This episode "Hot House" is a show within a show, with references to Big Brother, Survivor, and The Real World. Alex Smith (Shane Van Dyke, the grandson of Dick, and son of Barry) is a contestant in TV reality show Hot House, hoping to pay off his $25,000 student loan debt. Actually, Alex appeared in Out of the Past (season 7, ep 23) where he reacquainted his romance with old friend Amy Saroyan, who turns out to work for an escort agency. Anyway, in Hot House Alex forms a romance with an older contestant, sort of like a cougar. It will be interesting to see how this progresses.
One of the Hot House contestants is murdered, and it happened one of the other contestants did the deed, thanks to switching videotape during the murder. This instantly reminded me of Ben Elton's book "Dead Famous", published in 2001 I believe, which was about a murder in a Big Brother type reality show, and the murderer (almost) got away with it by switching the videotape. In an interview I remember Ben saying he was inspired by watching Big Brother, and I'm not suggesting he was inspired by this episode of Diagnosis Murder.
Anyway, Hot House is enlivened when Mark Sloan becomes a contestant (sort of like an intruder contestant) to solve the murder.
The actor who plays the Hot House director resembles Lester Holt.
Victoria Rowell didn't appear in this episode, but hopefully she will appear in the rest of season 8.
One of the Hot House contestants is murdered, and it happened one of the other contestants did the deed, thanks to switching videotape during the murder. This instantly reminded me of Ben Elton's book "Dead Famous", published in 2001 I believe, which was about a murder in a Big Brother type reality show, and the murderer (almost) got away with it by switching the videotape. In an interview I remember Ben saying he was inspired by watching Big Brother, and I'm not suggesting he was inspired by this episode of Diagnosis Murder.
Anyway, Hot House is enlivened when Mark Sloan becomes a contestant (sort of like an intruder contestant) to solve the murder.
The actor who plays the Hot House director resembles Lester Holt.
Victoria Rowell didn't appear in this episode, but hopefully she will appear in the rest of season 8.