The story centres around two couples - George and Julie Forester, and Frank and Laura Parker. The couples are good friends with each other but the friendship is repeatedly strained by George's penchant for increasingly malicious practical jokes. While both Julie and Frank are more than happy to either laugh off George's antics (or at least not rise to them), Laura is openly frustrated and unamused, leading to a good deal of tension between the pair, especially when Julie asks Laura to keep an eye on George when she leaves for a weekend in Edinburgh.
The performances are probably the strongest thing in this episode, especially Philip Jackson as George as he manages to balance the initial impression of the man to be a fairly harmless trickster who just doesn't always know when to stop with the darker turn the character takes roughly halfway through the episode. Sheila Gish also does a good job of selling Laura's exasperation of George's antics - the scene where George effectively comes on to Laura is probably the best scene in the entire episode and is distinctly uncomfortable to watch. Even if you found George's "jokes" prior to this scene to be funny, it's hard to deny that there's a definite dark undertone to his behaviour that comes out in full force during that scene, though not to the point of having him descend into "moustache-twirling villain" territory.
To be honest, I'm convinced this episode might be counted among some of the best in this series if not for the distinctly unsatisfying nature of the resolution. Tales Of The Unexpected was no stranger to characters meeting unpleasant (and occasionally somewhat karmic) endings, but the circumstances that surround George's are frankly far too unceremonious and downright irrelevant to the story that was being told that it loses any sense of impact that it's going for. Contrary to most episode descriptions and what Frank and Laura themselves try to claim, the episode ends up being, not a case of "practical joker takes a joke too far and gets his comeuppance because of it", but more "unhealthy man happens to lock himself in a cellar". After all, he could have been down in that cellar doing quite literally anything and the result of him becoming locked inside would still have been exactly the same; that he was apparently trying to put the finishing touches on yet another cruel joke is entirely incidental. If, for example, Laura herself had deliberately fixed the doorknob to break, or if George had tried another prank on her and/or Frank and met his end as a direct result of that (say for once Laura didn't end up missing with her knife as she whirled around in shock at George sneaking up on her), the ending would have been a lot more satisfying because it would be actively paying off what the episode had been setting up - both Frank and Laura increasingly losing their patience with George, George's pranks increasing in their maliciousness, etc.
It's ultimately a shame because the episode does have a lot going for it; it's just unfortunate that it ends up, much like a failed practical joke, more frustrating than anything else in its lack of a decent payoff.
The performances are probably the strongest thing in this episode, especially Philip Jackson as George as he manages to balance the initial impression of the man to be a fairly harmless trickster who just doesn't always know when to stop with the darker turn the character takes roughly halfway through the episode. Sheila Gish also does a good job of selling Laura's exasperation of George's antics - the scene where George effectively comes on to Laura is probably the best scene in the entire episode and is distinctly uncomfortable to watch. Even if you found George's "jokes" prior to this scene to be funny, it's hard to deny that there's a definite dark undertone to his behaviour that comes out in full force during that scene, though not to the point of having him descend into "moustache-twirling villain" territory.
To be honest, I'm convinced this episode might be counted among some of the best in this series if not for the distinctly unsatisfying nature of the resolution. Tales Of The Unexpected was no stranger to characters meeting unpleasant (and occasionally somewhat karmic) endings, but the circumstances that surround George's are frankly far too unceremonious and downright irrelevant to the story that was being told that it loses any sense of impact that it's going for. Contrary to most episode descriptions and what Frank and Laura themselves try to claim, the episode ends up being, not a case of "practical joker takes a joke too far and gets his comeuppance because of it", but more "unhealthy man happens to lock himself in a cellar". After all, he could have been down in that cellar doing quite literally anything and the result of him becoming locked inside would still have been exactly the same; that he was apparently trying to put the finishing touches on yet another cruel joke is entirely incidental. If, for example, Laura herself had deliberately fixed the doorknob to break, or if George had tried another prank on her and/or Frank and met his end as a direct result of that (say for once Laura didn't end up missing with her knife as she whirled around in shock at George sneaking up on her), the ending would have been a lot more satisfying because it would be actively paying off what the episode had been setting up - both Frank and Laura increasingly losing their patience with George, George's pranks increasing in their maliciousness, etc.
It's ultimately a shame because the episode does have a lot going for it; it's just unfortunate that it ends up, much like a failed practical joke, more frustrating than anything else in its lack of a decent payoff.