2ACV11: How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back First UK airing: Sky One, 7:00pm, 4-6-00 "Jamaican? I thought you were some kind of outer space potato man!" Well, Dilbert may have been cancelled, but at least all those unused storylines of outrageous bureaucratic nightmares didn't go to waste. In fact, the head bureaucrat actually looked as though he could have come from the pen of Scott Adams rather than Matt Groening. If that was a deliberate joke, it's one aimed solely at cartoonists! 'Groove' (I'm not typing that title out again) was a so-so storyline livened up by some good gags. The main problem was that as a character, Hermes hasn't really been given enough setup -- even a year and a half into the show -- to carry an episode of his own. The other secondary cast members, Amy, Zoidberg and the Professor, have all had enough character snippets given to them in past episodes that when they actually got their own storylines they worked -- and besides, the three leads are always there to support them. But what do we know about Hermes? He's officious, he's Jamaican, he limbos and he's prone to being targetted by brain slugs. That's pretty much it. And when he finally gets an episode, he spends half of it away from the rest of the gang without any opportunities to bounce jokes off them. Zoidberg, on the other hand, is getting more outrageously desperate and pathetic by the week, to the point where he's making even Fry start to look smooth. (In fact, Fry's starting to catch up with Amy in the love interest stakes!) When the jokes worked, they were good -- especially Bender's bolt in the locker, which led to the best masturbation gag since 2ACV05. The earwax candle and the Professor's insane freakout were genuine laugh-raisers too (and we found out that it's not just Amy the Professor's hired for reasons other than competence). And I have to admit that I found Hermes' song pretty catchy. But overall, it really did have the feel of a Dilbert episode -- one of those not-very-funny ones where it goes eight steps beyond the edge and involves the destruction of Western civilisation. I guess that when it comes down to it, limbo dancing is funnier than paperwork. Still, it gets an extra mark for the Big Trouble In Little China reference. A couple of final trivial notes -- poor Amy's getting left behind after her big role in 'Put Your Head On My Shoulders' -- she only got seven (count 'em) actual lines, and for some of those the animators didn't even bother opening her mouth! Maybe she's training to become a ventriloquist. One last thing, which I'm almost certain wasn't deliberate since nobody in America knows who he is, but one of the bureaucrats (the one with the beard) is the spitting image of British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, a ginger gargoyle of a man. Oddest thing I've seen for ages! Rating: