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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 400514" data-attributes="member: 23">Season OneHi! / The Boss Isn’t Coming To Dinner / A Friend In Deed / Smokey The Bear Wants You / The 45-Year-Old ManAny episode that includes some kind of crisis for Lou is a good one. These final episodes of the season feature two of them: first one where Lou and his wife separate; then one where The Powers That Be at WJM decide to sack Lou. Each takes a similar approach in which Lou is stoical while the team in the outer office works to try and fix the situation (or Lou himself). As a result, each builds the strength of the work-based ensemble and shows how important each player is. In particular it also shows how valued Mary herself has become. She’s almost like a daughter to Lou and a sister to Murray (and perhaps even Ted). Ed Asner does great work with this side of things and it’s easy to see why his own series would be more drama than comedy.A couple of bizarre little “did they think we wouldn’t notice?” things occurred in these episodes. First, Mary’s long-forgotten friend from camp, Twinks, is played by Patte Finley who previously appeared in the divorce club episode. Stuff like this happens all the time, but Finley herself has a very distinctive look, sound and delivery and (from what I’ve seen in these episodes) is pretty much a one trick pony. Certainly watching at this pace having her play two almost-identical characters in one season seems quite poorly thought out.The second thing was even more bizarre. When Mary pays a visit to the eccentric cowboy who owns WJM to try and save Lou’s job, his place is very clearly Mary’s apartment set. The same painted wood slats, bare brick section and multi-level setup are very clearly visible. Even that shag pile carpet is present and correct. Granted, the set is filled with Western paraphernalia), but the only real concession towards pretending this isn’t a repurposed set is throwing a curtain over the main entrance door to the apartment set and having Mary enter from Stage Right (where the kitchen would be). This happened in the very last episode, and if sets had been so repurposed up to this point I hadn’t noticed. It’s a shame this move gave a sourly distracting note to the final episode. During the scene I even ended up having a conversation as I wasn’t sure if the Western bloke was meant to have moved in with Mary.Then there was Michael Callan who was the right kind of distracting. Most of the male suitors in this series have a certain spark that strikes the perfect balance of appeal and accessibility. For this viewer, anyway.Oh, and Ursula showed up, with Pat Carroll’s Loretta sharing a ward with Mary. As I get older, it’s perhaps a little worrying that I increasingly identify with grouch characters (I’m currently watching Brookside, and that series’ infamously grumpy old man character, Harry Cross, is someone I now view as “us” rather than “them”), and I have to take ownership of the fact that I, like Loretta, would find myself irritated if I had a roommate who liked to talk.</blockquote>

Verification: What month follows July?