It should be no surprise to any of you that I’m a Scott Pilgrim fanatic — it’s a subject I’ve written about here a few times before, including one of my favorite pieces I’ve ever published about how Scott Pilgrim defined both my 20s and the 2000s as a decade. It should also be no surprise, then, that I was over the moon when Netflix announced that it would be releasing the first ever Scott Pilgrim animated series, co-written and developed by Bryan Lee O’Malley, the creator, writer, and artist of the Scott Pilgrim comics, and featuring the returning voices of the movie’s entire cast. What could possibly be cooler?!
In the lead-up to Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, O’Malley told fans not to expect the show to be a retread of previous incarnations of the story, but I don't think I paid that statement as much attention as I should have. I expected Takes Off to be a more faithful adaptation of the original comics, including the plot points and character development the movie had to excise for time, just perhaps with updated jokes to keep things fresh.
I’ve never been happier to be wrong. Having just finished the first episode, it’s clear that Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is its own beast entirely, a story interested in subverting expectations of fans and deconstructing the original material to view it from an entirely new angle. The possibilities feel endless, and I am so energized by this show that I have decided that I’m going to write up my blind reactions about each episode here on this newsletter. This means that I will write about each episode after I’ve watched it before moving onto the next.
Before I dive deep into the first episode, story details, and spoilers, though, I just want to heap praises on pretty much every other aspect of Takes Off. I feel in love with Takes Off the moment it opened with its very own anime theme song, and the anime-styled animation is absolutely gorgeous, featuring charming designs and staging throughout the more slice-of-life sequences and fluid, dynamic action when the fights begin. The music is entirely original — new Sex Bob-omb songs! — and a ton of fun, and best of all, the voice acting really works! Not every live action actor can transition over to voice acting (see: the awkward vocal performances on Marvel’s What If?), but just about every cast member here is up to the task, with some even unlocking new dimensions to their character. Its the perfect presentation of a story I can’t wait to dive into, so without further adieu, let’s talk about Episode One!
(Note: There will be unmarked spoilers for every episode I cover, as well as any previous episodes)
EPISODE ONE: SCOTT PILGRIM’S PRECIOUS LITTLE LIFE
The first volume of the Scott Pilgrim comic — as well as the first act of the movie, which covers that volume with about 90% accuracy — plays a fun little trick on the reader. The majority of the volume plays out as this charming slice-of-life story about Scott, his friends, and his romances, with only a few whispers of supernatural elements sneaking in around the edges. It works wonders to immerse readers in this world and endear them to the cast — and then, BAM, Matthew Patel appears and there’s an all-out video game battle, mystic powers, and even a song-and-dance number! It’s ridiculous in a way that’s both jarring and laugh out loud funny; it opens up the world of Scott Pilgrim to countless new possibilities, inviting readers along for a truly wild ride while also weeding out anyone who just isn’t going to get it (I’ve seen people walk out of the theater at this point in the movie). It’s one of my favorite things about the franchise.
Takes Off decides to forego this entirely. About halfway through Episode 1, the story cuts away to an entirely original scene featuring Gideon Graves — the eventual Big Bad of the story — and Ramona’s first Evil Ex, Matthew Patel. Not only does this scene introduce viewers to Gideon far earlier than any other adaptation, but it also spills the beans about everything that will happen later, making it incredibly explicit that Matthew is going to fight Scott long before he bursts through the wall of the Rockit. When I first got to this scene I didn’t hate the change, I just found it curious. Were the writers assuming that viewers were already too familiar with the twist to make it worthwhile? Maybe it was just an attempt to introduce serialization to the story sooner, which is something Netflix loves to do (See: the Cowboy Bebop live action adaptation).
Nope, wrong on both counts. This change wasn’t made to get rid of a “twist,” but to instead introduce a new one: when Scott and Matthew fight, Scott fucking loses, reducing him to a pile of coins, robbing the story of its protagonist, and leaving viewers in truly uncharted territory. Up until this point, Takes Off had been exactly what I expected it would be — a more faithful adaptation of the original comics with updated jokes to keep things fresh — but here it declares itself something radically new, a take as full of unlimited possibilities that that original appearance of Matthew Patel was nearly 20 years ago.
Before we move on, I’m curious: when you watched this episode, what did you think Scott’s defeat meant for him moving forward? While both the comics and movie treated Scott’s defeat of an Evil Ex as a kind of death, O’Malley has confirmed that Scott’s defeated opponents don’t really die, but basically just woke up on their mother’s couch, humiliated. I was expecting Scott to get some kind of re-do, and was curious to see what kind of new lessons and new path this would mean for him, but television critic Oliver Sava took something different from this change, expecting the series to carry on without Scott as a protagonist and focus more on the supporting cast. What did you think was going to happen to Scott when you reached the twist?
Stray Observations:
— Episode 1 fixes a stupid, frustrating plot hole that plagued both the comic and the movie: in both versions of the story, Scott receives the (ignored) e-mail from Matthew Patel declaring that they will be fighting for Ramona’s affections before Scott even asks Ramona out. There’s no reason for the League to challenge Scott if he isn’t actually dating Ramona! Takes Off instead opts to have Scott receive a (also ignored) letter of challenge from Matthew after his first date with Ramona, effortlessly mending the entire thing.
— Ramona referring to Wallace as Scott’s “Sugar Daddy” — and Scott not knowing what a Sugar Daddy is — is incredibly funny, and not entirely untrue.
— Knives Chau is oddly backgrounded in Episode 1. Volume 1 of the comics spends its entire first chapter establishing Scott and Knives’ relationship before even introducing Ramona (and the movie adds even more original material to this section1), but Takes Off skips straight to Ramona, simply using the caption boxes to say that we’ll find out more about Knives later. Knives is still there, she’s still “dating” Scott, and Gideon even identifies Knives as a weak point for Scott, but we barely see her and Scott exchange a single sentence. With Scott gone for now, perhaps we’ll get an episode of Knives’ POV later on in the series?
— In a similar vein, there’s not a single mention of Scott’s “Big Ex,” Envy Adams, in Episode 1 (or even of Scott having recently broken up with someone!), which feels significant when the first 3 volumes of the comic were, essentially, one big story about Scott finally getting over their break-up, and when that break-up influences pretty much everything Scott does in those volumes, from “dating” Knives to his reactions to Ramona. I’m incredibly curious to see what kind of role Envy will play in this new version of the story.
— When Wallace is remembering how Scott just showed up at his apartment one day and never went home, Scott replies by saying “That’s not how I remember it.” That simple line is actually hugely significant. There’s a recurring idea in the comics that didn’t make it into the film about how Scott constantly edits his own memories to make himself look better than he actually is; this starts out as a joke, but acknowledging this becomes a critical part of Scott’s development in the final volume and even leads to surprising new revelations about earlier events in the story. I am so excited to see how O’Malley further explores this idea in Takes Off.
— There’s some subtle, but welcome shifts in Ramona’s character in Episode 1. From the moment Scott asks Ramona out, it’s clear she legitimately does like him back, at least in some capacity; she’s still aloof and mysterious and out of Scott’s league, but also more outwardly affectionate, and there’s a palpable chemistry between the two even at their most awkward that wasn’t in previous adaptations of story, at least this early on. At first I thought this change was to address criticisms of the comic and especially the movie where it often appeared as if Ramona was barely tolerating Scott, but given the new twist in the story, I instead believe this change was to allow Ramona to be more believably upset at Scott’s ultimate defeat.
— This is now the third take on Ramona and Matthew Patel’s backstory, and it’s one element that’s almost identical between all three adaptations except for one tiny, tiny detail. In the comics, Ramona says that the jocks at their school were no match for the combination of “Matthew’s mystical powers and my brute strength.” The movie only mentions Matthew’s mystical powers, but Takes Off restores the original comic line and again includes the mention of Ramona’s brute strength. This tiny detail is actually incredibly important! The movie marginalized Ramona’s battle prowess; we only see her fight twice, whereas by the back-half of the comics we actually see her fighting far more often than Scott. To me, this tiny change is a sign that we’re going to be seeing Ramona fight a lot more in Takes Off, and I am here for it.
— I was mildly surprised to see Scott’s sister, Stacey Pilgrim, show up near the end of Episode 1. O’Malley famously based Stacey off his own real-life sister Stacey, and while the character played a significant role in the first two volumes of the comic, after that point he became uncomfortable using the character and reduced her role to cameos; the movie tinkered with her character to make Stacey a more caustic figure, but even there she mostly disappeared after the first act. I wonder if O’Malley has a new role in mind for Stacey in Takes Off, or if she’ll continue to just make token appearances.
— The movie pretty famously took jokes and plot points from the comics and moved them to different scenes or even entirely different characters, and I’m the kind of nerd who finds those kind of structural shenanigans absolutely fascinating. Therefore, it feels worth mentioning that Episode 1 takes a couple of different bits (Kim Pine’s line from the comic about Scott being “the best fighter in the province,” and Scott’s admission in both previous adaptations that he and Knives have never kissed, but did hold hands once) and gives them to Gideon Graves, of all people.
— I was way, way too happy that the joke about Scott’s X-Men patch made it into Episode 1 after being skipped in the comics.
— This isn’t specific to Episode 1, but I can’t help but wonder how this story is going to end now, even ignoring the complications created by the new twist. Scott and Ramona’s relationship was based on O’Malley’s relationship with his then-girlfriend, comic writer/artist Hope Larson, and O’Malley often said that whether Scott and Ramona would get together at the end of the series would depend on how things worked out between he and Larson. O’Malley and Larson married before Scott Pilgrim’s final volume, but have since divorced, and I have to wonder if that’s changed how O’Malley views Scott and Ramona’s relationship in the present day. Of course, Scott has to survive until the end of Takes Off for this to even matter…
Okay friends, that’s all I have for Episode 1! See you soon!
ABOUT
“Do You Know What I Love the Most?” is a newsletter from Spencer Irwin about his relationship with the stories he loves. Spencer is an enthusiast and writer from Newark, Delaware, who likes punk rock, comic books, working out, breakfast, and most of all, stories. His previous work appeared on Retcon Punch, One Week One Band, and Crisis on Infinite Chords, and he can be found on Twitter at @ThatSpenceGuy. If you like this newsletter, please subscribe and share with your friends!
The original ending of the movie actually had Scott and Knives getting back together rather than Scott and Ramona. Director Edgar Wright changed the ending when Scott and Ramona ended up together at in the finale of the comic, but there are still elements of the movie that seemed to be clearly leading up to this point, including Scott and Knives tag-teaming Gideon rather than Scott and Ramona and this additional material added to the Scott and Knives section in the first “chapter” of the movie.