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Post by missingmymoonlight on Jul 14, 2012 2:32:24 GMT -5
Not surprisingly (to me at least) this remains one of the best written, well-acted, most captivating hours of television ever broadcast. Yes, the production values are great. But I only see them when I'm looking for them. That's how great they are. What really struck me and moved me the first time I saw this episode is the same thing that strikes and moves me now, decades later: The raw emotion of love, what it can and cannot do, how it is able to repair and destroy. My heart ached for David in that restaurant. His "God, Maddie" was to me so real, so what a person might say who was putting his or her heart on the line. Of course it was the WAY David said it, in that half-laughed, half-choked way words can get stuck when nerves and love collide. Bruce Willis knocked the ball out of the park in every scene of this show ("I thought your head was shrinking"; "The deluxe stake-out -- dinner's included") but the restaurant scene is THE BEST. "Opposable thumbs"! That never fails to crack me up. That and the way David says "splendid" to the waiter. I have to try harder with Maddie in this episode. Not because she is wrong about Sam (hey, her chatisty belt was pinching) but because I am so strongly rooting for David by this time I can't stomach her dinner or anything else with Sid, er, SAM. Cybill is luminescent throughout and plays Maddie with verve and vinegar. I think she handled David's drinking the best way she could, and I think she felt for him during his slow, slow sinking into that ocean of alcohol. I'd like to believe she was IN love with David then and didn't know it, or knew but didn't know how to face it, let alone embrace it. Outside, she fidgets on her feet as they wait for the cars. She looks unsettled. Rattled not just by David's inebriation, but deep down on some level, what it all means. Probably what it means to her -- him crashing her date, staying for the date which isn't THEIR date and humiliating himself on a few levels (not to me!) in the process.
Sam, who makes it plain he is a character with no character when he spinelessly fails to tell Maddie he's already met David -- and HOW they met -- doomed himself by being too perfect. I am convinced a lot of that perfection was a facade even if it was an effective one. I don't believe anything about Sam truly made Madolyn Hayes' knees buckle or her heart swoon, or could have once she was exposed to David.
Everything about this episode is first-rate from the writing to the rewriting to the direction, editing and Finnerman's fine work. I almost hate to call what the cast did acting. Their performances are so real, I feel as if I'm eavesdropping on lives, not watching a television show. Make that a GREAT television show.
I rate it a 10.
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snappysara
2nd Level
Spit and slide under
Posts: 283
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Post by snappysara on Jul 14, 2012 14:03:06 GMT -5
Wow missingmymoonlight! This is an amazing review and analysis of this episode. It makes me want to go and watchi ti again - even though I have seen it hundreds of times You have nailed the essence of their feelings and actions above and I love the way you describe how Maddie fidgets on her feet - she also fidgets when David gets too close at the beginning of Blonde on Blonde and shows her vulnerability and at the same time inability to accept her true feelings. She should be livid with David for crashing her dinner but she is meloncholic and caaaaaaalm. Have you written any fanfic? Please continue to analyse episodes. i would love to know your slant on the Mulberry scene when Maddie turns up at the hotel room. Snappy
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Post by missingmymoonlight on Jul 22, 2012 21:22:38 GMT -5
Thanks, Snappysara. As a new member I am so happy to have struck a chord! I haven't written any fanfic; as a matter of fact I just started reading it. Slow to the party, aren't I? I have been a ML fanatic since the show first aired and analyzing the episodes all these years later has been fun and cathartic. I am going to post on other episodes soon. Thanks again for the encouragement.
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Post by maddieaddisonjr on Sept 9, 2012 18:52:59 GMT -5
I've been MIA for quite a while but I wanted to chime in that this episode is not my favorite at all because it is very painful to watch. I feel so very bad for David. Yes, this episode was well-acted but...man, oh, man! I wish David had excused himself as soon as Sham...I mean, er, Sam returned and interrupted what was certainly going to be a laying of the cards on the table. He should have just said, "I'll talk to you tomorrow" or if he was afraid that Maddie was going to sleep with Sam again (which unfortunately she did ), he could have asked nicely but firmly if she would step outside or step into the foyer for a minute.
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Post by beesnbears on Sept 9, 2012 18:57:39 GMT -5
Always love your chimes maddieaddisonjr! As for me during that scene, I always yell at the TV for Sam to GO. AWAY.
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Post by missingmymoonlight on Sept 15, 2012 14:50:48 GMT -5
Hi, maddieaddison, jr. et al.! I understand so well how awful it is to watch David's drunken resolve to stay for Maddie's "date". I think that was the point of the scene, to have the audience squirm and weep inside for David. Also, and I guess obviously, without conflict there is no drama, so I suspect that was one choice made in the Writers' Room to keep the angst -- and interest -- going. I've seen the episode many times and like you often wondered why David and/or Maddie didn't simply tell SHAM (love that, btw!) that, no, they weren't finished talking. In the script, the stage direction reads ("feel time has passed" or words to that effect; don't have script handy) meaning David and Maddie bilaterally decide the interruption's for the best. Now, I think this is kind of brilliant foreshadowing (after S&D, practically every meaningful moment between these two is something "interruptus"). Notice in WOMB WITH A VIEW, Jerome explains to Baby Hayes that each of his parents fear they love the other more. This plays into why David and Maddie BOTH allowed Sam's return to the table. Maddie isn't an idiot; seconds after David begins stumbling over his incomplete pass, it is clear he isn't there to talk about a backed up toilet. I think Maddie wants David to lay his cards out but has so much ambivalence about her own feelings she quickly (gratefully?) surrenders the moment to Sam's return. Of course, she had no idea David would stay to drink his dinner; sometimes I doubt David himself knew what his love was up to. IMHO, he was compelled by feelings for Maddie so deep, so unquenchable (think of all the booze he drank -- wine, Champagne, brandy!) that to become the third wheel despite the inherent humiliation was less a choice than an overwhelming instinct. Call it EMOTIONAL desire for Maddie coupled with, let's be honest, a bit of territorial baggage too. The thought of interloping Sam lifting that dress "cut all the way down to South America" up and OVER Central and North America and making love to the woman David loves derailed every survival inhibition in the man. A seat at THAT table? He made the decision in an instant and it instantly tore him up inside. No matter how many times I watch this scene, it hurts. And it should. If a viewer ever questioned "does David truly love Maddie?", he or she got the answer in this episode; for were it solely about lust or conquest, nothing Sam said or did would have put David Addison's butt in the chair. Bears would've bee-ed first! In a less honest, less thoughtful television show, David probably would have emerged from that restaurant emotionally unscathed and triumphant on some level with Maddie -- Sam would not have prevailed that evening. I shudder to think what magical, frustrating, touching, romantic moments would have been lost had the writing gone that way.
Anyway, this remains to me a stellar episode for all the reasons I stated in a previous post. Because romance is MESSY. In real life, things rarely go strictly according to heart or plan. SAM AND DAVE realistically and wrenchingly illustrates that so much of the hurt/pain from love is self-inflicted whether subconsciously (DAVID: What if she rejects me?) or voluntarily (MADDIE: Thank God Sam came back; now I don't have to face my feelings for David -- or his for me.).
Yep. True love hurts so good. But it ain't for sissies.
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Post by ryangie97 on Sept 16, 2012 22:37:39 GMT -5
Loved reading your comments missingmymoonlight. I agree with everything you said. Maddieaddisonjr I do understand what you mean though. This episode is almost gut wrenching. Poor David I'm still on season 1 on my re-watch though so I'm enjoying some of the more lighthearted episodes.
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