Reviews

AMC took the interesting (but not unique) tack of previewing the first episode of this drama at twenty-one movie theatres around the US followed by the livestream of a Q&A with most of the actors and the showrunner. I went in without reading anything beyond the info that it was a US remake of a two-part UK series.

Without spoiling, the episode was intriguing and very well-written, and the plot was quite different to anything I've seen currently on US TV. The acting was top-notch - and the idea of bringing over two of the leads from the original series to recreate their roles very likely made it even better than it might have been otherwise.

Rather than starting with a "whodunnit" at all, this is more of a "how will they get away with it." Yes, that idea's been done before. But the overall storyline is, again, quite different.

My one big complaint about this series - which has a nicely diverse cast of men - is the women. All ranges of male ages can be found in this show. Indeed, there's a very large male cast.

Women? Not so much. In fact, there were only four women total with screen time in this first episode - and one of those only in flashbacks. The three women in the present were all younger - the oldest might be in her early 30s. The people running this show have no love for mature women. Even the secretary to the lieutenant seems to be no more than her mid-twenties - hardly a standard in the working world.

Oh, and only one female detective was visible for the entirety of the episode. Really? In this century they couldn't justify more women than that in an entire police department?

FYI - don't be fooled by the multiple female actor names in the IMDb listing. I saw none of them and can only assume they were either extras or have very small roles in upcoming episodes. (Even if they were all in attendance, again, the age range seems to be between 22 and 33. Not exactly what one would see in the real world.)

Considering the female population that they could be engaging, AMC would do well to address this egregious "oversight" and add at least a modicum of more mature women to the cast.

For now, I'm going to give more of this series a pass until they have more of a reality check on the missing 50% of the country.

Most of Winchester's dialogue and actions smack of Frank Burns.

In particular the comment about the local Koreans learning proper English was quick obviously the kind of thing Burns would say.

Additionally, the unabashed crassness of Winchester's attitude are more than a little out of character but very much in keeping with Frank Burns.

After seeing the recent airing in syndication, and knowing this episode was filmed just a few months after the departure of Frank Burns, I'd say it's a better than even chance the script was originally written before Larry Linville decided to leave the series and a few adjustments were made so they could still use it.

The plots weren't really all that great when you get right down to it.

What I really watched it for, for the few weeks it lasted, was the character interaction and the excellent actors who worked on the series.

I've always enjoyed Christine Belford since her days on "Banacek"; Rod Taylor, of course, has always been a joy (where is he lately?); William Lucking I liked from the time I saw him playing Babe Ruth in an episode of "Voyagers!" in the 80s; Charles Napier is one of those faces most recognize without knowing who he is (anyone remember him playing Adam in the episode The Way to Eden on Star Trek?); Richard Roundtree has remained one of my favorite actors over the years; and Patrick Houser managed to hold his own among all those illustrious performers.

Every so often I pull out my tapes and revisit this silly guilty pleasure just for fun.

I first saw this concert version of the Wizard of Oz when it first was airing and was positively thrilled. Every performance was spot on - Joel Grey did the part of the Wizard proud; Roger Daltrey gave the Tin Man a Who-like showing on "If I Only Had a Heart"; Jewel's rendition of "The Jitterbug" was fantastic!; Natalie Cole's Gospel-style singing of "You're Out of the Woods" shows off the pipes of this talented singer; Nathan Lane's Cowardly Lion positively channeled Bert Lahr; Debra Winger as the Wicked Witch was a hoot with her standard above-standard performance; Jackson Browne's Scarecrow singing "If I Only Had a Brain" was marvelous; The Harlem Boys Choir made a wonderful set of munchkins; And the guest artists all made the concert a special event.

Darrell Larson did an extremely creditable job of direction on the entire production and is to be commended. I've owned a copy of this for several years now and watch it regularly. The only thing that would top having this on tape and CD would be if they released it on DVD as well.