JasonDanielBaker Reviews

Mr Inbetween: Your Mum's Got a Strongbox (2018) Season 1, Episode 6

How the Magician Disappears?

[22 July 2022]

Did you hear the one about the crim who got carjacked twice in the same day? It happens to Ray Shoesmith (Scott Ryan) on the worst day of his life after leaving the strip club base of his boss, local crime lord Freddy (Damon Herriman). He knows one of his captors and enjoys unorthodox introduction to the other.

Many local thugs might want to abduct Ray out of retribution for any number of his misdeeds or simply to rip him off. It is something he never appears to take personally even though the things he does take personally so often result in him getting very violent. Many have wanted to put him six feet down under. Who can it be now? If you've been watching the series, one group of suspects seems likely and it is them.

Bobby (Dorian Nkono), a knuckle-dragging/mouth-breathing side of beef with the brain of a half-eaten rock melon serves in the employ of another Sydney crime boss i.e. Davros. He has been dispatched to assist bikie bloke Dave (Matt Nable) in abducting Ray as prelude to his inevitable murder. Ray's feud with Davros should have reached a conclusion and would have if Davros had been even remotely reasonable.

Ray - known sometimes as "the Magician" confuses his captors with the ploy of a safe with his supposed stash inside insisting it is contains $162,000. Ray insists he has forgotten the combination to open it. Expectant father Dave is taken in and follows Ray's instructions to retrieve it at an abandoned house. Dave isn't nearly as dumb as so many of the Sydney crims (almost all) we see on the series. But his need for a nest-egg for his family does make him vulnerable to Ray's stall tactic.

A pair of stoned-out bogans boost Ray's car while it is in park as Dave purchases a blowtorch to open the safe. Bobby, who was supposed to stay with car, went off to buy smokes not even leaving the door locked. Dave and Bobby emerge from the mini-mall shocked to find Ray has disappeared seemingly like magic.

The trick never seems like much of trick after you know how it is done. While no boy scout, Ray is nevertheless always prepared for contingencies. This can seem like magic to the dimmest of bulbs. All it shows us is where he exists on a scale of those active in the Sydney underworld. From one to ten, Ray is well above five. He always seems pitted against those who are twos or less.

No sooner have the bogans pawned Ray's car off to a chop shop than the mechanic who has paid to assume the problem senses Ray's presence in the boot and attempts to abandon him in the middle of nowhere.

Ray escapes the boot of his abandoned car, pops the zipties on his hands and preps for his next trick: confronting those that have put him through the ordeal and going back to his life none the worse for where.

Can he do it? Is he not "The Magician"?

Mr Inbetween: Hard Worker (2018) Season 1, Episode 5

It's a Jungle Out There

[14 July 2022]

Ray Shoesmith (Scott Ryan) works in continual service to local crime-lord Freddy (Damon Herriman). But the arrangement does not preclude him from taking on personal assignments to enrich himself. On such occasions he includes Gary (Justin Rosniak), his best mate and sidekick. As flighty as Gary can seem he continually shows himself to be a resourceful back-up.

The venture of ripping off a high-flying drug-dealer looks promising. But it invites the inclusion of secondary back-up i.e. A getaway driver. Ray has seen promise in sometime jewel fence Nick (Edmund Lembke-Hogan), a young upstart in Freddy's employ with whom he has worked on a collection assignment. Ray and Gary are also looking for friends having been ganged up on by Dravos, the most petty and vindictive of Sydney crime bosses.

Undercover cop Nick is one of the exceedingly few police of any kind we see depicted in the series. What little we do see doesn't suggest much of a difference in the level of intellect between police and crims or, Nick's case, capacity for violence. If there is a difference it is one of raw nerve. Nick is far from the sharpest tool in the shed, but it's his jitters that give him away.

The embarrassing way Nick is found out is one in which Ray can't denying knowing. They know where they stand and the cop is afraid he'll be killed. Nick bargains for his life swearing up and down he hasn't yet seen anything that incriminates them.

Ray's assessment of what to do with Nick is part of the common sense that has kept him out of prison for as long as it has. He simply asks himself, and his colleagues what breaches of laws they have committed that Nick could have witnessed. When he, Gary and Freddy concluded the answer is none the only logical move could be to let the hound walk and be mindful that they are on the radar of the authorities.

Nick's breach is a wake-up call. He had everyone fooled very much including the ever cautious Ray. Choosing to make acquaintances friends in his line of work has it's pitfalls. Nick's deception hasn't been particularly elaborate beyond showing enthusiasm for criminal activity including beating a debtor and slipping Ray stolen jewellery to gift to Ally. He even gave them his real name.

No sooner has this happened than Ray is car-jacked by Bobby (Dorian Nkono) an underling of Dravos, and local biker dude Dave (Actor/screenwriter Matt Nable). Suddenly Ray has to bargain for his life with more urgency than Nick did. Ray, like Nick did, establishes a rapport with Dave for tactical reasons. It might mean the difference between life and death. For the sake of this show, it might make the difference between it being a mini-series and a series.

The importance of personal capital is a lasting one in all forms of business including the underground one and those get started with conversations. Even shared opinions on superficial topics can matter even if logically they shouldn't. Disagreements on the most personal of topics don't necessarily matter if a fundamental understanding is reached.

A commonality in human experience established by the way people talk to each other remains a highlight of the writing. The complexity of how relationships are formed related within an entertaining, and often laugh out loud funny set-up is a nice bridge to that.

Mr Inbetween: On Behalf of Society (2018) Season 1, Episode 4

The Reasons Why

[11 July 2022]

Gary (Justin Rosniak), best friend, sidekick and criminal accomplice of Ray Shoesmith (Scott Ryan) the title character of the series, has not shown us very much in the first three episodes. Flaky and needy, we haven't been given any indication of why Ray has anything to do with him.

Gary changes that quickly in the fourth episode by presenting Ray with a surprise gift - a Patchett submachine gun. Not only thoughtful, the present is quite practical and timely. Ray has just saved him from the clutches of his scatterbrained, but nevertheless ruthless brother-in-law in two separate attempts to loot Gary's stash. Ray can back him up more ably with the added firepower.

Ray knows better than to show it to his girlfriend Ally (Brooke Satchwell). They get more serious every time we see them though their relationship retains a playful, flirty tone. Disrupting that tone is an encounter with a couple of drongos who box in his car as he is trying to drive out of the lot at the market.

Ally is there in the passenger seat to watch him put the boot into one, and menace the other forcing them to drive off. She had no inkling of his propensity for violence and is predictably shocked. Ray hasn't just shown the threat he presents but a presents disturbing rationale for it when they talk about it. It is the same one he uses in court-ordered anger management group sessions. In his view, when properly applied, violence curbs human excesses.

Ray somehow hasn't alienated her quite enough and Ally decides she is ready to meet his daughter Brittany and his brother Bruce (Nicholas Cassim). Ally's quick bond with Brittany and Bruce shows how valuable each of them are to Ray. Any one of them could be lost in his clashes with other crims or related legal problems. How he is when he is with each of them suggest there is hope for him.

Local crimelord Freddy (Damon Herriman) - Ray's boss sets up a meet with Davros, another crime boss who happens to be the brother of Freddy's son-in-law. Davros's guys had a go at shaking down Gary and put him in a coma. Ray responded by doing the same to each of them. Though they shake on it and imply agreement with the assessment that things are settled it is pretty obvious Ray hasn't heard the last of it.

The impression we're given of the Sydney underworld is that if everybody either knows everybody, or some of them have friends of friends that know everybody. They also appear more interested in ripping each other off than looting civilians. If one goon rips of another what's he gonna do? Call a cop? Also, what kind of a stash would a normal person have? Probably very little of fenceable value.

Episode four represents a balancing of accounts. At some point Gary and Freddy would have to show some indication of why Ray has anything to do with either of them. They're far more resourceful than we've been shown and they'd have to be. They're crims alive and at large. Freddy is less successful in what he tries to do for Ray and for himself. But he does put in.

At some point Ray would have to break character and be seen expressing himself violently in front of Ally. Within four episodes is fairly good timing. A guy from this deep in wouldn't be able to hide it for long.

Mr Inbetween: Captain Obvious (2018) Season 1, Episode 3

Fight Night at Anger Management Group

[10 July 2022]

Ray Shoesmith (Scott Ryan), mob debt collector and hitman has responsibilities outside his professional life. The people he loves, and who love him are worth his attention though some are less obviously worthy at times and more obviously needy.

Case is in point is his best mate Gary, still recovering from a severe beating/mugging at the hands of his dense brother-in-law Vasilli (Jackson Tozer) and a group of thugs. No sooner does Gary (Justin Rosniak) return home and resumes his enjoyment of gross porn than Vasilli returns and tries to rip him off again whilst Gary's wife, Vasilli's equally boorish sister Tatiana is at yoga.

The lowest of low-level vory v zakone thugs, Vasilli is but one of countless eccentric and exceptionally dumb criminals we see depicted on the series. Ray shows up and he and Gary handle burly Vasilli in a way that will keep him from ripping Gary off again and keep his marriage to Tatiana (Lizzie Schebesta) intact.

But consequences must be faced for the barbarity of Ray's reprisals. Local crimelord Freddy (Damon Herriman, in a consistently hilarious tour-de-force characterisation) informs Ray that the gang he beat on for attacking Gary are in the employ of his son-in-law's brother. He demands a meeting to straighten things out. Ray is of the view that things have already been straightened out.

Attendance at anger management is ordered by a court for Ray. He must attend or face jailtime and the facilitator of the group has the discretion of recommending it. Since he doesn't think he has a problem, and other guys at the session beat women and children, big no-nos to him, his first group therapy session is a disaster that nearly results in a brawl.

We've seen him commit assault and battery outside of his assignments in service to Freddy . He knows to keep his violent ways restricted to his professional life. But under the wrong circumstances he can't control himself. He has a particularly low tolerance for those disrespect him in front of the people he loves. We are not told which instance of violence he is in trouble for. It doesn't have to be any of the instances we have actually seen.

Much needed fulfillment of time spent with his child is juxtaposed with the indignity of seeing the life she lives with her mother and stepfather. Stepdad is handsome, successful and refreshingly normal. Looks of disapproval from his ex, and a face of pure terror from her new fella suggest they frown upon the arrangement but must comply. It's a muck sandwich for Ray every time up he picks up Brittany until his ex, her new hubby and their much nicer house - a Barbie and Ken upper middle-class play-set, are no longer in view.

Ray's romance with classy, hardworking, earnest Ally (Brooke Satchwell) continues along a playful path. They're smitten, though they've made no commitments. She has seen nothing of his dark side yet and he's done a goob job of concealing it. Her naivete serves Ray in this considerably more than his discretion. There is good in Ray. Fortunately for him that is all she is able to perceive.

The writing in the series walks a different kind of tightrope than the title character. With elements including dark satire, melodrama and suspense each could detract from each other. But the sophistication of the writing is able to find a way of squaring that and a big part of how is the truth found in the life experience of hardened criminals. The bad guys have their own issues. But they also have some of the same ones as the rest of us. Audiences see a reflection of themselves in the cesspool.

Mr Inbetween: Unicorns Know Everybody's Name (2018) Season 1, Episode 2

Easy To Be A Murderer. Not So Easy To Be A Daddy.

[9 July 2022]

Ray Shoesmith (Scott Ryan), a form of corporate recovery specialist in the service of addle-brained crimelord Freddy (Damon Herriman), is tasked with performing a hit on a family man who has crossed the organization. No sooner is the distasteful task accomplished than Freddy admits to Ray, it was the wrong guy after doing the proper assessment he should have done in the first place.

Ray, a loving father who has just killed a loving father looks for a way to make amends. His sense of honour has been compromised. He also looks for ways not to show too much displeasure with the unbelievable incompetence of the guy he is working for.

Ray's best mate Gary (Justin Rosniak) has been mugged and put in intensive care by a group of rival thugs. Gary's wife demands answers that hit closer to home than she realizes. Ray ably diagnoses what has happened and inadvertently places himself in a situation that can only escalate by exacting proportional response.

During weekend visitation with his daughter Brittany, Ray is confronted with her assessment that there is no Santa. She questions the nature of Jesus and demands conjecture on the existence of unicorns. Ray offers passable, but incomplete hypotheses on the first two, but chickens out on the third. He can perpetrate brutal violence on formidable thugs and commit cold-blooded murder. But he can't tell his 8 year old that unicorns don't exist.

Ray's unlikely romance with groovy paramedic Ally (Brooke Satchwell) suddenly becomes likely. Whether she is beguiled by the light or the dark he radiates is a mystery. But she moves fast to stake a claim on him and he can't help but reciprocate. He continues to lie by omission about his professional life despite the fact it is likely to lead to pain and unintended consequences for both of them, but her in particular.

The tightrope that Ray Shoesmith walks in his daily life and human relationships comes into further focus in this episode. The contrast of normalcy with surreal violence is stark but somehow congruent.

Mr Inbetween: The Pee Pee Guy (2018) Season 1, Episode 1

The Crim Next Door

[9 July 2022]

Portrait of Ray Shoesmith (Scott Ryan), a tall, dark, fit not particularly handsome divorcee of 42. If you live in Sydney you might have seen him cheering his daughter on at a girls soccer game or at the park picking up after his dog Boof. Living alone in a modest flat, driving a modest car and dressing modestly you more than likely wouldn't have noticed him.

Easy-going, low-key with a warm smile and a twinkle in his eye he can be taken for pleasant and normal, good-natured but not overly friendly, shy but boring. He can be so deceptively soft-spoken and polite you wouldn't know to count yourself lucky that a fleeting encounter was all you had with him.

Ray wouldn't want you to give him a second look under the vast majority of circumstances. The same twinkle and smile can form a telling leer that signals his darker tendencies. Cross him and there will be trouble. He never fights fair.

Ray is similar to a fair number of likeable blokes his age. He's been married but it didn't work out. He still tries to be a good father to his little girl Brittany. His brother Bruce (Nicholas Cassim) has special needs and Ray is there for him trying to be a good sibling. His best mate Gary is married to Tatiana (Lizzie Schebesta), a complicated woman with an even more complicated family. He tries to help Gary where needed.

Helping Gary includes pretending to have left a porn DVD at Gary's flat that Tatiana finds objectionable due to its use of urine - ergo this episode's title. Ray is far from delighted to do it, and entirely embarrassed as well as disgusted by the whole thing. His mate is evidently worth such a sacrifice though it is not immediately clear why.

Ray's work life remains a source of angst. Whilst retaining a professional demeanour and carrying the wisdom of two decades experience, he nevertheless hasn't risen very far within his milieu. A competent mid-strata functionary, he finds himself covering for the mistakes of others and showing younger associates a better way of accomplishing tasks.

A key difference from other workers having hit a kind of ceiling in their careers is that Ray is a violent criminal in the employ of a local crime lord Freddy (Damon Herriman). His boss is a soft touch and nearly as incompetent as a number of Ray's colleagues. As a result Ray is called upon to commit more acts of violence to straighten things out.

Not really looking for love, he nevertheless meets Ally (Brooke Satchwell), an attractive woman with smooth charm, who works in healthcare as a first responder and things go quite well between them.

By the end of this episode it offers him a more daunting challenge than he is used to. He is not going to be able to hide what he does, or how he does it from her for long. If he follows up on their meet-cute and it evolves into anything it is likely to be ill-fated.

The question is whether the promise of what it might offer has too much potential for Ray not to pursue.

What writer/star Scott Ryan means by the name "Mr. In-Between" I reckon refers to a kind of duality in Ray's nature and in his profession vs his public countenance. The violence he commits professionally sometimes seems appropriate to him in dealing with routine difficulties he has day to day.

Forever Knight: Dying to Know You (1992) Season 1, Episode 6

Thanks Fer Comin' Out!

[1 April 2019]

Metro police are summoned when the wife and daughter (Chandra West) of wealthy philanthropist Conrad Hedges (Brett Halsey) are kidnapped during a day out shopping for haute couture in Yorkville. Psychic Denise Fort (Elizabeth Marmur) is brought in and she appears to be the real deal because she gets results almost immediately finding the murdered chauffeur whom the killer displaced.

But as she works with lead investigator detective Nick Knight (Geraint Wyn Davies) she sees the memories in his mind. Nick is an 800 year old vampire so he has a lot of memories and there are many extremely disturbing ones in there. She doesn't pick up right away on what she is seeing because it is entirely impossible. But it throws her off her game just having him in the same room. She just doesn't know what is real.

For the most part Nick has been able to skate by with mortals under the very logical belief any sane person has that vampires are a myth. He has honed his skill as vampire denier over centuries and we have seen him use his vampire's hypnotic power of suggestion on the series. That power worked like a Jedi mind trick. But, as we see depicted in flashback, it didn't always work the way he wanted it to.

The corpse of the kidnapped wife is found but the daughter remains missing. Hedges then disappears along with the ransom money he offered. Police Captain Stonetree (Gary Farmer), Nick's boss, is edgy and so are the cops in his unit. Nick's partner Detective Don Schanke (John Kapelos) has shown contempt for the utilization of the psychic from the very beginning and wants to do the by-the-book kind of police work process any good cop would trust over the use of a psychic. Stonetree can offer Schanke no reasonable objection.

Nick however, doesn't give up on Denise. He respects her power noting her results from the early stages of the case. He has matured, can see when he is going to have to confront the truth and find a resolution. The times are also different than they were in his flashback and it involved a very different kind of person. It might not pan out. She might not be able to handle the truth. But he doesn't think it'll come to that and it is his best shot at getting his job done.

John Kapelos reprized the role of Detective Don Schanke from the TV movie Nick Knight (1989) and the production was better for it. What Kapelos did was ground the show in aspects of police procedurals by giving us an interpretation of what a real police detective who unknowingly had to work with a vampire might be like. Schanke, for all the boorishness was an above average to excellent cop when it came to trusting the process and following up. He served as an excellent contrast to the psychic character.

Forever Knight: I Will Repay (1992) Season 1, Episode 9

Vampire Crown Prosecutor Scores Killer Verdict

[1 April 2019]

Crown prosecutor Richard Lambert (Lindsey Merrithew) has a stellar reputation for his relentless fight against the most dangerous organized crime groups in Toronto. His work with the police frequently brings him to visit the station. But one night, on a work-related visit, a felon has stolen a gun off of a cop, a standoff/hostage crisis has broken out and it's resolution leaves Richard very near death. Only one thing can save him.

Richard's sister Dr.Natalie Lambert (Catherine Disher) calls in a marker with a cop she knows. Detective Nick Knight (Geraint Wyn Davies). Nick is a vampire whose secret she helps keep whilst working with him as coroner. She demands Nick turn her brother into a vampire. He resists the idea. Over the course of eight centuries he has turned people before and regreted it. But he certainly owes Natalie and a lot of indications suggest that Richard will be a noble vampire like him.

The mystery of how Natalie knows Nick's secret and why she helps him wasn't adequately dealt with early on in the series. The viewer had to just go with the fact that the coroner had knowledge of the dual identity of a police detective/vampire and was helping him to be a kinder/gentler bloodsucker. She has been seen trying to get Nick to tone down his excesses like a good friend would try to serve as support mechanism for an addict trying to quit.

That she suddenly thinks it is a good idea to have him turn her brother into a vampire might seem contradictory. But the well-being of a loved one can get the most logical of people to contradict the very best of their own wisdom. She also points to the fact she's helped Nick keep it together and can do the same with her brother.

This teleplay serves to troubleshoot the limits of the overarching narrative. If Nick is going to do this thing where he uses the power of vampirism for good then why doesn't he just find a bunch of really altruistic people and turn them into vampires to fight evil and defend humanity for eternity? Richard's arc shows us why, very much including how good intentions can turn into malevolent actions.

Lindsey Merrithew is not the kind of actor one would cast as a a vampire. But he is precisely the kind of actor one would cast as a high-minded lawyer. He never looks right when he is a vampire. The miscasting is thus not entirely miscasting. But the logic of that won't work for everyone particularly in later scenes.

Forever Knight: For I Have Sinned (1992) Season 1, Episode 3

The Lady's Not For Burning

[1 April 2019]

Recovering vampire Nick Knight (Geraint Wyn Davies) has spent the past 800 years, off and on, drinking human blood. Feeling guilty he becomes a cop on the mean streets of Toronto who only works at night (Because...y'know...Days are bad for him). His search to right wrongs and redeem himself, whilst keeping his addiction in check, brings him to track a serial killer of young women who attend mass at a popular Catholic church.

After three such women are dead, a fourth, Magda (Maria Del Mar) is tormented when the religious fanatic killer calls her at work. Magda is a form of call-centre customer service rep who helps lonely men (I'll put it that way). She is then attacked in the hallway of her loft. Knight - using his vampire powers miraculously shows up and saves her. The prospective victim is proactive and has also seen far too many American TV cop shows (Probably Hunter) eagerly offering to set herself up as bait to trap the killer.

A prime suspect in the grisly slayings is the young priest Father Pierre Rochefort (Michael McManus) whose flock it is. How judgmental is he about the lives of those he is preaching to? Why was he in the alleyway outside Magda's apartment after she was attacked?

For audiences a game on this show was not just guessing who the killer was, or the motive of the crime, but rather which one of the guest stars is a vampire. Michael McManus's best characterizations are ones which depict internalized conflict. The character name is also a classic French name in use throughout much of French history. Could he have hundreds of years of memories behind that brooding visage? Or is it the weight of his faith?

Nick renews acquaintances with Toronto's vampire scene including his ex Janette (Deborah Duchene) who owns the Raven - Toronto's most popular vampire club, looking to get a bead on things. Nick's partner Detective Don Schanke (John Kapelos) goes to the club too entirely against Knight's instructions. Schanke meets a particularly predatory vampire in the beguiling form of Alma (Tracey Cook) and escapes her advances. He is warned off by words from Janette which, since he doesn't believe in vampires, he interprets as Alma having a form of infection.

Some of the fun of this program was in how it sent up cop show cliches. The cop fighting alcoholism? How about one fighting an addiction to human blood? We see him popping garlic pills like they're methadone and trying to build up a tolerance for crucifixes. Geraint Wyn Davies goes tour de force in conveying it as do the other actors portraying vampires who are grossed out by his new habits.

Tracey Cook's turn as Alma serves as placeholder for what the character LaCroix (Nigel Bennett) played in the series. LaCroix, Alma and other vampire characters like them interpret the concept of vampire in the way it should be interpreted. They are users who prey upon human weakness in a way that at least one of them - our hero, becomes sickened by. They, themselves began life as humans but had such little regard for others as to choose eternity preying upon them.

The theme of religious zealotry is compared with Nick's days from the Hundred Years war in which he attempted to save Joan of Arc (Christina Cox) by offering to turn her into a vampire. The viewer can see superficial parallels with the Magda character - another woman with more faith than fear. But the real parallels are to be found with Nick. Joan of Arc made a different choice than he did (And was posthumously canonized for it). It entirely revolted him at the time. But he revisits it in his memory and sees it differently.

Forever Knight: Only the Lonely (1992) Season 1, Episode 16

Natalie & Nick: A Love Story

[1 April 2019]

A serial killer of young women is tied to a computer dating service in Toronto. Metro police Detective Nick Knight (Geraint Wyn Davies) appears at the scene of the latest killing - one in which a brilliant young career woman was brutally killed. That she died whilst seeking love makes it all the more tragic. That she wasn't the only one and was the latest in several such murders makes it chilling. Nick's partner Detective Don Schanke (John Kapelos) scores a break in the case with a telling lead almost immediately.

The deaths of the young women coincide with the 30th birthday of accomplished young coroner Dr.Natalie Lambert. It highlights the fact that with everything she has going in her life and career helping the police, a life partner is not one of those things. It also shows us that the very search for one can yield frightening results for women at times. As for men in her life, there is a guy she works with whom she routinely shows interest in, and he shows passing interest in her sometimes. But it's real complicated as workplace romances can be.

When she meets a new guy (Barclay Hope) - a handsome gentlemen with, like her work colleague Nick, an air of mystery, she feels something. Like Natalie's dearly departed brother Richard, the guy is a lawyer. He seems a lot more like Richard than Nick and there is a gap in her life left by Richard's passing. Nick shows signs of jealousy which are a source of frustration for her. We know she gots a major crush on 'im, eh! Buddy just never staked his claim!

Nick and Natalie (Catherine Disher) have a special relationship going back three years. The sexual tension between the 800 year old vampire and the just turned thirty, highly accomplished and devastatingly sexy nerd-girl is noticeable in virtually every episode of the series. She helps Nick find his humanity offering considerably more than merely playing Moneypenny to his 007.

A lot of groundwork that could have been laid out earlier was instead done in this episode. The mystery of how Natalie knows Nick's secret and why she helps him wasn't adequately dealt with early on in the series. The viewer had to just go with the fact that the coroner had knowledge of the dual identity of a police detective/vampire and was helping him pass himself off as human. She was seen getting Nick to tone down his excesses like a good friend would try to serve as support mechanism for an addict trying to quit.

This episode features a flashback by Natalie, not Nick. Flashbacks were a big part of the show but they were mostly Nick's and depicted an instance from his 800 year character arc that was reflected in the mystery he was working on as a cop. Instead we get a series of memories Natalie has about the strange man who ended up on her slab who turned out to be a vampire - a sad, depressed kind who was in need of friend but was afraid his true nature would be exposed.

The question of whether Natalie was a "familiar" i.e. a human who wants to become a vampire and undergoes a kind of apprenticeship serving a vampire could have been speculated upon by those who had digested other vampire fiction. But Natalie is not a familiar. Nor is she enraptured by a form of vampire hypnosis that we see Nick use in many ways during the series, including in this episode where he draws information from a suspect using that ability. In one of the flashback scenes Natalie actually shows immunity to it when he tries it.

To have made Natalie a familiar or an enthralled acolyte in a hypnotized state would have made the character look weak and made the bond between Nick and Natalie look cheap. The story of Nick and Natalie is a love story insofar as their lives will allow for that. The special relationship between Nick and Natalie is tested here and it's limits are exposed. They made good choices. But they made them later then they needed to.

So no dream sequences for Nick, no LaCroix nor Janette. Coming as it did on the heels of a bizarre episode filled with dream sequences which served no purpose in tying the backstory together, this episode helped put the viewers back on track in accepting a diagesis for the duration of a weekly broadcast teleplay. We see the worthiness of the motivations of the regular characters and a truth that we can relate to.

The murder mystery itself is pretty simplistic and forgettable and provides an unsurprising resolution. This was, and wasn't, a cop show. The police procedural portion would always take a backseat to the supernatural and metaphysics as it should have.

One of the scenes in this specific episode criticized and misunderstood by some fans is the one in which Nick is seen in his black pyjamas practising his golf putting on one of those portable greens in his loft. Why is the scene there? Golfing is a day activity and Nick is a vampire. That is entirely the point. Nick looks forward to a future time in which he will do things during the day. Aspiration is motivation.

Forever Knight: Dying for Fame (1992) Season 1, Episode 15

Rock N Roll Fantasy

[1 April 2019]

Heavy metal/hard rock icon Rebecca (Tracey Cook) thematically configures her latest album and world tour around the gimmick that she wants to murder her fan-base. She becomes the target of protests and death threats after releasing the single 'Fan Kill' (A kind of a Lee Aaron/Lita Ford-style tune). A blackout drunk, her own battle with alcoholism is entirely a threat to her well-being but not the only one.

Toronto police Detective Nick Knight (Geraint Wyn Davies) and his partner Detective Don Schanke (John Kapelos) are dispatched investigate a murder she is suspected of committing in the suite of her hotel. The murder is of a young male fan Rebecca spent the night with. Her finger prints are on the murder weapon - a knife she used in her stage show. Schanke thinks that she did it and is laughing at them.

Nick sees something of his own arc within Rebecca's plight. He too has kind of a drinking problem. But it isn't booze for him. It is human blood. Nick is an 800 year old vampire who has taken on police work as a penance for preying on humans for centuries. But that is the story the series was telling. We see almost none of it told here in an episode so completely outside the formula as to be a near complete outlier.

Tracey Cook appeared on season 1, episode 3 of this series as Alma - a minor vampire character who almost drains Schanke. Thus when I recognized the same actress upon tuning in to this episode I thought it was the return of Alma. But the character was an entirely a different character and while edgy, no vampire. It made for confusion initially and the teleplay then went in a number of unexpected directions taking this episode even more out of my reach.

The idea of a musician enacting the murder of her fans as a publicity gimmick makes for a dark satire of the music industry. But they don't go very far with that. It segues into what could have been an interesting murder mystery and they don't go very far with that either. It is difficult to see that point in time where this episode stopped making any sense in terms of plot or point or connection to the backstory.

Concurrent to that which they don't go very far with Nick begins having nightmares and hallucinations for no apparent reason. These result in dream sequences which include his vampire associates LaCroix (Nigel Bennett) and Janette DuCharme (Deborah Duchene) in what look like macabre music videos. LaCroix appears in the dream sequences as a soda jerk, a concert promoter and a jail guard. Janette appears as a truck stop waitress.

There are obvious comparisons to Queen of the Damned - an influential work of vampire fiction featuring a vampire rock singer. But that would be a flattering way of characterizing what is actually shown in this episode.

The real star of the episode is the music performed Toronto artist Lori Yates. Fan Kill is one song. But 'Dark Side if the Glass' is the other one and it is far more appealing. It was written Yates with Stan Meissner - an exceptional Canadian songwriter and performer. The song sounds like late 1980s Madonna.

Forever Knight: Dark Knight: The Second Chapter (1992) Season 1, Episode 2

Renegotiation of the Soul

[24 March 2019]

As established in part 1 (Season 1, Episode 1) Metro police detective Nick Knight (Geraint Wyn Davies) happens to be an 800 (Give or take...But rounding it off at 800 makes the math easier) year old vampire passing as mortal. His superior Captain Stonetree (Gary Farmer) is very accommodating about Nick's difficulty working a night shift even though Nick never specifies what health condition he has that makes days bad for him. But he requires him to take on a partner from the day shift and that partner is Don Schanke (John Kapelos) - a yapping troglodyte he can't stand.

Along with the understanding captain, and a day-shift partner who also does a lot of work on the night-shift with Nick, is Dr.Natalie Lambert (Catherine Disher) the coroner he works with. Her brilliant postmortem examinations of cadavers augments her other role in Nick's life - keeper of his vampire secret and somehow his addictions counsellor. She helps Nick find his humanity offering considerably more than merely playing Moneypenny to his 007.

Multiple murders across the city require attention. Most of them are of homeless people but one, resulted in the death of a security guard. It occurred at a museum and involved the theft of a sacred Mayan jade cup used for the ritual drinking of blood. Museum employee Dr.Alyce Hunter (Christine Reeves) sought to help in any way she could, particularly after encountering Nick - a man she found fascinating for reasons she did not entirely understand at first. The cup, matched with another that Nick has, can supposedly cure vampirism. He believes that and so does his mentor Lucien LaCroix - an even more ancient vampire.

As we see depicted in flashback all the way to 1228 AD, LaCroix's case for the vampire lifestyle had diminished in validity for Nick almost immediately upon becoming one, but never for LaCroix. Nick is confident that LaCroix is in the city on a killing spree and that he stole the cup. LaCroix has signalled his presence (Via guest DJ spot on a pirate radio for vampires that Nick listens to) and he and Nick meet again. Hunter follows Nick and is somehow undetected as the two vampires meet for an encounter that is more intervention than reunion.

It is a rehash of a recurring argument over centuries. Nick had misgivings before and always went back with the LaCroix and his tribe. LaCroix and other vampires did not think that Nick would be a tourist in their culture. For most of the time elapsed he was far from a guy experimenting with a different lifestyle. But he never lost a sense of right and wrong or compassion for the downtrodden. LaCroix had neither, nor an understanding of why a vampire might retain anything like that.

Like a lot of malevolent mortals can, LaCroix is a vampire who can present any self-serving justifications as reasoning. Like a lot of heroic mortals Nick is haunted by his past, sees his mistakes and even his contradictions, trying to right them as best he can even though the circumstances are not ideal. Thus a horror story relates commentary on the human condition via a mythological exemplar. As we see, LaCroix gave Nick what people even in his present day would think was a gift. One individual whom Nick cares for begs for the same gift.

So as with the formula of most episodes two mysteries run concurrent: A crime for Nick to investigate, and the continuing mystery of why he is the way he is which the show juxtaposes in a manner that seems like it should. The template is beautifully established. But they also did some trouble-shooting to help the audience with a few things that detracted from the audience's enthrallment.

The dialogue from part one, tells us Nick has been in the city for three years and transferred there from Chicago. How his ruse of being a human works suggests that, as all vampires of a few hundred years standing would have had to do, he assumed a new identity and presumably it was that of a cop who completed a background check and academy training like any one of them would have had to do.

In part one, we also see Nick use a vampire power of suggestion in dealing with a prying journalist that works like a Jedi mind trick. That trick utilized with practice as well as other vampire powers get him pretty far from what we see selling his ruse and performing his duty as cop. None of this diminishes the preposterous notion of vampire as cop.

But they weren't selling the audience on realism. They were getting them to accept a diagesis for the duration of a weekly broadcast teleplay. These things helped the audience. They did not make things more realistic. They merely reconfigured what they had to put it in line with what an audience could accommodate to be entertained.

Forever Knight: Dance by the Light of the Moon (1992) Season 1, Episode 5

Ringy For Over

[23 March 2019]

Metro police detective Nick Knight (Geraint Wyn Davies) and his partner Don Schanke (John Kapelos) are at their wit's end when it come to a case in which another police detective strangled an accountant to death then was himself stabbed. The opening scenes reveal the killer to be an extremely persuasive woman who commanded one murder then committed the second. The victims had past reputations for being upstanding, conscientious and sedate before changing.

Retracing the steps of the murdered men they locate a strip club and Ann Foley (Cynthia Preston) - a young exotic dancer whom both men were seen talking to. Nick is smitten almost upon sight of her, feeling something he remembers from when he first saw Janette (Deborah Duchene) - his ex, a vampire who helped bring him into that lifestyle during the Crusades. It indicates that it isn't just an animal attraction.

Knight's partner Schanke - normally a drooling, sweating horn-dog doesn't see much in Ann that he can't see in any of the other girls working in the club the night they go there. Ann's power of attraction just doesn't quite work on him for some reason. But Nick goes "red kryptonite Superman" for a spell and as a vampire, or just as a cop abusing his authority, that can lead to some very bad things.

For audiences a game on this show was not just guessing who the killer was, or the motive of the crime on each episode, but rather which one of the guest stars is a vampire. Is Ann a vampire? Or is she meant to show the vampire tendencies some individuals have that make them seem vampire-like? Actually she shows considerably more than that. Her arc opens up an examination into the mindset of those who actually recruited and mentored Nick in the vampire lifestyle as well as his mindset in being recruited.

Janette's seduction of Nicholas De Brabant aka Nick Knight, is depicted and juxtaposed with Ann's seduction of Nick. It implies that part of the appeal of becoming a vampire might have been the thrill and running with the wrong crowd which can happen to the best of people. Janette's surprise introduction of her friend Lucien LaCroix (Nigel Bennett) indicates there was a level of peer pressure to it as well and that physical intimidation might have been part of it. The aspect of cult is also implicit. LaCroix is a vampire's vampire and he chooses Nick.

The character study of the hero was the backbone of the writing on the show. Ann is the kind of woman Janette or LaCroix would have recruited. The vampire community is full of her kind of thrill-seeking, power-abusing disposers of victims. A century or two earlier, Nick himself might have turned her. But his arc has changed and that is illustrated perfectly here. The subtlety of that is immaculate.

Forever Knight: Last Act (1992) Season 1, Episode 4

The Passing Of An Old Soul

[23 March 2019]

Vampire Erica (Torri Higginson) decides upon suicide by going to a park bench in Toronto before dawn. She stays until after daylight and she turns into ashes. Toronto police detective Nick Knight (Geraint Wyn Davies) who also happens to be a vampire, knew her in the past. Back in his theater days (the 1690s) they were in love and performed together in plays she wrote. Both embraced their vampirism then. But she did not do it as fully as he did.

Erica viewed her art as her contribution to society and saw it as consolation for preying on humanity. She made clear to him if she felt her art no longer served that then she could not bear to live. He never understood her feelings in regards to that though they spoke of them often enough. A woman who has been talking about suicide for 300 years shows more than adequate warning signs but, conversely, a counter-intuitive amount of staying power.

Concurrent to that is Nick's investigation when a young doctor (Gillian Vanderburgh) is found dead of an apparent suicide. He thinks it has been made to look like a suicide. His co-worker (A mortal who keeps his secret and covers for him) Dr. Natalie Lambert (Catherine Disher) tells Nick it really could have been a suicide from examining the body. But, because he has never understood the suicidal urge he can't accept that finding.

As an 800 year old vampire Nick has centuries of unfinished business and unresolved feelings which have bearing on the way he sees life today. His feelings about Erica's end could appear to cloud his judgment. Worse, because of his growing case load and inability to close them of late, he starts wondering if maybe he isn't contributing to society as much as he should and strongly considers following her example.

Another of his exes is Janette (Deborah Duchene) - a nightclub owner who caters to the vampire scene. He meets with her to talk about their mutual friend. She explains why Erica pushed him away. She knew she was eventually going to kill herself and did not want it to impact him because she really did care for him and understood his passion for life.

A cascade of flashbacks which reflect upon the theme of the crime Nick must solve/resolve are a staple of Forever Knight episodes. But this one includes a number of scenes in which Nick imagines Erica is still alive and they interact in the present days after she has fully combusted. There is nothing wrong with the performance of Torri Higginson in any of these scenes. But there is at least one scene too many of that shown here.

This episode is very evocative of the writings of Anne Rice and specifically in relation to Erica's doll and how it relates to the role Gema Zamprogna's actress character plays in Erica's final play (Staged at the Factory Theatre - a fixture on Toronto's entertainment since 1970). But Nick slyly mentions Romeo & Juliet - the most famous suicide pact in history, one which offers parallels with a distinct contrast.

Street Legal: Neighbours (2019) Season 1, Episode 3

Darling Emily

[19 March 2019]

Toronto lawyer Olivia Novak (Cynthia Dale) is set to triumph in yet another high-stakes litigation versus Standout Pharma. Standout's lawyer Guilia Lessandri (Leni Parker) offers $30,000,000. Novak's new law partners Lilly Rue (Cara Ricketts), Mina Lee (Yvonne Chapman) and Adam Darling (Steve Lund) aren't satisfied for moral reasons. Novak isn't satisfied because she knows she can get considerably more seeing a manoeuvre by Lessandri as a sign of weakness.

Novak's weed-smoking, sexually adventurous daughter Emily Tchobanian (Julia Tomasone) shows up having dropped out of medical school in Vancouver under mysterious circumstances. She strikes up a bond with Darling (Yes, Dear?) which makes things very complicated when her mum finds out, eh! At some point Darling will get around to doing some actual lawyering. Olivia has acquiesced to his being second-chair for their case versus Standout. But that could change after the thing with Emily.

Lee takes on Len Dakota, a nightmare of client. The volatile paraplegic is bothered by the brats and their parents who attend a daycare adjacent to his home. Lee runs into a past/future love interest Taylor (Laurence LeBoeuf) - a Crown attorney, during the case and they work a highly immoral hack which should get them called before the Law Society of Upper Canada (Like a lot of stuff RDL and Olivia are doing).

Olivia's mysterious private investigator Derrick Leiber (Patrick Labbe) continues his affair with Rue. But he finds time to follow Lessandri and Standout's CEO DuMoulin. What he finds out shows Novak and RDL a twist they didn't see coming. They aren't happy. But they aren't devastated.

This is what Street Legal was in it's original incarnation but it is ratcheted up a notch. Novak has somehow found (Not by chance!) a group of young lawyers who function at her elevated level of adrenaline. They take chances and burn the candle at both ends like she did and still does.

We see the failures of Novak's personal life that her new partners could enjoy when they're her age. But disbarment is only presented in the spectre of Leiber - a former lawyer turned investigator. Emily suggests that the high-mindedness of Novak's new partners will rub off on her mum. The reverse is more likely.

This episode also serves to open the door for a guest appearance by C.David Johnson who portrayed Chuck Tchobanian for the full run of the original Street Legal (1987-1994). Chuck and Olivia weren't married that long. But it was long enough to conceive Emily. Chuck, as the episode eludes to, went to Australia.

Adderly: Critical Mass (1986) Season 1, Episode 3

Wendy Crewson Guest-Stars

[17 March 2019]

Miscellaneous Affairs office secretary Mona Ellerby (Dixie Seatle) entreats her co-worker V.H. Adderly (Winston Rekert) to look in on the husband of her friend Jenny. She thinks he is having an affair. It isn't what Adderly - a veteran of intelligence work, is used to. But he owes Mona a thing or two for covering for him at work many times. It also beats the superfluous assignment their boss Melville Greenspan (Jonathan Welsh) assigned to him - one Mona agrees to do.

Adderly looks into fellow International Security and Intelligence (ISI) employee Gary Fields (Peter Dvorsky - no relation to the Slovak operatic tenor) who might be bent (Selling plutonium to pay down gambling debts). But other ISI agents are already looking into it and they don't want Adderly around. He can't help it when he sees how badly ISI agent Marge Websin (Wendy Crewson) is handling it. After it goes as poorly as Adderly promised it might. But Marge words her report to their boss Major Clack (Kenneth Pogue) skillfully blaming it all on Adderly.

Wendy Crewson's character is meant to show the kind of agent that Adderly could never be and would never try to be. She can mess things up royally and claim the only reason it wasn't worse is because she was there. Adderly is focused on the making whatever the job is come out right - not throwing a colleague under a bus of potentially career-ending blame if the result is unfavorable.

Marge Websin, on the other hand is so volatile and vindictive she chooses to interpret commands in the most malignant way possible. Who knows what she'll do when Clack orders her to find a way to keep Adderly out of it. Who knows what will happen to Jenny if ISI's absurd sting operation entangles her and her husband is in over his head.

The efficient episode gives us further insight into the main character. He got his hand crushed on assignment but, as this episode and others tell us, that is far from the only reason he has been shunted off to Miscellaneous Affairs. The thing with his hand is just an excuse for reassignment. Many episodes of the series give us an indication that he is really there for reasons related to the politics of the bureaucracy - things his psyche has committed too much contempt for, to understand or navigate.

We also see Mona assert herself more in this episode too. She brings Adderly into it not knowing that ISI has an op going. She then ably assists Adderly in the field - something she has dreamed of doing since the first episode. That helps address one of the criticisms of the show which was that Mona is Adderly's cheerleader and her only joy is doting upon the hero.

Wendy Crewson is one of the most successful performers ever to come out of the Canada's entertainment industry. She is also one of Canada's most appealing women. But here they put a hairdo on her that looks like it was made by sticking her finger in a light socket. It was the 1980s. The difference in styles is also reflected in Winston Rekert sporting a mullet and wearing 'bespoke' menswear that makes him look like he is head of security at a Loverboy concert.

Street Legal: Moving Day (2019) Season 1, Episode 2

The Posse That Rides With The Fastest Gun

[13 March 2019]

Young Toronto lawyer Lilly Rue (Cara Ricketts) is discernibly unsettled by checking on friends of hers that have disappeared from their breakfast table as if in to the thin air. But it is not science fiction it is the Canadian judicial system. Presented like that is a brilliant way of characterizing the manner in which adult human beings can be seized as "Wards of the Crown" i.e. be taken custody of by a lawyer.

Mina Lee (Yvonne Chapman), partner with Rue in RDL Legal, is dropped by one of her clients because RDL Legal has a case going against big pharma and that client has conflicts. Big business in Canada is compromised of a pretty sparse number of people considering our population. When one relationship has conflicts with another the more powerful one wins out usually. So there is this kind of domino effect of businesses distancing themselves that threatens to destroy RDL before they've really started.

Adam Darling (Steve Lund), partner with Lee and Rue in RDL Legal, has an issue with Olivia Novak (Cynthia Dale) regarding their case vs big pharma. It becomes apparent that the RDL partners were not entirely ready for what teaming up with Novak would mean in real working terms. With her genius legal mind, work ethic and pathological instinct to see everything the way a lawyer would, she climbed to the top of her profession. While she asserts leadership she also elevates partners.

But Novak's mean streak and vindictiveness aren't necessarily yet known by the younger lawyers. They evidently haven't heard the stories about her yet. Older lawyers would know, if not been witness to her bludgeoning of a construction worker with her brief case in broad daylight on the streets of Toronto.

There is an almost adolescent tone in the way Novak expresses disdain and asserts her superiority. She allows it of herself because she is that good and that assertive. It might be a concern for her vis a vis how others perceive her, but not enough of one for her to stop doing it the way she does.

A lingering effect is one felt between her and her former law firm partner Hal Lloyd (John Ralston). They meet again in a dispute over boxes of documents she took off with at their former firm. The documents relate to the big pharma case and he gets an injunction. When Novak asks "What did I ever do to you?" and his answer is a matter-of-fact "Enough" the viewer can read the subtext. What the viewer can't know is how far he'll go with it. When he gets his other ex-partner Gerry Czernik (Michael Murphy) to join the dispute it indicates he might go pretty far.

Meanwhile, Olivia's mysterious private investigator Derrick Leiber (Patrick Labbe), a disbarred lawyer, tries to bond with office manager Sam (Joanne Vannicola) as well as with Rue and is considerably more successful with Rue than Sam.

The first episode began in a crack-house where a son discovers his mother shooting up. Adam Darling's mum Rosemary Dunsmore will always be an issue because of her addiction. Maybe he'll get around to actual lawyering something at some point. Every arc goes where it is supposed to except for the Adam Darling character. Therein lies the weakness of this episode.

What we do see depicted in this episode though is revealing. There is a coming together and the establishment of a working dynamic. With Novak, who knows if it will continue beyond the big pharma case. But we know she is all in on that. Rue and Lee each show the moxie of the kind of lawyer Novak might want to stand with. Darling (Yes Dear?) does not which might well mean the character will be called upon to do more in future episodes.

Adderly: Mailman (1986) Season 1, Episode 2

Yannick Bisson Guest Cameo

[11 March 2019]

V.H. Adderly (Winston Rekert) - a veteran secret service operative who got his left hand crushed in the field longs to make a comeback. International Security and Intelligence (ISI) - his employers prefer him where he is - in the basement of it's headquarters near the boiler room in a department it calls "Miscellaneous Affairs". There he clashes with bureaucrat Melville Greenspan (Jonathan Welsh) - a supervisor with no experience in the intelligence community whom Adderly refuses to accept as boss.

Routinely Adderly storms into the offices of Major Clack (Kenneth Pogue) with Greenspan in tow to demand reassignment back in the field. It is a bad work dynamic between Adderly and Greenspan. But it is one entirely acceptable to Clack. Adderly knows too much to be allowed to retire with dignity. The purgatory of a desk job under a barnacle-like bureaucrat such as Greenspan might at least keep Adderly out of trouble until the currency of his inside information withers.

Clack nevertheless decides to put Adderly back in the field after one of these meetings in his office. But the assignment - a delivery, appears to be fully as inconsequential as the ones Adderly has been given since being cast asunder. Nevertheless Adderly soldiers on even as his rendezvous with Pete Bracken (Richard Comar) - another agent, falls through. He uses his wealth of experience and follows procedure to get the delivery made.

When he and Bracken are nearly killed they join forces to track their attempted murderer Belkin (Chris Wiggins), the sleazo crime-boss of an international smuggling ring.

This solid entry early in the series establishes the altruism of the main character more firmly whilst illustrating that character's flaw. Wherever he can Adderly sees setting things right as being his entire purpose. But that does not necessarily further the cause for good that he might accomplish. Benchmarks for the success of a spy are only supposed to be obvious to their employers. But Adderly doesn't care quite enough about that. If he did he would see that he has to take some credit to retain the credibility needed to be entrusted with getting the right thing done.

The Canadian setting was, of course, obscured to the point of being nearly invisible in this episode as well as others. That was something TV and movie producers did in Canada to maximize the marketability of the production to American audiences. A hint at the setting is nevertheless noted in the placement of a small CN Tower ornament on Melville's desk. But behind Melville's desk is a large picture of the New York skyline with "City of New York" seen printed at the bottom. It is seen in close-ups and there is no doubt at the inference meant to be drawn.

Note:

Yannick Bisson, who would go on to be one of the most ubiquitous stars of Canada's TV industry, has a cameo here as a valet at a car rental agency. He worked with Winston Rekert multiple times early in his career. As with any domestic Canadian entertainment product the community which produced it was considerably smaller than in other countries including a not insignificant one south of us. It meant you'd have trouble doing anything professionally without tripping over somebody you worked with before. I'm sure the two iconic Canadian actors got along famously. But a lot of casts in Canadian entertainment productions overlap just because of scale.

Adderly: Hit-Man Complex (1986) Season 1, Episode 1

Spies, eh?! Oooh, right on!

[11 March 2019]

Extremely affluent Senator Thomas Woodside (Don Harron) is marrying off his daughter and requests that the government supply security for the wedding. The better compliment of International Security and Intelligence (ISI) agents are on assignment elsewhere. The absurd detail is one none of them would think was worth their time anyway. The obscure department Miscellaneous Affairs somehow appears to be an answer instead of "Go to a private firm, Senator! YOU can afford it. The taxpayers CAN'T!".

ISI keeps Miscellaneous Affairs in the basement of it's headquarters near the boiler room. Why the department even exists is something of a mystery. A bitter pill of a bureaucrat Melville Greenspan (Jonathan Welsh) is in charge and his priority is keeping the budget low and the department profile even lower. He thinks that is how he keeps civil service cutbacks from eliminating his job. He is not entirely wrong.

The bored secretary Mona Ellerby (Dixie Seatle - a Canadian performer with a VERY American-sounding name) is generally found reading a book and sometimes it is spy fiction. She and Greenspan get to keep their tedious, almost entirely meaningless jobs in a way many bureaucrats and government employees have throughout history i.e. by always being present in the event that somebody calls which for them is extremely unlikely.

The frequency of the calls increases dramatically with the presence of V.H. Adderly (Winston Rekert) - a veteran secret service operative who got his left hand crushed by torture whilst in the clutches of the opposition. Transferred to Miscellaneous Affairs he is still a great intelligence agent and longs to make a comeback. ISI refuses to look beyond his disability which is unfortunate considering he finds deadly trouble in even the most mundane, nuisance details assigned him.

Melville dispatches Adderly to the wedding KNOWING it to be a mundane, nuisance detail but hoping that Adderly will still complete the task adequately. His primary concern is that Adderly is appropriately attired and acquits himself well in a manner that won't reflect poorly on the department. It puts Adderly on the trail of an international assassin whom Adderly must stop, and do so single-handedly. We get a solid template of the formula for future episodes.

The Canadian setting was, of course, obscured to the point of being nearly invisible. That was something TV and movie producers did in Canada to maximize the marketability of the production to American audiences. The casting, the locations and the tell-tale softening of vowels in the dialogue betrayed where it was really produced and who it was produced by. But it was somehow thought that American audiences wouldn't notice and that Canadian audiences wouldn't mind.

This episode featured guest-stars Gary Farmer, Lisa Howard and Peter Krantz. They were young and still learning but they would stick with the industry long enough to build impressive resumes and do so here in Canada - either in domestically produced content or augmenting foreign productions shot here. They toiled in a relative anonymity which is something that is very difficult for a performer to have to do and shows an uncommon attachment to the craft. For many active on Canada's entertainment scene the process IS the reward.

The established guest-star Don Harron - the one they hoped might lure in audiences, was one the Canadian entertainment industry never quite knew what to do with. Here he is quite passable playing a supporting role. He mostly did supporting guest roles on American TV up until he hit big in America on the syndicated series Hee-Haw, a show he departed in 1982. Believe it or not he had a TV talk show that went as poorly as any of the English-language ones (Paul Soles, Alan Thicke, Ralph Benmergui etc) we've had in Canada.

Adderly: Midnight in Morocco (1987) Season 2, Episode 7

Morocco When It Sizzles

[10 March 2019]

Veteran secret service operative V.H. Adderly (Winston Rekert) relates the story of a mission he had in Morocco a decade earlier. His audience is Mona (Dixie Seatle) - bored secretary in the same government intelligence Miscellaneous Affairs department he has been banished to. It helps them make the time pass faster working late while they wait out a heat wave in a steaming-hot office during summer.

Boxes of top-secret documents are scheduled for shredding. Melville Greenspan (Jonathan Welsh) - their prickly boss, wants the files sorted alphabetically and by date. He specifies that, before he goes to play tennis with HIS boss Major Clack (Kenneth Pogue). Adderly and Mona pretend to acquiesce knowing that it makes no difference what order the files are in and that Greenspan just assigned it to them to impose his will abusing what little authority he has.

Whilst they pretend to work, over Chinese take out and with a TV showing an old movie, the story Adderly tells is one Mona's imagination interprets like something from the Golden Age of Hollywood (Specifically Casablanca). She casts herself as this femme fatale character from his past and envisions the adventure in the most romantic terms including her work-crush Adderly whom she imagines in a tuxedo. In her mind it is fulfillment of a fantasy and escape from the tedium of work.

Mona's imagination places Greenspan (Channelling Peter Lorre) and Clack (Channelling Claude Rains) as dubious characters in the fantasy. Somehow she even finds space for a couple of very attractive foreign women (Cynthia Dale and Lolita Davidovich in off-beat cameos). But it is difficult to tell what really happened in Morocco. Mona gets a key fact wrong that puts the whole thing in an entirely different light.

If you are cynical you can look at this as a rehash of the William Holden-Audrey Hepburn movie 'Paris When It Sizzles' with an homage re-staging of Casablanca thrown in. For ideas, that is far from a bad one when it comes to the formula of this show.

Canadian series Adderly was one that Canadian TV network Global offered as fulfillment of it's obligation to broadcast domestic content. Though it had an espionage adventure theme with comedy elements it wasn't really the level of spoof of American spy comedy 'Get Smart'. The humour was considerably more dry. Often times it looked like one of those sitcoms set in an office because it could be exactly like those.

Some of the difference was in the attention payed to what Winston Rekert offered as a leading man. The dynamic between he and Dixie Seatle played that up as a recurring theme for, if not basis of the series.

The Bob Newhart Show: Let's Get Away from It Almost (1973) Season 1, Episode 15

The Mating Ritual Of The Hobbled Sasquatch In Purgatory

[6 March 2019]

It is a three-day weekend and Chicago psychologist Dr. Bob Hartley PhD (Bob Newhart) is looking to take advantage and get out of town with his wife Emily (Suzanne Pleshette). But she has a fear of flying. The first episode ever aired of this series depicted her fear of flying at its most erratic point. In the series her fear of flying was a running gag. Of course that limits where a couple from Chicago can go on a three-day weekend.

Bob asks her to randomly pick a spot on a map that is within reach of where their car can travel to and back from. This idea an astoundingly bad idea. Bob is supposed to be the last kind of guy to have an idea that absurd. But a lot of people have had the same idea and done what they do here in order just to be spontaneous. Emily bites and the results are a special kind of disastrous.

The place they get is a ski resort inn so decrepit it is on the brink of collapse. The manager (Allen Garfield) is kind of skeevy and entirely unprepared to deliver the guest experience advertised. They also have to share their bathroom with the couple across the hall. The Millers (Chuck McCann and Joyce Van patten) are loud and boorish but they seem like nice people...At first. The Hartley's are polite but they wanted to get away from people for a bit, kick back and focus on each other.

What they staged is like a slasher movie except instead of running for their lives the couple just wants to avoid awkwardness and doing things they don't like with people they don't know at a destination they somehow expected more from. Things get even worse as the first night progresses and pretty soon Bob and Emily are hiding out in their room. How long will they stick it out? Can they get away without being seen? Can it get worse?

Notes:

If you're a fan of this comedian and his humour you can see one parallel with his later work on the series Newhart (1982-90). The setting here is an inn outside the city and the set looks like an early version of what the Newhart/Stratford Inn set would look like. But we don't see Bob pivot to the whole Green Acres-in-a-Blue State direction he would be able circle back to on the later series.

On an episode of Newhart, the later series, Bob as Dick Louden and his wife Joanna have the same idea of picking a vacation spot at random but of course they had to do something different with it.

Street Legal: Glass Floor (2019) Season 1, Episode 1

When The Lioness Is Given A Smaller Cage...

[5 March 2019]

Icy Olivia Novak (Cynthia Dale) - a senior partner of Czernik, Lloyd and Novak (Bay Street's finest ambulance chasers) loses her client to RDL Legal - a tiny Queen Street West start-up firm after she was counting on a lucrative case vs big pharma (We have it in Canada too) over a drug that users were told was non-addictive that turned to be addictive (Really?). The turn in fortunes coincides with Czernik, Lloyd and Novak's best mergers and acquisitions lawyer deciding to trigger his buyout.

Misfortune can cascade in business (Which is what this is no matter how high-minded any corporate lawyer can sound), as well as other aspects of life with disturbing regularity. When the managing partner Gerry Czernik (Michael Murphy) decides to walk the gold-plated plank too, Novak goes after his job with his blessing whilst attempting to get a deal going with the tiny start up over the flawed client in a case where they've got a snowball's chance. But it's Canada in early March, snowballs have a longer lifespan.

As circumstances play out Novak and the young shysters have to join forces. If you've watched the original Street Legal you know Olivia Novak is a mix of good and evil of varying degrees depending upon if she gets crossed, by whom and what the settlement is. When she is cornered she can show signs of vulnerability. After that you wouldn't want to be the one who is doing the cornering.

So you put the lioness in a smaller cage to fight for scraps? The X factor is how she'll co-exist with a group of younger lions Lilly Rue (Cara Ricketts), Adam Darling (Steve Lund) and Mina Lee (Yvonne Chapman). Presumably the writing will give the younger lawyers a chance to assert themselves whilst letting Olivia be Olivia. As fans of the series upon which this is a spin-off of know, Olivia Novak is most certainly capable of being vindictive and payback can be called a certain thing that she too has been called.

If one finds anything lacking in this production I cannot say it is because it is less than our best. These are our actors and they're good ones (Brilliant guest-stars included). One of our best directors (Sturla Gunnarson) was at the helm. What you see is what we've got and what we've got is more than we used to have. The result of the debut episode gives us a solid start to this continuation (Or if you wanna say 'reboot'...I'd rather you didn't but, anyway...) of the very popular CBC TV series of exceptional quality and cultural resonance that ran from 1987 to 1994.

When it comes to any Canadian series what we see is part of a greater project whether everyone involved wants for it to be or not. Canadians want OUR stories, told by us, starring us. It isn't just a patriotism thing, and it isn't just a visibility thing. But for some reason some of us think of it as petty. When we get something good (And fundamentally, it looks like that is what this is, and will continue to be) then we have something to crow about. If we get something bad we begin to wonder if the tax credits and broadcasting time quotas which are supposed to be incentive for the making of it are a good idea anymore.

Like any Canadian series, whether it is good OR bad is not necessarily an indicator of whether people will watch it. The schedule against American commercial television does not favour ANY Canadian competition. We just can't match it in terms of production value and countless other things. But it can find a following online as people can watch the episodes free on the website of our national broadcaster. We didn't have that before and we certainly need it more now.

The part about watching it online will be essential if it comes back in the fall. If it remains scheduled at 9pm on Monday nights much of whatever male audience there is won't be watching it at THAT time because of Monday Night Football and smatterings of other demographics will defect to the new fall line-up of other American shows in the time-slot. Everyone involved has to know that and I'm sure they know to manage their expectations.

This show could become binge-worthy and I think it will. Particularly it will find resonance when it connects people to the real life effects of what lawyers do which this initial offering ties it together efficiently.

But the issue of 'Diggstown' - yet another CBC TV series that is a legal drama , and debuts but 48 hours after this one, does raise questions. It features actor C.David Johnson - one of Street Legal's mainstay stars during it's run. It also has Natasha Henstridge (I still gots like a major crush on 'er, eh!). If Diggstown gets canned will Street Legal just raid it's cast, writing staff etc?

Note:

Toronto concert venue Cameron House (Among other local landmarks) has a cameo.

Jake and the Fatman: Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? (1987) Season 1, Episode 6

Rich Man, Poor Man

[4 March 2019]

Dapper but dirty cop Jake Stiles (Joe Penny) teams with grizzled District Attorney J.L. McCabe (William Conrad) to track down the murderer of Mitchell Thompson (Josef Rainer) one of wealthiest men in the city. The victim's two surviving kin are his younger brothers - a pair of oddballs who are disturbingly close. But one (Dwight Schultz) is an odder ball than the other (Russell Todd). He has been covertly taunting McCabe and the police in a serial murder spree of homeless men.

The tone of the way the wealthy brothers are played is several steps beyond eccentric. I can interpret it as a statement on "affluenza" before it was an actual term. Here that is taken to the extreme in a tour-de-force characterization by Dwight Schultz. There is not just solipsism and narcissism. David Thompson is a classic take on the cinematic stock character of wealthy and warped predator from the Golden Age of Hollywood. The murderers on this show characteristically displayed galling audacity.

The main demographic they attracted with this show was an older, upper income, conservative one. They attempted to offer them something of classic appeal. It meant presenting something that was kind of like 1930s/1940s era mystery with Joe Penny as the classic leading man (A Cary Grant for the 1980s). Blending with that is McCabe portrayed by an actor whose following stretched back to days on radio and you have a retro feel the formula could reliably deliver week by week during the TV season.

The ideal settings for various episodes were upscale in keeping with so many Hollywood murder mysteries which is why we see so many wealthy bad people and wealthy victims. The fact that so many of the guest characters are played by actors who tended to attract a younger demographic would also become a continuous aspect of the series. Russell Todd was brought in for that here.

As for the continuing character study of the leads sublety was insufficient often times. They obviously went for a gruff but proud father/roguish but loyal son vibe. The opaqueness of that is captured in the appalling opening titles sequence from the show's first season which includes a hokey scene of the actors embracing as their characters praise each other's awesomeness and virtue. That cringe-inducing scene of characters telling, when they should be showing, started off every show on a poor note until they got a new titles sequence.

Jake and the Fatman: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (1987) Season 1, Episode 10

"Don't Always Believe What Ya See!"

[4 March 2019]

Nurse Samantha (Amy Steele) is blinded by a man who has murdered her patient in the same attack. The shared grief brings her together with the woman's husband Alan Shay (Mark Goddard) who each work with law enforcement to apprehend the assailant. Samantha is set to have an operation to recover her sight and it appears promising. But her attacker (A malefactor with a breathtaking track record of efficiency), who doesn't want her to live long enough to be able to see, and identify him, has other ideas.

Casually corrupt police lieutenant Jake Styles (Joe Penny) and gruff but earnest district attorney J.L.McCabe (William Conrad) both formed a rapport with Samantha and Alan in the aftermath of the murder. They are concerned for her safety despite her assurances. Styles orders a special detail i.e. patrol cops to drive by her place and check in with her in the lead up to her flight. But when an attack upon Samantha by the same killer is thwarted Jake begins to wonder if things happened as they initially appeared to.

In this episode the lush setting they somehow found themselves in again, is not purely accidental. The stylistic formula the show had going required placement of them in such a setting somehow, some way. What the show gave viewers was a mystery with less of the messy police forensics work aspect and more of the intrigue in a setting most of us can find agreeable even if we can't really relate to it. A good, solid teleplay can get you past the setting. That is what they delivered here and would do intermittently during the run of the series.

The multi-layered acting characterization constructed by Amy Steel is what really sells this episode to the audience though. She was cast because she balanced being something of a sex symbol in 1980s popular culture from the Friday the 13th movies with very real acting chops gleaned from excellent schools and a solid theatre background. She was also, by the time they got her for this, a youngish veteran of two TV series and multiple motion picture releases. It was a very agreeable match between role and performer that served to deliver a younger demographic.

There are still implausibilities. But the episode remains one of the better early ones because a better baddie tends to make for a better mystery. This has a transgressor who evolves in an unexpected way. The quintessence of villainy on display reflects another trademark of this series : malignant audacity in the role of the antagonist.

The Bob Newhart Show: Bob and Emily and Howard and Carol and Jerry (1972) Season 1, Episode 12

What Could Go Wrong?

[4 March 2019]

Bob Hartley (Bob Newhart) and his wife Emily (Suzanne Pleshette) have been happily married for three years (REALLY not very long...Especially for 1972) after a blind date that went better than they usually go.

In the spirit of that, Emily thinks it might be a good idea to set up their wacky neighbour Howard (Bill Daily - a criminally underappreciated comedian who used to write for Steve Allen) with Bob's flighty secretary Carol Kester (Marcia Wallace).

Bob doesn't think it is a good idea. He explains why. What he doesn't have to explain is what we have already seen from Carol and Howard. She is constantly horny and his job as navigator for an airline flight crew means he is out of town every week. The audience can see where that might go even if the characters on the show haven't evaluated the equation. Then Jerry (ONE of her bosses...Sort of) factors in. He picks up on Carol all the time (Almost like he is following some kind of rule). His attentions will almost certainly factor in because Carol kinda likes him too.

But it is too late. Emily has already talked Howard up to Carol. Emily has dropped Howard off at her husband's office building where Howard gets a tooth yanked (Though strangely NOT by Bob's dentist friend Jerry who has an office on the very same floor). After his procedure (and a generous shot of laughing gas) Howard is found hanging out by Carol's desk. In an artificially relaxed state he comes off as calm, witty and strangely spiritual. Carol likes him.

The double date Carol and Howard have with the Hartleys is planned on the fly and goes off poorly. Off drugs, Howard is Howard. A nice, harmless man he is nevertheless like a ten year old in bad need of Ritalin and shows every sign of a social anxiety disorder. Carol, fickle in the extreme, is considerably less impressed. Howard's continued awkward attempts at romance with Carol collide with Jerry's awkward attempts at romance with Carol.

They had done some solid work by this point in the series. But they crafted a classic in this entry. They did that with a teleplay that additionally served to elevate the importance and resonance of supporting characters adding depth to the stories they would be able to develop later. I'm convinced this episode influenced the Chinese restaurant episode on Seinfeld due to the bit with the maitre d (James Hong, who also appeared in this episode).

Evidently one of the rules of the show was that if Bob could explain it in a funnier way than it would be to stage it then they'd let him explain it. His audience, going all the way back to his albums love it when Bob has to explain something that is awkward to explain. So it was with Howard's date with Carol.

Finally Marcia Wallace's Carol Kester character began to develop beyond being Wallace doing Carol Burnett if Carol was playing Mrs.Wiggins and Mrs. Wiggins was doing an impression of Lily Tomlin's Ernestine character. Whilst appearing derivative it made for a very funny combination. So the show continued to go with that. They also picked up on the fact that Carol the receptionist wasn't seen to do very much at the office and seemed like a redundancy in past episodes.

Here we see her collating. In episodes before it Carol was seen stamping letters and attending to a datebook. Difficult things for an actor to do and time a portrayal with. Marcia Wallace did more and more things like that as she went which served quite well to sell the eccentric characterization and the setting. For some of us that counts for a lot. One imagines long rehearsal and endless takes to get it right.

The character continued to make a cascade of emotional transactions at the office. Workers are not supposed to do that. But they are human beings and spend half their waking hours during a work week AT the office or whatever kind of workplace it is. They don't stop being human beings from 9am to noon, then become human for lunch hour, then stop being human again from 1pm until 5pm.

Carol is the extreme. If she was not, she might have gone unnoticed on a sitcom. What she gave Bob Newhart was the constant flexibility to pivot comically to a bit with him being the boss trying to be polite when an employee is flaking on him. It offers several variations on "You're HERE...THANKS! Since you're around could ya maybe do some of the things we pay you for?".

Note:

Emily is terrified to fly. It is part of the series bible that she has a fear of air travel. In Howard, we also see a commercial plane navigator who has a notoriously poor sense of direction and consistently appears poised to have a panic attack. Because of that, I always wondered if the show was sponsored by a company that sold travel insurance.