"Social Reality" rules in this episode, featuring an UNBELIEVABLE -6 minute opening neighborhood RIOT scene that must have involved 150 people in the streets, throwing junk (and deadly projectiles) from several rows of apartment/tenement windows, etc. A real TOUR-DE-FORCE of chaotic, violent action, very well staged and filmed...and especially impressive for a weekly, hour-long TV drama.
HOWEVER-- what does this have to do with the main story-line? Not much, unfortunately. Basically the episode features an uneven mix of elements that one might expect from "East Side/West Side", the distinguished, gritty "reality" TV drama of the day that focused on the trials and hardships of the racially/ethnically diverse citizenry of NYC.
Here we have TWO minority communities-- Puerto Rican and Orthodox Jew-- that are coupled together in an odd, rather improbable way, in a plot that seems somewhat contrived; it just seems to STRETCH too much to make the case for poor Alejandro Rey's plight in the big, cruel city-- where his total unfamiliarity with the English language and his trusting, gullible personality make him a lightning rod for misfortune and ultimately, tragedy.
In the end, it all seems to be too patched together: the massive riot scene, the poor Puerto-Rican family (families?) living in one big apartment, the sad situation at the Jewish Old Folk's home and Alejandro's unexpected (and moving) involvement in it, all of which the author attempts to combine into a convincing, compelling drama.
Much of the individual scenes are convincing, thanks to the staging and direction, and the fine performances of the leads (too bad about the cotton-candy beard on Old Aaron). However, when it's time to wrap up the show with a tragic ending, the director yelled "ACTION", and the tenement dwellers, who were waiting for their cue, immediately started throwing projectiles from their windows. I suppose this justifies the opening riot scene, since we now know that the denizens of the tenement are prone, at a moment's notice, to erupt in neatly choreographed violence, which in this case provides an unexpected, cruel twist to the end of the story.
And then-- no surprise-- there's the cry of the newborn babe from the window above. I wanted to be moved, but ultimately felt, somehow, that the author and director didn't "earn it"; they needed a more plausible script that didn't try so hard to be emotionally and socially "relevant."; too many "hot-button" topics of the day, stirred together in a somewhat incoherent mix.
Still, the individual pieces of the show are impressive.. LR