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TrentinaNE
Reviews
Hill Street Blues: Rookie Nookie (1984)
Early appearances by future stars
This episode features three young guest stars who would go on to future fame. Pivotal to the title story as a rookie cop is future Oscar-winner Tim Robbins, looking incredibly boyish but immediately recognizable. I had to look more closely to spot Mykelti Williamson (credited as Mykel T) as another rookie cop and Jere Burns as a rapist/killer. Both Williamson and Burns turned up a few years ago on one of my favorite modern cop shows, Justified. It was a kick to see their younger versions from this 1984 episode of HSB.
Cheers: Father Knows Last (1983)
One of the few missteps of Season 1
Season 1 of Cheers is nearly flawless, but this episode sticks out like a sore thumb. I know they had to write Rhea Perlman's pregnancy into the storyline, but ugh, this was a lousy way to do it. I find no humor at all in the prospect of Carla trying to foist fatherhood on sweet MIT physicist Marshall Lipton, after she becomes pregnant from a one-night-stand with her ex-husband, Nick. Good for Diane for shaming her into coming clean, but then Diane also tries to convince Marshall to marry Carla anyway? Uh, just no. The ending has the Cheers crowd serenading Carla with "You'll Never Walk Alone" -- this is writer Heide Perlman (Rhea's sister) at her worst.
Seinfeld: The Betrayal (1997)
A very clever parody of Harold Pinter's movie "Betrayal."
This episode is based on the movie "Betrayal" by Harold Pinter (winnerof the Nobel Prize for Literature, 2005). The movie starred Jeremy Irons and Ben Kingsley as long-time friends and business associates. As the movie opens, Irons's character meets with Patricia Hodge, the wife of Kingsley's character, to reminisce about an affair they'd broken off about a year earlier. The movie then moves backward in time until the closing scene that occurs just before Irons and Hodge embark on their affair. At every moment, the audience knows more than the characters do, which gives the story a compelling poignancy.
Seinfeld takes this conceit to hysterically funny levels by continually introducing "prior" information that makes what we just saw happen "later" all the funnier. The episode incorporates some inside jokes as well: there are several "love triangles" going on (Elaine, Susan, Pinter form one; Jerry, George, and Nina the other) and of course, the character of Pinter is an homage to Harold Pinter. The fact that they all go to India for the wedding may be a nod to Kingsley's heritage (he's half Indian).
Very creative and very funny, this episode proved that "Seinfeld" could be fresh and innovative even in its 9th season.
To Serve Them All My Days (1980)
Adore it!
I'm so thrilled to see such glowing words from fans of "To Serve Them All My Days." I was quite taken with this mini-series when I saw it on PBS in 1984. Seeing that it had become available on DVD recently, I revisited it, wondering if my fond memories from 20 years ago would prove accurate or had taken on an unrealistic glow over time. Not to fear: I found the show's quality *surpassed* my memory of it. The series scarcely ever strikes a false note, and is bursting with extremely poignant, funny, insightful, compelling and honest moments and characterizations.
As others have commented, the story follows David Powlett-Jones, a shell-shocked veteran of WWI. As we learn in the first of 13 episodes, David was the youngest son of a coal-miner. Unlike his three older brothers, two of whom died in a mining accident along with their father, David was "kept out of the pit" to attend the local grammar school. At age 18, instead of heading to Oxford as planned, he was shipped to France, where he spent three years fighting in "the Great War." His arrival at Bamfylde school in what appears to be early 1918 is part of a recovery program prescribed by an army neurologist: a closed community in a rural setting to help mend both the physical and the mental wounds David endured in the war.
At first David is skeptical that someone of his limited formal education and lack of social standing will be accepted at Bamfylde, a public school where the boys "have an unconscious assumption of privilege." But the gentle yet insistent persuasion of headmaster Algy Herries convinces him to give it a try. His first day in the classroom provides an immediate challenge as the schoolboys test his mettle. But despite David's outwardly shy and soft-spoken ways, he soon shows that he can be as tough as any situation demands.
The series follows the intertwining of David's personal and professional growth, and the recurring conflicts between these two facets of his life. Along the way, there are loves, friendships, triumphs, and tragedy. Through it all, John Duttine is a marvel of sensitive and compelling acting, as are many of his cast-mates.
Be forewarned that the series was produced in 1980 on videotape and with a limited budget (reportedly less than $2 million -- in comparison, "The Blue and the Gray," a 1982 Civil War saga about 2/3 as long, cost between $16 and $18 million). Hence, the production often has the look of a filmed play, with few outdoor scenes and no special effects. But what it lacks in "gloss," it more than makes up for in substance.
I would love to discuss aspects of this series with other fans, but rather than go into more detail here (and risk "spoiling" it for newcomers), I suggest we meet in the Message Board area. Please post about any aspect of the show -- I'll be sure to respond!
The Mallens (1979)
Surprisingly good, if dark
I tracked down this mini-series solely because I wanted to see other work by John Duttine, who was so outstanding in "To Serve Them All My Days." Based on the little I knew about "The Mallens," I wasn't expecting much, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that it held the melodrama in check and featured very fine acting. It has that "Masterpiece Theater" tempo of being slow enough to give you a sense of what life in rural 1860s probably was like, without being so slow that it bores. The characters, while very different in their assumptions and motivations than we expect in current fiction, struck me as believable and understandable. One warning though: the material is dark.
** SPOILER **
People die in ways or under circumstances that are very foreign to 21st century life. But that's part of what I found rather fascinating about it -- the sense of fatalism is palpable. Worth a look if you appreciate well-made period melodrama.