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Star Trek: The Next Generation: Loud as a Whisper (1989)
One of my Favorites
There are a couple of plot holes in this episode, as another reviewer mentioned. Even so, it is one of my favorite ST:TNG episodes.
Howie Seago plays Riva, an extremely successful, deaf, peace negotiator. Very self-confident, but at the same time likeable. Piccard, Worf and Troi meet him, and are strangely unaware that he is deaf, and they almost act as if they had never met a deaf person before.
Riva has a chorus that speaks for him: one of the voices is the "scholar/artist," one is "harmony/balance," and the third is "warrior/Adonis." Riva is immediately attracted to Troi, and uses his "warrior/Adonis" voice to speak with her (the other members of the chorus speak to the other members of the crew).
They head to a planet that has had civil war for 15 centuries, and whose people look like cavemen. Unfortunately, one of these is against the peace process, and tries to assassinate Riva, but kills his chorus instead. Riva and the away team immediately return to the Enterprise.
The death of his chorus throws Riva into a tailspin. He is bereaved, his confidence is severely shaken, he is angry. He reacts as anyone would, and wants nothing more to do with the warring planet or its bloodthirsty people. He is also isolated, as his chief method of communication has been destroyed. At this point Piccard does something, which made me uncomfortable watching it: he grabs Riva by the head and shouts at him that he is not alone. Letting him know that he is not alone is fine; but I felt that grabbing him and shouting at him was inappropriate.
Data learns sign language so that Troi and Piccard can communicate with Riva. He is still unwilling to move forward with the negotiations, so Troi says she will try. The ensuing exchange between her and Riva is the best part of the episode, and a good solution is reached.
Howie Seago is a pleasure to watch in this excellent episode.
Matlock: The Cult (1989)
An excellent episode!
The episode opens with an angry father, William Austin (Jack Dodson), confronting the leadership of a cult, on their turf, to demand the return of his son, Dennis (Wallace Langham). Unfortunately, Dennis denies his father, and says the cult leader, Joshua Bradbury (Roger Davis, of "Alias Smith and Jones" fame) is his real father. An angry William is removed from the premises, swearing he will kill Joshua.
That night, young Dennis is bringing tea to Joshua's study, hears a gunshot, and bursts into the room to see the killer running away. He catches up to the killer, and sees that it is his father!
Based on Dennis' accusation, William is taken into custody and charged with murder. He hires Ben Matlock to defend him.
Ben and Michelle go to the cult property to do a little investigating, but they don't get far. Ben consults with cult deprogrammer Patrick Morrison (played by Earl Boen, one of my favorite character actors) who gives Matlock the inside scoop on cults and mind control. With the information learned, Matlock succeeds in getting his detective, Tyler Hudson (Kene Holliday) into the cult.
The rest of the show has a pretty good level of suspense.... will Tyler get brainwashed while he is working undercover? How will Matlock overcome Dennis' unshakeable testimony that his father murdered Joshua? Who is the real killer, and what is the motive?
This is a well-put-together episode, with a couple of good twists, and held my interest all the way through.
The Big Valley: My Son, My Son (1965)
Bitter Fruit
Robert Walker, Jr., plays the sociopath/psychotic Evan Miles in this episode from 1965, which predates his portrayal of "Charlie X" in the original Star Trek by one year. The main difference between the two characters is that Evan is malevolent, and Charlie X is a lost boy who never learned boundaries. In both cases they have reached a stage where it is too late to teach them.
The show opens with Audra's birthday celebration at the Barkley ranch. It is well-attended, everyone dressed to the nines, and Audra dances happily with several different men. Enter the Barkleys' long-time friends the Miles family - Wally (R. G. Armstrong), his wife Jenny (Katharine Bard), and their son, Evan (Walker), who has "been away" for years at school. Wally brought him back to help him run the family ranch. It is clear that Jenny has some serious misgivings about her son.
Evan sees Audra, beautiful and grown up after all these years, and cuts in so he can dance with her. As they are dancing, they talk, and it comes out that before Evan was sent away, during their last interaction as children, Audra slapped his face. She says she might do it again if he tries to kiss her.
She goes outside to get some fresh air, and he follows her. They kiss, but she is repelled and wants no more. She tries to leave, but he wrestles her into a gazebo, where he starts to force himself on her. She screams, and Heath comes to the rescue, punching Evan. This incident wrecks the party, and everyone leaves.
The next day, Victoria visits the Miles ranch to discuss the incident and to try to save the friendship. Since Audra told her mother that she might be to blame for leading Evan on, Victoria apologizes to them, in the hopes bygones will be bygones.
Evan is unhappy that his desires were thwarted and that Heath overpowered and embarrassed him. So he contaminates one of the Barkley water holes with alkali, then fences off the Miles property so that the Barkleys can't easily access other, more distant, watering holes. Heath tries to ride through with a string of thirsty horses, and Evan tries to stop him. Heath cuts the barbed-wire fence that Evan put up, Evan scares off Heath's horses by shooting off his rifle several times, and Heath gives Evan another drubbing.
This leads to further problems. Jenny recognizes that her son is sick, and wants Wally to do something, but Wally is in denial, to say the least, and accepts everything that Evan says.
Then there is a confrontation when 3 Barkley cows wander onto Miles' property. Wally decides to keep them as "payment" for the fence, but Nick and Heath demand they be returned. Evan shoots Heath in the arm. Wally sort of wakes up and decides to send Evan to San Francisco. Evan is angry about being sent away again.
Audra goes into town to get medicine for Heath, and Evan spots her. He rides to the Barkley ranch, and hides in the barn, waiting for Audra's return. This does not end well for anyone.
This series is set in the latter half of the 1800s, and it is interesting to watch how Audra blames herself throughout the episode for the unhappy events that occur - like women throughout the ages, she has been socialized to take the blame, while others excuse the men and do not hold them to account. But Victoria and Jenny know the truth, and Victoria has a serious talk with Audra about where the blame really lies. It is also interesting to see another theme: namely, how some people cannot ever hold their children responsible for anything. If Wally had dealt with Evan properly, instead of constantly sending him away and buying his way out of trouble, a lot of loss and tragedy could have been avoided.
All around an excellent, engaging episode.
The Big Valley: Day of the Comet (1966)
Good episode, but...
Generally this is a good episode. BUT....
The plot is that a man, Eric Mercer (Bradford Dillman), is about to be hanged by a posse of the US Cavalry, who blame him for the deaths of 63 men who had been under his command. He escapes and flees, with the posse in pursuit. He camps out on Barkley land, where he is discovered by Audra. He intrigues her because he is intelligent, gentle, and quotes poetry. Over a few short days they become very fond of each other, and in a dramatic scene he saves her from falling to her death. The Barkley men are looking for someone who has been poaching their cattle, and initially think it is him. But they discover that it was the cook for the posse. When they go to settle the matter, they are informed by the head of the posse, Alexander Morrison (Douglas Kennedy), that the posse is after Mercer, and why. The Barkleys don't give anything away, but they do demand an explanation from Mercer when they get home. He tells them the story from his point of view. He realizes he should leave, but stays because of Audra. The Barkleys try to protect him, but the inevitable tragic end comes to pass.
Here are the problems:
1) Mercer's escape from the posse should not have been possible. People being executed by hanging usually have their hands tied behind their backs.
2) The Barkley ranch was supposedly about 1,000 acres, which is a bit less than the size of 1,000 football fields. So Mercer should have been able to hide more successfully from the posse, if not from the Barkleys.
3) Jarrod Barkley is a lawyer. Why didn't he take steps to see that Mercer got a proper hearing, or at least present Mercer's point of view to the posse?
4) {comment on the series in general} Audra seems to fall in love quickly and easily with all sorts of ill-fated men - an overused plot device, especially since she is always so pure and innocent and never seems to learn.
5) {comment on the series in general} All the members of the Barkley family seem to bounce right back, in the last 4-5 minutes of the show, after undergoing loss, physical abuse and/or torture, or other trauma. At least in this episode Audra is allowed to mourn the loss of Eric. Bizarrely, though, in the last scene Jarrod turns up with a gold bracelet, saying that three days of mourning are enough, and that the bracelet should snap Audra out of her emotional slump. I'm glad the writers had Victoria set Jarrod straight here. But that scene makes you think that Jarrod considers Audra a shallow bubblehead.
Other than the questionable bits, this is generally a decent and watchable episode.
The Virginian: The Bugler (1969)
Interesting episode with multiple points of view
The Virginian comes upon a dead man tied to a dead tree. When he notices the U.S. Army canteen near the body, he places the body across his saddle and rides until he comes across a detail of the U.S. Cavalry. He gives them the body and goes on.
Cut to the U.S. Army outpost, where they are interring the dead man, who was Army Lieutenant Ben Carver (Mercer Harris). Presiding over the funeral is Col. Mark Hamilton (Morgan Woodward). As the funeral concludes, the bugler (Michael Burns) is ordered to play Taps, but refuses. He also disobeys an order to give the bugle to another officer, instead dropping it on the ground and stepping on it. He is then taken into custody for insubordination, and the punishment is 18 lashes, administered by the Colonel, who happens to be the bugler's father.
Subsequently, the bugler - Toby - flees the fort on a stolen horse, that he manages to cripple. The Virginian and the folks at Shiloh find him and take him in. He gives them a fake name and backstory.
The cat starts getting out of the bag, however, when the cavalry comes around looking for him. Clay Grainger (John McIntire) manages to fluff them off by not telling the whole truth. Part of the reason is that his niece, Elizabeth (Sara Lane) is developing a crush on Toby, and Clay feels he needs to hear Toby's side of the story before giving him up to the Army for further punishment. As it happens, Col. Hamilton is a childhood friend of Clay's. So Clay goes to the fort to speak with him, as well, and get his point of view.
An interesting episode, with good acting all around. Interesting to see the different points of view, how Lieutenant Carver and his death figure into the mix, and what inspires the behavior of the different characters. The resolution to the situation is satisfying.
The Big Valley: The Invaders (1965)
Good episode. Couple of plot holes.
Heath is out on the range, sees vultures circling, goes to investigate, and finds a dead cow. Unfortunately, a criminal band of rawhiders is laying in wait, and they shoot Heath before he can mount up and leave.
They only injure him though, and when they are going to strip the body, the leader of these brigands, Daddy Cade (John Dehner) finds Heath's cattle account booklet, stops his sons from finishing Heath off, and comes up with the plan to take Heath back home with the story that they saved him, and see if they can get a reward.
Victoria is very happy when they bring Heath back, and sends Audra to fetch the doctor. A young woman from the rawhiders band, Allie Kay (Yvonne Craig) has been caring for Heath. Although she is dirty and somewhat disheveled, she is not nearly as disgusting as everyone else in the group.
Unfortunately, the other Barkley men and most of the ranch hands are out on a cattle drive, although Victoria expects them to return that day. Shortly after the arrival of the rawhiders, Victoria receives a telegram that the men on the cattle drive will not be returning for another week, so she, Audra, the wounded Heath, Silas, and a ranch hand with a broken arm are the only people at the home.
Victoria gives Daddy Cade $100 as a reward and tells him that he and his people can sleep in the barn overnight. She almost manages to hide her fear and disgust. Daddy Cade, on the other hand, is disappointed, as he was hoping to receive at least $1,000. He and his band decide they are going to steal as much as they can.
The doctor (Noah Keen) comes and tends to Heath, and tells Allie Kay that the bandages she used on Heath are "filthy." When he leaves he tells Victoria to let Allie Kay get cleaned up. The doctor has a small role, but it is a good one, and definitely adds to the episode. He leaves and says he will return later.
The Barkleys are kind to Allie Kay, and not only have her take a bubble bath but gift her a beautiful new dress as well. Because of their kindness and because she clearly has feelings for Heath, she wants to protect them from the rawhiders.
Here are a couple of the plot holes:
-Victoria fears the rawhiders, yet leaves the telegram out where they can find it, and fails to secure the guns in the house.
-Daddy Cade will not let his sons kill the doctor, who leaves and does come back, and leaves again. The first time he leaves, it is understandable that the Barkley women do not ask him to send help. But the second time, why don't they ask him to get a message to the sheriff?
Emboldened with the knowledge that the Barkley men will not be returning for a week, the rawhiders "invade" the Barkley home (hence the episode title), remove all the guns to the barn, then eat and drink and slop around on the fine furniture to their hearts' content. Victoria hears the ruckus, sees what they're doing in the parlor, and angrily demands to know if this is how they repay her hospitality. (Hospitality? Really, Victoria? Letting them sleep in the barn?)
At this juncture, Daddy Cade points out that he has been a widower for 2 months, and he knows Victoria is a widow, and offers to marry Victoria so they can both satisfy their lustful desires. Victoria shows great restraint by neither laughing at the proposal, nor barfing on the carpet. Instead, she and Audra start to go upstairs, and Victoria tells Daddy Cade she needs to change into more appropriate clothing.
Upstairs, Allie Kay manages to smuggle a gun to Heath, and he covers the women while they sneak down the back stairway and out of the house, taking Silas with them. One of the rawhiders sees their escape, and informs Daddy Cade, who decides it's time to murder everyone on the property and make off with everything of value.
Heath manages to kill a couple of them, and as he leaves the house and faints, Daddy Cade is going to kill him but gets shot down by Victoria and Audra.
The acting is pretty good, especially Victoria's. The story is engaging. Of course you know none of the series' regulars are going to die, but there is suspense about the others. And of course if one thinks about the isolation and vulnerability in those days (and this episode brings that across), it adds to the story.
Overall a good episode.
Hawaii Five-O: A Woman's Work Is with a Gun (1975)
Very 1970s, Very Entertaining
Dina (Patricia Hindy), a drug addict, has no money but needs a fix. Her dealer (Jimmy Borges) tells her no go, and even rejects her offer of sex in exchange for drugs, telling her "the only thing you can do for me is turn my stomach." As he walks away, she shoots him and takes the drugs.
Later, after she has had her fix and cleans herself up, she goes to the Women's Center and meets up with a couple of friends she made there. All three women are in serious financial difficulty. At first Margaret (Dale Morse) and Fay (Patrecia Wynand) reject Dina's suggestion that they solve their problems by stealing the money they need. But after the hospital accounting office lowers the boom on Fay for the bills her son is racking up, and Margaret has to contend with her unpleasant sexist boor of a husband (Eugene Roche), they reconsider.
Their plan is not too bad: Dina and Margaret get on tour buses wearing wigs and glasses, and when the bus is in a fairly isolated location (i.e. Sherwood Forest), they make the driver stop, and rob all the passengers of their jewelry, money, cameras and other valuables. Then they force the driver to drive on while they run to the getaway car that Fay is driving.
It works the first few times but then one time, one of the passengers won't cooperate, and unstable Dina goes wild and shoots out the windows of the bus.
5-0 is working on the killing of the drug dealer, but solving the bus robberies is high priority since tourism is hugely important to Hawaii.
Margaret and Fay want to stop, but Dina coerces them to go on.
So during one heist, a cop notices the bus is pulled over, and tries to arrest the women. Dina shoots the cop, whose gun goes off and kills Margaret.
Once 5-0 has the identity of one of the robbers, they are able to go forward and solve the case, and that portion of the show also has excellent drama.
Very interesting, with strong performances from the cast. Patricia Hindy, Dale Morse and Patrecia Wynand do not have very many acting credits, but they all did an excellent job here. Sadly, Patrecia Wynand (Fay) died just 2 years after this episode aired.
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: Mistaken Identity (1990)
Very Good Episode - Pertinent 30 Years Later
This is one of my favorite episodes of this series. It uses humor to address a very serious topic (driving while Black - DWB).
The set up is that Philip Banks and his law partner, Henry Furth, are going on a retreat with their wives and some others to Palm Springs. Will and Carlton take responsibility for driving Mr. Furth's car the 2 hours out to Palm Springs for him. On the way, they get lost, and get pulled over by some local cops. Since they are not the car owners, the cops arrest them and take them to jail. The cops do not believe their story, even though every word of it is true.
Unfortunately, their telephone calls home and to Mr. Furth's house in Palm Springs do not get them the help they need, so they are trapped in a jail cell with a Bill Murray lookalike (Bob, played by Raymond McLeod) who looks scary but does some very funny musical numbers.
Will figures out a way to get through to Uncle Phil and Mr. Furth, who quickly go to the police station to get things straightened out. Uncle Phil reads the riot act to the cops, and Will and the Banks return home to Bel Air.
At this point Will and Carlton get into a heated discussion because Carlton, who is sheltered, thinks there was nothing wrong with the cops pulling them over (he says they were driving too slow), while Will says the whole arrest and the problems they faced were motivated by race: "Oh, OK, OK. I get it now. We were stopped because we were driving too slow. Yeah, we were breaking the slowness limit. Oh, OK, well you see, I've never heard of that law before, but I did hear this other law. It's called the "if you see a black guy driving anything but a burnt-out Pinto, you better stop him because he stole it" law."
(Note: on highways, there are laws that mandate the minimum speed in addition to the maximum speed, so that the flow of traffic is not impeded; but in this episode the arrest did not happen on a highway, but in a residential neighborhood).
Sadly, this episode is as relevant in 2020 as it was in 1990.
I like it because, as with most of the Fresh Prince episodes, the writing is excellent, the actors are a pleasure to watch, and a serious topic is brought to the public.
Touched by an Angel: Monica's Bad Day (2000)
One of the Best Episodes
Generally speaking, I very much enjoyed the series "Touched By An Angel." This is one of the best episodes, in that it shows how good and bad, even in simple actions in everyday life, can spiral into much bigger situations. Also, the healing effect of forgiveness.
I loved the script, and all the actors in this.
Dangerous Minds (1995)
Fine actors, not a great film
This is yet another re-telling of the tale of a great teacher who goes into a school full of miscreants and has them eating out of her hand by the end. In this case, almost literally.
Better movies covering this ground include: To Sir With Love; Conrack; Stand and Deliver; Lean on Me; The Substitute; The Substitute 2, School's Out; The Substitute 3, Winner Takes All.... well, you get the idea.
This movie has a couple of really great moments, and a couple of really embarrassing ones.
One of the really good moments: When LouAnne (Michelle Pfeiffer) decides to bribe her students with candy bars if they participate in class, and Emilio (the late, gorgeous, Wade Dominguez) gets very angry because he sees that she is treating the students like trained seals. (The real LouAnne did not throw candy bars at her students).
One of the more embarrassing moments: when LouAnne goes to Raul's house, and his parents react with almost childlike wonderment when she says that Raul is one of her favorite students.
Then there are the bothersome moments, like when LouAnne is explaining to the principal how the whole class went to the amusement park without sufficient chaperones, or even parental permission, but that the students invited her, even though she paid for all of them. She delivers this entire explanation with a jawbreaker lodged in her cheek. Or, when she tells the class that she is a Marine and knows karate and can kill people with her bare hands (....... excuse me, I'm back, I just had to laugh), and then looks a little freaked when she has to demonstrate a blocking move. Or when she yells at the class "There are no victims in this classroom!" That bit was played in the movie trailer, a nod to white privilege. How does she know whether or not she has victims in her classroom?
It's a watchable flick, and generally the actors do a good job (it is always a treat to watch George Dzundza).
If this movie had stayed truer to its source material, it could have been a truly great film, maybe even a breakout film. Many movies have been re-made, unnecessarily (Psycho and The Mummy are two examples). This one should be re-made and tell the real story of LouAnne Johnson's teaching years.
Columbo: Columbo Goes to College (1990)
Excellent Entry in the Columbo Series
This is one of my favorite episodes of Columbo. It has a fine cast (sadly a number of whom are no longer with us), and is well-acted, with a fairly intricate use of technology as part of the plot.
The murderers are a couple of over-privileged, uppity but irresponsible college frat boys. The dumber of the two, Cooper (Garrison Hershberger) evidently can't figure out how to use a condom, and gets several girls in trouble, much to his father's (Alan Fudge) disgust.
The smarter of the two, Justin (Stephen Caffrey) comes up with the murder weapon, and is the one to actually kill Professor Rusk (the always wonderful James Sutorius) who was going to inform Justin's rich, exacting lawyer father (Robert Culp) of his cheating ways.
The scenes where Justin's father is telling Columbo how to conduct an investigation are fun. Columbo has already got Justin on his radar as someone involved in the murder, and behaves diffidently as he is being lectured.
Columbo is no fool, and knows that the two perps are leading him on a merry chase, and tossing him suspects/red herrings (one of these is the beautiful Katherine Cannon, who played the luscious Michael Nouri's wife in "The Hidden"). When he sees them making fun of him (they are fools), he keeps playing his cards close to the vest until he can spring a trap on them.
It is a lucky circumstance that allows Columbo to get the most important clue to sew up the case, which he does, dramatically. Footage of the actual killing was broadcast. The killers thought they were only broadcasting it to themselves, but in fact the signal gets picked up by a random person's satellite dish and recorded, and that person sells the footage to a news station. The fact that the killers enjoyed watching the killing as it occurred is just another example (and there are many in this episode) of how sociopathic they are.
When they are finally apprehended, they confess in front of a couple of dozen witnesses, but are confident that Justin's father's wealth and connections will get them off the hook. And the viewer is hoping they get up close and personal with nasty inmates at a nasty jail.
Even though Peter Falk is no longer with us, a sequel to this might be interesting. Columbo's successor could be John, one of the other investigating officers, played by James Ingersoll (who was one of the diving judges in the movie "Back to School"). 29 years later... the perps are getting out of jail and the world is a different place.... Cooper might have learned his lesson, maybe Justin less so.... there's material there, I think.
Law & Order: Cherished (1998)
Good season opener
This was the opening episode for Season 9 of "Law and Order," and was the first episode with Abbie Carmichael (Angie Harmon), who was a wonderful addition to the series.
The episode concerns a little child who ostensibly died of abuse, but her physical injuries were inflicted postmortem. Nothing is as it appears, and the police and prosecutors have to dig pretty deep to get at the truth, which involves the peddling of physically damaged Russian children for adoption to American families.
The family who had custody of the child when she died are the Warings (Graham Winton and Lisa Bostnar), who are saintly in their desire to provide a home to children no one else wants, including their first adopted boy, Nicholas (Spencer Breslin), who suffers from Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) due to the horribly abusive treatment he received during the first years of his life. Kudos to the writers for putting this problem into the plot.
But the adults principally to blame for the child's death mouth some sort of excuse for their behavior, and refuse to accept responsibility. Even though McCoy and Carmichael are able to convict them, it is doubtful any of them will truly believe they did anything wrong.
Flashdance (1983)
Not the worst film ever....
There are worse films out there. There are.
This one is a little like "Showgirls" in that 1) it is not a good movie; 2) it didn't do much for its star's career (although unlike "Showgirls" it wasn't a total career-ender); 3) the lead character is someone with serious temper/behavioral issues, who can be seen running into traffic after pitching a fit; and 4) Joe Eszterhas wrote the screenplay for both. The big differences are that "Showgirls" has better dialogue and is not boring, and its premise is more believable. It also has significantly more nudity and is rated "X," but the fact that we don't have to watch Nomi at confession makes up for that.
In this movie, Alex (Jennifer Beals) is an 18-year-old welder (?- how did she get that job??) at a steel company in Pittsburgh, and apparently rides her bike 40-50 miles every day. So she is very physically fit, but smokes. We don't know anything about her background or her actual family. She lives in an abandoned warehouse that has no other tenants but does have running water and utilities. She has a little old lady friend Hanna (Lilia Skala) who was once a ballet dancer. At night, clearly not wearied from her welding job, Alex dances at a local bar called Mawby's, where the dancers have fancy stage sets, fancy outfits, new routines every night, and don't have to take off their clothes. You know, a completely typical blue-collar bar. Her 35-year-old boss Nick (the luscious Michael Nouri) sees her dancing there and woos her, and eventually they decide to go out. Across the way is the evil pit of depravity called "Zanzibar" where the dancers have to abandon all hope and be naked, and is run by "Johnny C," who looks to be the poor man's version of Robert De Niro.
The movie tells us, "when you give up your dream, you die." Alex has dreams, as do her friends. One friend, Jeanie, is actually a talented skater, but messes up at a competition held at a poorly-lit ice rink. Nick says she will do better next time, but Alex informs him that there won't be a next time, without further explanation. I guess in this world, if at first you don't succeed, you are consigned to laying on your back on a table at the Zanzibar, allowing drooling drunks to eyeball your crotch as you move your legs in circles, until Alex shows up, drags you (mostly naked) out to the street, and yells at you that that isn't dancing. Another friend, Richie, wants to be a stand-up comic, and thinks the road to success is telling Polish jokes. At one point he takes off for Los Angeles to seek his fame and fortune, but apparently when he doesn't become a big star in 5 days, returns to Pittsburgh, more of a loser than when he left. Technically Jeanie and Richie are not deceased, but since they failed at their dreams and will never pursue them again, their drab future in their insignificant lives in blue-collar Pittsburgh is a metaphor for death. I do not know if this movie was very popular in blue-collar Pittsburgh.
At 35, Nick (Alex' boss) is a socially powerful millionaire, and is on the board of the "Pittsburgh Conservatory of Dance and Repertory," where Alex aspires to become a ballet dancer, even though she has no idea what is involved, and even though it bears absolutely no resemblance to any dancing she ever does. Or even any practicing that she ever does. When she goes to the PCDR to pick up an application form, she is standing in line with other people. They are wearing pointe shoes (really? to go get an application?) while she is wearing her clod hoppers. On her way through the building to get the application, she has to pass multiple ballet dancers who are extremely white, who are in what appears to be a museum hallway, practicing their bends, and apparently communicating with each other silently, perhaps with telepathy. To paraphrase Mozart from the movie "Amadeus": people so lofty they look as if they zh*t marble. The presence, and numbers, of these heavenly, taciturn creatures evidently intimidate little miss welder half to death, and she flees to Hanna's house, and lies about getting an application. Guilt over her lie causes her to go to church, and we are forced to sit through her awkward confession (not the only time in this movie, regrettably).
Nick discovers that Alex wants to be a ballet dancer, and using his clout, instructs the snooty applications office secretary (Lucy Lee Flippin) to make sure Alex gets an invite, which humorously almost causes the secretary to choke on her sandwich.
Well, there's a bunch of meaningless back-and-forth when Alex finds out that she didn't get the invite all by herself, yadda yadda yadda. But then Hanna dies, and as Alex tearfully holds Hanna's ratty old pointe shoes, she realizes that she actually has to make an effort to pursue her dream, and unlike her friends, can't just give up at the first sign of adversity. This of course leads us to the famous climax, where Alex dances for the PCDR committee. Although she doesn't dance ballet. But dadgummit she is going to show those pompous, cold people real, passionate dancing! Bring them out of their shells! Point at them in turn! Show them there is life and talent teeming outside of the silent marble halls which they inhabit! And indeed, after a false start, she has them tapping their toes, and even the snooty secretary is won over.
As I said at the beginning of this review, there are worse movies. This is just a lot of illogical fluff, and as others have pointed out, is really just music videos strung together by a weak story. Could have been worse, but it also could have been a lot better.
Hawaii Five-O: King Kamehameha Blues (1969)
Annoying characters
Years ago, I had the pleasure of watching Randall Duk Kim act in a Shakespeare play at the American Players Theater in Spring Green, Wisconsin. I heard through the grapevine that he didn't like to be reminded that he was once on Hawaii 5-0. I don't know if that's true or not, especially since he was on only 3 episodes, and I would think that was pretty plum work for a young actor; and he acquitted himself well in all three (even this one: I'm sure he was following the director's instructions). But if it is true, I'm guessing this is the episode he didn't want to be reminded of (in season 1, he was in two episodes, "Deathwatch" and "By the Numbers," both of which are pretty good).
This episode had good potential. A good plot, with an intricate plan to steal the priceless cloak that once belonged to King Kamehameha, and is made of feathers from now-extinct birds (the mamo or hoohoo). Four college kids come up with this plan as a prank.
Clearly, all four are intelligent. But they are possibly the most annoying characters to ever appear on this series... at least that's how the characters were played. I wonder if that was the director's fault? Or maybe the script called for it:
"Arnold and Diana: to be played as over-privileged obnoxious college students who do not understand the importance of what they are studying. They are to neck, annoyingly, in public as often as possible."
"Eddie: to be played as an electronics whiz who laughs like an idiot, annoyingly, as often as possible."
"Johnny: to be played as a dumb lug, annoyingly, until he finally wakes up and smells the coffee."
When McGarrett confronts them in their hippie pad, there is a good exchange regarding priorities. But these youths are so obnoxious, you just want McGarrett to slap them into next week (at one point Danno looks like he's just about to do that, but McGarrett shoves him out the door before he can).
The youths are being offered not only a reward, but amnesty as well, if they'll just return the cloak. But the leader, Arnold, is so bitter against the "establishment" that he'd rather destroy the cloak. That's a little odd, since the cloak is an important symbol not to the white establishment, but to the native Hawaiians. Arnold, and his squeeze Diana (who is an anthropology major!!) clearly haven't thought this all through. They are annoying for this reason, and because they do everything to the cloak that they've been told not to do: they bend it, they fold it, they lay on it, they use it as a toreador cape, they expose it to direct sunlight, etc.
Finally Johnny's conscience and ethnic pride get the best of him, so he spills the beans to McGarrett and the cloak is saved. Since the conspirators did not turn themselves in, they get neither amnesty nor reward, but instead are arrested, which means they're about to get up close and personal with the "establishment." (At least, presumably, until Arnold's rich parents tell the judge he's suffering from affluenza and buy his way out of trouble).
If the show had made the kids slightly less annoying, and slightly more watchable, I would rate the episode higher. But since the kids make you want to fast-forward through their scenes, I'm rating it lower.
Hawaii Five-O: Sweet Terror (1969)
I like this episode
In another review, I said the original Hawaii 5-0 is a time capsule. This episode bears that out.
At this time, Hawaii is no longer producing sugar or pineapples. But when this episode came out in 1969, Hawaii was one of the world's greatest sugar producers. Also, we were right in the middle of the Cold War.
The plot involves the conspiracy of Communists from around the world to wreck Hawaii's sugar crop with a deadly fungus, so that Cuba can step up to the plate and take over that industry. Cuba isn't mentioned specifically, but it is clear what the show's characters are talking about, and one of the conspirators - Esteban - is meant to be from there.
One thing I really liked about this show is how it put mercenary motives (of Erich Stoss, played by Theodore Bikel) side-by-side with "true believer" motives (of Lao, played by the late, great Soon-Tek Oh, and of Mariana de Nava, played by Linda Marsh). The conspirators plan to surreptitiously release the fungus here and there in various fields. To do this, they need air transport, which they get by blackmailing a Chinese immigrant who owns a helicopter, threatening the safety of his family back in China.
Another thing I liked was the presentation by the expert (Bill Bigelow, who appeared numerous times on this series) on things that can wreck sugar crops; when the fungus is discovered, he instructs the farmer to set the field on fire to kill the fungus and save the other fields.
All around a good episode with strong performances.
Hawaii Five-O: To Hell with Babe Ruth (1969)
Not one of the best episodes.....
The original Hawaii 5-0, which debuted 50 years ago (!!!), is not only an enjoyable show, but is now a video time capsule.
In this episode, which aired in 1969, the attack on Pearl Harbor is only 28 years in the past.
During those 28 years, a Japanese ninja named Nagata (who, evidently, was a "sleeper" in the US, and was supposed to blow up fuel reserves prior to the attack but did not), has been a patient at a mental hospital. Although his name is known to hospital authorities, the fact that he has been alive for the last 28 years and hospitalized is a tidbit of information that apparently was not known to his wife, family and friends.
Anyway, he escapes, and is suffering under the delusion it is still 1941 and that he is still meant to blow up the fuel reserves. Somehow after his escape he managed to get his hands on a ninja costume and some ninja weapons. He steals some dynamite, killing a security guard with a shuriken in the process.
Then, in civilian clothes, steals a car very clumsily, in broad daylight in front of witnesses, and karate kicks the cop who tries to stop him.
He then goes -- dressed now in a suit -- in search of his now-dead wife at a clock store, and instead finds his daughter, whom he mistakes for his wife in his deluded mental state. He takes her prisoner over her very vocal protestations (she has no idea who he is), holds her prisoner, and then, on the appointed day, somehow manages to get himself, her, and the bomb onto a fuel tank at Pearl without being noticed (ninjas were stealthy assassins, but I believe they usually traveled a lot lighter than that). He wants to blow everything up -- including himself and the girl --at 8:55 am (note: the first attack at Pearl Harbor was at 7:53 am. The second wave came at 8:55 am.).
McGarrett and crew have two hours to search the fuel tanks and surrounding areas to locate the bomb. Fortunately they are being quiet and carrying boom mikes so they can hear the bomb ticking (no, I did not make that up). Of course they locate Nagata and manage to tackle him and get the bomb away from him, which McGarrett then disarms with some toenail clippers (no, I did not make that up either). {Hey buddy your name is McGarrett, not MacGyver.}
What makes this episode weak are the plot holes. Another factor is the casting. Mark Lenard was a fine actor. But he is terribly miscast as a ninja, and as a first-generation Japanese. It just doesn't work: the totally fake-looking epicanthic eyelids do not make up for his stature, his facial features, his hair, etc. He looks like a white guy with a really poor makeup job. In addition, we know he is supposed to be psychotic and delusional. But playing the character as a screaming lunatic, as opposed to someone who really believes he is a ninja on a secret mission, also seriously detracts from the episode.
The very best part of the episode is a martial arts match using sai swords. Tommy Fujiwara, a regular on the show, is always a pleasure to watch and has a small part here.
There are two things about this series that were especially great: first, that they made an effort to teach about Hawaii, its people and its history. Second, and most important, they made an effort to have a lot of non-white actors: Fujiwara, James Hong, France Nuyen, Kwan Hi Lim, Seth Sekai, Terry Plunkett, etc. They had many native Hawaiians on the show. Yes, most episodes featured a lot of white people, but for the time, this show was pretty diverse. So it is hard to understand why they would miscast people, like Mark Lenard in this episode or John Marley in "The Big Kahuna," when they had many fine Asian and Hawaiian actors available.
The Golden Girls: Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Very funny, with hilarious commentary on beauty pageants!
Hilarious episode. The bulk of the episode deals with Blanche entering her 7-year-old granddaughter, Melissa, into a beauty pageant. Melissa is staying for the week and Blanche thinks it is an activity they can enjoy together. And it starts out that way, until Blanche gets carried away with competitiveness. This is a humorous take on what happens all too often when adults use children as surrogates for what they really want to do, be it beauty pageants or Little League, etc.
There is a very funny side story in this episode. Sophia has sprained her ankles by sneezing and falling off a stool. She is malingering because she wants attention and to be pampered. Dorothy hires a nurse who used to work at Shady Pines. Sophia is initially terrified, but when she realizes Nurse DeFarge (wonderfully played by the awesome Edie McClurg) will wait on her and see to her every need, they become close.
Excellent comic pacing by all these wonderful actors makes this one of the best episodes of the series.
The Golden Girls: The Case of the Libertine Belle (1991)
One of the Best Golden Girls episodes!
"The Golden Girls" has always been one of my favorite TV series. This episode is one of the best. "Libertine Belle" is a reference to Blanche, a very sexually active Southern woman, who is accused of a real murder at a Murder Mystery weekend.
She invites Dorothy, Rose and Sophia to accompany her to the event, sponsored by The Maltese Falcon Club and attended by the staff of the museum where she works. It is a dressy event at a hotel with lots of atmosphere. Being an avid reader of mysteries, Dorothy is especially excited to be there, and in a flawlessly written scene, solves the game murder.
Unfortunately for Blanche, the museum director she is intent on seducing turns up in her bed with a knife in his chest, and she is accused of killing him!
Dorothy winds up solving that crime too. Sophia and Rose have very funny lines throughout the episode.
The writing, the acting, the plot and the pacing of this episode are all flawless. And there is the added bonus of Tony Plana, cast as a police detective.
Hawaii Five-O: One Born Every Minute (1974)
Excellent, Interesting Episode!
This is an excellent episode with a lot of meat on the bone, as it were. It concerns a bunco operation run by Joe Connors (Ed Flanders), who has returned to Hawaii after a stretch in prison to fleece the rich, middle-aged male tourists. His band of no-goodniks includes a blonde woman (Lynette Mettey) who acts as the roper, and several other Hawaii 5-0 regulars (Tommy Fujiwara, Douglas Mossman, and Jimmy Borges).
The blonde woman entices the marks, and just as they think they are going to get lucky, she puts them in the path of her cohorts, who in turn lead them into a diamond swindle, and trick them out of their money.
The episode starts by showing us the tail-end of one of these swindles. The whole matter comes to the attention of 5-0 because the crooks use a fake shootout to scare off the mark, and several bystanders report what they thought was a real shooting.
As McGarrett is dealing with the first mark, the roper is going into action with the next victim, a hapless fellow named Harry Maguire (wonderfully played by Michael Strong). (His wife, Natalie, is played by Patricia Herman, who was in a number of other episodes).
It is very interesting to see how they set up the con and get Harry to buy into it.
For me, this portion of the show is very sad. What the thieves do, for them, isn't personal. They don't care about the marks as people; all they want is to separate them from their money. And like their first victim, most of their victims just suck it up and deal with the shame. But poor Harry Maguire is dealing with a judgmental wife and relatives that never let him forget his mistakes. So when the rip off happens to him and he is scammed out of $65K that he had to wheedle out of his relatives, his shame and desperation are palpable. Michael Strong plays this part to perfection.
What the thieves do to him is truly nasty. When Connors hears of Maguire's death, he still doesn't care about Maguire. All he cares about is how it will complicate his own life. Talk about a toxic narcissist!
Fortunately, 5-0 is able to play on the thieves' greed to trap them.
Really excellent episode.
Hawaii Five-O: Death with Father (1974)
Very Good, But Tragic, Episode
I have always liked this episode. A good story, good acting and character development. But the ending is very sad, very tragic.
The episode opens with HPD and 5-0 raiding a heroin lab. The offenders do not surrender peacefully, and two are killed, one is wounded but taken into custody, and the fourth escapes by crashing his pickup through an HPD roadblock and totaling a couple of HPD cruisers.
5-0 suspects Tom Morgan (Peter Strauss) of being the 4th man. Tom's father, Cliff Morgan (Andrew Duggan) is a retired, old-school kick-ass cop who was a domineering father, who never allowed his son to truly become a man. In fact, the first interaction we see between them has the father humiliating his son in public.
Tom Morgan is an able chemist, which is why he is employed producing the heroin for a couple of Asian drug dealers, Lee Song (played by the inestimable Kwan Hi Lim), and Luu Se Ngu (played by the always marvelous Seth Sekai). When Ngu worries that they might not be able to depend upon Tom, Song's explanation regarding why he is not worried is a remarkable moment.
Cliff does love his son, but has trouble showing it. We see how much he loves Tom by the fact that he is willing to throw everything away to try to save his son. Unfortunately, the communication between father and son has become so difficult and strained that the son does not understand what his father has done for him, and from that results the tragic ending.
A fine episode in a fine TV series.
Hawaii Five-O: Anybody Can Build a Bomb (1973)
I think some of the nuclear stuff is wrong....
The underlying plot is potentially good... blackmailers (calling themselves "Mercury") demand $100 million not to level Honolulu with a nuclear bomb.
However, as they say, the devil is in the details.
First, the bomb is delivered, on a weekend, in a wooden crate to a warehouse near the Aloha Tower. OK, fair enough, the baddies do not want it to be easily found. But the bomb... the NUCLEAR bomb... is ticking! Loudly! Which everyone present fails to notice. Which is funny, because it is supposed to be a refrigerator, and most unplugged refrigerators do not tick.
The Governor, who is in receipt of a handy-dandy specimen of nuclear-grade plutonium in a cunning little plastic case, sent to him by Mercury, explains that at a recent conference, he learned that atomic blackmail was a real threat. So 5-0 has to take the threat seriously, and they get busy trying to solve the crime and find the conspirators.
They find a local nuclear physicist, Dr. Haig (Lew Ayres), who gives them a crash course in what would be needed to build a bomb, and what kinds of experts would be required. Bear in mind this episode is from 1973, but the loosey-goosey availability of the nuclear ingredients, which seem to be haphazardly stored on wharves, seems a little odd.
It is clear from the beginning that Dr. Haig is in on the plot. However, McGarrett seems to be a little slow to pick up on this, despite Dr. Haig coming unglued at a high-level meeting, and later, McGarrett walks in on him as he's on the phone telling someone he "will not be a party to murder." In addition, McGarrett at one point leaves Dr. Haig alone in his office (which he also did with the perp in "Murder is a Taxing Affair") and Dr. Haig uses McGarrett's phone to call Mercury! McGarrett is clearly very trusting when it comes to leaving people unattended in his office.
Then the blackmailers contact the authorities and say to prove the threat is real, they will detonate a "modest radiation flash" (whatever that is) in Kapiolani Park. Now this is where the whole thing gets silly. Danno flies over Kapiolani Park, telling everyone to evacuate because there is a bomb. So everyone dutifully leaves the middle of the park and lines up on the edges. Then the authorities come in with geiger counters, and determine that the device is hidden in an ice cream cart. Which begs the question, why didn't the ice cream seller notice there was a nuclear device in his cart? Then Dr. Haig, to save everyone's lives, wheels the cart into a public toilet, where it detonates (nuclear waste, anyone?). He escapes but suffers radiation poisoning. The structure of the building amazingly is not affected (I guess public toilets were built to last in those days), but there is a scary orange glow radiating from within. Then another scientist says the area needs to be sealed off and no one will be able to approach it for weeks. At which point a bunch of regular cops approach the structure (what did the scientist just say?). It is not known if they seal off the bathroom with yellow tape. I'm no nuclear expert, but I think if I were, I would find this whole scene more ridiculous than I already do as a layperson.
Well, eventually McGarrett twigs to the fact that Dr. Haig is in on the plot, and arrives at Haig's house just as Haig is about to commit suicide, presumably due to his shame at not realizing that Mercury was made up not of idealists like himself, but rather of money-grubbing crooks. So McGarrett isn't the only slow one on the show. Anyway McGarrett talks Haig out of committing suicide, and Haig helps him locate the TICKING nuclear bomb. Luckily, there is someone from the bomb squad on hand to be talked through the procedure of unscrewing the cap and removing the nuclear core of the bomb. As soon as the bomb is disarmed, McGarrett radios Danno at the airport, and the sharpshooters blow up the plane containing the Mercury conspirators, as well as the $100 million (I'm guessing the government can always reimburse itself for the money by just printing more). None of that silly "let's question them and get answers" stuff. Just blow them up. Saves the cost of a trial.
This is not the worst episode of the series, but the serious question of nuclear terrorism is handled in kind of a silly way.
The Golden Girls: Dorothy's Prized Pupil (1987)
Annoyingly wrong
This episode has bothered me for years, mainly because of the incorrect way immigration cases are presented, and because of the inaction on the part of Dorothy to actually help Mario.
First, it is unlikely, especially in Miami, that a deportation hearing would be held the day after the INS picked someone up.
Further, it is highly unlikely that the Immigration Judge would have ordered the boy deported the next day. Most judges would give the person time to find a lawyer. Even if he didn't, in all likelihood he would have given the boy "voluntary departure," which in those days could be granted for months at a time, with the possibility of extending it.
Second, why didn't Dorothy get Mario together with an immigration attorney? It is ridiculous that she thought that going into court with a bunch of emotional statements was going to "save" him (although again it might've made the judge even more disposed to a grant of voluntary departure).
While it was nice of her to point out that Arnold Schwarzenegger is an immigrant, he came to the United States legally. Mario did not (or so we are given to understand). Other than both being potential immigrants to the United States, there is no other similarity.
Her statement to Mario "There are legal ways to keep you here, and tomorrow we'll find them.," is a day late and a dollar short. Since Mario has to leave the next day, she says, "Then I'll do it myself, and we'll get you back here.
I promise." That's a hell of a promise to make, given her ignorance on the subject. When he tells her he'll miss her and never forget her, she responds, "You won't have time to. You'll be back here before you know it." Great. So when he's back in his country with the vain hope she has given him, then what?
While I think it is nice that the show tried to address a serious topic with a sympathetic immigrant, I believe they would have served the viewing public better by showing Mario taking intelligent steps to fight for himself. Dorothy should have found him a lawyer, then they could have a scene where the lawyer gives Mario his legal options. That would have been more educational and engaging.