"Less Than the Eye Could See" demonstrates one of the advantages of the show's format which they unfortunately rarely took advantage of. Anything could happen. Ray could be investigating mysterious occurrences at an Indian archaeological site, or dealing with serial killers or mobsters who use brain-wiping technology., or get set up to solve a mystery by a writer's block author, or in this case handling a government conspiracy that causes a potential viral outbreak.
In this case there's no criminals, no real bad guys, and Ray ends up owing more in favors than he collects. Yeah, there's a jerky politician, but that has always been pretty standard in TV. There's no explanation for what's going on: why does Kelter show up at the house Ray is living in? does Kelter know the guy who loans Ray the house? where is the owner?
Since the shows breaks format,we get to see a little bit of Ray "living" by himself, making breakfast and swanning about in a Japanese-embroidered robe. Then Kelter shows up at the doorstep and drops dead of smallpox. Ray calls in a couple of favors, after dealing with the potential outbreak himself (after a quick speedreading course: one of the early times when they presented Ray as a Batman-like super-type).
Despite the fact we know little or nothing about Ray, actor Mancuso does a good job of portraying Ray's anxiety at possibly being infected, and his waiting to hear if he's going to drop dead of the same smallpox that killed Kelter. Then he goes into investigation mode, tracing the outbreak to a senator and then tricking him into leading him to the lab where the senator is secretly conducting smallpox-development research. And then one of the administrators has an outbreak of conscience and tries to bury the vials, and Ray has to stop him before the guy screws up and causes a viral outbreak.
There are haunting shots of a general store/diner where everyone has been killed by smallpox, and Ray walks among the corpses. And "Less" is a more effective outbreak movie than big-budget movies like... well, "Outbreak". Overall, "Less" is an excellent episode that maintains the Stingray "format" while providing a few insights into and developing the main character. But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
In this case there's no criminals, no real bad guys, and Ray ends up owing more in favors than he collects. Yeah, there's a jerky politician, but that has always been pretty standard in TV. There's no explanation for what's going on: why does Kelter show up at the house Ray is living in? does Kelter know the guy who loans Ray the house? where is the owner?
Since the shows breaks format,we get to see a little bit of Ray "living" by himself, making breakfast and swanning about in a Japanese-embroidered robe. Then Kelter shows up at the doorstep and drops dead of smallpox. Ray calls in a couple of favors, after dealing with the potential outbreak himself (after a quick speedreading course: one of the early times when they presented Ray as a Batman-like super-type).
Despite the fact we know little or nothing about Ray, actor Mancuso does a good job of portraying Ray's anxiety at possibly being infected, and his waiting to hear if he's going to drop dead of the same smallpox that killed Kelter. Then he goes into investigation mode, tracing the outbreak to a senator and then tricking him into leading him to the lab where the senator is secretly conducting smallpox-development research. And then one of the administrators has an outbreak of conscience and tries to bury the vials, and Ray has to stop him before the guy screws up and causes a viral outbreak.
There are haunting shots of a general store/diner where everyone has been killed by smallpox, and Ray walks among the corpses. And "Less" is a more effective outbreak movie than big-budget movies like... well, "Outbreak". Overall, "Less" is an excellent episode that maintains the Stingray "format" while providing a few insights into and developing the main character. But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?