The Undervault

I had the bar job by now. So who’s Beetlejuice? Just some dickbag trying his luck with my girlfriend.

When you’ve got a powerhouse like Paul Giamatti signed up, you’re going to want to focus on him for as long as possible, and this one doesn’t disappoint. More than ably assisted by Patsy Ferran, the episode is a very stripped down, two-person affair. And affairs are the name of the game. The tale at its core is one of criss-crossing infidelity, revenge and hard drinking, culminating in a funeral. I won’t spoil it, but it’s up there with the most emotionally draining episodes in the series, if not the whole lot.

The Undervault is the name of a bar in Brooklyn where Giamatti’s character Phillip and Ferran’s character’s mother Carol have a blazing argument after his shift working there. I’ve been to New York before, but can’t say with any authority whatsoever what you would consider a ‘famous’ bar there. In Brooklyn or otherwise. So internet to the rescue. Kind of. Nothing really jumped out and made me think ‘oh yeah, I’ve seen this before’, so what I’ve done is a mish-mash of different establishment logos, notably this (the place has a ‘coop’ area – very relevant to the show), this (the outline around the text I liked and is emulated here) and this (neon colours, let’s fucking go). Either way, I clearly didn’t do enough drinking while I was there to become aware of any of these places.

That’s a lie. Obviously I drank loads. I was on holiday and I’m British. So it’s kind of the rules. Speaking of which, the filming location for the scene was nowhere near Brooklyn and actually took place in The Victoria, a pub in Dalston that’s roughly fifteen minutes walk from where I live in real life.

I’ve half a mind to head on down there wearing this and pointing to it knowingly, winking ‘remember the halloween party back in ’91, lads?!’ To probably completely blank expressions. Partially because any staff would undoubtedly be born after 1991.

Which is almost as tragic as this episode (to me, at least).