Weird to see this be the lowest rated episode of TOS so far; aside from the pilot, it's my favourite by quite a margin. I can definitely understand why it would turn off a lot of folks; muddled gender politics aside, it's an uncomfortable, uneasy piece of filmmaking, deviating quite sharply from the more formulaic cases-of-the-week and concepts we've seen so far.
To me, though, "Mudd's Women" manages to make the discomfort into a feature, not a mudd bug. It's like everyone involved in the production decided to take their lead from Roger Carmel's fantastically grubby performance as the titular conman, making everything on screen feel sleazier, more off-kilter. TOS is a pretty dank and sweaty series to begin with, but here, the blocking and angles seem to box in the actors just a little bit more, making me feel the existential threat to the Enterprise much more keenly than the preceding handful. On an emotional level, said threat hits differently as well. It's not as ineffable or otherworldly as in previous episodes. This impending doom was brought about by disarmingly familiar human folly and greed, and for once, those baser instincts didn't really need science-fictional amplification to cause disaster and chaos.
In the final act of the episode, the Enterprise feels like it's slouching dejectedly towards armaggeddon, and everyone aboard just come across as tired and disappointed: "really? This mess is what's going to kill us all?" For some strange, unfathomable reason, that vibe just feels immensely relatable to me right now.
Review by GranitoroVIP 6BlockedParent2022-11-16T23:01:41Z
Weird to see this be the lowest rated episode of TOS so far; aside from the pilot, it's my favourite by quite a margin. I can definitely understand why it would turn off a lot of folks; muddled gender politics aside, it's an uncomfortable, uneasy piece of filmmaking, deviating quite sharply from the more formulaic cases-of-the-week and concepts we've seen so far.
To me, though, "Mudd's Women" manages to make the discomfort into a feature, not a
muddbug. It's like everyone involved in the production decided to take their lead from Roger Carmel's fantastically grubby performance as the titular conman, making everything on screen feel sleazier, more off-kilter. TOS is a pretty dank and sweaty series to begin with, but here, the blocking and angles seem to box in the actors just a little bit more, making me feel the existential threat to the Enterprise much more keenly than the preceding handful. On an emotional level, said threat hits differently as well. It's not as ineffable or otherworldly as in previous episodes. This impending doom was brought about by disarmingly familiar human folly and greed, and for once, those baser instincts didn't really need science-fictional amplification to cause disaster and chaos.In the final act of the episode, the Enterprise feels like it's slouching dejectedly towards armaggeddon, and everyone aboard just come across as tired and disappointed: "really? This mess is what's going to kill us all?"
For some strange, unfathomable reason, that vibe just feels immensely relatable to me right now.