Speaking of which....another old review

Well, my last post commented about a fellow's declaration thatthe catress who was in the short-lived TV series QUEEN OF SWORDS really was to him a Queen, I found a review I wrote many years ago about an episode the actress did in the other short-lived TV series GOOD MORNING, MIAMI. It disappeared with a webiste that disappeared, so I am re-posting it here in case it ever gets lost again. If and when I find more, I will add those, too. For now, please enjoy my reviews of "Kiss of the Spider-man:"

Kiss of the Spiderman

Claire: Stay open to the signs.

Quick! What does a stage manager do? Answer: Supervise the
physical aspects of a stage production, assist the
director during rehearsals and act as the person in charge
of the stage during a rehearsal. So during a live
television performance, the stage manager usually counts
the show in and out. That is, except in "Good Morning,
Miami." In the fictional "Good Morning, Miami" this week,
stage manager Robby (played by Stephon Fuller) described
the gist of Kiss of the Spiderman in his prophetic weekly
line, "And we're out!"

This week, the subplot and main plot were cleverly woven
into this one event while all the characters learned about
themselves as they interacted in the same places. That is
everyone except Claire. She wasn't "out" as Robby
announced. For some reason, the producers and writers kept
her at home AGAIN to bring Jake, and the audience, up to
speed about the main plot and his mistakes when dealing
with Dylan.

In this week's episode, Jake arranges for the cast and
crew to broadcast the Halloween episode of the fictional
"Good Morning, Miami" from a local gay bar that is reputed
to have the best costume party in the area. We learn that
Frank gets along extremely well with gay men even though
he thinks he has never met a gay man. Lucia, Frank's
confidant in this episode, suggests that perhaps he is
really gay. At the same time, Dylan and Jake inadvertently
share a kiss when Dylan supposedly thinks she is kissing
Gavin. This transpires because Gavin and Jake both dress
as the same cartoon superhero to attend the costume party.
The kiss causes Dylan to at least question her feelings
for Jake.

The entire episode flowed together quite well with some
cute little vignettes between various actors and
characters. I didn't get the same "yucks" as from Lucia
and Frank in Power Failure or Sister Brenda's one-liner
about kids in The Heart is a Lonely Apartment Hunter, but
the show offered a good time for thirty minutes. There are
some serious concerns developing with the overall plot at
the same time which need to be addressed.

Once again, my favorite actor was Tessie Santiago as
Lucia. They do not give that woman the best lines ever
written, but she certainly turns what she is given into
memorable screen gems.

Frank and Lucia were great while discussing whether or not
Frank had ever met a gay person especially when Lucia
asked him how that could be: "We live in Miami. We got gay
like we got flamingos!!" Then, in the bar, when Frank
comes dressed as a biker dude, actor Jere Burns readily
turned the effiminate behavior on and off as Frank
switched between talking with Lucia to talking with the
bar patrons. I loved Lucia's costume for the party: "Katie
Couric." Rather than wearing Lucia's typically flashy
outfits, she forced herself to step foot in the women's
clothing chain ‘Ann Taylor' to pick up a twin set for the
party. The bar owner mentioned he almost didn't recognize
her in this delightful disguise. At the office the next
day, Frank is exhausted from going out dancing with the
"female" friend of one of his new gay friends. Lucia is
great as she tells him "OK, enough with this. A man can be
straight or he can be gay, but there's none of this 'I'm
straight, but I'm dancing all night with Wayne.'" Ms.
Santiago gave the line life. If Mr. Kohan and Mr. Mutchnik
want Frank to be a gay character then this was a cute
"outing," but female fans will never forget Mr. Burns as
"Roy," Nina's hot blooded, convict, boyfriend on "Just
Shoot Me." Gay? Hmmmmm. Mr. Burns is a good actor.

Brooke Dillman had a cute scene with Ms. Santiago. As
Sister Brenda's Halloween joke, she appears to be cutting
vegetables for the crew to take to the shoot when she
seems to cut her hand off. Fake blood spurts everywhere.
Ms. Santiago is freaked out (a phrase Sister Brenda likes
to use). When Lucia wants to try the joke on Jake with
Sister, it backfires causing Sister Brenda to tell Lucia
"Next time I work alone ‘hambone.'" The Halloween joke
sequence was cute and perfect for Sister Brenda; however,
the team of Kohan and Mutchnik added another seriously
erroneous stereotype about Catholics at the bar in this
episode. They had Sister Brenda indicate that hell is full
of gays. Specifying that the Catholic Church teaches that
by just being homosexual one will go to hell is simply
another fallacy. (Hey! Just check out article #2358 in the
"Catechism of the Catholic Church"—available at a
bookstore near you.) Kohan and Mutchnik are known for
pushing the envelope, but the stereotypes of Catholicism
are not working…even in a character who behaves as if she
might have a frontal lobe brain injury. There is so much
in the character of Sister Brenda that COULD be funny to
all people, but by persisting with inaccuracies, the show
is closing the door to humor from that character.

This all leads us to Jake. From correspondence I have
received, I know that some women and gay men find Mark
Feuerstein quite attractive. That helps bring viewers to
the show, but in spite of the public attraction to Mr.
Feuerstein and Ms. Williams, the Jake and Dylan story has
turned stale. Jake persists in acting like a love-struck
teenager while Dylan doesn't notice his over-the-top
overtures. As someone pointed out to me, the show would
have more aptly been called "Dylan and Jake" since so
little of the show is actually about putting on the
fictional "Good Morning, Miami." With this said, let me
note that Kiss of the Spiderman DID move the love story
forward just a little. Jake imagines fantasy dating in
daily 8:15am meetings with Dylan at the coffee stand where
he uses the various creamers available like puppets to
attempt to entertain Dylan. Dylan enjoys seeing Jake, but
doesn't seem to think that the daily meetings are anything
special. Jake has begun sharing his interest in and
pursuit of Dylan with Penny. When Dylan announces that
Gavin is taking her to meet his parents for Thanksgiving,
Penny points out to Jake that Dylan is Gavin's girlfriend,
not his. So on the day of the shoot, as Jake is leaving
for the bar, Dylan shows him Lactaid she brought to join
the creamers at the coffee stand. She asks Jake what it
would say as a puppet. Jake blows her off (thereby ending
another chance to get to know her at least as a friend.)
At the bar, Gavin keeps Dylan close for fear of being
ogled by the gay men. Gavin is dressed like a buff "Flash"
while Dylan is a cat. At one point he asks her to leave
and get something for him. While Dylan is out, Jake enters
also dressed as the "Flash." Gavin departs demanding that
Jake change because Gavin's image is more important. While
Jake is sitting in Gavin's place, Dylan returns and
apparently doesn't know that this new "Flash" is not
Gavin. Why she couldn't at least tell that he was a
different person is unimaginable. Either she knew and
wanted to kiss Jake, the lighting was bad, or she isn't as
sharp as the producers want us to believe. Gavin was buff
with a great chin. Jake was…well… "round." Once again,
Jake shares his delight with his new confidant Penny.
Constance Zimmer is fast becoming a favorite of mine in
this series. Her apathy at his pining for Dylan as well as
her cynical attempts to bring Jake back to reality (i.e.
"C'est la vie, Frenchy") are what make the "Dylan pursuit"
scenes tolerable. Dylan and Jake end up discussing the
kiss so that Jake's feelings for Dylan start to come out.
As with the Frank coming out subplot, the Dylan-Jake kiss
main plot ends the next day at the office. Jake was
thrilled that Dylan had ended their kiss with "mmmmm," but
when they discussed the kiss, Dylan claimed that that is a
noise she has to emit to clear her sinuses. Penny notices
Gavin and Dylan kiss by the coffee stand. When Dylan does
not respond with "mmmmm," Penny hurries to Jake and
suggests that he join Dylan at the stand for a fresh pot
of coffee. That new aspect of Penny's character was a
sweet way to end the episode.

Other people working on "Good Morning, Miami" who need to
be given a pat on the back for their work on Kiss of the
Spiderman are the prop master and the set decorator. In
his opening scene at the office and while at the bar,
Gavin reads a thick book. Characters never talked about
the book, but in a quick shot of the cover, the title of
the book was revealed: "THE POWER OF YELLOW." I loved it.

To sum up, Kiss of the Spiderman was possibly the
best-written episode to date of "Good Morning, Miami" in
spite of my waning interest in the Dylan-Jake love affair.
It was nice to see the humor finally coming from the
situation in which the characters found themselves. Now
this is a sitcom! I see many improvements in the show so
far and the potential for further improvements continues
to exist. So, I am giving Kiss of the Spiderman 8 Palm
Trees out of a possible 10. In addition, I am awarding it
6 Pink Flamingos for the delightful scenes with Frank,
Penny and Lucia.

What I would still like to see: AN EXAMPLE OF AN ACTUAL
TAPING OF THE FICTIONAL "GOOD MORNING, MIAMI."

I used to sign these with "what do you think, click on my name and let me know" until I started getting emails from people lambasting me for my thoughts about the show and telling me which character they thought should end up with which. A couple people started sending ugly emails to me because I wouldn't respond to their emails except to say "thank you." I guess they thought I should start some sort of correspondence with them. These people really needed a life outside of TV and the internet. So I stopped signing reviews that way.

I guess writing a blog is like reviewing a weekly TV series. You have to think of something to say quickly while relating it to real life. My blog-o-sphere experience has been somewhat less nutty than my TV reviewer career, though. Thank you everyone for that!

Now if I could figure out how to write a job reference letter..............

IRamat2