I haven't mentioned it yet, but this is right around the time that Rose McGowan gives up. Pre-Spin City, she exhibited a believable albeit jittery mode of performing. But now we've stumbled into the Charmed period where she perfects that consistently asinine, mugging, screwing-up-of-the-face 'acting' -- constantly pulling lame facial expressions to cover up her own contempt for the show that she's stuck on. It's ridiculously annoying.The rest of the episode isn't entirely heinous, even if it does feature all kinds of horrible ingredients (the return of the Mr. Right spell, demons who look like porn stars, Phoebe in leather and a bad wig, etc.) Some of the scenes are way too dialogue-heavy, but I liked how Paige, Mr. Right and Mr. Wrong all had similar personalities and knew the ins and outs of each other; while the Demonatrix fight scene at the end was pretty cool, too. It's all kind of goofy, like always, but this one somehow worked.
Meanwhile, Darryl is justifiably angsty over last episode's whole 'nearly-got-state-executed' thing, and now isn't so willing to help the sisters and their various badly-acted friends and neighbors wriggle out of legal matters. I like this Darryl. At least he's no longer a complete push-over.
I just wish the show would actually acknowledge how manipulative and selfish most of the characters are, instead of just having them exhibit that kind of behavior. Just look at Leo willing to orb Chris out of jail, intentionally leaving the consequences to be dealt with later. They really should have recognized how screwed-up these folks are with their priorities, and how easily the show writes the characters out of corners. But, of course, that would require a little bit of self-awareness on the part of the writers and... yada yada. You know where I'm going. C+
Credits
Guest stars Christopher Neiman (Sigmund); Jennifer O'Dell (Elisa); Chad Gabriel (Blake); Gabriel Olds (Vincent)
Writer Cameron Litvack Director Derek Johansen
Your first paragraph is spot on and I'm so happy someone else noticed Rose's mugging. Can you believe it? Why didn't Brad Kern or anyone from the crew ever dare to "recommend" that she stop doing that? Were they embarrassed because they knew the show was bad or were they just afraid of Rose? It's the weirdest thing I"ve ever seen an actor do .Seriously! And it ruined a lot of scenes in the process from here on out!
ReplyDeleteI just had a peek at my own review there, and I actually talk a lot about liking Phoebe here. She's funny, relatable and kind of kick ass. Weird. I'll leave the rest 'till my review.
ReplyDeleteI loved everything you said here, particularly Rose's lack of enthusiasm. It's harsh on the fans to be able to see her give up on the show, since she clearly knows production is gone off the rails. She could have at least given it her all anyway, like Holly, so we could praise their performances at least.
I understand the Phoebe love here. She is capable of being pretty funny, even at this point on the show, and I definitely got that this episode.
ReplyDeleteAbout Rose, I can't explain it either. She's always been an actress who seems like she needs heavy direction in order to give a strong performance, and I'm sure that she just got bored of the show and doing the same routine over and over. Then again, I'm sure the huge paycheck helped...
Eh. She has none of my pity anymore.