The Dennis Stanton character is in some ways a male version of Jessica - kindly, thoughtful, widowed - which makes it easier for the viewer to forgive Jessica's absence. That, and the presence of Dennis's likable and level-headed sidekick Rhoda. The portrayal of show business goings-on is laughably improbable - then again, so is the entire premise of a retired schoolteacher from a village in Maine becoming a coast-to-coast publishing phenomenon, and yet we gladly suspend our disbelief for that one. The direction and camera work are great and there are moments of ingenious, laugh-out-loud humor, perhaps unmatched in other stories of the show. Sadly, these are buried under the big weight of that age-old cringe-worthy cliché - the ventriloquist's dummy. Deeper issues the dummy might symbolize - of identity, repression and searching for one's voice in a relationship and in the world at large - are only vaguely hinted at, thus keeping us planted in cliché territory. All in all, a decent episode, although I did find myself hitting the fast-forward button during the dummy's monologues.
