One might wish to compare/contrast "Matt's Love Story" with the "Presumed Dead" episode of "The Big Valley". Though the plotting is much the same, the "Big Valley" is little more than trashy melodrama, with Miss Barbara Stanwyck going over a cliff in a stagecoach (yet surviving!), one of the funniest moments in the history of TV. *
What makes "Matt's Love Story" such a grand episode is that it sidesteps the clichés of amnesia stories /and/ falling-in-love stories /and/ chasing-after-the-bad-guy stories. (The preceding sentence is an example of a polysyndeton -- a fancy way of saying "run-on", but acceptable because it has a fancy name.) Any serious fiction writer should study "Matt's Love Story" to see how something old can be made new.
I'd like to give "Matt's Love Story" a 10, but I'm reluctant, because it doesn't /quite/ reach the level of a truly "definitive/vital" tale. It's a foregone conclusion Matt isn't going to stay with Mike, but it would have been nice to see a bit more angst on Matt's part.
Nevertheless... a must-see episode.
* Miss Kitty does it, too -- using much of the same stock footage! -- yet with less implausibility.
What makes "Matt's Love Story" such a grand episode is that it sidesteps the clichés of amnesia stories /and/ falling-in-love stories /and/ chasing-after-the-bad-guy stories. (The preceding sentence is an example of a polysyndeton -- a fancy way of saying "run-on", but acceptable because it has a fancy name.) Any serious fiction writer should study "Matt's Love Story" to see how something old can be made new.
I'd like to give "Matt's Love Story" a 10, but I'm reluctant, because it doesn't /quite/ reach the level of a truly "definitive/vital" tale. It's a foregone conclusion Matt isn't going to stay with Mike, but it would have been nice to see a bit more angst on Matt's part.
Nevertheless... a must-see episode.
* Miss Kitty does it, too -- using much of the same stock footage! -- yet with less implausibility.