This is another episode that is close to perfection, and another that left me wondering why I ended up with such a negative impression of the fourth season of Buffy. So far it has barely put a foot wrong. I think the problem is with what’s still to come, considering that the Big Bad is revealed in this episode, and he’s basically a fairly uninteresting version of Frankenstein’s Monster. As a threat to carry us through to the end of the season, Adam is not looking too promising. Continue reading
Once upon a time there was a black and white television show that was shown every weeknight of my youth at 1am. I miss those nights watching with my dad. It ran for 156 episodes. That show was of course The Twilight Zone. It’s a show that is typically well regarded and it’s been rebooted a handful of times to varying degrees of success. Having finally decided to tackle the original series in order, I’ve encountered a number of episodes I had never seen before which blows my mind since I’ve been watching this for somewhere in the vicinity of 50 years. The episode Once Upon a Time is one such episode that has escaped my viewing and I’m disgusted that it doesn’t make its rounds on those marathon days. The catch is, I fully understand why it doesn’t get airtime. It’s outdated… but that’s the very point of it! 
As the camera pans down to an old train as it passes by a field of grass, I thought, “This is going to be good.” I was being random and hopeful. See, I love old trains. I have my dad’s Lionel trains setup in the basement and recently built a Lego train; even ran wires throughout it to get it lit up. It looks great. But I had no idea the episode would take place right off the train. On top of that, the main protagonist looks like H. P. Lovecraft which also excited me; I’m not a fan of the man himself, but I love his creations and this gave me high hopes about this one. 
Steed and Emma head to the countryside, in an episode that includes everything we would expect from a rural British setting at the time: a rich landowner who enjoys “huntin’, shootin’, fishin’, sittin’… on every committee”; lots of horse riding; a gamekeeper who sneaks around with a gun, looking for poachers; and fox hunting. Just about everyone they meet also happens to be involved in a plot to hold the country to ransom. 
We open our latest adventure with Buck and Hawk exploring a lifeless world when a sudden wind kicks up and our heroes encounter a dying Harry Townes near a grave. Genre fans know him from The Twilight Zone and Star Trek: Return of the Archons. He’s one of those recurring faces of 1960’s TV, but he’s so heavily covered in a beard, that I failed to recognize him right away. Townes is one of the Guardians, a race that exists for a millennium before they die and their power is handed over to a new Guardian. But to get that power, it has to be handed over. Buck and Hawk leave “Janovus XXVI” in search of the new Guardian. 
I feel like this was the first episode of Angel that was actually trying to address a real life situation in the same way that the parent series did. I think the idea it was going for is a good one and one that has a lot of depth, but the execution isn’t quite there. Cordy is dating and after a wonderful night, she wakes up pregnant. Ok, on its own, that’s a powerful topic. A woman bears the consequences of a one night stand more than a man does, because ending up pregnant is a long term commitment and for at least 9 months, the woman can’t walk away from it. So what happens to Cordy is rough, especially since she wakes up with a belly clearly indicating the baby is almost due. She might as well be 9 months pregnant. So we know she’s likely to give birth at any moment, and yet this is where the point of the story petered out. 
Columbo still has a dog called Dog. Either he’s getting new dogs and keeping up the Dog naming tradition, or Dog is breaking all records for the longevity of a basset hound. We begin this week with Columbo taking Dog to a basset hound dog show, which looks like a lovely thing to watch, but it’s an odd way to start a Columbo episode. Perhaps they thought the half hour it takes for the Lieutenant to join the actual story was too long to wait, and it was probably a good call, because this one takes ages to get to the point, and we have to suffer half an hour of a man treating three women like objects. 
Similar to last episode, I wanted to stay in this world a bit longer. It’s a fascinating one filled with strange people. At first glance, we see a man wandering the desert, but as soon as he gets into town, we are greeted with at least 3 different alien species and I wondered about the larger world. That’s weird because we had 20 episodes that felt very self-contained before Pop Squad, and then we had 2 in a row where the larger world really loomed large in my brain. 
We begin with a slow panning shot across model soldiers on a battlefield, and it’s a great way to start an episode of Columbo. Anyone who has seen the 1970s episodes will also have high hopes, because we know the potential of pitting the Lieutenant against a military murderer, the added difficulties of breaking the barrier of their authority, and the enjoyment of seeing power dismantled by a man in a shabby raincoat. The late 80s return of Columbo has resulted in variable quality, to say the least, so can Grand Deceptions deliver a classic episode with a premise that almost guarantees success? 
Having now seen 20 episodes of this series, I feel like I know more or less what to expect. And then this episode happens and it surprises me. It surprises me because every other story felt self-contained. Yes, they are all part of a bigger world but even Three Robots, which takes a snip of their experience, doesn’t feel like it needs more, no matter how much we might want it. Pop Squad comes along and is barely enough to give us an idea of what goes on in this world. Lead Writers
Roger Pocock
Mike Loschiavo-
Recent Posts
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- Angel: Expecting
- Columbo: Murder: A Self Portrait
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: A New Man
- The Twilight Zone: The Jungle
- Love, Death and Robots: Snow in the Desert
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- Buck Rogers: Journey to Oasis
- Angel: Somnambulist
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