Quincy M.E.: Even Odds starts late one night in a bar where the owner Don Peters has been shot & killed, Lt. Monahan (Garry Walberg) & Sgt. Brill (Joseph Roman) from the LAPD are there as is Los Angeles coroner Quincy (Jack Klugman) & his laboratory assistant Sam (Robert Ito). According to the bartender John Holmes (Richard McKenzie) his boss was shot twice by a customer named Billings (Dennis Madalone) but Quincy starts asking some awkward questions, then Billings is brought in having been caught just up the road. Monahan questions Billings & ask's if the gun found at the scene is his at which point Billings manages to grab the gun & start shooting, the police start shooting back & all hell breaks loose. After Billings is shot Monhan notices Quincy lying behind the bar having been shot, it's touch & go whether he will survive & it's up to Sam & his boss Dr. Asten (John S. Ragin) to uncover the truth & just who did shoot Quincy & why...
Episode 6 from season 4 this Quincy story was directed by Ray Danton & apart from the awful A Test for the Living (1978) so far season four has been great & Even Odds continues that very strong start. For the majority of this episode Quincy is confined to a hospital bed (in the series regular Doctors Hospital) & he said enough to Sam for him to realise that not everything about Peters death & his shooting is as straight forward as it seems, there's even a nice little line of dialogue when Monahan says 'even from his bed Quincy manages to turn a simple case into a Chinese puzzle'! It was only five episodes ago that Sam was the one who was dying in The Last Six Hours & while this is similar that was a race against time to find an antidote whereas Even Odds is about whether Quincy will pull through or not so the tension & intrigue isn't quite there but it's still a great episode without a moral message or social issue in sight. The other notable thing about Even Odds is that there are four flashbacks all of which contain a little mini Quincy story which various character's recall (Dr. Asten has one, Sam has one, Lt. Monahan has one & at the end they all have the same flashback together!) which enable them to solve the Peters murder & reveal the identity of the person who shot Quincy. So I suppose you could say that with Even Odds you get five Quincy stories in one! At only fifty minutes long it's short, it moves along at a good pace & it passes the time harmlessly enough.
According to the IMDb 'Trivia' section for Even Odds the bullet matching technique using particles of a shattered bullet featured here & regularly used by the FBI in reality has now been discredited & no longer used. It doesn't really affect the program that much other than date it pretty badly (& that maybe Sgt. Brill should stand trial for the murder of that hostage since the matching of his bullet was proved by a incorrect test), the actual technique sounds good & is plausible even though it's wrong! Whenever a TV show like this had to show an operation they always had a point-of-view from the patient looking up as the surgeons worked & those huge operating theatre lights in the way so they didn't have to show any blood. The acting is good from all involved.
Even Odds is a great Quincy episode, OK it proves why the show is called Quincy M.E. rather than Sam Fujiama M.E. (his 'maybe I'm not Quincy but I know what I'm doing' line said in all seriousness is hilarious when viewed in context) but he makes for an able deputy while Quincy is fighting for his life! An entertaining episode & a must for fans of the show.
Episode 6 from season 4 this Quincy story was directed by Ray Danton & apart from the awful A Test for the Living (1978) so far season four has been great & Even Odds continues that very strong start. For the majority of this episode Quincy is confined to a hospital bed (in the series regular Doctors Hospital) & he said enough to Sam for him to realise that not everything about Peters death & his shooting is as straight forward as it seems, there's even a nice little line of dialogue when Monahan says 'even from his bed Quincy manages to turn a simple case into a Chinese puzzle'! It was only five episodes ago that Sam was the one who was dying in The Last Six Hours & while this is similar that was a race against time to find an antidote whereas Even Odds is about whether Quincy will pull through or not so the tension & intrigue isn't quite there but it's still a great episode without a moral message or social issue in sight. The other notable thing about Even Odds is that there are four flashbacks all of which contain a little mini Quincy story which various character's recall (Dr. Asten has one, Sam has one, Lt. Monahan has one & at the end they all have the same flashback together!) which enable them to solve the Peters murder & reveal the identity of the person who shot Quincy. So I suppose you could say that with Even Odds you get five Quincy stories in one! At only fifty minutes long it's short, it moves along at a good pace & it passes the time harmlessly enough.
According to the IMDb 'Trivia' section for Even Odds the bullet matching technique using particles of a shattered bullet featured here & regularly used by the FBI in reality has now been discredited & no longer used. It doesn't really affect the program that much other than date it pretty badly (& that maybe Sgt. Brill should stand trial for the murder of that hostage since the matching of his bullet was proved by a incorrect test), the actual technique sounds good & is plausible even though it's wrong! Whenever a TV show like this had to show an operation they always had a point-of-view from the patient looking up as the surgeons worked & those huge operating theatre lights in the way so they didn't have to show any blood. The acting is good from all involved.
Even Odds is a great Quincy episode, OK it proves why the show is called Quincy M.E. rather than Sam Fujiama M.E. (his 'maybe I'm not Quincy but I know what I'm doing' line said in all seriousness is hilarious when viewed in context) but he makes for an able deputy while Quincy is fighting for his life! An entertaining episode & a must for fans of the show.