Dead Zone: "A Very Dead Zone Christmas"
Written by Karl Schaefer
Directed by James Head
In which Johnny gets a surprise visit for the holidays, which quickly leads to a mystery involving a trio of brothers and a confused man in red, while family and friends gather for dinner…
I’ve never been a fan of Christmas episodes, largely because they tend to fit within certain traditional boundaries that have become unbearably cliché. The most egregious sin in this category would be the “overly serious retread”. Take strong characters, slide them into a traditional Christmas tragedy scenario, and forget to make it work within the setting of the series.
But there are good examples of a Christmas episode. One that comes to mind is the Christmas episode of “My So-Called Life”, which was a modern classic. A more genre-related example would be “A Roswell Christmas Carol”, from the series of the same name. But not every Christmas tale needs to be deadly serious to get the point across. Sometimes whimsical is the right way to go.
In this case, whimsical is the watchword. The mistake would be taking this episode too seriously. Sure, there’s a story, and it’s not even a bad story, in and of itself. But it’s perfectly suited to “very special episode” that doesn’t concern itself with continuity beyond the most basic of timeline considerations. It should be interesting to see where it most correctly fits with the overall scheme of the season 4/season 5 dynamic.
A lot of my enjoyment came with the return of Jennifer Finnigan. “Double Vision” was my first exposure to this goddess, and I’m glad to see her back. Seriously…I’ll sit through “Close to Home” just to see her in action. She’s just plain gorgeous, and I really like her character and how she interacts with Johnny. They are very good together. At least, they’re better together than Johnny ever was with Rebecca. If her own series wasn’t picked up for a full season, it might have been worth it to add her to the cast.
The plot itself has some clever moments, but it’s not the kind of story that lends itself to deep contemplation. It’s simply not the point. It’s all about the holiday and the interaction between the characters. There are some tense moments here and there, but they don’t drag the episode down. Everything from the performances to the score has this self-aware nature to it, which usually doesn’t work but actually helps the story from taking itself too seriously.
There were some minor glitches here and there. I find it hard to believe that Bruce wouldn’t know about “turducken”; there was a time, not so long ago, when they were a hot topic of conversation. Also, the constant references to “Ratchet: Deadlocked”, a game that was released well before the air date and wouldn’t be that hot an item on the day before Christmas, made me wonder if product placement is getting a bit out of hand. (Ironically, the kids who were wondering if JJ would get the game were, in fact, playing that game so it would be on-screen!)
As critical as I was of the fourth season thus far (or the whole thing…the season designations are getting confusing!), I was just as surprised to find that I enjoyed this episode. It wasn’t a piece of brilliance, but it was exactly what it needed to be. It touched on the lighter side of the series, and it even focused on Johnny’s complex relationship with JJ and the extended family. If things wrapped up a bit too conveniently, it’s something easily forgiven. After all, isn’t that the point of the season?
Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 1/4
Final Rating: 7/10
Directed by James Head
In which Johnny gets a surprise visit for the holidays, which quickly leads to a mystery involving a trio of brothers and a confused man in red, while family and friends gather for dinner…
I’ve never been a fan of Christmas episodes, largely because they tend to fit within certain traditional boundaries that have become unbearably cliché. The most egregious sin in this category would be the “overly serious retread”. Take strong characters, slide them into a traditional Christmas tragedy scenario, and forget to make it work within the setting of the series.
But there are good examples of a Christmas episode. One that comes to mind is the Christmas episode of “My So-Called Life”, which was a modern classic. A more genre-related example would be “A Roswell Christmas Carol”, from the series of the same name. But not every Christmas tale needs to be deadly serious to get the point across. Sometimes whimsical is the right way to go.
In this case, whimsical is the watchword. The mistake would be taking this episode too seriously. Sure, there’s a story, and it’s not even a bad story, in and of itself. But it’s perfectly suited to “very special episode” that doesn’t concern itself with continuity beyond the most basic of timeline considerations. It should be interesting to see where it most correctly fits with the overall scheme of the season 4/season 5 dynamic.
A lot of my enjoyment came with the return of Jennifer Finnigan. “Double Vision” was my first exposure to this goddess, and I’m glad to see her back. Seriously…I’ll sit through “Close to Home” just to see her in action. She’s just plain gorgeous, and I really like her character and how she interacts with Johnny. They are very good together. At least, they’re better together than Johnny ever was with Rebecca. If her own series wasn’t picked up for a full season, it might have been worth it to add her to the cast.
The plot itself has some clever moments, but it’s not the kind of story that lends itself to deep contemplation. It’s simply not the point. It’s all about the holiday and the interaction between the characters. There are some tense moments here and there, but they don’t drag the episode down. Everything from the performances to the score has this self-aware nature to it, which usually doesn’t work but actually helps the story from taking itself too seriously.
There were some minor glitches here and there. I find it hard to believe that Bruce wouldn’t know about “turducken”; there was a time, not so long ago, when they were a hot topic of conversation. Also, the constant references to “Ratchet: Deadlocked”, a game that was released well before the air date and wouldn’t be that hot an item on the day before Christmas, made me wonder if product placement is getting a bit out of hand. (Ironically, the kids who were wondering if JJ would get the game were, in fact, playing that game so it would be on-screen!)
As critical as I was of the fourth season thus far (or the whole thing…the season designations are getting confusing!), I was just as surprised to find that I enjoyed this episode. It wasn’t a piece of brilliance, but it was exactly what it needed to be. It touched on the lighter side of the series, and it even focused on Johnny’s complex relationship with JJ and the extended family. If things wrapped up a bit too conveniently, it’s something easily forgiven. After all, isn’t that the point of the season?
Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 1/4
Final Rating: 7/10
posted by John Keegan | 16:34
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home