"Double Exposure" gives us the first really imaginative antique. Winston uses it not just to kill people, but to set up his reputation as a crusading news anchor. There's also some variety in what the camera does: it just doesn't just kill people and hand over money, but creates something that then has to be used in a fairly innovative way. Winston has to put some thought into using the antique camera to further his career.
There are some awkward patches. The timing of this episode immediately after "The Quilt of Hathor" makes Ryan seem like somewhat of a cad, jumping from Laura to Cathy in record time. While Gary Frank is good as the plastic-faced news anchor, his overly-dramatic performance (laughing and clapping his hands to his cheeks) as he creates the doppelganger is kinda weird. It's a chemical doppelganger, dude, not a sext.
Also, one wonders at the level of research that says the negative must be destroyed in five hours. Not six, or four. But precisely five hours. And both Jack and Winston found that info. Later they gaslit Winston's knowledge by saying Lewis must have told him. Is there some five-hour association with Satan that I've missed, that he has 5 hours written into his contracts?
Catherine Disher is okay. She's no Carolyn Dunn, but then neither is Carolyn Dunn. Disher does what she can do as the "girlfriend of the week" to Ryan. It's an upstream swim, but she gives it her all and they do make a cute couple. Cathy seems more Ryan's type than Laura did.
There's a lot of cleverness going on here, like the initial career-enhancing scheme. And then Winston using the camera to make a doppelganger of Jack to get the camera back. This is the kind of cleverness we saw with later antiques.
Even Ryan picking up on the Jack doppelganger's slip about not breaking the antique is a little bit of cleverness.
There's a lot of little bits of cleverness like that. Like the secondary theme of photos, and Ryan mooning over the photo of him and Cathy. The televised images of Winston. And Gary Frank manages to convey just the right amount of plastic-faced swarminess as a news anchor. It helps that he looks a lot like William Atherton doing something similar in 'Die Hard' and the sequel.
Overall, I'd say "Double Exposure" is one of the best episodes of the season. It has some strong competition, but it also has a lot of weak competition. It's a prelude to the better episodes of season 2, when the show was really clicking on all cylinders.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
There are some awkward patches. The timing of this episode immediately after "The Quilt of Hathor" makes Ryan seem like somewhat of a cad, jumping from Laura to Cathy in record time. While Gary Frank is good as the plastic-faced news anchor, his overly-dramatic performance (laughing and clapping his hands to his cheeks) as he creates the doppelganger is kinda weird. It's a chemical doppelganger, dude, not a sext.
Also, one wonders at the level of research that says the negative must be destroyed in five hours. Not six, or four. But precisely five hours. And both Jack and Winston found that info. Later they gaslit Winston's knowledge by saying Lewis must have told him. Is there some five-hour association with Satan that I've missed, that he has 5 hours written into his contracts?
Catherine Disher is okay. She's no Carolyn Dunn, but then neither is Carolyn Dunn. Disher does what she can do as the "girlfriend of the week" to Ryan. It's an upstream swim, but she gives it her all and they do make a cute couple. Cathy seems more Ryan's type than Laura did.
There's a lot of cleverness going on here, like the initial career-enhancing scheme. And then Winston using the camera to make a doppelganger of Jack to get the camera back. This is the kind of cleverness we saw with later antiques.
Even Ryan picking up on the Jack doppelganger's slip about not breaking the antique is a little bit of cleverness.
There's a lot of little bits of cleverness like that. Like the secondary theme of photos, and Ryan mooning over the photo of him and Cathy. The televised images of Winston. And Gary Frank manages to convey just the right amount of plastic-faced swarminess as a news anchor. It helps that he looks a lot like William Atherton doing something similar in 'Die Hard' and the sequel.
Overall, I'd say "Double Exposure" is one of the best episodes of the season. It has some strong competition, but it also has a lot of weak competition. It's a prelude to the better episodes of season 2, when the show was really clicking on all cylinders.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?