Everything that is wrong in „Mozart in the Jungle“, season 4, episode 9 „I want you to think of me“
Rodrigo is back! And this time he has to manage a household with dozens of kids, as Hailey has morphed into an uncontrollable birthing machine…no wait, it was a dream!
As the lovable series about classical musicians arguing, doing drugs and having lots of sex starts its 4th season, the writers are clearly on the look for new and crazy ideas to keep Rodrigo busy (he’s a social worker! he’s a waiter! he’s a philosopher!), Pembridge in the picture (he teaches Hailey! he humps Gloria! he’s a pop star!) and Hailey as lovable as possible (she’s a talented conductor! she teaches tweeting kids! she visits her parents!).
Of course this also means that a lot of stuff is going on that would never happen in real life classical music world. Or would it? Let’s find out…
1) 2:15. It is weird that a crazy modern avantgarde (!) composer would describe this harmless sounding passage as a „dystopian nightmare“. Has he only been listening to Arvo Pärt and nothing else?
2) 2:30 Rodrigo stops conducting and the orchestra plays on much too long…
3) 2:40 With the passage just rehearsed „playing with the blood“ (a term no sane musician would use by the way) wouldn‘t cut it, as it seemed to be mostly about rhythmic precision.
4) 3:30 Rodrigo is fussing about the oboe part, but the oboe had practically nothing to play in the section that was rehearsed. Why would „playing with the blood“ be important here? It would rather be „counting rests with the blood“. Ok, Rodrigo seems to be at the end of his tether here, so it probably all makes sense…
5) 7:15 That Arlen wants to quit is a bit strange – If a conductor behaved as crazily as Rodrigo the musicians would hope that the conductor (!) is quitting instead. Also Rodrigo never seems to be overtly aggressive to people, just generally crazy. There are much worse conductors regarding human interaction than him!
6) 9:15 Rodrigo is lifting his hands and hasn‘t even told the kids what piece they‘re gonna play! Again, he is obviously confused…
7) 10:50 Thomas and Gloria are screaming at the top of their lungs in a prestigious museum, but neither the security nor the other visitors seem to bother…
8) 14:30 Morton Norton is a renaissance freak, but offers Absinth, a spirit that didn‘t exist at all in Renaissance times! And he is pouring it in the wrong glass without any water dilution, which is not the way to drink absinth! After all his attention to minutiae this seems an odd oversight…
8) 17:11 „so beautiful“….Rodrigo wasn‘t even listening, playing the stupid electrocution game!
9) 24:00 how did Rodrigo physically get into the hall of the dance rehearsal? Is it all a dream? It will be a dream, right? No dream, just end credits? What?
Moritz Eggert
Komponist
