New posts

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Snarky Oracle!" data-source="post: 119614" data-attributes="member: 57984">'Sons'Ironically, the later, lesser episodes of Season 4 seem to have the better prints on this DVD package. 'Sons' is one of those lame -- though not quite as awful as I remember it -- installments from near the end of the series which just kind of sits there, the by-now lowly-rated show seemingly realizing that its days are numbered and they're just phoning it in.A rookie cop is new on the beat in one of the most dangerous areas in town, his making the effort to become acquainted with the neighborhood. But once lured into a trap by a local motorbike gang (which includes Freddy Krueger!) and severely beaten, the folks on the beat don't exactly come to his defense -- except for a café owner (Theodore Bikel) whose son is murdered as a result. Sergeants Crowley and Anderson try to investigate the deaths, but face a wall of silence from the frightened or contemptuous locals. Finally, Pepper and Bill wind up in the woods chasing the leader of the strange and homicidal gang, Pepper gets predictably grabbed from behind and taken at gun point back to her car whereupon Crowley emerges from the back seat to choke the thug as Pepper looks on in stunned, wide-mouth silence, paralyzed by the drama for what seems like five or ten minutes, before finally grabbing the killer's gun and then pleading for Crowley to show the cycle psycho some mercy by not strangling him too hard.But there's still time left to have a scene where the grieving father tells Pepper how wonderful she is, and she smiles tentatively, as if more compliments may be coming and she doesn't want to be rude and leave prematurely.Pedestrian, anemic, feels dumb.____________'Murder with Pretty People'Almost charmingly breezy entry about a war raging in the world of high-fashion modeling agencies between John Paul (Dennis Cole) and his imperious rival, Liz Adams (Anne Francis). When Liz is killed before the first commercial break, Pepper misses a trip to Hawaii to go undercover as a model with "the best portfolio I've seen in months" and no mention of the fact she's pushing 50. She soon finds out that there is more than one person who'd had reason to want to see the strident Liz Adams dead -- except for John Paul's jealous girlfriend (Morgan Fairchild) who oddly insists Liz was nicer to her than she actually was. Allan Carr has a couple of scenes to drive home the disco sleaze factor. Ultimately, Pepper winds up in a hotel room with one of Liz's aging castoffs (Julie Adams) whose crow's feet have driven her over the edge of sanity -- Pepper assures the woman that if she looks into her mirror she'll see she's still beautiful. She does as she's told and the bust is made.It's all kind of funny. And I always find myself looking around for Faye Dunaway and her crystal ball.____________'Battered Teachers'Crowley goes undercover as a supply teacher and Pepper as a nurse's assistant at a high school being terrorized by a band of spoiled, well-to-do students -- which includes a young Debra Winger, as cocky as you'd anticipate -- whom the principal refuses to take official action on for fear of the negative publicity or angering the band's wealthy families, despite the staff being beaten and raped on a near-daily basis and the pupils routinely shaken down for their lunch money. The nasty-kid dialogue is as ripe and cheesy as one tends to expect from these kinds of stories, the menace kind of laughable and trite. But it's TV. In the '70s. Very little of what happens feels very organic or rings true, with much of the problem being that the teenaged boys are at best mediocre actors; the girls are much better.The script is by the line producer's son, Daniel King (Benton).It's just a dreadful episode.____________'A Shadow on the Sea'After two seajackers murder a honeymooning couple on their yacht, and whom seem willing to steal and kill even more to set up a smuggling operation, Pepper, donning a series of colorful hair scarves throughout the story, enlists the aid of an old, drunken sea dog (Forrest Tucker, perfectly cast, obviously) whose rusty anchor got stuck in the ocean bottom years ago, and a detective and old flame (Michael Parks) who lets himself into Pep's apartment (he still has a key) and tells her -- and Crowley -- that Crowley isn't treating her right.Many of these late S4 episodes I haven't seen in years and years, as it's the section of the series I like least and haven't watched very much. At the time, they struck me as unbearably cartoonish or lazy or excessively tired with Angie near-comatose and in general just very difficult to sit through, especially in comparison to the snappy, resonant first season (which are like completely different programs, frankly). Today, however, when taken on their own and not in any context related to the earlier versions of the series, some of these late-S4 episodes at least come off now as a little more interesting than they once did. And "A Shadow on the Sea" is one of them. Listless? You betchya. But there are interesting subtexts to be sniffed, including Crowley's and Angie's beloved Michael Parks' lowkey rivalry over Pepper's affections. And the sense that POLICE WOMAN seems resigned to closing up shop any day now.[ATTACH=full]22240[/ATTACH]</blockquote>

Verification: Who played JR Ewing?