Salzmank

The best spy show of them all—charming, witty, intelligent, with a serving of man-eating plants, teddy bear costumes, evil Santa Clauses, diabolical masterminds, and Peter Cushing-controlled robots on the side. For everyone who hasn’t seen this—what are you waiting for? For longtime fans—isn’t it time you saw it again? 😉 There’s a great fan-site here, though the guy who owns it has stopped updating it. My favorite years are unsurprisingly with the lovely Emma Peel (Diana Rigg), Steed’s perfect partner. What say you?

Always nice to see a T&T reference—they’re my favorite Christie sleuths. I’d also be willing to see a series of b-movies like this, and I also liked Sandler and Aniston as detectives, but they’d need better scripts. I found dialogue, comedy, and mystery all lacking.

SPOILERS: I didn’t exactly love this, or even much like it, and I think it needed many more script revisions. There’s virtually no characterization, and it’s incredibly disappointing to spend no time with Terence Stamp except for that one monologue. The writer should have taken his lead from a far better mystery movie set on a yacht, The Last of Sheila (which everyone should watch!), and kept the movie mostly on the yacht with only a few side-trips. Keep it streamlined. Good points were the scenery (of course), Sandler and Aniston’s rapport (Sandler, whom I usually despise, was surprisingly decent in this), and the clues. They’re not the world’s most complicated clues, sure, but they’re there, especially for the first culprit. On the other hand, I guessed the race car driver was the killer from the beginning. I was a bit more surprised by the actress’s being his accomplice.

So, this is the only Monk thread now, right? Anyone interested in writing a favorite episode list, as clichéd as that is? Here’s mine: “Mr. Monk Meets the Dale the Whale” (S1:E3)—the solution surprised me when I first saw it (I was convinced that, somehow, DtW had committed the murder himself), though in retrospect it’s the only solution possible. Still, creating an evil Nero Wolfe for Monk’s archenemy is a genius idea, even if none of the other Dale episodes were as good as this first one. “Mr. Monk and the Billionaire Mugger” (S1:E7)—this one’s ingenious, and the kneepads are one of the best clues in any mystery TV show. One of the handful of Monks that demonstrate that, at the show’s best, its plots could be just as clever as anything from Death in Paradise or Jonathan Creek. “Mr. Monk Takes a Vacation” (S1:E10)—the plot’s tricky, with some excellent clues, though the identity of the killer comes out of nowhere. With that said, the comedy, often supplied by the hilarious Polly Draper, is some of the series’ finest. “Mr. Monk and the Airplane” (S1:E13)—a good, solid Columbo-esque inverted mystery with top-notch comedy. Shows, in Monk’s signature style, how we can know the killer from the beginning and still be surprised by twists in the plot. The Wings stuff, though short, is a hoot. “Mr. Monk Goes to the Ballgame” (S2:E16)—another ingenious cryptic clue: “Girls Can’t Eat 15 Pizzas”! Perhaps the best usage of the much-used-in-Monk six Napoleons trick. “Mr. Monk and the Sleeping Suspect” (S2:E20)—some of the show’s best plotting, and its trickiest alibi. The trick is a bit unbelievable, but the sheer audacity of it is a delight, and it’s fair-play. “Mr. Monk and the Paperboy” (S2:E23)—the six Napoleons trick again, but well-hidden and genuinely baffling. Improves on a similar and surprisingly decent Murder, She Wrote episode (“If It’s Thursday, It Must Be Beverly”). “Mr. Monk and the Three Pies” (S2:E24)—another good usage of the six Napoleons trick, though by this point it’s in nearly every other Monk episode. The chemistry between Shalhoub and John Turturro as his brother, though, is hilarious. “Mr. Monk and the Secret Santa” (S4:E54)—the trick, a variation on Christie’s Peril at End House, is not too difficult to figure out, but Monk’s detective work is good, the Christmas spirit is nice, and we’re never quite sure exactly who the intended victim is. “Mr. Monk Goes to the Dentist” (S4:E60)—fairly basic plot, but everything else—the filmmaking, the suspense, the comedy—is top-notch. “Mr. Monk and the Garbage Strike” (S5:E63)—hilarious! One of the show’s funniest episodes, and the cameo (which I won’t—can’t!—spoil) comes out of nowhere in the best possible way and is brilliant. Plot’s not half bad either. Great episode. “Mr. Monk is Up All Night” (S6:E86)—brilliant. The identity of the killer is not the shocker, but every element on which we thought the plot turned is wrong, with a hidden narrative underlying the narrative we saw. To paraphrase critic Nick Fuller, it’s one of the glorious sequences in detective-stories, like the journal in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd or the Harlequinade in “The Flying Stars,” where the truth is right in front of our eyes but we still don’t see it. Monk himself, by trying to bring about justice, indirectly causes a crime. The last twist, about the woman with whom Monk is obsessed, is a bit unbelievable but emotionally and dramatically satisfying. Also: again, hilarious. “Mr. Monk and the Genius” (S7:E95)—pure Columbo, in the best possible way. The titular genius, chess master (and wife-murderer) Patrick Kloster, is so smug and arrogant that we can’t wait to see him get his comeuppance; he would be right at home in facing off against the good Lieutenant. How he tricks Monk is ingenious, as is Monk’s payback. Even at this late in the game, the show’s still got it. Honorable mentions: “Mr. Monk and the 12th Man” (S2:E22)—related to but not copied from Queen’s Cat of Many Tails. The motive is good, but the writer needlessly shoots himself in the foot by then turning it into another six-Napoleons trick halfway through. Thus is ingenuity wasted. “Mr. Monk Goes to Vegas” (S3:E43)—rather ingenious, but I picked up on the central deception in the first five minutes. The writer comes up with an excellent solution halfway through that he decides not to use as the “real” solution for some reason. Wasted ingenuity again. “Mr. Monk and the Voodoo Curse” (S8:E116)—not without a few flaws, and the plot is basically borrowed from Christie’s The A.B.C. Murders. I guessed killer, method, and motive without much difficulty, but that method is good (if close to William DeAndrea’s The HOG Murders). The voodoo theme is fun, though. “Mr. Monk is Underwater” (S7:E98)—one of the series’ few impossible crimes, and the other two, “Mr. Monk Goes to Mexico” and “Mr. Monk and the Panic Room,” cheat badly in their solutions. This solution is simple and fine but covered in needless complexity; there’s no point to the firecracker except to give Monk a clue. The hallucinated Dr. Bell and Natalie’s flirting with the sailor, though, are nice touches. So there ya go! You don’t have to do write-ups as I did if you don’t want to—but what are your favorites?

Oh, that’s too bad… Is there any way to persuade them to put it back up, or is that hopeless?

It certainly could have been Perry... I distinctly remember it in color, though, so it would have to have been one of the later TV movies. I’ll ask the other guys who remember this if they also definitely remember color. Thanks!

We looked into McMillan, yeah… We couldn’t find it there, unfortunately—nor in Ironside. (I’ve only seen one episode of Ironside—and, I think, only one episode of McMillan too—but better safe than sorry.) I’ve never seen any of Jake and the Fat Man, Cannon, or Mannix. Thanks!

Hi everyone— I used to post here a while back, when it was previously.tv… It’s nice to see these boards are still up! I have a question that I hope someone here may be able to help me with. I remember an episode of what I thought was Columbo in which the killer had a clever alibi that involved apparently being in San Francisco while the murder was happening in Los Angeles. In reality, the villain had killed his victim and then flown his private plane to Frisco, making it in time for his meeting. Columbo, or whoever the sleuth was, figured it out because there was a logbook that recorded when the private plane had come in and out, and the killer had changed the time of when it flew in and out (it was in pencil). The only problem is, I can’t find this plot line anywhere—neither as an episode of Columbo nor as an episode of anything. At another forum, there are a bunch of people who also remember it and also don’t know what it is. At first we all thought it was “Swan Song,” the Columbo episode with Johnny Cash: it also has a private plane, but nothing else matches. Does anyone know what this is? All of us who remember whatever this is would greatly appreciate it. Here’s what we’ve ruled out so far: Columbo: “Swan Song,” “Murder by the Book,” “Ransom for a Dead Man,” “Prescription: Murder,” “A Deadly State of Mind,” “Mind Over Mayhem,” “Suitable for Framing,” “Étude in Black,” “Sex and the Married Detective,” “Murder in Malibu” The Glades: “Fountain of Youth” Murder, She Wrote: “Terminal Connection” McCloud The Magician Quincy, M.E. The Streets of San Francisco

There’s no category here just for Columbo?!

Polly Draper’s absolutely hilarious Rita Bronwyn, from “Mr. Monk Takes a Vacation.” Excellent character from a very good episode.

I guess I’m going against the grain, but I far preferred Natalie. Sharona can be fun at times, but Bitty Schram tended to play her as so annoying and obnoxious. Ugh. Unfortunately, I think the Sharona episodes, though, tend to hold up better than the Natalie ones! What am I to do?

Very early on, for better or worse, but then I tend to dislike ongoing or overarching plot lines anyway. Monk, methinks, is at is best in its one-off mysteries—the character interactions and the stories are better.

Thanks for the reply, @Schnickelfritz! Inspired by your post, I’m going to throw in a few brief comments about my choices as well…

Anyone interested in listing his or her favorite episodes? I’m not a huge Murder, She Wrote fan, but I always like Angela Lansbury, and a few of the episodes are really very good. I appreciate clever plotting and good dialogue and characterization, along with a healthy sense of humor. In no particular order, then… “The Grand Old Lady” (S6:E3)—maybe not a “real” MSW (it’s a bookend episode for Jess), but great nonetheless. Superb ‘40s atmosphere and a lovely use of the Queen Mary, along with an absolutely crackerjack mystery. The script was retooled (with few changes) from Levinson and Link’s previous (cancelled) Ellery Queen, and it would have been one of the best EQ episodes of them all. “We’re Off to Kill the Wizard” (1:7)—really fun little locked-room mystery, with a disappointing murderer but a good method and some neat clues. From the early days of the show when the writers took plotting and cluing seriously. “Murder Takes the Bus” (1:18)—also borrowed from the cancelled second season of EQ, and clever and atmospheric, with a good group of suspects. Reminds me a bit of The Twilight Zone’s “Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?” “Trial by Error” (2:13)—cleverest plot of the show’s entire run. Jessica as forewoman of jury, parody of Twelve Angry Men, yet the plot gets über-complex (yet understandable) and the solution is the complete opposite of what we were led to believe. Really, surprisingly brilliant. “Snow White, Blood Red” (5:4)—good Ten Little Indians-esque atmosphere, suspects trapped in snowbound ski lodge, MSW’s take on a slasher film! “Night of the Tarantula” (6:7)—more atmospherics, here in a gloriously pulpy story with secret passageways and voodoo curses. I’m a sucker for this stuff! ;) “Unwilling Witness” (12:11)—genuinely surprising murderer, tripped up by a good, solid clue (only one, unfortunately). Fun court-scenes. “Witness for the Defense” (4:3)—even more fun court scenes. Plot not great, but the episode achieves brilliance in Patrick McGoohan’s snappy and hilarious interactions with Jessica. Also: that is the least convincing “Canada” I have ever seen. Honestly, palm trees?! How about you?

Now, apparently, Crying Dave is Killing Dave! ;) Strange episode. Larry’s in need of anger-management skills, to say the least (the Wind! Yell at the Wind, Larry!), and Sam’s so annoying that I can never fathom how he’s still there—or deals with life on a day-to-day basis (dear God, he’s actually a father?! He’s so useless). Love what @Auntie Anxiety wrote: “Looks like Sam didn’t even think about using the leeches as bait. I’m convinced that he’s a halfwit”! I agree with @rmontro that Dave’s sincere, but I think that’s even more troubling: he seems genuinely bipolar or something, going from one emotional extreme to another. I’m always in awe of his talent, though. My favorite of them all is Britt, but I also like Randy a lot and think, of my favorites, he has the best shot.

3. Not sure what to think about Gertner. His presentation is always excellent, and I’m sure he did more than I know—the ending apparently negates the apparent method of the earlier trick? Again—did he fool them, or did they give it to him because they liked him (and/or on a technicality)? 4. Jones is fine—his type of coin magic is very impressive, but I’ve seen it before. Anywhere else, I’d think it excellent, but on this show… I dunno. 5. The P&T trick was good; I saw the final twist coming early on, though I thought Teller would be in the box! Fun trick. All in all, while I liked most of the performers, I’m not a big fan of bringing back old performers, especially not an entire episode devoted to such a thing—which all makes it feel gimmicky, more like any other game show (if that makes any sense without coming off as impossibly snobbish). The quality is good, and so are the magicians, but I’d love it if they don’t do such themed episodes again! ;)

2. I’m not really crazy about elaborate personas for magicians (or any performers) — i.e., the fully-invested ‘lifetime’ personas, where the actors live the character as well as act in it — but at least these guys are funny, with a good sense of humor about their steampunk/time-traveller characters. Loved the trick, especially that cause-and-effect aspect that Penn mentioned, and it has now inspired me to look up Mofo the Psychic Gorilla!

Writing while I watch. 1. I should probably see it again, but I didn’t really get it. Like the last episode, Vinny’s routine seems cut way too short for some reason. Also: did he (and Gilbert Gottfried!) really fool them, or did he win on a technicality? He said something like “that’s not exactly how it was done.”

Yes, but more in the first two seasons than the last two. “A Bellyful of Needles,” from the first season, has two particularly good foolers. And some episodes don’t have any foolers at all—again, fewer episodes like that in the last two seasons, though. I think the producers want a fool per episode, which (as you say) is pretty ridiculous.

I’ll have to take a look at the AGT clip. Thanks. I really like mentalism because it does seem truly amazing when you see it, especially when you see it live—but, like big-scale illusions (which I don’t like half as much as I like mentalism), it’s just not the best kind of magic for this show. (I know mentalists will take umbrage at that last statement because they don’t think they’re doing “magic tricks,” but so be it.) Still, of course it’s great to see all kinds of magic on here—which is exactly why the staging, the performances, etc., are so important. There was a couple a few seasons back who did a good job with a mentalism effect, and—though the actual performances were somewhat stilted—they came off as very warm and friendly when they talked with the host (I can’t remember if it was Jonathan or Allison) after the trick. Definitely. More “wow” is a good way to describe it, a kind of theatrical je ne sais quoi. I also thought they’d do more than one trick (or are the producers and P&T following the “one trick [or, at least, one method] only” rule/suggestion/guideline more closely this season? All of the performers, other than P&T and Piff, seemed rushed or edited for some reason, at least to me). I liked Chambers, though the patter (especially in the beginning) did feel forced. I expected all the productions, but I greatly enjoyed the act. Wasn’t an Evans fan, unfortunately. Something seemed off. Piff and Penn… I liked it, I think the humor could have been a little better, though. I’ve never found Penn’s improv (or apparent improv) humor all that funny; I prefer it when the trick itself is humorous (“Lift Off of Love”) or when it’s Teller’s reactions that drive the comedy. I think Piff’s humor got better as the trick went on. Still fun. Aye. I don’t know what was up with the Sentimentalists, but everything was off with that trick. And one major mystery remains: why does Piff’s dad have an American accent? These Ottawan dragons and their non-Ottawan accents, I tell ya! ;)

Watching right now. I liked Marcy, I didn’t really like the Sentimentalists (though at least the girl was cute). I was kinda disappointed that the former lost and the latter won, though I think hearing P&T laugh so hard at Marcy’s act should make it worth it for him. It seems like the Sentimentalists won mostly because there are so many possibilities for how the mentalism effect could be done. But it just didn’t seem particularly interesting or novel; I saw the same kind of trick, done rather similarly, in a ‘30s Charlie Chan flick (of all things…). The more I watch this show, the more I’m convinced of what Penn said about Marcy: it’s not the song but the singer, and I’m growing to appreciate how someone does a trick even more than the trick itself. Oh well, random musings... Watching Andrew Evans right now. Looking forward to Piff, as always.

So has anyone seen Season 7, Episode 1? One of the better recent ones: Thorogood (who first came up with the character) gets Mooney’s character right, and the plotting is excellent, especially the “how.” It’s not the equal of “Wicked Wedding Night” or “Stab in the Dark” (the pacing in particular is off), but it is very good.

Geez, that’s disappointing. I always thought he was very amusing, really good in the part. To be honest, after all this it just doesn’t seem like the same show any more; I mean, the very premise has been mixed up ever since Ben Miller left. I like DiP enough that I’m still going to watch, but… Maybe the show has jumped the shark. Remember all the great episodes of the first few seasons—“Wicked Wedding Night,” “Predicting a Murder, “Stab in the Dark”? By the way, what does everyone think of Ardal O’Hanlon? I really liked the concept of his character when he was introduced—kind of like an Irish variant on Columbo—but he’s really rather dull now. I feel like the writers just can’t figure out the original idea of the character, so he’s become a standard-issue copper. In fact, the writing is pretty darn awful now. That sounds more negative than I’d intended, but, honestly, the dialogue sounds tinny and ‘off’ to my ears—the way no one would ever speak in real life.

Searched around and found out they cancelled it because of the terrible Vegas shooting.

OK, question--did this one air? I didn't see it, Wikipedia has it as "unaired," and there's nothing available on the 'net--so does anyone know anything about this? I'm sure it's something I just don't know, but--I'm confused. YouTube has the promo for it, but neither the CW's website not YouTube has it.