Thursday, April 8th, 2010
07.00 30 Rock
11.30 The Incredible Hulk
02.00 Stingray
03.45 The Days And Nights Of Molly Dodd
30 Rock. Season 4, Episode 15. "Don Geiss, America and Hope" Tracy's scandal; Liz's future husband, part two
Lots to love here. The show has three very funny, and very clever, storylines for Liz, Jack and Tracy. Each one is inventive and packed with great lines/ideas. And, at the end of it all, they are able to make all three collide off one another in a way that gives all of the craziness a deeper meaning. Of sorts.
Michael Sheen returns for his second episode and will - he says - be back for 'sweeps' in May. Whatever that means...
The Incredible Hulk. Season 2, Episode 8. "Killer Instinct" Football
A solid episode, which finds David working for a football team. Among the things worthy of praise:
1. A great performance from Denny Miller, as a player dealing with severe aggression issues. Two scenes in particular (when the character is under hypnosis) are superb, but the whole performance is enjoyable and displays a wide range, as the character goes from a friendly buddy persona to a man displaying out of control rage.
2. There's no bad guy. Once again, clever writing and strong characters are able to create sufficient conflict to drive the drama without the need to resort to cliché bad guys of the type you'd expect to find on a 'superhero show'. A doctor character, more short-sighted than evil, is the focus for most of the conflict and it's a type of character that would be at home on shows like Quincy or Lou Grant.
3. With little more than three very strong performances and good location filming the episode is successful at creating the reality necessary to make the story work. We need to believe that we are witnessing behind-the-scenes events at a big league football team, we need to believe in the friendship between David and the player and we need to believe that the doctor is an expert who, while well-meaning, is missing out on important point. Together with Miller, Bill Bixby and Rudy Solari are flawless in creating the world of the episode.
4. It's a fascinating tale. The last half is mostly concerned with stopping the player from harming someone on the field, but the first half has some great discussion scenes between David and the doctor character. Conversations that - I must confess - completely pulled me in and had me absorbed. I also liked these scene because they gave David a valid reason to be working at this particular job. We can see that our hero isn't just taking random jobs, he is - time and time again - tracking down various ways to deal with his unique problem.
On the downside, there are a couple of things that I didn't like:
1. The reason for the Hulk Out in the middle of the episode is weak. Firstly the story didn't need a Hulk Out at this point (so it ranks as one of the episodes that really only needed one Hulk sequence) and secondly it's a bit silly how it happens: two players flick towels at Banner (causing him to yelp in pain) before they lock him in a steam room. The actual Hulk Out when it happens looks fantastic, but it can't quite disguise the fact that the build up is silly.
2. Barbara Leigh doesn't quite have the range to convince me that she's worried about her husband, or that she has some kind of deep bond with David that allows her to confide her fears about her marriage. And that's a problem. In order for many Hulk episodes to work you need to believe that these people will trust and open up to a complete stranger. In most cases, Bixby and the guest star can sell it. In this episode, for instance, it requires no leap of faith to believe in the friendship between our hero and the football player. But whenever David is talking to the wife, everything falls flat. Bixby is so good he completely blows her off screen.
Flawed, yes, but this is still a very solid and hugely enjoyable episode of TIH.
Stingray. Season 2, Episode 9. "The Second Finest Man Who Ever Lived" Docks
Standard crime tale. Helped by heart, the show's considerable style and nice location filming.
The story opens with a dock worker finding out that he's been complacent in a smuggling operation. A discovery that costs him his life and leaves his grown, but mentally-challenged, son alone in the world. Except that 'Ray shows up and starts to investigate the death...
The conversations between 'Ray and the son are about the big topics of life and Dennis Christopher and Nick Mancuso have no problem making the material work. The son fulfils the same 'outsider' role that characters like Spock and Data occupy on Star Trek and through him Burt Pearl is able to write a script that asks innocent questions in a meaningful way. And 'Ray is a great character to answer those questions. "There are two types of people in the world," he says. "Those that need help. And those that help." At the end of the story, when the son has a chance to kill the man who murdered his father we know that he won't (so there's no real sense of drama) but the journey that the character is on still makes the story worthwhile. Still makes the ending satisfying.
Stingray has a great visual style and this episode has two striking examples of this. At the midpoint of the story, our hero sneaks aboard a docked ship to find out what's going on and the sequence is full of the quick cuts and random drum beats on the soundtrack that I love so much on this show. It looks/sounds cool. Same goes for the climax, when 'Ray sends a truck zooming down the runaway as the bad guy's plane tries to take off.
Finally, there's the location shooting. Most of the episode takes place at night, on docks which appear to be wet and windy in every shot. Even when the action moves out into the country, everything looks wet and cold. And somehow all the more real.
The Days And Nights Of Molly Dodd. Episode 4. "Here's Why You Should Never Wear High Heels to the Bank"
This episode really captures the sense of Playing With Fire. Molly is working closely with her ex-husband, and it's been established from the get-go that she still has strong feelings for him. Scene after scene shows us how close they are becoming, shows us the spark between them, shows us all the ways that Molly is falling under his spell and - sadly - shows us all the ways that he is wrong for her.
Late in the episode they argue, and the episode pulls away and leaves them in the distance so we can't hear the words. But we can still see them, there's sumptuous music on the soundtrack and I think all of us watching can relate to what's happening, can see ourselves on the screen having that argument, being on one side or the other.
I wish all fiction did this. Touched you, made you relate and gave you perspective.
Wonderful stuff.
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30 Rock, The Incredible Hulk, Stingray, The Days And Nights Of Molly Dodd
