I can't remember another time when a Fantasy Island episode offended me. Bad writing that left me shaking my head? Sure. Bad acting? Sometimes. Absurd premises? Not unusual. But out and out offensive? None others come to mind.
On the one hand, we have Connie Stevens as an investigative reporter certain she'll prove that Roarke and Fantasy Island's setup is fraudulent. In itself, that could be an interesting idea. In practice, they utterly bungled it. So what offended me? In what they purported to be a real contest, Roarke gives "magic chalk" to Jimmy Walker to clean and jerk 620 pounds ... robbing the so-called legitimate competitors, who would have worked hard for their strength and skills, the prizes they deserved. Then, when the second place competitor confronts Walker for the second time, Roarke gives him MORE magic chalk so he can beat the guy up? Maybe this caught me on a bad day, but it was a total turn off.
On the other side, a man goes back to the Anzio invasion of Italy to prove his brother wasn't a deserter. We're presented with the most ludicrous squad level infantry tactics you could possibly imagine. Actually, you couldn't possibly imagine them, they're so dumb. They amount to a squad running back and forth across a street multiple times being sitting ducks for an elevated German machine gun nest with three tripod mounted guns. Forget that the acting was just as bad as the other story, but don't forget that they decided to have Don Stroud try to rape a local girl in the next room from his squad and right in the middle of being pinned down by the machine gun nest. Disgusting.
They had everything in place for an interesting and tense squad level battle story. They had the sets, the props, the wardrobe, and the actors. All they DIDN'T have was a writer with a brain.
On the one hand, we have Connie Stevens as an investigative reporter certain she'll prove that Roarke and Fantasy Island's setup is fraudulent. In itself, that could be an interesting idea. In practice, they utterly bungled it. So what offended me? In what they purported to be a real contest, Roarke gives "magic chalk" to Jimmy Walker to clean and jerk 620 pounds ... robbing the so-called legitimate competitors, who would have worked hard for their strength and skills, the prizes they deserved. Then, when the second place competitor confronts Walker for the second time, Roarke gives him MORE magic chalk so he can beat the guy up? Maybe this caught me on a bad day, but it was a total turn off.
On the other side, a man goes back to the Anzio invasion of Italy to prove his brother wasn't a deserter. We're presented with the most ludicrous squad level infantry tactics you could possibly imagine. Actually, you couldn't possibly imagine them, they're so dumb. They amount to a squad running back and forth across a street multiple times being sitting ducks for an elevated German machine gun nest with three tripod mounted guns. Forget that the acting was just as bad as the other story, but don't forget that they decided to have Don Stroud try to rape a local girl in the next room from his squad and right in the middle of being pinned down by the machine gun nest. Disgusting.
They had everything in place for an interesting and tense squad level battle story. They had the sets, the props, the wardrobe, and the actors. All they DIDN'T have was a writer with a brain.