Friday the 13th: The Series (TV Series) The Great Montarro (1987) User Reviews

getting better

[movieman_kev · 6/10 · 12 March 2009]

The trio of Ryan, Micki & Jack figure out that the 'Cabinet of Houdin' is in a new owner's hands after reading about the death of a renowned magician & cross-referencing it with the list of people who bought from 'Curious Goods'. They must go undercover and audition in a magic show to find it and get it back safely. Good thing Jack was quite the magician himself in his heyday.

The second Durnford King written episode ('Poison Pen' was the first) is a tad better and the series itself started to pick up as a whole as well. There were still some things I didn't really like about the episode (Micki being naive) but I found myself getting into it none the less. It was good to finally get the bad taste out of my mouth that the previous three episodes put there.

My Grade: C+

Do you believe in magic?

[allexand · 7/10 · 2 July 2009]

Micki, Ryan, and Jack's latest lead takes them to a magician's convention where they must locate a cursed magic box that allows its owner to perform death-defying stunts provided that someone is kept in the box to absorb the damage.

"The Great Montarro" was the first episode since the pilot to really keep me entertained. While I did enjoy "A Cup of Time," I enjoyed it more for its overall silliness. I enjoyed "Montarro" because it was interesting and the writing was of a much higher quality.

The antique-of-the-week was definitely original although it was the first antique that left me wondering how they were going to fit it into the vault (and it certainly wouldn't be the last). The storyline is pretty imaginative as it functions as more of a whodunit with a few good twists and turns and has several characters with their own hidden agendas. I did figure out ultimately who the real culprit was but this doesn't really hurt the episode that much. It's certainly fun watching the story unfold as we're momentarily fooled into thinking that Jack died from a magic stunt gone wrong and we're presented with a magician, rather convincingly I might add, disguised in drag who's trying to get the box back for himself. This episode seemed to have less filler scenes in it as well.

There are, of course, a few problems present. The most glaring is that when Micki finally finds the cursed box, she gets right in! At this point, anybody with half a brain knows that she's being set up, so why get in the thing? At least make it hard for the villain. The other problem is with how Jack and Ryan get her out. Since these antiques are supposed to be indestructible, it left me wondering how they were able to successfully tamper with it. Granted they didn't break it, but it's just a minor nitpick.

Despite some unbelievably stupid behavior from Micki, "The Great Montarro" is a good episode and shows that this series is on the right track.

The Coffin of Blood

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 20 March 2024]

Jack reads on the newspaper that his acquaintance, the famous magician Fahteem of the Cabinet of Doom, has accidentally died recently sliced in a box. He talks to Micki and Ryan, and they find that he had bought the cursed "Cabinet of Houdin" from Lewis. The box kills one life inside the cabinet to spare the magician's life while performing the trick. They try to find the whereabouts of the box, but they learn from Fahteem's assistant Robert Simpson that his belongings have been auctioned. They discover that there will be a contest of magicians and Jack remembers his Pendulum of Doom trick to participate the show, expecting to find the box. But magicians usually hide their tricks, and the new owner of the Cabinet of Houdin does the same, and capture Micki that will be the next victim.

"The Great Montarro" is another entertaining episode of "Friday the 13th: The Series". This time, the trio searches for the Cabinet of Houdin, used to perform the Cabinet of Doom by a deceased magician, and now the Coffin of Blood by the new owner. The problem is that someone must die to the magician end the show safe and sound. The owner is predictable, but the show entertains. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Grande Montarro" ("The Great Montarro")

Subpar, but still finding its identity.

[The_King_of_Cool · 4/10 · 16 September 2017]

Episode 6: The Great Montarro- ** ½

The trio looks into a magician using a cursed magic box. Overall I found this episode rather dull; while not horrible it just doesn't work in general this was one of the weaker episodes of the season and series.

False Advertising?

[Gislef · 4/10 · 1 August 2020]

Never put "great" in an episode title, unless the episode is really great. "The Great Montarro" isn't really that great. For one thing, even in the 80s, was stage magic really that renowned? Who the heck is putting up $100,000 for the first prize of being the greatest magician in the world? (Or least Canada, or Illinois, or wherever the heck they are.)

For another, where's the rest of the club membership? Heck, Jack even mentions he's going to see his old friends at the Temple of Magic. But all we ever see is Monte, who appears to be a MC rather than a magician. It doesn't help to establish the show's magic bona fides if there are no magicians besides the bunch of auditioning amateur-quality magicians we see.

And while Chris Wiggins gives it his best, Jack never displays any talents as a magician or as an escape artist. He performs a few lame magic tricks: I particularly like his linking rings, where he picks up two already-linked rings and then magically "links" them together. Or his Pendulum of Death, which doesn't involve a pendulum! And the obvious guy standing in him for him, who turns out to be... an obvious guy standing in for him.

The ending isn't bad, nor is the chemistry between Ryan, Micki, and Jack. Ryan dismissing the killer and then possibly Micki as psychos is a bit disturbing. Why does the killer have to be a schizo? And she doesn't really get an ending, she just breaks into hysterics and presumably gets hauled off to the funny farm. Granted, she works the maniacal laugh pretty well. Was she always an evil shrew, or did the antique make her into one?

She's also not very well motivated. Her father treats her like something to scrape off his shoe most of the time. And no matter how inadvertently, the killer (yes, it's the daughter Lyla: 20+ year later spoiler alert!) is promoting him. Since we don't buy their on-and-off relationship, it's hard to see Lyla going into hysterics after killing him. Yes, pulling the lever that kills your father would be traumatizing. But presumably having a complete mental breakdown just isn't gaslit enough to make it look believable.

The nature of the antique doesn't help. One reviewer earlier noted, how the heck did they get the Box into the vault? Not to mention, are both boxes required for the curse, or just one? The demon face on the Coffin box is featured a couple of times: is the sword box another antique, and it works in conjunction with the Houdin Box? The inability to explain the antique doesn't help. And you wonder how Lewis even sold the box(es)? Did he keep them in the store, selling them with the other cursed antiques?

And Jack procured the antiques for Lewis. Would he really have handed over a box(es) belonging to the renowned magician Houdin? Being a magician himself, you'd think he'd remember the Box but instead it is him remembering Fahteem's real name that jumpstarts the investigation.

The various plotholes, weak magic, Robey's endless screaming and sobbing when she's trapped in the Box, the many off-screen plot points (Mick and Lyla bond without us seeing it, and Micki mentions Miranda watching them like a hawk but we never see that) and padded storylines (did Robert add anything to the episode?) mean the episode is mediocre at best. It's not a bad first-half first-season episode. But it's not a good one, either.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?