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Reviews
The Dropout: Green Juice (2022)
Apple store scene
There is one scene in this episode which is powerful and so striking. The scene is very short and is not integral to the arc of the story.
However, without giving away any spoilers, Elizabeth Holmes - played with a hypnotic presence by Amanda Seyfried - goes into an Apple store to get her iphone repaired.
Her interaction with a customer service assistant is something to behold.
The two characters are of a similar age - in their 20s - and seem to be from a similar background. However, the Elizabeth Holmes character deconstructs the vibrant customer service assistant and this reflects her inner turmoil, frustration, rage and drive in keeping her company - and her self image - afloat.
The actor who plays the customer services assistant - or 'genius' using Apple store terminology - plays her part to perfection. Before our eyes she questions her life without saying a word and also getting Elizabeth's iphone repaired at the same time!
The actor who plays the Apple employee deserves massive credit but she was not mentioned in the show's credits.
If you are that actor and you are reading this, you are an incredible talent - I believed your character as if I knew you. May I wish you enormous success in your career - we need your acting talent!
The Bill: The Rate for the Job (1998)
Dodgy Don Beech does it again!
This is a sublime episode with so much going on. You can see DS Don Beech - played brilliantly by Billy Murray - thinking through his options - without a word being said - before making his fateful decision.
How he toys with the other characters whilst always teetering on the edge is incredible to see.
There is one scene which dates the show when a shopper expresses surprise at seeing a mobile phone - but this was from 1998!
I will not ruin the surprise as to the decision Don eventually reaches - but the juxtaposition between the austere CID office and the scene of the final showdown says a lot about Don's multiple personas!
The West Wing: Two Weeks Out (2006)
Tour de force for Alan Alda
The West Wing only really became alive for me with the Vinick - Santos Presidential race.
Whilst The West Wing was a seminal TV series in so many different ways such as camera technique and a sense of real time political action, it often seemed mired in maudling sentimentality.
This led to storylines which meant you had to suspend disbelief - such as rushing a Middle East peace deal before one of the commercial breaks and the endless self introspection which led viewers to wonder if anyone had the time to run a country!
This, though, was far from the case with the Vinick - Santos storyline. Instead you had a sense of a battle of ideas and how the candidates' rival agendas for the country impacted on their personal lives.
This was definitely on display in this incredibly inpressive episode. Senator Arnold Vinick, played by the inestimable Alan Alda, starts the episode on the back foot. An accident at a nuclear power plant has had negative political repercussions for him just two weeks from election day.
At the same time, he is physically feeling the pressure where with constant hand shaking, he has fractured a bone in his hand but has to hide this from the media so that he is not typecast as too old for high office as compared to his much younger and physically fitter opponent, Matt Santos (as played by Jimmy Smit).
Amidst all of this, some secrets about Santos' past are unexpectedly found by Vinick's campaign advisor, Bruno (played with real sensitivity by Ron Silver).
Should Vinick use this new found information to win the election or should a higher sense of ethics prevail? When is it right to release confidential information? Is this about gaining a political advantage or letting voters know the truth?
This is the morality tale that Alan Alda's character wrestles with and this really is an acting tour de force as the character figures out what to do.
Whilst Jimny Smits is good in this episode and in this role, I felt he could have shown more emotion as to his conflicted state of mind in the final scene (without giving anything away!).
Overall this is a very good episode which also contains an intriguing sub plot within the Santos campaign.
Ultimately, after watching this episode, you will ask yourself what would you do if you were Vinick.
By the show leading the viewers to question themselves, this, therefore, is the ultimate accolade for this episode.
Columbo: Old Fashioned Murder (1976)
Intriguing and revealing
This is a fantastic Columbo as there is so much going on.
At first the crime seems to be about the murderer wanting to keep her role as a curator for a loss making museum despite her brother, the museum trustee, wanting to close the museum down.
However what unravels next is that Ruth Lytton (played by the brilliant Joyce van Patten) is quietly seething with rage with her whole family - especially revealed in an intriguing scene between Columbo (played by the legendary Peter Falk) and Janie (played by Jeanie Berlin) within the confines of a police cell!
In fact, Jeanie Berlin plays her part to perfection - the suppressed young woman who is more than a little conflicted in her relationship with her mother (played with panache by Celeste Holm).
Some of the criticisms of this movie on this site seems to miss the whole family psycho drama plotline which - without giving anything away - is brilliantly encapsulated in the final scene.
Those who say the pacing is too slow are missing how Columbo has to unpeel the deaths of two men to reveal a decades long story regarding a long lost lover!
I won't say anymore as it will spoil the surprise!
Needless to say this Columbo is one to watch!
Black·ish: Crime and Punishment (2014)
Child abuse should not be a subject for comedy
This is a disturbing and shocking episode.
The episode centres on whether a child, who appears to be at the age of either 7 or 8, should be physically assaulted by a late middle age man.
Towards the end of the episode the main character takes off his belt and says to another character, who appears to be around 12 or 13, that "this is a bad day to wear shorts" when he and his two sisters try to block their father from whipping their very young sibling.
If, at this stage of this review, you are wondering whether threatening child abuse should be the subject of a comedy then I agree with you.
I came across this episode during the pandemic lockdown where children's charities around the world are warning of a rise in child abuse during this traumatic time.
Some people reading this may argue that I am taking the concept of the episode too seriously - after all, you could say, it is only a comedy!
However, this episode argues that physically attacking a very young and vulnerable child is a legitimate choice that can be made by an adult. All forms of child abuse, in fact, should never be tolerated.
Towards the end of the episode it shows a terrified young boy trying to avoid being injured and the two main adult characters joking that in the future they could whip a small boy so that he "lights up like Vegas".
Violence against children is on the rise across the world and the last thing we need is a comedy programme presenting violence against children as a legitimate choice.
It should go without saying that violence against a child is a crime.
If this episode was from the 1970s then you could argue it is dated and was a sign of that era. For a new episode to be produced and broadcast in the 2010s and 2020s when we know more about the psychological and physical harm caused to children by adult violence is deeply disturbing and shows what more we must all do to campaign against child abuse.
The Bill: Room Service (2000)
From French Farce to Tragedy!!
This is a very witty episode of The Bill which has elements of a French farce as well as real emotional pain and anguish.
This is one of a series of episodes where DS Claire Stanton (played by Clara Salaman) is working undercover to expose DS Don Beech as a crooked cop (played by Billy Murray). At the same time Claire has fallen head over heels for DS John Boulton (played by Russell Boulter) - but Claire cannot tell John that she wants to bring down Don!
It is on this basis, that the episode begins as a French farce with Claire desperate to hide her illicit night with John in a top London hotel from Don.
Without giving anything anyway, the tension builds to an emotional climax which makes this one of the most well written and engaging episodes in The Bill.
In some ways, this episode is a little dated. At one point in the programme, a victim of crime explains to a bemused DC Lennox (played by George Rossi) what a search engine is - a concept that all of us are very comfortable with today!! However, even this scene gives the episode some charm - but maybe more in a nostalgic "haven't things changed" kind of way!
I won't say anymore about the plot as I do not want to spoil the fun !
This is well worth watching!