New posts

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 283157" data-attributes="member: 23">Murder, Smoke and Shadows continued Another echo of episodes’ past comes in the surprising form of Fisher Stevens (best known to me for that Season One episode of Friends where his character psychoanalysed all the main characters, telling them what a dysfunctional mob they really are. And apparently Stevens did the same to the Friends cast and crew off-camera). Fisher’s character - Alex Brady, a twenty-something hot young director - seems analogous with one Steven Spielberg. It’s all there, from the boyish enthusiasm to trendy clothes to the the round glasses and even the waterbed (Spielberg was known to sleep on a waterbed during the Seventies, infamously fuelling his post-Jaws nightmares about still being out at sea shooting the film, over time and over budget). Stevens even resembles a young Spielberg, and happens to be the same age he would have been when shooting Jaws. It’s not the series’ first nod to its one-time director, and arguably not its cheekiest (Mind Over Mayhem’s child prodigy Steve Spelberg might take the prize there. All the same, there’s something heartwarming about the series’ fascination with its one-time director. What he lacked in physical presence he made up for in having the arrogant insouciant air of someone who’s been given sudden success and wealth at a young age and believes they’re the centre of the universe. Even when his shouty moments seem more bratty than forceful, and his intimidation techniques just look like a childish pout, I could still believe that Brady believed himself and there were plenty of people willing to listen because of his power at the studio. Baby-faced Stevens is certainly a different kind of Columbo killer. If you can get past the contrivance of this slight and bookish kid physically intimidating his bigger, broader friend into position to kill him (and I could because Jeff Parry did a great job of making his character seem nervous and jumpy), Brady’s youthful innocent looks made him seem quite an unlikely killer (I kept seeing Daniel Radcliffe), and yet conversely I also found both the writing for Brady and Stevens’s performance a little too on the nose at times. Incidentally, I love glasses-spotting in this series, and I adore the frames Fisher wore in this episode. I'm not sure what they are, but they look very similar to the Oliver Peoples O'Malley, which was the in-frame for American yuppie and luvvie types of the time (Patrick Bateman famously wore them in Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho). It's the perfect style for this self-consciously hip character. continued...</blockquote>

Verification: What month follows July?