Hello, all! After a week-long bout of bronchitis, I think I have finally recovered enough to once again contribute my $.02 to this blog. Later this week, expect to see a review of the new Sherlock Holmes movie, a review of a Niven/Pournelle/Flynn product from the Spike S. Collection, and two reviews dealing with a few of our regularly scheduled classic canons (namely, DS9 and B5) - all written by yours truly.
Now, however, allow me to proceed with a review of our next Early Edition episode!
Plot Synopsis:
Previously, Gary had a run-in with Sun-Times reporter Meredith Carson and, after rescuing her from a couple of hit men, tentatively expressed his interest in Meredith with an offering of Chinese food. This week, however, we learn that Gary has not pursued the potential relationship any further, a fact that is driving Meredith to distraction. When editor Hawks once again badgers her about the declining quality of her writing of late, Meredith at last takes matters into her own hands: she plants a phony story in the next day's edition to get Gary's attention. Gary is not terribly enthused by this ploy, and he reminds Meredith that the paper is not something to be toyed with. But ultimately, Gary finds he cannot resist his natural attraction to Meredith, and they end up spending a night together (note: Meredith sleeps on the couch).
The following morning, Meredith assures Gary that she will stay away from his paper. When Gary hops in the shower, however, a breeze kicks up, fluttering the paper's pages, and Meredith succumbs to the temptation. Glancing at the front page, she finds a report of an arson fire that will take the lives of three kids - a particularly juicy bit of information given that Meredith has been trying to track down a serial arsonist for the past few weeks. Before she can decide what to do, though, Chuck lets himself in and catches Meredith with the paper in her hand. Chuck agrees to keep her secret provided she allows him to peek at the financial section.
When Gary goes to rescue the kids from the arson fire, he is surprised to find Meredith there with her cameraman. Meredith urges Gary to be quiet while her cameraman gets a shot of the arsonists, but Gary doesn't obey and shouts at the arsonists to stop what they are doing. The arsonists start the fire and flee, and Meredith and her cameraman run themselves while Gary stays behind to rescue the three kids. Meredith is forced to turn in an unsatisfactorily vague story to Hawks.
Meanwhile, Chuck uses cheat notes from Gary's financial section to make over $15 million in the stock market. This, hilariously, raises the suspicions of the SEC. Chuck goes to Meredith and asks her to steal the paper from Gary so that he can use it to get himself out of his self-inflicted mess, but Meredith refuses. Chuck then decides to steal the paper himself; the following morning, he snatches the paper out from under Cat and uses the financial section to drop his $15 million. The suspicions of the SEC officer, however, are not assuaged by this move. In fact, the officer finds it an impossible coincidence that Chuck would lose exactly the same amount of money he made the previous day.
In the meantime, Gary believes Meredith has stolen his paper, and he angrily confronts her. Meredith denies that she had anything to do with the paper's disappearance, and they part on a negative note. Meredith then goes to Chuck and demands that he give her the paper so that she can return it to Gary. Chuck relents. Meredith goes to the Blackstone to return the paper, but before she leaves, the paper flutters again, and Meredith again finds she cannot resist taking a look. On the front page, the paper reports that the aforementioned arsonists will be nabbed on the roof of the Morgan Building. She heads there with her cameraman, but finds nothing. The paper has led her on a wild goose chase.
At McGinty's, meanwhile, Marissa counsels Gary to forgive Meredith and heed the advice of Lucius Snow: "Live your life." Just then, Chuck calls and apologizes for stealing Gary's paper. Gary asks Chuck later what he did with the paper, and Chuck tells Gary he gave it to Meredith. Gary tries to find Meredith at the Sun-Times, where Hawks informs him (after grousing for a moment about the power of love to distract his top reporters) that Meredith has gone to the roof of the Morgan Building to pursue her story.
When Gary finds Meredith, Meredith apologizes for lying to Gary, and Gary essentially accepts her show of remorse. Then a gust of wind hits, and the paper blows off the roof. Meredith tries to catch it before it flutters to the street and falls off the ledge. In order for Gary to rescue her, she must drop the piece of the paper she managed to grab in her fall.
In the end, Meredith takes a job in Washington DC, aware that the temptation of the paper is something she's not equipped to handle.
Overall: 7 - A very ordinary showing.
Writing: 6
The script deserves some credit for the unity of its theme. Both Meredith and Chuck face temptation in this episode - and both, unfortunately, fail to conquer it. As stories go, this one is quite accessible and human. However, it is somewhat lacking in either profundity or wit. The highlights below are somewhat sparse for a reason: the dialogue, while it gets the job done, simply does not stand out. Even the interactions between Gary and Meredith - which were a genuine strength of The Paper - have lost their original spitfire feistiness. On the whole, I suspect that this might be a case of an episode being taken too seriously for its own good. The potential for real comedy is there - especially where Chuck is concerned - but upon execution, the story falls rather flat.
Acting: 8
Leslie Hope again does a solid job as Meredith. I also must admit that I am fond of Joe Grifasi's Hawks. It's too bad that character is slated for death, as he did bring one of this episode's guffaw-worthy moments.
Message: 7
There are no overwhelming messages here. There is, however, a rather pleasing ethos that suffuses this episode (and other episodes of the series), and this ethos can be summarized thusly:
What goes around comes around.
No sin in His Girl Thursday is consequence-free. Chuck tries to cheat his way to success and ends up losing more than he gains. Meredith tries to cheat her way to an exclusive story and is stymied. No one gets what they do not earn.
Some may protest that this is a simplification of the real world, but I don't entirely agree. While just desserts are not always meted out so neatly as they are in this episode, they are meted out eventually. At the very least, no man save a sociopath can escape relentless guilt.
The Benevolent Hand:
Fortuitous gusts of wind that flutter the paper tantalizingly, daring Meredith to look? A dead end story that leads Meredith to realize the foolishness of her own actions? Such events are almost certainly due to the intervention of the Great Pedagogue.
Highlights:
(Chuck loses his car to a freak tornado.)
GARY: Don't take it so hard, Chuck. We saved a family today.
CHUCK: Yeah, I know. Gimme the financial section.
(Gary yanks the paper away.)
GARY: Nice try.
CHUCK: Come on. I've got an investment in there - a big one.
GARY: What kind of investment?
CHUCK: A sleeper. Idaho Industrial. It's gonna break any day. Guaranteed minimum five-to-one. And believe me, when it does, my ship is gonna come in.
(Gary looks at the paper. A headline in the financial section reads: "Idaho Industries Files for Chapter 11.")
GARY: Uh, Chuck? Man the life boats. Your ship is going down. (LOL!)
(Chuck wiggles his way out of an insider trading charge.)
CHUCK: Let me explain myself, okay? I did it for a good cause.
GARY: What?
CHUCK: My grandchildren. How would they feel if their grandpa was in jail?
GARY: What, you think this is funny?
CHUCK: I said I was sorry! Okay?
GARY: So you just talked your way out of it.
CHUCK: By the skin of my teeth. Now they're gonna be on my butt for the next five hundred years. Boy, I'll tell ya, I really learned my lesson.
GARY: Which is?
CHUCK: Never sell off your profits. (Heh. No, Chuck, I don't think that's the right answer.)
GARY: Hawks! Where is she?
HAWKS: Aw, not again!
GARY: Listen, I need to find her.
HAWKS: Sure you do. And I need a day off. In case you haven't noticed, I'm running a newspaper here - not a lost and found.
GARY: Yeah, that's very clever.
HAWKS: So you two had a fight, eh? About what, I couldn't care less. I'll tell you this though: you're giving me gas.
GARY: Listen, I got -
HAWKS: No, you listen to me. I don't know how you did it, but you took the best reporter I ever had and turned her into someone I don't even know: a girl. (LOL!)
MEREDITH: I lied to you.
GARY: I know. It's okay.
MEREDITH: I tried to stay away, but I couldn't do it.
GARY: Look, it's just a paper. It only tells us what's gonna happen if we let it happen. We decide the rest.
MEREDITH: (to Gary) That paper comes to you for a reason. It's a gift. You can do good by it. Never lose sight of that.
No comments:
Post a Comment