Normally, my favorite Fantasy Island episodes were the creepy ones but I just couldn't get into this super sized episode. I think it was partly due to the two non-creepy storylines being so incredibly bad and cringey, and partly I never really liked Pamela Franklin and I definitely disliked Mary Ann Mobley. There's no one to root for here. Even the presence of Darren McGavin couldn't save this.
It seems like most of the focus for the whole show was on Paul Sand's fantasy, which supposedly was to go back 12 years to his "youth" in 1966. Except Sand was well into his mid-40s at this time and Mobley was just shy of 40. Confusingly, the setting was straight up the 50s, with sock hops, malt shops, and greasers racing 1950s-style cars. The music was from the 60s but it was all the most mellow, untouched by rock, Sandra Dee 60s music you could get. I have no idea what the producers were thinking. Why not hire age appropriate actors? Why not just go back twenty years to the 50s? None of it made sense. Then you have Paul Sand doing his same old, same old hangdog schtick. And as the love interest, unlikeable Mobley, unbelievably cast as a 30 year old supermodel. We were also stuck with the hokey Smooch character and Danny Bonaduce basically playing an older version of Danny Partridge. I just couldn't care about any of it. I think if this whole storyline was cut from the show, I *might* rate the show as a very average Fantasy Island episode.
The Pamela Franklin story had all the usual bells and whistles of their other "scary" episodes. Lots of thunder and lightning, Mr Roarke making foreboding, mysterious comments, and an old creepy house, plus Ray Milland chewing the scenery, even a menacing clown. But it seemed like something meaty was missing. Mainly, the reason for the whole story was missing. Why was she having all those nightmares since childhood? Why was her father so freaked out that she was trying to figure things out? You mean he was never hiding anything? There was no childhood trauma? She was just predicting a moment of danger so she could save her daddy? That's it? That's really how I felt in the end - "that's it?"
Lastly there's Darren McGavin doing his best playing an extremely outdated Hemingway-type writer whose big fantasy is to go kill a famous tiger in India. Yeesh. And ick. Except we learn in the end he actually had a very different goal in mind. Even worse than glamorizing killing for sport, we get an entire village of white people in brown-face and turbans. The main villager's generic, stereotypical accent, constantly calling McGavin "sahib", made my skin crawl. Between this and the Paul Sand flashback storyline, this show made me wonder if everyone involved in making this was about 85 years old. This was out of touch even when it was made. This was definitely an episode I never need to watch again.
It seems like most of the focus for the whole show was on Paul Sand's fantasy, which supposedly was to go back 12 years to his "youth" in 1966. Except Sand was well into his mid-40s at this time and Mobley was just shy of 40. Confusingly, the setting was straight up the 50s, with sock hops, malt shops, and greasers racing 1950s-style cars. The music was from the 60s but it was all the most mellow, untouched by rock, Sandra Dee 60s music you could get. I have no idea what the producers were thinking. Why not hire age appropriate actors? Why not just go back twenty years to the 50s? None of it made sense. Then you have Paul Sand doing his same old, same old hangdog schtick. And as the love interest, unlikeable Mobley, unbelievably cast as a 30 year old supermodel. We were also stuck with the hokey Smooch character and Danny Bonaduce basically playing an older version of Danny Partridge. I just couldn't care about any of it. I think if this whole storyline was cut from the show, I *might* rate the show as a very average Fantasy Island episode.
The Pamela Franklin story had all the usual bells and whistles of their other "scary" episodes. Lots of thunder and lightning, Mr Roarke making foreboding, mysterious comments, and an old creepy house, plus Ray Milland chewing the scenery, even a menacing clown. But it seemed like something meaty was missing. Mainly, the reason for the whole story was missing. Why was she having all those nightmares since childhood? Why was her father so freaked out that she was trying to figure things out? You mean he was never hiding anything? There was no childhood trauma? She was just predicting a moment of danger so she could save her daddy? That's it? That's really how I felt in the end - "that's it?"
Lastly there's Darren McGavin doing his best playing an extremely outdated Hemingway-type writer whose big fantasy is to go kill a famous tiger in India. Yeesh. And ick. Except we learn in the end he actually had a very different goal in mind. Even worse than glamorizing killing for sport, we get an entire village of white people in brown-face and turbans. The main villager's generic, stereotypical accent, constantly calling McGavin "sahib", made my skin crawl. Between this and the Paul Sand flashback storyline, this show made me wonder if everyone involved in making this was about 85 years old. This was out of touch even when it was made. This was definitely an episode I never need to watch again.