I'm a huge fan of Frasier, but this episode is truly awful.
For starters, it's poorly written; Martin, Daphne, Roz, and the rest are ridiculously out of character. Worst-faring is Niles, who is suddenly given to mushy tributes, beer-drinking, and ill-advised rants. Roz's dialogue is little better, and she is doomed to recite bad-greeting-card drivel about why Wonder Woman is really her hero. (No, seriously.) On top of that, the episode is neither funny nor heart-warming and ends with Martin Crane getting angry with Niles and storming out of the room - a conflict which is never resolved. The episode just ends immediately afterward! I feel really bad for the actors who had to film this. In their position, I would have been embarrassed. I imagine they probably were. David Hyde Pierce and John Mahoney do their best to put in some physical comedy when the lines are giving them nothing, and it helps . . . a little. But poor Peri Gilpin and Jane Leeves spend the entire episode sitting on a couch, so they don't even have that opportunity.
What happened here? Was it a budgetary problem? Had they spent too much money in the beginning of the season, thus necessitating a way to recoup the cash with a one-set episode? Or was it a time problem, in which no one had sufficient opportunity to revise the script? In any case, yikes! I guess a series with as many incredible episodes as Frasier can be forgiven the occasional bomb, but this . . . well, this is the atom bomb of situation comedy.
Again - those poor actors! That must have been one tough week.
For starters, it's poorly written; Martin, Daphne, Roz, and the rest are ridiculously out of character. Worst-faring is Niles, who is suddenly given to mushy tributes, beer-drinking, and ill-advised rants. Roz's dialogue is little better, and she is doomed to recite bad-greeting-card drivel about why Wonder Woman is really her hero. (No, seriously.) On top of that, the episode is neither funny nor heart-warming and ends with Martin Crane getting angry with Niles and storming out of the room - a conflict which is never resolved. The episode just ends immediately afterward! I feel really bad for the actors who had to film this. In their position, I would have been embarrassed. I imagine they probably were. David Hyde Pierce and John Mahoney do their best to put in some physical comedy when the lines are giving them nothing, and it helps . . . a little. But poor Peri Gilpin and Jane Leeves spend the entire episode sitting on a couch, so they don't even have that opportunity.
What happened here? Was it a budgetary problem? Had they spent too much money in the beginning of the season, thus necessitating a way to recoup the cash with a one-set episode? Or was it a time problem, in which no one had sufficient opportunity to revise the script? In any case, yikes! I guess a series with as many incredible episodes as Frasier can be forgiven the occasional bomb, but this . . . well, this is the atom bomb of situation comedy.
Again - those poor actors! That must have been one tough week.