04.30 Back To You
05.00 Greg The Bunny
09.00 Flashpoint
10.00 Burn Notice
11.00 Keen Eddie
01.00 Wizards And Warriors
Back To You. Episode 16 (Episode 12, in production order.) "House of Tomorrow" An okay episode. Kelly's fascination/obsession with Chuck drives the story in this one. He is dating a younger woman (again) and Kelly is tauting him about it. Chuck sets out to prove that he is more mature than she is willing to admit and, in the process, buys a house that he has never seen (!!). It turns out to be a 'futuristic' house with loads of voice-activated devices, which go awry in the episode's frantic conclusion. It's not a very funny episode, since most of Kelly's rants are just unfunny rants, but the bit at the end (in the house) is funny even if it is too forced to be genuinely hilarious. Best bit? Chuck's date thinks she is watching him being spanked by Kelly (he has, in fact, set his pants on fire).
Greg The Bunny. Episode 10. "Surprise!" Middle-of-the-road episode. Not the funniest that the show has done, but it has several classic (and very funny) moments. Sasha Alexander guests as TV Guide reporter who is assigned to profile the entire cast and, since she has to interview all of them, she basically appears in every scene and carries the whole episode. Works for me! All of the regular cast (human and puppet) get a chance to shine in this one. Sarah Silverman has never been funnier on the show, but it is still Warren who gets all the best lines. He's my favourite character, with Tardy Turtle (also superb in this episode) now coming a close second.
What brings the episode down (IMHO) is the soft-and-fuzzy side of the story. When the story opens the gang are (inexplicably) bickering more than usual while Greg's voice-over makes observations about... family. Anyway, as the reporter goes from person to person we learn that most of them are unhappy with someone else in the cast. Then, in the birthday party at the end, when the reporter is about to unveil a scandal that might damage the show, they all pull together and stand up for one another. Cue a sickening voice-over from Greg about... family. Awful.
Never mind. This time out the comedy rises above schmaltz. Many, many scenes are laugh-out-loud funny. My favourite? Jimmy finds Sarah Silverman and Sasha Alexander (both looking supremely hot) in some girl-on-girl action and declares: "Considering that we only had three hours to plan, I would say this is a pretty damn good party!"
Flashpoint. Episode 4. "Asking For Flowers" Chandra West guests as the sister of a battered wife taking things into her own hands with the slimy husband: Kenneth Mitchell. Flashpoint beats Standoff by always finding a way to tell intimate stories and make them compelling. While this is the weakest of the first four, it is still a damn fine hour of TV with a couple of big twists to keep the audience guessing: for most of the episode the heroes have no idea who the real bad-guy is (which makes you wonder if they will shoot the wrong person) and - minutes from the end - the balance of power shifts dramatically. Good stuff.
Michael Cram gets a chance to shine in this one. His character is very cool and my favourite part of the whole story was the split-second shot at the end where he goes home to his wife and you can see how genuinely happy he is to be in her company. Not enough of that on TV.
Burn Notice. Season 2, Episode 4. "Comrades" Nothing special, but still very good. Michael's brother is back on the team in this one, and Sam (Bruce Campbell) pretty much takes the lead in both cases. Little touches like this keep the formula fresh. Good guest work, too, from Lost's Andrew Divoff.
Keen Eddie. Episode 6. "Sucker Punch" The case-of-the-week is crap. Eddie and the team are trying to find an underground fighting club and they keep chasing/meeting a fighter and trying to convince him into helping them. This happens over and over (and Eddie keeps getting knocked out, which is funny) until the guy eventually decides to help them and then pursue his dream of a life in the theatre. Usually the cases/stories on Keen Eddie are strong and have depth. This one isn't and doesn't.
But that's not important this time out...
Most of the episode is actually devoted to Eddie and Fiona. Fiona, you see, is moving to New York to be with her idiot boyfriend Nigel (Theo Fraser Steele) and Eddie and she will never have to see one another again. Each declares that this makes them happy, but we can see (thanks to great performances from Mark Valley and Sienna Miller) that it actually makes them sad. Honest-to-goodness... sad. And it's not just the typical TV romantic tension either. You can see that they are each bewildered by their feelings for one another. He doesn't just fancy her, he likes her. And vice versa. And it's really rather sweet. There's one long scene, in particular, which isn't trying to be funny. It's just about how they can't say what they are thinking, so they just keep looking at one another.
As wonderful as all the Eddie/Fiona stuff is, the highpoint of the episode is the Miss Moneypenny scene. Once again she gives a sexual answer to one of Eddie's innocent questions (he is the only one to hear it, of course) and I thought my TV was going to melt from the heat. Seriously. I watched this with two other men and we were all gob-smacked. Why would anyone ever need to watch porn? Just watch Rachael Buckley on Keen Eddie! Grrrrowl!
Wizards And Warriors. Episode 1. "The Unicorn of Death" This was not the first episode filmed, but it was the first episode shown. Although it is delightful from start to finish, it does a pretty bad job of introducing the world of the show and the various characters contained therein. Basically this was a show that needed a two-hour opener to do it justice. Watching this particular outing gives you a feeling of being dropped into the middle of the action. Flawed as this episode may be (when used to open the series) there are still many, many things to enjoy.
Julia Duffy steals the show as the spoiled princess. Virtually every line she utters makes you laugh out loud and she, basically, saves the day at the end. Only Duffy could take a shallow, self-involved character like this and make her heroic and adorable. And funny. "He's always so busy," she laments, with a pout, as the dashing hero rushes away from her to save everyone from certain death.
Duffy is supported by a strong cast. Duncan Regehr and Clive Revill, in particular, are a joy to watch. Both playing evil men and both having an absolute ball doing it. The entire cast, directed by Bill Bixby, give the impression that they are having fun. And there is a lot of fun in the script, too. Many moments of comedy, in fact, in lots of unexpected places. This is a rather hip show. Definitely the grandfather of shows like Hercules and Xena. There are no scenes without one-liners and most hit their mark.
The story is good, too. The bad guys have planted the equivalent of a nuclear device in the castle of the Good King and are calling for his surrender. From this starting point the story advances in logical fashion, with a few surprises along the way. The best twist is when the innocent courier realises what he has brought to the castle and decides to try and save the princess. Everything is funny, firmly rooted in character and very exciting.
Highlight? Wizards And Warriors (hip)
Yet Another TV Review Podcast
Yet Another TV Review Book
Sat, Aug 23, 08 - Back To You, Greg The Bunny, Flashpoint, Burn Notice, Keen Eddie, Wizards And Warriors
