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Law & Order (1990)
The good, the bad, the indifferent
I've been watching L&O, all seasons over the last several months, and have several opinions about the series:
Lennie Briscoe was, for most of the run of the show, the heart of it. Well, gee, everyone knew that, didn't they? Of course, but even the obvious should be restated from time to time. Jerry Orbach was much more well known for his stage work, especially in musicals (he got his start in The Fantastiks, ca. 1960) than his often overlooked film roles, but once he became Lenny, it changed his entire life. He went from an occasional supporting role to a really fine character lead. It's too bad that his health failed him just as he had the resume and acting chops to become even better known.
Second in line: Jesse Martin. Another stage musician (original cast of Rent) who grew from the "junior" detective to senior investigator, and did a fine job as both.
Of the lawyers, I'm a big fan of Jill Hennessy; it's too bad she only lasted four seasons until she got her own show (Crossing Jordan) but she showed both intensity and humor in her role. Angie Harmon I never really cared for; her character was just TOO intense for my taste. The other ADAs were okay; I preferred De La Gorza to E. Rohm, the rest were pretty equal to each other.
Waterson beat both Moriarty and Roche, that is until he took over the DA role, when McCoy became so intense that the character lost me. The other DAs were okay; my favorite was Diane Wiest, with Senator Thompson better than Steven Hill (odd, since he was not a trained actor.)
Chris Noth, I thought, was better than Bratt, who was better than Farina, who was better than Jeremy Sisto, who was in turn better than Anthony Anderson. Merkerson beat out Dan Florek, that is until her last season; the cancer thing was a distraction.
I must mention several of the "day players," especially Leslie Hendrix, John Cariani, J.K. Simmons, and, my "crush", Megan Byrne. All of them were real bright spots whenever they appeared.
I can't let Fran Liebowitz's Judge Goldberg go by without crediting her (another non-actor) for some fine comedy bits. Not bad, for three or four lines per appearance.
The entire series really took off when "Lenny" joined the cast, and started lessening in quality when Orbach left. The first two seasons were seemingly rehearsals for the main part; the last two were almost throw-a-ways. Overall, it's still my favorite series of all time.
The Twilight Zone: The Bard (1963)
Well, _I_ thought it was funny . . .
. . . but I was thirteen or so, and had just discovered "the theatea." It was my first glimpse of Jack Weston, whom I became a big fan of. It also had one of my favorite lines: "We'll go down in history with the greatest collaborations in history: Gilbert and Sullivan, Rimsky and Korsakov, MOOMER AND SHAKESPEARE!"
I missed Burt Reynolds at the time; his parody of Brando was pretty funny, in retrospect. I do remember Howard McNair, for some reason.
But for a country boy from North Carolina, I did get some of the TV jokes. Give me some credit, will ya?
Lovejoy: The Lost Colony (1993)
I may be prejudiced, but . . .
. . . I'm from North Carolina, and the writers weren't.
Lovejoy meets some (very) distant cousins, from NC, and becomes involved, sorta, with them. They are not exactly kissing cousins -- far from it; he ends up with a splitting headache, is in jail a couple of times, and witnessing a knock-down, drag-out fight, an alligator attack, and a young divvy. And Charlotte Cavendish comes through!
There were some shots of the Charlotte (NC) skyline, bringing up good memories for me; also some scenes in downtown Wilmington, which was a fairly busy film production center at the time. But the accents were pretty bad -- Cousins Mary-John and Rutherford were terrible, and their aunt, played by the usually wonderful Barbara Barrie, was better, but not good. John Gielgud, showing his age, had very few, but very good, scenes. The supporting roles were all over the place, including a couple of mountain men, hanging out on the NC coast -- and these two native types are VERY different.
This is still a very good series, but this episode was not what it could have been.
Lovejoy: The Galloping Major (1993)
One of the best Lovejoys
I've been watching the entire Lovejoy series on Acorn for the last week; I haven't seen any of them since they were on cable almost two decades ago -- and they're even better than I remember them. I'm surprised that there are no comments on any of the individual episodes.
This is one of my favorites: One of the funniest ones so far, and also one of the best since the first season (which I'd never seen, and is my favorite season.)
Lovejoy and Eric encounter (without meeting) a delightfully dotty retired dentist and his wife, and must visit a scrap yard for a part for the old truck. While there, they acquire an old cast iron cannon, with resulting complications. An "expert" on old armament, who is a former arms dealer becomes involved, as do the local constabulary; Van Dyke's "last" palette, and an eastern European specialist from the Tower of London are also involved, with resulting misunderstandings, slapstick and several reversals.
Its a fine episode.
Emergency!: Women (1972)
Not my favorite episode!
I've been a fan of Emergency! for forty years -- I'm glad to see SOME of the episodes on Hulu, and some of the same ones on METV lately.
But this is one of the weakest episodes I've seen. The interplay of the characters is weak, as is the plot. The rescues are nowhere up to the usual quality of the series.
Also, the lighting in the last rescue was really visible -- the door of the warehouse was obviously spotlit, either from a lighting instrument or a mirror throwing the sun on the door; one of the worst examples of artificial lighting I've seen in my fifty years of watching movies and TV.
Spenser: A Savage Place (1995)
Slower than Christmas!
I was a fan of Urich (he was outstanding in Lonesome Dove) but the newer A&E group of Spencer flicks was much better.
Savage Place is talky to the extreme. Urich looks pretty good, considering he was ill with the early stages of his cancer, but Avery Brooks seemed to be sleepwalking. Marcia Gay Harden was a much better (and better looking) Susan.
The screenplay left several large holes in the plot, to boot! (How DID Spenser find Candy and Jessica, anyway? They were long gone before he started after Candy's SUV, and they were shown making several turns to get to the wooded area where he confronted them. And then Hawk does it too!)
I hadn't been aware of this one prior to catching it on the Hallmark Channel -- and was unimpressed.
Vanity Fair (2004)
She's a NOTED director?
Since my days of seeing three or four flicks a week back in the seventies (seemingly something of a Golden Age of American film, right up there with the thirties), I don't see that many anymore. Part of the problem is my hometown, where anything off the beaten track is lucky to play a week here, with no publicity.
So, although I had a slight chance to see Miss. Masalla, this was my first Nair flick. I wasn't impressed.
I'll agree with earlier comments about the difficulties of compressing an 800-page novel into an hour and a quarter. But there were a number of instances in VF that showed sloppy, amateur-level directing.
The scene of Becky singing at Lord Steyne's first party had blocking that looked as if it were part of a high-school senior play. The women's costumes were at the same level -- that is, if the high school had a multi-thousand dollar costume budget. (Even an old hillbilly like me can tell that the dresses in this scene were all cut from the same pattern, with variations only in the accessories. The hairdos were likewise much too similar for any verisimilitude.)
Similarly, the blocking of the two grotesques in the final casino scene was at a similar level -- when Becky dismisses them from their dinner invitation, their exit is one of "we're leaving because the director says to" motivational level.
Bob Hoskins was fine; it was nice seeing John Woodvine again, so many years after his great villain as Ralph Nickleby.
But I'm very unimpressed by Nair. Two stars out of four.