User Reviews

Plot; When the girls are hired by a quirky heiress to discover the culprit behind her missing jewelry, the trail leads to her personal psychic medium and her shady assistant.

Danger! Action! Excitement! There's none of that here. Instead, we're treated to some really strong performances from our three leads (particularly the stunning Ms. Jaclyn Smith) and guest stars Rene Auberjonois, Carole King and Gertrude Flynn. When someone says "Charlie's Angels" I'm sure good acting isn't the first (or even fiftieth) thing that pops into your head, but I'm continually impressed by the caliber of the guest stars and the Angels themselves. Each of the girls takes a turn as the focus Angel, and this time it's Jaclyn Smith. When the shady assistant (played with pitch-perfect smarm by the great Rene Auberjonois) taps into her character's repressed childhood memories, Smith does a nice job of making herself emotionally vulnerable. Some of the plot mechanics and 70s genre TV trappings don't always support her, but Smith really shines in a story that asks her to do more than look breathtaking (which she does anyway) and execute questionable kung-fu moves.

Wealthy Grace Rodeheaver of Los Angeles hires Townsend Investigations to uncover the identity of the person (or persons!) responsible for stealing expensive jewelry out of her wall-safe...without leaving so much as a fingerprint! Immediately, detectives Jill, Kelly, Sabrina, and ever-faithful John Bosley discover that Ms. Rodeheaver has great personal devotion to her spiritual adviser: one Madam Dorian. A trip to the medium (under the guise of an oil heiress) nearly proves fatal for Kelly, however: her ruse is deflated under hypnosis, but worse, her troubled years as an orphan are brought to the fore along with memories of a matron named Beemish who locked little Kelly in a dark closet! We have already learned by this point in the series that Kelly Garrett was raised in an orphanage run by nuns, yet no saintly sisters appear this time. Where did Beemish come from? And where were the nuns when Kelly was being abused? Amusingly, Jaclyn Smith's Kelly is in a perpetual foul mood throughout this episode (except for when she's picking out a new dress for the séance), allowing for some rare prickly exchanges between the Angels. At one point, Kelly turns to the others with a harsh, "Would you stop big-sistering me! I'm FINE!" This makes for an interesting personal dynamic between the characters, who are usually seen joshing with each other when they're not on a case. There are definitely holes in this teleplay, though nearly every episode managed to stretch realism just a tad. Hypnotized, nightgown-clad Kelly apparently walks home early in the morning from the soothsayer's digs to her own house--which looks to be a quite a journey indeed! Farrah Fawcett-Majors, who complained years later that this series never allowed her to explore a real character, must have forgotten her genuinely moving scene with Jaclyn Smith in a runaway car, and there are two savvy guest-performances by Carole Cook as Madam Dorian and Rene Auberjonois as her nefarious partner. The big scene with Kelly and Jill at the séance demonstrates what was so tasty about Aaron Spelling's "Charlie's Angels": a little seriousness, a little tongue-in-cheek playfulness, some camp value, but always with an unerring eye on the personalities of the Angels, sharp ladies we have come to know so well.

To celebrate the birthday of René Auberjonois, this reviewer is kicking off a week long look at 7 guest starring roles from the 70's by the incomparable Mr. Auberjonois. So lets get started with day one: Charlie's Angels season one: The Seance.

Wearing a dark brown suit and sporting a tidy, trimmed beard, R.A. plays Terrence, assistant to Madame Dorian, a so-called 'spiritual adviser'. The Angels are investigating a string of jewelery thefts and Kelly is posing as 'Miss Osling', a rich oil heiress who recently lost her father.

Terrence speaks slowly, with an articulate and almost hypnotizing voice. Indeed, as soon as he gets Jill to leave the room, he puts Kelly under his spell with a little help from a music box. The melody that this ornament plays will be the trigger that puts Kelly into a trance and will make her reveal all her secrets to him. Later that night, during Madame Dorian's séance, Kelly reverts to a child on hearing the music box and starts to recount a trauma from her days at the orphanage. Of course Jill isn't clever enough to put two and two together and just laughs in her best friend's face.

Up till now, Le Auberjonois has been giving a rather subdued performance. But this changes once Terrence orders entranced Kelly to visit him in the middle of the night. Instead of telling him all about her bank accounts (which he plans to plunder), Kelly tells him the truth about her job for the Townsend Agency. The moment he learns this, Terrence drops the silky smooth voice and begins talking high pitched and nasally. His entire act changes from a smooth, in control butler type to a nervous crook. It's like René is playing two different parts within the very same scene. It is also worth noting that it's quite common in Charlie's Angels that one of their covers gets blown. After all, the Angels usually neglect to use a false name while on a case. But to have the bad guy drop his act in the very same scene is a great twist.

From here on, Terrence knows his game is up and tries to make one final grab of wealth before making a getaway. He occasionally drops his nervous 'actual Terrence' persona to give Kelly orders in his slow- talking 'hypnotist' voice. This is especially amusing since Kelly is shown to answer his questions even when he speaks in the nervous voice. During the final showdown, having already had a Angel Fu tussle with Jill, Terrence puts on the voice one last time to stop Kelly from pointing a gun at him, but by that point, Kelly isn't listening to anyone anymore.

The caper ends up with all three Angels laughing and Terrence looking wide-eyed and lost - a look Auberjonois always pulls off well. Jill refers to him one last time as 'Terrence the Terrible' during the office wrap-up. But René Auberjonois' performance was good enough for him to return to face the Angels again in season four, an episode which we will look at later this week.

As for this Seance, we give it 8 out of 10. Happy Birthday, René!

Auberjonois week will continue tomorrow with The Bionic Woman: The Dejon Caper!