Justin Timberlake's "TKO," the second slight single from The 20/20 Experience – 2 of 2, is appropriately named. His totally unnecessary comeback within a comeback during the second half of 2013 has been fueled by a mix of smarmy "Ya miss me?" swagger and ignorable, warmed-over "Suit & Tie" radio concessions that work well enough. Technically, Timberlake's on top, maybe even taking a victory lap, but it's a mostly hollow, half-assed victory. Like a technical knock-out. Who else do we even have from the monoculture to get excited about in 2013? JT wins by ducking out and returning after all his mid-'aughties competitors tapped out.His comeback video output plays it safe, as well. After winning 'Video of the Year' for the oldsploitation clip for "Mirrors," as well as the 'Video Vanguard' award at the MTV Music Video Awards back in September, "TKO" is another video that looks pretty nice and comes with a "Woah, bro" concept, but falls flat if you consider it for a few seconds. Why does this matter?We already established thatTimberlake's videos are impressive only in the sense that they are expensive acts of slumming it and how that's enough in 2013 to put you on the "vanguard," if you ask MTV. Well, it's worth repeating and repeating and repeating because as video budgets dwindle and the number of videos that have any possibility of ending up anywhere other than YouTube diminishes, one of the few guys with any access or resources making such meh fare to lots of acclaim is a problem for the ahem, "artform" of music videos."TKO," directed by Ryan Reichenfeld, who did that mad obvs video for Wild Nothing's "Only Heather" where the dude walks around with a sword through his chest and nobody even notices (because, heartbreak, man), and the No Age clip for "Life Prowler" where a bike bounces around Los Angeles with nobody riding it (because childhood, man), jumps between Timberlake and girlfriend arguing and Timberlake getting dragged by a truck to his death by said girlfriend. At the end of the video, JT's vengeful lady (because oh, aren't they all?) rolls out of the car action movie-style and watches the truck and JT go off the end of a cliff.Typical "woman are crazy vindictive shrews" type crap for sure, though even that trope has been adjusted by other pop egoists in a have your cake and eat it too way. There's the Spike Jonze-directed video for Kanye West's "Flashing Lights," which finds Kanye murdered with a shovel by model Rita G in the middle of the desert. It's still a kind of hyper-paranoid, freaked-out femme fatale riff, but it's truly brutal, and in part, seems like Kanye atoning for rap music's objectifying sins. To be crass about it, it's "the video hoe's revenge." Shit man, even something as stupid and offensive as Toby Keith's "A Little Too Late" video, wherein the patriotic yokel is shown sealing his ex-girlfriend behind a concrete wall, ends by revealing that silly ol' Toby accidentally sealed himself behind the wall, and now the power is in his ex-girlfriend's hands. "TKO" can't even half-step its misogyny like Kanye and Keith.And why the hell is Timberlake dragged by a pick-up truck in this thing? No one thought of the hate crime associated with this violent act? Google "James Byrd Jr.," who was dragged for three miles by three racist Texans in 1998, if the torture JT endures in the video just seems cinematic or "edgy" to you. To make matters worse, Timberlake's dragging is unrealistic and almost cartoon-ish, trivializing such a violent act and removing any of its dramatic weight, which would actually assist the video's emotional impact. A video where Timberlake is dragged, semi-realistically – you know, suffering a few bruises, at least – would support the song and video's relationship-as-violent-throwdown concept more effectively. Gonna play armchair video director here and suggest a video for "TKO" that recreates the scene in Only God Forgives where Ryan Gosling gets straight up wrecked by Vithaya Pansringarm. JT as Gosling, girlfriend as Pansringarm.As is, "TKO" is a whole bunch of smart for a frat boy film school conceptualizing with a nice dose of clueless misogyny thrown in there. Although a song that features Timbaland, doing his Uncle Phil from Fresh Prince rumble and going, "She kill me with the coochie," while Timberlake tells his girl, between boxing-as-fucking-and-arguing metaphors, "there's something inside that made you evil," probably doesn't deserve better.Brandon Soderberg didn't change his Twitter name for Halloween. Follow him - [@notrivia](http://twitter.com/ notrivia)
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