Sunday, December 2nd, 2007
05:30 Pushing Daisies
06:30 Reaper
07:30 Journeyman
11:30 The Nancy Drew Mysteries
12:30 Laurel & Hardy
Pushing Daisies. Episode 7. For once the dialogue didn't sparkle. It seemed contrived and false in the opening scenes and some of the episode that followed was a bit weak, too. Especially the stuff concerning the aunts. I think I'm over them now. They need to be brought into the fold, with regard to Chuck being alive. The case-of-the-week was quirky and interesting, however, but Paul Reubens was underused.
Reaper. Episode 8 is a delightful episode that breaks with formula by giving Sock a whole storyline to himself (and a funny one, at that) while making the human in Sam's case-of-the-week more of a threat than the Escaped Soul out to kill him. This nifty twist at the end was also a great showcase for the way the Devil does things. Sneaky, sneaky. Also, for once, the scenes with Andi didn't bug me that much. Although she still gives me those stalker-vibes (crying and over-reacting when Sam gave her the nice birthday present).
Journeyman. Episode 10 is maybe the most perfect episode of the show yet. Less than a minute into the story and the Bad Guy from last week has broken into Dan's house and shot him in the shoulder. Pow! Now that is the way to open an episode. Next thing, Dan has vanished back to 1980 to (a) get medical aid and (b) help a ten-year old boy who is regularly locked in his house by his agressive father. The episode unfolds with parallel views of 2007 and 1980 as the Bad Guy searches the house for Dan (clever writing) before phoning Dan's wife and luring her back to the house to take her hostage.
Back in 1980, Dan realises that the ten-year old kid is going to grow up to be... the Bad Guy that shoots him in 2007 (amongst other dreadful deeds). Dan (and this is what I love about the show) reacts to this as anyone would. He loses his temper with the kid and contemplates doing something drastic. These are fleeting moments, but they serve to lift the show up and above many mundane series on the air.
Eventually (and I love this, too) Dan just tells the kid that he will grow up and do some terrible things. Thus making this particular case-of-the-week the best the show has done since the Hijacker who stole all the money. I like it because it ties so wonderfully into the 2007 storyline and because it represents a small victory of the type this show does so well. All told, Dan's visit to 1980 accomplishes very little. It manages to defuse the situation in 2007, yes, but the events that led to the hostage siege are still in place (history-wise) at the end of the episode. Maybe the days of Quantum Leap are gone. Maybe the heroes of today can't hope for big victories every time. Maybe Journeyman is a show of our times.
While all this is going on, Olivia travels to 2007 and meets Dan's brother and he finally believes that Dan is a time-traveller. While I applaud the decision to bring him into the fold I am disappointed with the way it was done. There's nothing clever about this method. I much prefer the way things went down in the alternative timeline of the previous episode. In that version of things: the brothers worked it out together and Jack put it all together cleverly based on things that happened in the past. In this version of things, a previously dead character pops up and tells him that his brother is a time-traveller. He has no choice but to believe. So, by doing it this way, they have taken some of the character's power away.
A minor quibble. This is still a fantastic episode.
The Nancy Drew Mysteries. Episode 7. Nancy has never been in safer hands. On one side she has Mark Harmon (who rescued loads of people on 240 Robert two seasons later) and on the other she has Martin Kove (who rescued loads of people on Code R that same season). The story is average, but reasonably well told. Harmon plays a young football player being duped by a syndicate into believing that he has killed a girl. Nancy's friend George sees the con in progress and sets Nancy on the trail of the dead girl (who, of course, isn't dead). The episode tells the stories in parallel. On one side we see Nancy doing her detective work, and on the other we see Harmon's character wrestling with what he thinks he has done and suffering the pains of being blackmailed. At the end of it all Nancy makes quite a leap of logic to put it all together. We know she's right because we've seen all the stuff with the bad guys at work, but if those scenes were edited out I wonder would it flow as smoothly? A minor quibble. It's fun to watch Nancy do her thing.
Laurel & Hardy. 1929, Film 3. "Men O'War" has three set-pieces. The opening scenes in a park shows what happens when Stan and Ollie meet two girls looking for a lost pair of gloves. The boys have found some ladies underwear (very large bloomers!!) and mistakenly believe that this is what the girls are talking about. Some of the dialogue that follows is very amusing. Much better is the second set-piece, which is one of my all-time favourite Laurel And Hardy moments. The boys are trying to treat the girls to some drinks, although they are short of cash. A plan is made, but - of course - Stan fails to follow it correctly no matter how many times they try. Hilarious. Finally, everyone heads out on a row boat. There are lots of fights with other boaters and - by the end - about twenty people end up in the water.
Highlight? Journeyman.
Journeyman, Laurel And Hardy, Pushing Daisies, Reaper, The Nancy Drew Mysteries
