Ability (Now With Effort!)

Ability (Now With Effort!) was the fourteenth episode of FMF Season 3, it premiered August 19, 2015. It was written by Chad Garcia and performed by Carlos Farrell and John Leca. It was based on the Creepy Pasta "Ability" and was a remake of the Season 1 adaptation of the story. It can be viewed Here.

Production
During the FMF Unboxed episode Hitchhiking and Sliders the question is asked if there was a story FMF had done that they ultimately disappointed with, to which Phil explains that they've never been satisfied with Ability. They felt the visuals were lazy and was no where near the definitive version of that story. Ultimately it was decided to remake the episode with a fresh take. Chad Garcia re-wrote the story changing the setting and a few other details, and John Leca was cast as the homeless man. John had previously worked with Inanimate Object Productions on their web series #Blacksuits and had provided costumes for Salvatore Guerisoli's short film Brothers. The making of this episode was documented in the FMF Unboxed episode Do-Overs and Molinjor

Summary
A man living in San Francisco, Ca muses about a strange homeless man he finds while taking the Subway train to work one day. The homeless man is muttering to himself and heckles random passer bys calling them names like Snap Pea, Swine, Human, Rabbit, Onion, and Sheep. Finally curiosity gets the better of our protagonist who decides to ask the homeless man what the heckles mean, is the man crazy or does he have some sort of psychic ability? The homeless man explains that he's not crazy and that he does in fact have a psychic ability, however it is nothing spectacular. He can't tell the future or give fortunes, he can simply tell the last thing someone ate. The protagonist laughs realizing that the man said 'Toast' when he approached him and he was right, the last thing he ate was toast with Jam. He walks away shaking his head realizing how useless that ability must be.

The visuals depict a busy subway station in San Francisco with people rushing past the homeless man from the story who is seem muttering to himself. The final shot depicts a glimpse of what the world must look like to the homeless man as words hover over the heads of passersby including; Pineapple, Steak, Coffee, Oatmeal, Beltane, and Potato.

Reception
The episode received generally favorable reviews. Some commenters wished that the twist had been spelled out in the end, which the FMF team said would spoil the fun. One commenter compared the current style of FMF to their earlier work praising the more minimalistic approach of the first season, to which the team responded "We truly are glad that you enjoy our earlier efforts, but in all honesty our first year was pretty much us feeling around in the dark trying to find our voice. We never wanted to be just another Creepy Pasta channel doing what everyone else was doing. We always wanted to push the boundaries of what the genre could be and present captivating content that no one else was producing. Who knows, maybe season 4 will be more varied with a mix of different styles. Time will tell."