4/10
More of the same.
5 June 2008
Warning: Spoilers
Quincy M.E.: Walk Softly Through the Night: Part 2 starts as Los Angeles chief medical examiner Quincy (Jack Klugman) receives a phone-call from Lieutenant Monahan (Garry Walberg) saying that Dr. Mason Colella (Charles Aidman) has been shot & killed, Quincy's friend Marty Herrera (A Martinez) is the prime suspect since he was seen threatening Colella with a gun earlier that evening. Quincy finds it impossible to believe that Marty murdered Colella but all the evidence points to the fact that he did, in court Marty is made out to be a drug pusher & a murderer & will get life in prison unless Quincy can prove his innocence...

Episode 15 from season 4 this Quincy story was directed by Paul Krasny & didn't do much for me at all. The second part of a two part story Walk Softly Through the Night started with some narrator guy saying 'now the exciting conclusion to Walk Softly Through the Night', I am not being funny here but maybe he mixed his scripts up since he got the conclusion bit right but the exciting bit wrong. I mean conclusion? Yes. Exciting? No way. This second part is pretty much the same as the first & all that it is interested in is telling us how bad drugs are, how we can't ignore the problem anymore & if we didn't already get the message it tells that drugs are bad some more. At the end of the first part to Walk Softly Through the Night there was a brief preview & it looked like there would be a murder & therefore this second part would be a more traditional Quincy episode but that's not really the case at all. In fact this might be the only time in the entire series where there is not a single laboratory scene in the entire episode, not one. There isn't an autopsy to speak of, Quincy doesn't do any detective work, neither Sam, Dr. Asten or Danny feature at all & the real killers identity is so obvious I felt the writer insulted my intelligence. In fact the 'mystery' killer here is maybe the most predictable & obvious in the show's entire eight season run. Walk Softly Through the Night is one (or rather two) long anti drug message, there's no humour, the regular character's don't feature, there's no forensic detective work & there's no mystery.

During this episode we see Uncle Buddy's Hollywood mansion, wow all I can say is dressing up as a clown must pay really well considering the house he has! I wasn't too sure about certain elements of the trial either, I know Marty was trying to help his fellow students but he still brought drugs & sold them to his mates, surely by the letter of the law that is classed as drug dealing? I know there are mitigating circumstances but would that make a huge difference? Selling prescription only drugs to addicts would surely at least get you kicked out of school no matter what the circumstances? The acting is alright here with Klugman again head & shoulders above everyone else.

Walk Softly Through the Night: Part 2 is one long anti drug message, if you like your Quincy episodes moralistic & preachy then go ahead you'll love it. If however you like your Quincy episodes full of murder, intrigue, clever detective work & mystery then do yourself a favour & skip it.
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