An Act of Simple Duplicity (3 Oct. 2011)

Maureen cozies up to the mob; Nick steps up his campaign, and Carol-Lynne breaks in a new Bunny.

Director:

Lesli Linka Glatter

Writers:

Mark Fish, Chad Hodge (creator)

Stars:

Eddie Cibrian, Laura Benanti, Amber Heard

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Eddie Cibrian	...	Nick Dalton
Laura Benanti	...	Carol-Lynne Cunningham
Amber Heard	...	Maureen
Jenna Dewan-Tatum	...	Janie (as Jenna Dewan Tatum)
Naturi Naughton	...	Brenda
Leah Renee	...	Alice
Wes Ramsey	...	Max
Jenifer Lewis	...	Pearl
David Krumholtz	...	Billy Rosen
Sean Maher	...	Sean Beasley
Cassidy Freeman	...	Frances Dunhill
Joel Gretsch	...	Jimmy Wallace
Carrie Coon	...	Doris Hall
Terry Hamilton	...	Arthur Dunhill
Colbie Caillat	...	Lesley Gore

Storyline

When the bunnies are asked to perform on television, all are excited to show off their talents. However, Bunny Brenda must make the hard choice to turn down the opportunity or participate and risk being disowned by her family. With Nick and Carol-Lynne's relationship back on track, John Bianchi seeks her help to get the real truth about Bunny Maureen and what happened the night his father went missing. Meanwhile, Billy finds himself in over his head in gambling debts with the wrong people and ends up losing more than just money.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama

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Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

3 October 2011 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Imagine Television, Alta Loma Entertainment, Storyland

Technical Specs

Runtime:

44 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

The Doris Hall character was based on Gloria Steinem, a reporter who wrote an expose on the real life Playboy Club of the 1960s called I Was A Playboy Bunny.

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Goofs

Lesley Gore sings It's My Party on stage at the club. The real Lesley Gore recorded the song at age 16 in 1963, two years after the series is set and when Gore was only 14.

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Soundtracks

"The Lady Is a Tramp"
Written by Lorenz Hart
Composed by Richard Rodgers
Performed by Laura Benanti

User Reviews

Cassidy Freeman ♥, entertaining but awkward writing, slow mobtion arc, intriguing cliffhanger, Laura Benanti ♪♫ versus Playboy Bunnie$, decent musical acts, ruined potential

Bad news fans, The Playboy Club has been canceled. I learned it before writing this review so I hope my opinion won't be too biased. It's going to be really hard considering this third installment featured none other than Cassidy Freeman, Tess Mercer on Smallville for the people who just fell from the Moon. She really charmed me and transformed the show from season 8. I actually found her so gorgeous that I compared her to Scarlett Johansson in my Kandor episode review. When she first appeared as Frances Dunhill I thought I was hallucinating and couldn't even remember her name. It took me almost ten minutes ● Bullet time ● to cool off.

The episodic story was entertaining but could have been more surprising if the writers hadn't decided to quickly reveal what was going on. Still I enjoyed the new bunny role because it brought some tension. It was specially welcome considering the mob arc pace is as fast as a rabbid snail. The boss got killed two weeks ago and his associate keeps asking the same question over and over. Act man, stop talking ! Soon he'll do the moonwalk in slippers ! However I have to admit that the cliffhanger intrigued so I really hope they'll air the remaining episodes even if the cancellation occurred during the 6th one production.

As for my favorite character, Bunny Mother Carol-Lynne, I'm surprised how much her role is good compared to the others. From the way she handled Nick to her speech to a reporter Laura Benanti deserved better than playing in some sort of subliminal advertisement. Her words would have been inspiring, like in the pilot, if they weren't viciously sponsored by Playboy™. Even Freeman's role couldn't hide the fact that what Frances said about bunnies was sexist. Dressing waitresses would be brilliant ? What about these so-called gentlemen ? I'm curious about what really happened behind the doors of these nightclubs ! Things would be completely different if the story was authentic, based on facts for instance or featuring people trying to close the club.

It leads us to the two musical acts. Objectively the first was a masterpiece as Frances joyfully danced but it's the second that is more important. Indeed Benanti did her magic again but this time I was slightly disappointed. She sang The Lady is a Tramp, a pertinent choice considering the plot line, but the lipsync was approximate. Still she really looked ravishing in her red dress and her sweet voice is delightful to hear. In an other sequence the girls were partying crazy and singing. I instantly imagined The Playboy Club as a musical series featuring creative, witty and sensual acts reminiscent of cabaret or burlesque. Playboy Bunnies dominating male hunters ? The Mother enchainting a half naked Odysseus like a mythological siren ? There was room for so much more but as often the passion to create a beautiful and inspiring work of art became a capitalist quest of greed and lies.