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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 238392" data-attributes="member: 22">Civil Wives (KNOTS, 14 Feb 80) v Close Call (KNOTS, 19 Oct 89)Susan Philby, Sid’s ex, turns up unexpectedly in Civil Wives, and Karen chooses to present herself as the same sitcom Brady Bunch wife and mother she described herself as to Gary and Val at the beginning of the series. Whereas Sid will prove remarkably slow on the uptake when Linda the Mechanic tries to tempt him into an affair in Choices, he knows what Susan’s after straightaway — him.  Susan is the first in a succession of sophisticated but neurotic female guest stars from “Back East” (Judy Trent, Victoria Hill, Anne Matheson), all of whom look down their snooty noses at Seaview Circle’s suburban housewives while secretly envying them. Susan is probably the most unhappy (and most poignant) of them all. The KLM repair shop yet again becomes a hotbed of romantic intrigue as she begs Sid to go to bed with her. He turns her down, but you totally buy them as having had a brief, passion-fuelled marriage back in the day.Given what a nice man he is and how much longer he'll spend dead than alive, it’s sometimes hard not to dismiss Sid as just a two-dimensional saint, but he’s a lot more than that in this episode. For all his patience towards both Karen and Susan, there’s also an undercurrent of anger and frustration. He’s well aware that the two women are playing a sort of game with him stuck in the middle and he quietly resents it.Ultimately, Susan is given her marching orders and returns to her lonely purgatory, never to be heard from again, while the Fairgates end up back in each other’s arms, their status quo not merely restored but strengthened. The one character who can’t be put back his box so easily is Richard, “the transparent little man” with whom Susan has a tacky one-nighter. Just like his and Gary’s future dalliances with Abby, it’s another cul-de-sac fling that doesn’t go unnoticed by the neighbours.In spite of her insecurities, Karen remains a cool and strategic player throughout her dealings with Susan. She’s less in control of her emotions in Close Call. Her plan to dissuade Michael from dropping out of school to take a job at the Sumner Group by practising reverse psychology is shortlived and she ends up losing her temper at him instead. Likewise, she’s far more upset at Paula Vertosick for having a crush on Mack than she was at Susan for having designs on Sid. (When it comes to potential threats to Karen’s marriages, Paula is less Susan Philby and more the Linda the Mechanic.)The torturous complications going on between ex-spouses in Close Call make Sid and Susan’s situation look quaintly simple by comparison.  Gary spends half the episode trying to track down an anonymous woman he heard being attacked over the phone and the other half concerned that the twins hate Val’s new boyfriend, not realising that the new boyfriend is the estranged husband of the woman on the phone. Oh, and neither he nor Val realises that the woman on the phone is also the twins’ kindergarten teacher. And a singer at Frank’s club. Or that she and the new boyfriend are still sleeping together. But then Gary suddenly becomes aware of all of these things all at once in a kind of realisation pile-up in the closing moments of the show. I just love it.Something I’ve never noticed before about Civil Wives: When Eric inspects the Wards’ record collection, the most prominently displayed LP is by Ginger’s real-life boyfriend, Warren Zevon. It's called 'Excitable Boy' which, given Eric’s crush on Ginger,  is kind of apt.Something I’ve never noticed before about Close Call: There are several references to Abby who left at the end of the previous season, but the show has fun avoiding mentioning her name: instead she is referred to as the Dragon Lady, Greg’s ball and chain, that other woman and the missus.And the winner is ... Civil WivesBONUS BEATS:[MEDIA=youtube]UihW1D7y4eU[/MEDIA]</blockquote>

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