Sterling Silliphant's love of classic written words, no matter if a play, a novel, or poetry inspires him. He comes up with another enigmatic title here naming this episode "A Bunch of Lonely Pagliaccis". What is he unearthing is, perhaps, the viewer's first question...So, with some inquisitiveness one must watch.
Tod is still sans Buz (the echo virus is still implied as the reason, however fans know better). As Tod reports to work in a quaint rural Mississippi town we learn he is a famous writer's assistant. In almost the first scene we see the writer's daughter silently, and stoically, passing Tod by and leaving in her car whilst Tod is attempting to engage in conversation. Obviously something is very wrong. Silliphant attempts to paint the small town as a kind of fishbowl where everyone knows everyone else's business and is harsh to judge. There's a kind of uneasy tension were jealousy is the poison threatening a otherwise very slow and staid day-to-day pace.
Soon the lid blows from the sleepy town as it becomes the focus of a nation when the famous author's daughter is arrested for murder. On the surface it seems it is simply a jealous lover's jealous reckoning for a lover's infidelity. Yet, it seems to not make sense as the other woman isn't killed too. Making matters worse the accused tells her father she will not talk to anyone, including his high-powered defense. In fact, she says she'll thank the judge when the sentence of death is handed down. Talk about a darkness on the edge of town and all points in between! Tod walks around town in a kind of a dazed funk as he attempts to assist his employer. He is faced head-on with the ugliness of the press and society at large when an out-of-town older woman reporter hopes to use him to unearth the unsavory dirt of the story. Not only that, but there's a chauvinistic jealous local who goes after one of the visiting press who he chooses to believe is making unwanted advances toward his woman. As mentioned, it's a boiling pot and the kettle is about to whistle.
About this time a real twist occurs when the deceased present lover reveals she was in with the author's daughter in a sort of euthanasia due to the victim's being diagnosed as terminal. The story shifts from how jealousy destroys to the temperance of mercy. While we actually do get the jury's final decision we are left to ponder their request of clemency. It's a choice everyone can make, that is to let jealousy overtake humanity or vice-versa. In many ways this is a thinly disguised look at racism without being too overt since it applies to the human condition in an equally much broader way.
Excepting Vivian Blaine's portrayal of the harsh gossip-mongering tabloid style reporter, all the performances are delivered very low-key to great effect. Actually, Blaine's edgy, more dramatic, role meshes well indeed creating more color to an otherwise black and white Peyton Place-ish small town.
Slow paced with a low entertainment quotient this is one of Silliphant's "thinking mans" episode. As the episode ends everyone is largely in need of healing which we hold out hope will soon begin. The cinematography really captures a mood as the drab look as it shows a winter time drabness. You want the sun to come out and, perhaps, the trial's outcome may just be the first day of spring for a sleepy Mississippi fictional town named Eduardo.
Tod is still sans Buz (the echo virus is still implied as the reason, however fans know better). As Tod reports to work in a quaint rural Mississippi town we learn he is a famous writer's assistant. In almost the first scene we see the writer's daughter silently, and stoically, passing Tod by and leaving in her car whilst Tod is attempting to engage in conversation. Obviously something is very wrong. Silliphant attempts to paint the small town as a kind of fishbowl where everyone knows everyone else's business and is harsh to judge. There's a kind of uneasy tension were jealousy is the poison threatening a otherwise very slow and staid day-to-day pace.
Soon the lid blows from the sleepy town as it becomes the focus of a nation when the famous author's daughter is arrested for murder. On the surface it seems it is simply a jealous lover's jealous reckoning for a lover's infidelity. Yet, it seems to not make sense as the other woman isn't killed too. Making matters worse the accused tells her father she will not talk to anyone, including his high-powered defense. In fact, she says she'll thank the judge when the sentence of death is handed down. Talk about a darkness on the edge of town and all points in between! Tod walks around town in a kind of a dazed funk as he attempts to assist his employer. He is faced head-on with the ugliness of the press and society at large when an out-of-town older woman reporter hopes to use him to unearth the unsavory dirt of the story. Not only that, but there's a chauvinistic jealous local who goes after one of the visiting press who he chooses to believe is making unwanted advances toward his woman. As mentioned, it's a boiling pot and the kettle is about to whistle.
About this time a real twist occurs when the deceased present lover reveals she was in with the author's daughter in a sort of euthanasia due to the victim's being diagnosed as terminal. The story shifts from how jealousy destroys to the temperance of mercy. While we actually do get the jury's final decision we are left to ponder their request of clemency. It's a choice everyone can make, that is to let jealousy overtake humanity or vice-versa. In many ways this is a thinly disguised look at racism without being too overt since it applies to the human condition in an equally much broader way.
Excepting Vivian Blaine's portrayal of the harsh gossip-mongering tabloid style reporter, all the performances are delivered very low-key to great effect. Actually, Blaine's edgy, more dramatic, role meshes well indeed creating more color to an otherwise black and white Peyton Place-ish small town.
Slow paced with a low entertainment quotient this is one of Silliphant's "thinking mans" episode. As the episode ends everyone is largely in need of healing which we hold out hope will soon begin. The cinematography really captures a mood as the drab look as it shows a winter time drabness. You want the sun to come out and, perhaps, the trial's outcome may just be the first day of spring for a sleepy Mississippi fictional town named Eduardo.
