***SPOILERS*** That's what I said. As in cherry bomb in the septic tank, that is. You have two good looking girls in a drab. noir setting with a dead dog dull story, and you kill one of them off? It's obvious who punched her ticket, isn't it? The cop "Butter"? His whole part is a cliche'. The pawnshop owner? Bumped off, no doubt; the bad guys were waiting for what to happen before they moved in on the camera? That part of this episode was a waste; indicative of the story - - and there are MORE episodes? I gotta remember to forget to stay awake for them. This one's a Stinkbomb..a 6.
3 Reviews
Lost charm
VetteRanger20 September 2017
To start off with, this series is no longer 77 Sunset Strip at this point. It's a clichéd rip-off of cheap 30s and 40s film noir. Stuart Bailey is just a name. The character has none of the life and charm Zimbalist brought to the role through the first five seasons.
This disaster has Jack Webb's "style" written all over it. Guest stars under his direction in Dragnet frequently reported that Webb would tell them "Just say the lines", and get irritated if they tried to put any life into them. That's pretty much the drill here, too. William Conrad, as the director, allowed a little bit of life to slip into the characters, but not much.
The dialogue and the plotting are filled with tired clichés that had been wrung dry long before the early 60s.
The frequent voice overs, though competently performed by Zimbalist, are wretchedly written. The sage advice of "show, don't tell" is often completely ignored.
The impressive array of guest stars is completely wasted. They are shoe-horned in as "characters" with long, irrelevant soliloquies that are supposed to be clever, but just fill time in an irritating fashion. This happens in scene after scene.
The one "emotional" scene in the episode was allowed to William Shatner, who chews it up in an overwrought delivery that seemed very inappropriate to the circumstance. But then he was given terrible dialogue to work with.
This "part two" of the five part series to open the season is even worse than part one was. You can see my review of it for more detail.
Very sad.
This disaster has Jack Webb's "style" written all over it. Guest stars under his direction in Dragnet frequently reported that Webb would tell them "Just say the lines", and get irritated if they tried to put any life into them. That's pretty much the drill here, too. William Conrad, as the director, allowed a little bit of life to slip into the characters, but not much.
The dialogue and the plotting are filled with tired clichés that had been wrung dry long before the early 60s.
The frequent voice overs, though competently performed by Zimbalist, are wretchedly written. The sage advice of "show, don't tell" is often completely ignored.
The impressive array of guest stars is completely wasted. They are shoe-horned in as "characters" with long, irrelevant soliloquies that are supposed to be clever, but just fill time in an irritating fashion. This happens in scene after scene.
The one "emotional" scene in the episode was allowed to William Shatner, who chews it up in an overwrought delivery that seemed very inappropriate to the circumstance. But then he was given terrible dialogue to work with.
This "part two" of the five part series to open the season is even worse than part one was. You can see my review of it for more detail.
Very sad.
Shark Jumping
nbrice1818 July 2018
Lots of shows have "jumped the shark"; obviously Happy Days when Fonzie literally did, Laverne & Shirley when they moved to CA, Alice when Flo left, Coach when it moved for FL....I could go on. After seeing 2 episodes of Five I've decided that the revamp of 77 Sunset Strip is the biggest shark jumper of all.
Who on earth would come up with the idea of ditching Kookie and Jeff? Both of them had a much better screen presence than Mr Boring, Efrem Zimbalist Jr. And the supporting cast of JR, Roscoe and Suzanne is missed as well. Changing the entire feel of the show from the glamourous title location to some nondescript office was a huge mistake. And gone is the iconic theme song. The character of Stuart Bailey has undergone an entire personality transplant and is now completely intolerable (he was bad enough before).
Film Noir is my favorite movie genre but I don't want 1930s noir on this 1960s show. I can barely understand the rapid, but not as clever as they think, dialogue of Richard Conte. I didn't understand a word that the key maker said. And an all star cast cannot make up for the complete overhaul of one of the most unique shows of its time period. I was too young to watch during the original airing, but had I been, I would have ditched the show with Part 1 of Five.
Who on earth would come up with the idea of ditching Kookie and Jeff? Both of them had a much better screen presence than Mr Boring, Efrem Zimbalist Jr. And the supporting cast of JR, Roscoe and Suzanne is missed as well. Changing the entire feel of the show from the glamourous title location to some nondescript office was a huge mistake. And gone is the iconic theme song. The character of Stuart Bailey has undergone an entire personality transplant and is now completely intolerable (he was bad enough before).
Film Noir is my favorite movie genre but I don't want 1930s noir on this 1960s show. I can barely understand the rapid, but not as clever as they think, dialogue of Richard Conte. I didn't understand a word that the key maker said. And an all star cast cannot make up for the complete overhaul of one of the most unique shows of its time period. I was too young to watch during the original airing, but had I been, I would have ditched the show with Part 1 of Five.
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