A clip show. But at least they went and made Cat House an imaginative clip show. It has an actual structure to it, and there's at least some attempts to give the story a real purpose, instead of just showcasing past moments from the show in order to save a couple of bucks. I also liked that the show actually pulled from continuity. Sure, Kit's had a sex change, but I appreciated the writers bringing him/her back at all, and once again exploring the importance Wiccans place on 'familiars'.The show does a great job inserting Paige and Phoebe into the various flashback sequences, and their reactions are pretty funny, too. The clips themselves are mostly Piper and Leo-related, so boredom ensues if you're sane and couldn't give a rat's ass about the two of them. Speaking of the two of them, their marital problems could have used a little more build-up, instead of just being dumped randomly into this episode after a couple of vague hints last week.
Marita Geraghty (who I always remember as the Jerry Seinfeld girlfriend who got dumped by Newman of all people) and Zachary Quinto (bar the unfortunate haircut) are pretty memorable in their guest spots, Geraghty fiery and endearing, and Quinto hitting that difficult level of unsettling, interesting campiness. Think more W. Earl Brown in Prewitched and less Jason Carter in Power Outage.
Cat House has its drab moments, but generally it succeeds in spinning something fresh out of the 'clip show' formula. Or maybe I'm just thankful for anything half-decent after last week's abortion. B
Credits
Guest stars John Rubinstein (Dr. Berenson); Marita Geraghty (Katrina)
Writer Brad Kern Director James L. Conway
I actually really like this episode. It took an old idea, like you said, and managed to get a great episode out of it. I'm pretty sure this was Kit's second sex change, wasn't she female in the first season too?
ReplyDeleteI did a little digging and it turns out that she/he'd been referred to as both genders over the years. Stupid writers...
ReplyDeleteThis episode was sort of stupid looking back. Are you telling me that Phoebe wouldn't have ran up to Prue to see her one last time if she travelled through time? I know it technically couldn't be done as Doherty wasn't there, but it just makes everything look silly to even attempt an episode like this. Plus, Paige did plenty to change time when she went back in "Paige from the Past." But nothing actually changed, at all.
ReplyDeleteI would have preferred a storyline where Phoebe and Paige go back to when the Charmed ones were kids, so that way both of them could see Prue. It would have been cool to have a Paige episode where she goes back and finds out about her adoption etc too.