Five reviews here before mine and nobody has touched on the main reason this episode ranks so low. At least most reviewers agree is was sub-standard.
We start with a few stock shots of Milan, Italy (I understand why Russia's capital does not go by its Russian name, which would be "Moskva" which is tricky to say in English, but do not understand why "Milano" has to drop the last syllable in English, but I digress) before we settle in to totally interior sets for the rest of the show, keeping us from even feeling as though we are seeing parts of this great Italian city.
It's a film festival with one of the honored pictures being an adaptation of a J. B. Fletcher novel. We, of course, have a terribly unlikeable producer who is preventing a young director under contract to her from working on what could be the next Gone with the Wind-they suggest. So the victim is obvious almost from one minute after we first see her. There are two issues the victim is dealing with in running her business, one being the matter of this director, the other is a matter of expenses for a film that took it over budget for things she doesn't believe she authorized. If you are familiar with the way this series usually works, you can probably guess the murderer long before anyone is killed and even spot the big clue about one part of the caper. I did, even though I usually do not.
The one person Jessica is friendliest with is the director, so we can also figure out who will be accused-long before the murder takes place.
The problem is that if this person committed the murder, he arranged the stupidest alibi in the history of the motion picture: He claims he met her as arranged, in her hotel suite but had stepped into the bedroom to make a private phone call-that never got completed-a moment before someone else came into the hotel suite and killed her. He didn't even arrange for an open window to suggest someone else could have been in there and left while he was trying to make his phone call.
Given the known facts about the timing of the murder makes it extremely obvious who is the one person who could have set up the person who would be accused, making that person the obvious killer. Yet nobody including Jessica put this together for some time.
There is one other short scene that seemed totally ridiculous to me. The celebrities at this film festival are hounded by dozens of the notorious paparazzi photographers, but in one bit, as they are snapping away photos by the dozen, the celebrity says, "That's enough" and all the paparazzi people immediately stop taking pictures and move away. Is that not the opposite of what they are noted for, or what?
I hope this "spoiler" labeled review is vague enough to not truly spoil it for anyone reading before watching. I just think the script is quite lame for an MSW episode, thus I only give it a 4. Watch if you truly want to see them all, but otherwise, this would be a good one to skip.
We start with a few stock shots of Milan, Italy (I understand why Russia's capital does not go by its Russian name, which would be "Moskva" which is tricky to say in English, but do not understand why "Milano" has to drop the last syllable in English, but I digress) before we settle in to totally interior sets for the rest of the show, keeping us from even feeling as though we are seeing parts of this great Italian city.
It's a film festival with one of the honored pictures being an adaptation of a J. B. Fletcher novel. We, of course, have a terribly unlikeable producer who is preventing a young director under contract to her from working on what could be the next Gone with the Wind-they suggest. So the victim is obvious almost from one minute after we first see her. There are two issues the victim is dealing with in running her business, one being the matter of this director, the other is a matter of expenses for a film that took it over budget for things she doesn't believe she authorized. If you are familiar with the way this series usually works, you can probably guess the murderer long before anyone is killed and even spot the big clue about one part of the caper. I did, even though I usually do not.
The one person Jessica is friendliest with is the director, so we can also figure out who will be accused-long before the murder takes place.
The problem is that if this person committed the murder, he arranged the stupidest alibi in the history of the motion picture: He claims he met her as arranged, in her hotel suite but had stepped into the bedroom to make a private phone call-that never got completed-a moment before someone else came into the hotel suite and killed her. He didn't even arrange for an open window to suggest someone else could have been in there and left while he was trying to make his phone call.
Given the known facts about the timing of the murder makes it extremely obvious who is the one person who could have set up the person who would be accused, making that person the obvious killer. Yet nobody including Jessica put this together for some time.
There is one other short scene that seemed totally ridiculous to me. The celebrities at this film festival are hounded by dozens of the notorious paparazzi photographers, but in one bit, as they are snapping away photos by the dozen, the celebrity says, "That's enough" and all the paparazzi people immediately stop taking pictures and move away. Is that not the opposite of what they are noted for, or what?
I hope this "spoiler" labeled review is vague enough to not truly spoil it for anyone reading before watching. I just think the script is quite lame for an MSW episode, thus I only give it a 4. Watch if you truly want to see them all, but otherwise, this would be a good one to skip.