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Reviews
The Long Hot Summer (1985)
I Liked It
I don't know why "Anonymous" from Atlanta hated the 1985 version so much. I saw both the 1958 version and the 1985 version, and I thought both were good in their respective ways, although I admit that I liked the 1958 version better. William Russ (Jody Varner) appeared with Don Johnson (Ben Quick) in Miami Vice, and James Gammon (Billy Quick) appeared with Johnson in Nash Bridges. The casting choice that I liked least was Cybill Shepherd (Eula Varner). She played the part well enough, but I'm just not a Cybill Shepherd fan. The closest I ever came to liking her was in her role as Maddie Hayes opposite Bruce Willis as David Addison in the TV series Moonlighting. I admit to having been a Miami Vice (1984-1989) fan. That's probably why I thought this 1985 version with Johnson in the lead was fairly good. He's a good enough actor that he gets the job done, and I wish I looked like him, that is, when he was still relatively young. It wasn't fun watching him age in the final season of Nash Bridges (1996-2001). Wrinkles are OK, but when the hairline and the waistline start to go, it's time to start avoiding the camera. What he absolutely had to have was hair replacement and a trainer to get him back into shape, but at 51 years of age, he didn't get either one, so the series wasn't renewed for a seventh season (the first season was comprised of 8 episodes in the spring of 1996, seasons 2-6 extending from the fall of 1996 to the spring of 2001). Anyway, I thought that the 1985 version of The Long Hot Summer was a lot better than what "Anonymous" from Atlanta indicated. I never saw the 1965 version.
Monk (2002)
Monk Changes
Monk has been one of my favorite TV shows. Extensive information on this show can be found at this web site: http://www.tvtome.com/Monk/ The first season (episodes 1-13) was aired from 07/12/02 to 10/18/02. The second season (episodes 14-29) was aired from 07/20/03 to 03/05/04. The third (current) season (episodes 30-41) has been aired from 06/18/04 to 02/04/05 (most recently aired episode) and will be aired (episodes 42-45) from 02/11/05 to 03/04/05.
Sharona Fleming (played by Elizabeth "Bitty" Schram) was Adrian Monk's (played by Tony Shalhoub) assistant in episodes 1-38. In episode 39, Adrian acquired Natalie Teeger (played by Traylor Howard) as his new assistant.
From what I've read, Tony Shalhoub is the executive producer of Monk. Also from what I've read, the reason Elizabeth Schram (Sharona) was written out of the show as Adrian's assistant in the middle of the third seasonher last episode was episode 38 ("Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine," aired 08/20/04)was that she wanted more money to continue her role due to the success of the show. Now, I don't know who made the decision not to give Ms. Schram the raise that she sought, but inasmuch as Mr. Shalhoub is the executive produce, I assume that he had something to do with this decision.
Then again, I also read (on a forum) that the USA network simply decided to take the show in a slightly different direction and that the decision that Ms. Schram would leave the show was a mutual decision with which Ms. Schram agreed. However, this explanation doesn't sound right to me.
Ms. Schram was either absent or virtually absent from episodes 36 ("Mr. Monk and the Employee of the Month," aired 08/06/04) and 37 ("Mr. Monk and the Game Show," aired 08/13/04). In her final episode (episode 38), Adrian, no longer willing to be different than "normal" people, decides to take a mood-altering prescription medication. This results in a change from a phobic personality to a rather obnoxious personality absolutely devoid of fear; he doesn't seem to care about anything at all. The problem with this change, aside from the fact that he's obnoxious, is that Adrian loses (1) his observe-and-deduce ability that made him such a brilliant detective and (2) his almost-hallucinatory ability to communicate (in his thoughts) with his deceased wife, whom he still so dearly loves. Although Sharona is in the show, she doesn't have much screen time. She also looks in this episode to have put on a little bit of weight (not a lot, just a little), which causes me to think that Ms. Schram, knowing that she was being discontinued from the show rather than given a raise, may have been somewhat depressed and may have overindulged in some comfort food. By the end of this episode, Adrian has stopped taking the pills enough to regain his ability as a brilliant detective and to solve the mystery; and Sharona, speaking for everyone, welcomes back the old Adrian. That's the last we ever see of Sharona. In the first few minutes of episode 39 ("Mr. Monk and the Red Herring," aired 01/21/05), it is simply explained in the dialogue that Sharona abruptly remarried her former husband and moved to New Jersey, leaving Adrian to look for a new assistant.
Traylor Howard, who plays Adrian's new assistant, Natalie Teeger, is a fine actress; and what she does in this show as the new assistant, she does well. Although this new assistant is definitely independent, she nevertheless seems to me to interact with Adrian in a noticeably more passive manner than Sharona did. Sharona exhibited a very strong personality, enough so that she was more of a partner to Adrian than an assistant. This makes me wonder whether either Tony Shalhoub or someone else making decisions regarding this show decided that the character of Adrian should evolve somewhat and that such a strong personality as Sharona would interfere with this. After all, the "Medicine" episode (episode 38) suggested that Adrian was ready for some kind of change. Then again, maybe the change in the show really did come down to a disagreement over money. I don't know.
Anyway, I've seen the last three episodes (episodes 39-41) featuring Natalie as the new assistance, and the chemistry between Adrian and Natalie is certainly different than the chemistry between Adrian and Sharona was. This new relationship seems to me to focus more attention on Adrian as an individual than the previous relationship did, in which the focus seemed to me to be more on Adrian and Sharona as a team. I guess the question to be answered is whether Adrian by himself, with a more passive assistant, will be as interesting to the viewer as the team of Adrian and Sharona was. If the situation in this show is an Abbott and Costello type of situation, Sharona being to Adrian what Abbott was to Costello, then the change won't work. Time will tell.
The Swimmer (1968)
The Swimmer: A Psychological Puzzle To Solve
Ned Merrill, a Park Avenue (New York) executive, who marries into money (his wife Lucinda), produces two daughters (Ellen and Aggie) and lives a self-centered, self-serving, philandering life in a wealthy suburban community in Connecticut, has been absent from his social circle for a while. The entire story takes place on the day that he reappears. The length of his absence and where he was and what he was doing during the absence remains a mystery in this story. All that is certain is that Ned has had some sort of psychological break (amnesia or repression) and has lost the last two years of his memory. He thinks that it is two years earlier than it actually is. Generally, whatever was going on in his life two years ago is what he thinks is going on in this life on this day. Complicating this basic problem is an unstable perception of time, in which Ned's mind regresses in time during the course of this day, this regression revealing itself in Ned's comments concerning his daughters, Ned describing his daughters as being younger and younger as the day wears on until he is partially shocked back to reality (at the eighth pool, that of the Biswangers) into thinking that it is only two years earlier than it actually is. Between this partial shock back to reality and the end of the story, Ned is forced to remember what he has chosen to forget. On this day, Ned Merrill decides to `swim across the county,' that is, to `swim home' on `the Lucinda River,' a trek comprised of ten swimming pools that lead to his house: (1) the pool of Don and Helen Westerhazy, (2) the pool of Howard and Betty Graham, (3) the pool of Mrs. Hammar (this pool is not mentioned when Ned initially maps out the Lucinda River), (4) the pool of Mr. and Mrs. Lear, (5) the pool of Roger and Enid Bunker, (6) the pool of Mr. and Mrs. Halloran, (7) the pool of Mr. and Mrs. Gilmartin, (8) the pool of Henry and Grace Biswanger, (9) the pool of Shirley Abbott and (10) the public swimming pool. The evidence of what Ned has chosen to forget (as well as some things that he never knew), like pieces of puzzle, is revealed in what is said by the people with whom Ned interacts on this day, whereas what Ned chooses to remember is revealed in what he himself says. A good movie, I think. The viewer has to pay attention to the details in order to put the puzzle together. Burt Lancaster was 53 to 55 years of age during the filming of this movie. Most guys stop looking that healthy 20 years earlier.