This is my choice—and it was a hard choice—for the finest episode out of all four seasons of episodes.
SUBVERTS AUDIENCE EXPECTATIONS
So, all roads lead to Rome, the saying goes? That's surely a good thing.
PICKET FENCES, set in the fictional town of Rome, Wisconsin, impresses me with how much it defies expectations. Particularly in its seasons which were carefully steered by creator David Kelley. Audience-misdirection and trope-disruption occur on nearly every street and cowpath in rural Rome. Enough to make this tale of its denizens my favorite fictional TV series as of this writing, in 2023.
At first blush, PICKET FENCES seems bland and predictable, like classic Hallmark Channel material (in fact, I first caught a lot of it on Hallmark Channel as reruns). Exhibit A—as an attorney in Henry's court might say—is that the small-town setting lacks verve. Exhibit B is that the central character, Jimmy, is somewhat inexpressive. Exhibit C is that the show's tone is old-fashioned: its docile credit sequence and music, its on-the-nose dialogue, etc.
However, PICKET FENCES always turns out to have great surprises. Back in 1992, it must have felt like opening a copy of MIDWEST LIVING and discovering strips from BLOOM COUNTY filling every page. PICKET FENCES's stealthy unpredictability is hard to describe. But let me try...
You know how Aaron Sorkin's TV stuff barrages you with wit and insight in every scene (recall THE WEST WING's early years)? Well, okay, Kelley's PICKET FENCES doesn't do that; but Kelley's work is almost as sharp. Kelley offered wit and insight as unexpected, understated revelations, rather than barrages. So PICKET FENCES's cleverness—of characterization, plotting, and camera work—playfully sneaks up on you. Often with heavy social and psychological themes.
Here is a small example of playful characterization. One of the more brusque characters is a little girl named Cynthia (portrayed by a star of THE WEST WING, coincidentally). In virtually all her scenes, Cynthia makes pithy observations that agitate others. Yet due to her wide-eyed cuteness, Cynthia's bluntness always feels like a huge surprise. Somehow it's jolting every time, even though it happens like clockwork every time.
I can think of just one notable flaw of PICKET FENCES: the actor who played Miriam eventually got replaced, for the worse. That's my only real complaint. And I bet most viewers don't remember Miriam, anyway, because that supporting character is absent from a large majority of episodes. Besides, taken as a whole, PICKET FENCES had one of the most skilled ensemble TV casts of its decade.
Last but not least, the fine courtroom segments in PICKET FENCES actually do "out-Sorkin" Sorkin! Prompting me to consider both the judge, Henry, and the canny lawyer, Douglas, to be among TV's best characters. The judge, especially, even more than Sorkin's United States President, tends to be a lynchpin in many prescient storylines with smart lessons.
This stuff's still wondrously relevant, thirty years later. All roads lead to it, indeed.
Let me get this straight. Sora wants to become her own person, but Sora's strategy is to leverage her mother's influence to make a selective gallery accept her flower arrangement?! Come on, that's not only a ridiculously lazy contrivance, but also illogical from a thematic standpoint. How depressing—even when I jump forward in time over a dozen years, I still can't seem to find a halfway decent "DIGIMON" tale. At least the animation quality here, unsurprisingly, exceeds that of any and all "DIGIMON" stuff I watched from prior decades (even DIGIMON SAVERS: ULTIMATE POWER! ACTIVATE BURST MODE!!).
At times this has a rather different art style than other episodes: by any chance did Dave Sim design the mooks (which, interestingly, are seemingly NOT Digimon)? Overall this is the best-looking content I've seen in the franchise up to its release date. As I said elsewhere, I think the apocalyptic scenario, in general, is a good fit for "DIGIMON". We do get that here; albeit roughly six years too late, by my estimate. All of humankind are now incapacitated and only a half dozen Digimon are left on Earth...cool...with Agumon being one of them...not cool...and it's also uncool how the villain was sort of right at first, but that fact got downplayed.
I guess the quasi-theropod Guilmon is gradually supplanting the quasi-theropod Agumon. Which is fine, since Guilmon doesn't look so much like Gon, as I've mentioned elsewhere. However, if there's any personality difference between Guilmon and Agumon, I'm not seeing it. But what bothers me more, by now, is how overdue an explanation is, for why doorways between the Digital World and Earth appear at all. Too many plot elements come from those portals for them to remain unexplained this long, as far as I can tell (i.e. three years and counting). Finally, why do I feel like Renamon always secretly wants to murder everybody???
Hold on. What is a Tamer? I feel like I was supposed to know that, before watching this. Hence, did I make a wrong choice to not have extensively read "DIGIMON" manga up to this point? Or was that a proper choice, and the wrong choice was to have quit watching standard-length "DIGIMON" episodes at "Kabuterimon's Electro Shocker"? Or perhaps something else? There were so many places for me to have gone astray, in this franchise. Nevertheless, at least I'm keeping up enough to notice that Terriermon has finally learned that its name isn't "Gummymon". So maybe I'm still on par with the writers, since I caught that a while ago.
It's interesting how this quickly makes clear (in the first five minutes!) that it's a direct sequel to DIGIMON ADVENTURE: OUR WAR GAME, the extra-long tale that came out before DIGIMON ADVENTURE 02 - HURRICANE TOUCHDOWN! THE GOLDEN DIGIMENTALS, the franchise's nadir. I interpret that as an apology for how totally irredeemable DIGIMON ADVENTURE 02 - HURRICANE TOUCHDOWN! THE GOLDEN DIGIMENTALS is. Trying to erase it from canon or something. Well, I appreciate the gesture. Unfortunately this new conflict involving Diaboromon, the malware-Digimon, is still as ludicrous as the last.
Uh oh. They've gone from visually ripping off Gon (as I discussed a couple times elsewhere) to visually ripping off Pikachu, in the form of Gummymon. Or whatever its name is. Gummymon, like Agumon, is another star character...not just a background character which could be excused as parody...in what's DEFINITELY the weirdest episode I've seen. With several meaningless art-house segments, and the worst sound design I've heard in any professional work. The plot concerns an absurdly incoherent tragedy for Kokomon, without first explaining why Kokomon should matter to us at all. Overall, this is a new low for the already bad franchise.
I don't even know what to say. Where did everyone get their vehicles? When did they learn to drive/pilot their vehicles? Who set up the Grand Prix for them? How does the Grand Prix announcer know what's happening throughout the course, which seems to extend for miles? Why does Agumon, utterly predictably, need to end up as the star of the whole race? And what makes the announcer describe THAT as having been unpredictable? Isn't the announcer aware of how things tend to go in the Digital World?! As I've indicated before, it is strange how hard this franchise strives to elevate a character who's little more than a Gon rip-off.
This episode's opening song is kind of cute (as long as I don't read its immature and mostly irrelevant lyrics, shown in subtitles)...it's a step above any other "DIGIMON" music I've encountered so far, after having dabbled in some half-hour shows. And the animation looks a little better, maybe, too. Plus a couple of superior songs come up later. The antagonist of this story is a malware-Digimon that has the power to take over any computer on "the net" in the year 2000. Which apparently refers to any computing device whatsoever: from those used to make price labels for meat packages, to those used to launch nuclear missiles—?
"Batman in My Basement" { https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BatmanInMyBasement } minus any concerns about exposition: no bothering with details on why those Digimon eggs appeared or how DIGIMON ADVENTURE V-TAMER 01, the original manga, might relate. This short just cuts straight to (Digi)monstrous hijinks—nothing more to talk about. From what I understand, the tacit dismissal of DIGIMON ADVENTURE V-TAMER 01, which I dutifully skimmed before watching this, is going to be an ongoing problem for the franchise.
Also known as "Denkō! Kabuterimon"
It just occurred to me that Agumon's design was swiped from that of Masashi Tanaka's Gon in terms of shape, size, color, and more. I don't particularly like that, considering how Agumon increasingly seems to be the most important Digimon. The Agumon character, therefore, should have showcased the best creativity of "DIGIMON". On the other hand: this episode's origin of Izzy is the most creative origin story hinted at so far (which isn't saying much, but whatever!). However, back to the first hand: this episode has more flagrant animation shortcuts than any other so far.
Also known as "Shakunetsu! Bādoramon"
Maybe photosynthesis is ubiquitous in the Digital World, with animals getting most of their energy from sunlight instead of from food. Anyway, this episode clarified a couple of details regarding Digivolution, pertinent to my food chain questions. Though, of course, I have lots more unaddressed questions, e.g., how do the kids keep their clothes clean—including those "wicked" gloves!—during all their romps in the wild? And, hey, is it possible that the Digital World is Earth after some future apocalyptic disaster (might DIGIMON ADVENTURE actually be that daring?)?
Also known as "Aoki Ōkami! Garurumon"
The needlessly drawn-out power reveals continue. And I'm still flummoxed by how the Digital World works. For one thing: do boulders FLOAT? For another: where/how did so many Digimon learn English? Furthermore: it appears the larger Digimon are always hunting or guarding their hunting grounds. Which is reasonable; except that I don't know what they've got to eat in their food chain. It looks like smaller Digimon can Digivolve into larger Digimon during emergencies (at least sometimes; do Digivices play a role?). Hence, the smaller ones get too strong to prey upon, I would think.
Also known as "Bakuretsu Shinka! Gureimon"
║WORLD!║ From the theme song; that word. ║WORLD!║ Must be acknowledged. I wonder when I'll get used to it. Ah well—moving on—am I over-thinking the situation, to worry over how the Digivolutionary/evolutionary biology of Digimon could ever make sense? Alternatively, if the Digital World arose fully-formed without evolution, via some "digital" code, then who wrote the code? Either way, what happened to the kids and their Digivices strikes me as impossible (considering, e.g., that Earth would seem to be incompatible software). Still, I might be growing to enjoy the jokes and fun visuals.
Also known as "Hyōryū? Bōken no Shima!"
I suppose it isn't the most blatant cartoon-as-toy-commercial I've ever seen. It seems slightly less craven than POKÉMON, for instance, in that regard. I do appreciate how it gives its protagonists a bit more room to breathe, for characterization purposes, than is customary for such shows. Similar to the twenty-minute premiere "episode zero," it sadly omits explanations of why the inciting events happen. Equally mysterious: the kids develop stronger bonds with their Digimon than, apparently, they had with anyone they'd left on Earth. Huh?
