiration from a sleep paralysis demon and writes a screenplay inspired by Scott's life — all in one night.
In a hilarious turn of events, the script becomes the hottest story in Hollywood. It instantly becomes a movie, titled "Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life," which is the title of the show's first episode, and the title of the first volume of the comics.
The fake film is all a big nod to Edgar Wright's version of "Scott Pilgrim." It is directed by one Edgar Wrong, and shot by Jan de Pope (a combination of cinematographers Jan de Bont and Bill Pope, the latter of whom shot Wright's live-action adaptation). Playing Scott is superstar Lucas Lee (at least at first) while Envy Adams plays Ramona Flowers (something that would make Scott roll in his grave, to be honest). After complaining about casting a straight actor to play him, Wallace talks his way into playing himself.
Because it's a rather outlandish story about a man killing the exes of the girl he's hoping to date like it's a video game, absolutely no one on set can even imagine it is based on real people. Some of the funniest moments in the episode come from the huge confusion on set whenever one of Scott's real friends shows up — they think they are really committed auditioners and method actors. Making matters more confusing, Ramona decides to take a job as the stunt double for the actor playing her.
The joke
The episode, and the following episode about a behind-the-scenes documentary about the movie, are funny and brilliant not just because of how they poke fun at the movie adaptation and Hollywood in general. What truly makes it land is that the two episodes serve as commentaries on adaptations.
You see, the story Neil wrote had to be Scott Pilgrim, specifically the version of the story that had already been adapted. That's because it's the version of the story fans expected out of "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off." Many (myself included) expected a retelling of the comic, the same story from the 2010 movie but with different looks for the characters, and little else.
That is not this show, however. This show is smarter than that. Rather than show you what you already know, "Scott Pilgrim Takes Off" takes the basic elements of the story (confronting exes, cool and weird video game visuals) and uses that familiarity to tell a completely original story that focuses on the smaller characters that the original story kind of left on the sides. Young Neil may not be the screenwriting genius that Edgar Wrong thinks he is, but he is a weird little guy with a sleep paralysis demon who can seemingly look at other realities and deliver hot scripts.
"Scott Pilgrim Takes Off" is now streaming on Netflix.