Tuesday, January 5th, 2010
05.00 Friends
06.00 Greek
07.00 Airwolf
08.00 Logan's Run
Friends. Episode 19. "The One with the Evil Orthodontist" Rachel and Barry and Mindy and Barry. Chandler obsesses over phoning a woman.
A real soap opera type of episode, with Rachael having an affair with Barry. It's not very funny, but it's compelling drama/soap.
The Chandler storyline is a tad over the top, but it generates a lot of laughs. The conclusion is way over the top, but it's an easy out.
Greek. Season 2, Episode 5. "Pledge Allegiance" Rusty leads the Kappa Tau pledges in a bid for more power, Casey deals with Frannie's attempt to usurp power and Evan tries to exert power over Michael.
Power plays. In every storyline. Nicely done.
Airwolf. Season 2, Episode 3. "Moffet's Ghost" A computer program takes control of Airwolf.
Not without it's flaws, but this is one of the very best episodes of Airwolf and one of my personal favourites. The story is very exciting and clever. Moffet (the bad guy from the pilot) left what is referred to as a "logic bomb" in Airwolf and she starts to misbehave, nearly causing loss of life. What can Stringfellow do? Who can he trust? He's working closely with Archangel he certainly can't trust him, so he turns to a hot lady scientist (Robin Riker), cos every '80s action show is better with a hot lady scientist.
It's a great story and a great dilemma. Moffet was/is crazy and there's no surefire way to defeat him. Despite String's best efforts Archangel does manage to exert influence on the scientist (not to take control of Airwolf for it's own sake, but to prevent loss of life) so there's a great twist where she turns a gun on our heroes and demands that they back down.
And, to make things even better, time is crucial. The episode opened with a scientist being dropped off behind enemy lines for top secret talks, and Airwolf must return to get him. Somehow. If they can ever figure out how to stop her from shooting down everything in sight.
This episode contains one of my all-time favourite images from the series: Airwolf high in the atmosphere, with the curve of the planet behind her. It's an awesome image.
As for flaws? Well, they are minor. Some of the early scenes of comeraderie fall flat, mainly due to Jan-Michael Vincent who does't exude warmth in quite the way the script requires him to. Deborah Pratt, however, makes a great impression as Marella who seems genuinely nice. Alex Cord is superb, as ever, and this is one of those episodes which remind us that you can't quite trust him 100%. Always a good thing.
Logan's Run. Episode 8. "Fear Factor" Scientists who remove emotions.
One of the weaker episodes. The story, such as it is, makes sense in it's own right but it doesn't quite fit into the established world of Logan's Run. It would be better if this was a show with heroes who visited planets for adventures. In that context, it would make more sense to have a society such as the one written about here. However, since Logan's Run is set in a post-apocalyptic future it seems odd that there such a large society living totally unaffected by the stuff we've seen in other episodes. It doesn't quite gell.
As a story, it's kinda weak and obvious. Mumbo-jumbo about removing emotions and independant thoughts while creating a race of drones and rapidly growing children into soldiers. And there's some stuff in there, too, about Logan being the only non-coward they've ever encountered and the scientist's attempts to tap into his fear factor.
Or something.
It really has an air of our trio stubling into something and stumbling around a bit before leaving. The cast gives is 100% conviction, however. Ed Nelson and Jared Martin (of course) are great to watch, and pace is fast and furious, so it's fun to watch. Even if it fails to make much sense.
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A Briefing With Michael: One Year Ago
Friends, Greek, Airwolf, Logan's Run
