Not one of the good ones for sure. The redeeming part of this is you get to see a very young Nicole Eggert before she went on to star in Charles in Charge and Baywatch.
Johnny Mac started off kind of annoying. He has become my favorite on the show. He is hilarious.
A disappointing finale. Not much excitement. A low key fitting tribute to Frost was well played.
I thought this was a fairly lame way to have a first season finale. I have enjoyed the show all season but expected more.
Erica and her braces was hilarious.
Teri Hatcher is amazing in this episode. The Kramer bit with Salman Rushdie was a little weird but it was 20+ years ago.
A classic
The beginnings of the story are well told here in episode 1 of Ultraman. When Hyata of the Science Patrol is mortally wounded in a collision with Ultraman, the silver hero feels obligated to save his life in a very 1960's dreamy sequence that was beyond cheesy. Ultraman explains to Hyata why he has given him these abilities and the limitations that come with it. Also featuring the sweet science patrol S-16(?) submarine scene with Hyata firing torpedo after torpedo into our rubber suited opponent Bemular before being forced to use the beta capsule to become Ultraman and save the day.
All in all, this show is outstanding considering the time frame and dubbing required. One of the coolest heroes of all time.
Jeff is the best
The Jeff day part of the episode had to be the best. Working Audrey is way better than non-working Audrey but the whole scene at that place is pretty lame. I did love the role reversal with Jeff calling her at work all day long and asking her all kinds of annoying questions. Is it possible that Adam is getting dumber? The writing for his character has been going downhill for a long time and he hasn't had much funny stuff since the cheerleading episode. The Timmy / Russel feud was decent. Timmy's impression of Russel was spot on, even through a phone.
So much going on...
Where to start? Of course everyone knew Raj and Divya were not going through with their wedding plans. I felt like it was kind of a copout for her to use the fates and the plague as the reason for her decision but it was there all along. Their nitpicky fighting while learning the tango would have been how their marriage was.
Jill leaving for six months just when she and Hank seemed like they were rekindling their relationship was fairly unexpected. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I like Jill very much but not necessarily with Hank. This tied to the medical part of the show with Hank catching a misdiagnosis of Ben with Lyme disease which had been confused with MS. That guy did not seem very appreciative almost like he was reluctant to give up the MS and his slogan, "I am not my disease".
What about Eddy? His difficult decision to do the time or accept Boris' offer of a life of freedom without his family. We'll have to wait and see... This show has become one of the best on TV. Too bad it is buried in the summer slump.
Far from the worst...
This installment had a lot of firsts for the series but the monster / storyline seemed pretty formulaic. We have now learned the female agent's name is Mitsuko. Someone must have told the writers to get her more involved because for three episodes, she barely existed and now we have a story that revolves around her since it is her brother who is in peril in Arabia that they must save. We also learn the secret Unicorn ID process and that all Gargoyle agents have a bomb in their chests that explodes when they begin to give information. Giant robot uses the radion eye ray attack for the first time. It was strange how he struggled with the neck chain from Ligon-Tyrox and then had no effects from the forehead drill penetrating his outer shell. The plot to destroy the oil fields seems very prophetic in retrospect as the world has been held hostage by oil since the early 1970's. Where did Johnny get the genie clothes and bomb from? Same level of cheese as usual from the squad but with the change in venue to the Middle East and a somewhat tight plot line this episode isn't too bad.
Gone campy
If I didn't have such fond memories of this show from my childhood, I probably would have jumped off here. This episode was way too campy. The show looked like it started taking some cues from the American Batman TV series that would have been on at the same time. There were screen pop-ups and even Spider had a lame scene where he coughed smoke after the briefcase had exploded.
The Gigantic Claw...hmmm...well it wasn't the worst we've seen until this point. It did have a few special attacks when it shot missiles and also launched some kind of rope that ensnared giant robot. Started to get a bit confused about giant robot's link to Johnny Sokko. Sometimes giant robot fights perfectly normally without Johnny there. At others, he can only perform basic moves. In another case, he went to a complete standstill. Just saying.
The special effects here were terrible. Pay attention to the spinout of the Gargoyle car. The claw was not as bad as the normal miniaturization effects. Finally they seem to be getting the monster right. It was really good to see U5 have a part in the story and get some decent screen time.
Good direction
The episode features a lot of what it right with Merlin these days: the friction between Merlin and Morganna. They are really writing the inner conflict Merlin faces well with his duty to protect Arthur and Camelot versus his inability to reveal the true nature of Morganna. I am looking forward to how this plays out.
After no advancement of the Arthur / Gwen relationship, it seems someone has decided that the priority has been raised. I'm not sure if I like how they are broaching this subject but the road trip the group took together was nicely done. The secret entrance into the castle sure didn't look too secret to me but oh well. Overall this was a strong effort
Great
I love this episode. It starts off a little strange with the Freddie gullible stuff but it got way better from there. The two main storylines were outstanding. Carly's realization that Chuck is evil was funny. I really liked how they turned the table and used the fake number to get Chuck sent away to summer math camp.
Even better was the Melanie storyline. Great acting by Jennette to be convincing enough to play the bad Sam and the sweet Melanie. Her look was even different enough to look like a twin but not exact copy. Freddie's second kiss ever and now he knows "twins". :)
Nice commentary on our society.
This was a very enjoyable episode. I really enjoyed how they tied a lot of the ridiculous things that are wrong with American society with some comedy. Cat's addiction to the Sky Store was really funny, just so perfect for her character.
The meat of the episode was America's fascination with paparazzi and the lives of the celebrities. I loved the parody of the TMZ format and even after Tori and the gang had forced Robbie to give up his spying on the student body, they got another dig in at the recent trend of cooking shows. To me this is one of the better episodes of the show's early run.
This was a much stronger opening than "The Mystery of the Haaunted House" was for the Hardy Boys end of this show. The story here was very strong and Nancy's inquisitive style works well with her skepticism of ghosts and resistance to the professor's charms. I wonder how much of the backstory with the prof having jumped out of an airplane with two million dollars is tied to the D.B. Cooper legend from 1971? The cinematography here is actually fairly well done with some beautiful coastal scenes and attemps at underwater caves. I already don't like the Ned character after 50 minutes. He is awful.
Amazing
This is one of my top 10 favorite episodes of television of all time. Love the perspective of how Keith was trying to show Lucas how much he mattered to enable him to fight to stay alive. While I hated the way the show dumped Keith this was a touching way to bring him back as he had ALWAYS been there for Lucas. Surprising Haley's struggle didn't affect me as much and Lucas' storyline but we did learn a lot about Nathan. Well done.
