Sunday Game Night falls flat

[Note: Last names have been redacted from the original emails.]
From: Nathan
To: Game Friends

Game Friends,

Every production of Sunday Game Night poses challenges to even a seasoned director: there is a fine balance between appealing to a traditionalist aesthetic and simply being derivative. Sadly, on this basis I cannot recommend seeing Sunday Game Night this weekend (5pm Sunday, Nathan’s apartment). While I applaud the decision to focus on an audience-participation concept, Nathan’s decision to cast himself in the lead role is baldly hubristic and his performance is underwhelming at best. In cutting most of the supporting roles, the familiar story arc of Sunday Game Night has been almost completely obscured—even the famous chase scene has been removed. And don’t even get me started on how cliché it is to serve nachos at Sunday Game Night!

Perhaps the only redeeming quality to this production is the price—all you need is to bring some drinks or snacks. If you have nothing else to do, at the very least Sunday Game Night will fill a few hours this Sunday.

★★☆☆☆

From: Lauren
To: Game Friends

Open Letter to Game Productions Quarterly

Dear Editor,

I am writing to complain about the frankly misogynist review of the B      /M       Sunday Game Night production (mischaracterized as Mr. B      ’s production alone). Sunday Game Night is accepted by all reasonable people as an ensemble production, yet the reviewer goes against all tradition when he (I think I can safely assume “he”) identifies a “lead role”– a male role, no surprise. This erases the prominent and recurring female roles on whose participation, banter, and dietary sensitivities the core dynamic of Sunday Game Night we all know and love was built.

Where is the discussion of Ms. M      ’s warm reprisal of the role that made her famous? Or the signature humor with which Ms. B       falls asleep on the couch, one of the longest-running performers in that role? This long-time reader can only assume the reviewer treated their roles as unimportant because he sees women as unimportant.

Well, GPQ can say goodbye to my subscription dollars. And if anyone wants to see a truly innovative, ENSEMBLE production of Sunday Game Night, I will be in the role of Humorless Feminist this weekend.

I only wish the reviewer had remembered what every true Sunday Game Night lover knows: it takes more than one to play a game. Usually it takes four.

Sincerely,
Lauren B      

From: Kyle
To: Game Friends

Service was terrible (no one would take my order), apparently the games “aren’t for sale”, when I mentioned how white privilege hasn’t made me rich someone started telling me about something called “intersectionality”, and the cat plays obvious favorites.

5/5 Available parking and would eat nachos again

★★★★★