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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 23440" data-attributes="member: 23">PLAY IT AGAIN, SANTAThere's the usual festive lighter tone to the episode - including a rather bizarre montage of events in the episode that plays before the title sequence. It's like a preview, but with a rendition of My Christmas Love (For You) sung by one of this episode's guest-cast: Thelma Houston. We hear it several more times throughout the episode: lip synced by Houston when her character, Ellie Hendricks, sings it at a nightclub; played by Chris in her apartment as she wraps presents and over a scene at the end of the episode where Mary Beth's dream becomes reality.Fortunately, it's a nice song and a great vocal and didn't get old. Janis Cercone and Michele Brourman are credited as songwriters over the end titles, leading me to wonder if it might have been written for this episode. Sadly, I can't seem to find a recorded version anywhere, as I'd have been up for listening to it over the festive season.The main plot of the episode featured that song, which was stolen. The plot was fairly perfunctory, but helped greatly by the chemistry between the actors - particularly Gless and Dan Shor as Newman - and there was so much else going on that the procedural plot became secondary.As seems to be the case this season, I'm finding more and more reasons to love Chris.First up, we share a grammar bugbear as we find when Newman discusses the missing street corner Santas.NEWMAN: "First of all, she starts over with Neil, switches over to Rupert and Neil disappears. It's a classic triangle…   Second of all, I have a hunch about this and I've learnt to go with my hunches."CHRISTINE: "First of all, there is no 'second of all'. It's secondly."Dressing up your characters in red and white suits is a christmas episode television trope and not on the surface particularly innovative or funny. But when Newman and Cagney put on Santa suits to investigate the Santas' disappearance, the little touches made all the difference. Like Chris only having elf shoes which forced her to walk as though she were wading through water. Gless's delivery of a line in that initial Santa scene gave me my biggest laugh out loud moment of the season so far:CHRISTINE: "These are not Santa Claus shoes. These are elf shoes."NEWMAN: "I told you before. It's the busy season. They ran out of your size. Hey, I offered, but no… you didn't wanna be Mrs Santa Claus."CHRISTINE: "I don't play supporting roles."The seriousness with which she says her lines and the way she puffs up and deepens her voice on that last line felt unexpected. And funny.The scene goes onto some classic banter between the two Santas in the squad room, Chris taking large steps as she marches with a ream of fax paper from a bin stuck to her elf shoe and trailing her:NEWMAN: "You know what your problem is? You're inappropriately competitive."[Chris marches on across the squad room, a trail of fax paper caught on her elf show trails her]CHRISTINE: "Me? You're competitive about breathing, Newman. I took Psyche 101 also Newman. You know what's wrong with you? Arrested development. You are somewhere in junior high. Probably because of your height and your lack of popularity with girls."Once again their great chemistry is on show, which sets up the turn their story takes this episode. Chris's jibes about his sexual prowess and Newman tying in the case to a love triangle all foreshadow the latter part of the episode.Stephen Macht is back as David Keeler (he returned in Power). And we get the first Cagney & Lacey romantic quadrangle (or is it a double triangle? I'm no expert). First Chris finds him having it away with another woman. Then when he returns to sweep Chris off her feet at the end of the episode we see Newman sadly watching them drive off in a cab. It's quite a glossy Hollywood Christmas type scene, with snow falling, Newman clutching a single red rose and all the characters dressed up to the nines (Newman was planning to surprise Chris and accompany her to a social event, knowing that David had let her down). It's quite soapy. But I liked it.Romantic entanglements aside, there was a cute little arc for Mary Beth who had a craving to swim alone in the middle of the night. Harv did all he could and paid for her to have a public pool to herself, and we see her swimming and glowing as Thelma Houston's song plays over it. There's a bit of overkill when Harvey wades in fully clothed (even wearing his shoes, which seems most unsanitary), but Daly in particular made this romantic scene fly.</blockquote>

Verification: What month follows July?