Opening with an eye-popping, attention-getting nightmare sequence shot thru an angry red gel, I had high hopes for this episode from the start. Clearly shot during the same production trip to the UK as "Two Harts Are Better Than One," the location shots are quite nice, especially inside the real manor, and the guest stars are all from the British scene. They all did a very nice job. This one brings J&J + Max to the manor of an acquaintance for the Belgrave Hunt." Fox hunt I think? Not my idea of fun, watching people run around on horses chasing a fox to kill. But whatever. There is a very interesting scene where J&J walk into a local pub,a nd the minute they enter, the mood turns chilly, shortly followed by a fantastic game of darts. Fantastic for the "yay's!" coming from Jennifer, so cute. Also fantastic cuz the local beats Jonathan. See, he's not perfect. Nice to see the imperfection. Um ... he also downs a pint spectacularly. This particular guest, Barry Stanton, does a really fine job. BLOOPER ALERT --> What's truly awful is the continuity with Jennifer's hair and wardrobe. and makeup for that matter. Within the SAME SCENE her hair goes from the mullet to the old hair back and forth multiple times, and her wardrobe goes back and forth, too; one minute there's a beigy-brown shell under the black trench, the next minute it's all black. It's not that hard to deal with this stuff, but sure enough, they can't seem to get it right. Now, as for the rest of the episode, the story is good, and every time I knew where it was going, turns out I didn't. Also, very, very nice J&J talk on the bed about how they shouldn't stay together just for conveniences sake and that they should make sure they stay in love. Jennifer's shyness on the subject and Jonathan's reassuring love for her is evident. The hunt, itself, was a feat to shoot, no question. A lot of animals to wrangle, from dogs to horses to birds to human extras, not to mention a snogging couple :-). RJ and Stafanie do a lot of their own riding, and the stunts are really outstanding. As are the costumes. I thought this was a great episode. The hair/wardrobe continuity is awful, but the integrity of the story and acting is top notch.
Review of Harts and Hounds
