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Post by HoudiniDerek on May 19, 2020 18:58:50 GMT -5
The A-TEAM magically can become professionals in any career they choose, week by week.....this week, firefighting with absolutely no training....another week, lumberjacks, again with absolutely no training....why didn't we ever get to see them become astronauts and save NASA??? They never found their way to the Los Angeles underground...
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Post by sprout1883 on Jul 6, 2020 14:56:50 GMT -5
Just watched again. I enjoy this one, even if not the greatest.
What's was the deal with Briggs. Was Lance LeGault not available so they did a small rewrite or something? Briggs isn't massively different to Decker so would make sense. That said Briggs was someone I wouldn't have minded seeing in another episode
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Post by HoudiniDerek on Jul 6, 2020 16:07:37 GMT -5
Just watched again. I enjoy this one, even if not the greatest. What's was the deal with Briggs. Was Lance LeGault not available so they did a small rewrite or something? Briggs isn't massively different to Decker so would make sense. That said Briggs was someone I wouldn't have minded seeing in another episode That's how I have always seen Briggs. They needed someone to cover for Decker, so they changed a few lines and threw in Briggs for an episode.
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Bert
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Season 4 Enjoyer
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Post by Bert on Jul 6, 2020 18:46:40 GMT -5
What's was the deal with Briggs. Was Lance LeGault not available so they did a small rewrite or something? Yes, from what I understand.
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Post by Eclipse139 on Jul 30, 2020 15:49:31 GMT -5
Rewatched this one today. I think it's a fun episode. I know, Amy, you questioned how the team can suddenly become expert firefighters overnight, but Face did say something like "What so we know about putting out fires?" so they kind of acknowledged it. I do think they must have some knowledge though because of their military training and experience. I agree with previous posts that Hannibal and Annie didn't have great chemistry, although I do like that she was the one to pursue him and not the other way round. He loved that she was flirting with him! I don't think he was particularly misogynistic towards her, I think he respected that she was doing a difficult job and it didn't come across to me that he was talking down to her because she's a woman. I love Murdock with that crazy moustache when he's Fireman Fred! I didn't quite understand why he needed the mini-fireman as well though? Was that supposed to be Fireman Fred too? And I actually prefer Briggs to Decker, I wish he'd been a permanent replacement.
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amyk
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Post by amyk on Jul 30, 2020 18:55:33 GMT -5
What was it about Briggs that you liked more than Decker?
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Post by HoudiniDerek on Jul 30, 2020 20:14:47 GMT -5
What was it about Briggs that you liked more than Decker? I have this same question. To me, Briggs is a poor man's Decker.
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amyk
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Post by amyk on Jul 30, 2020 21:13:55 GMT -5
I didn't feel like I really had much to evaluate Briggs on, since he was in the show such a short time. So I'm curious to see what it was about him that Eclipse139 saw that they liked about him. I haven't seen FIRE for quite a while and right now I can't even really remember much about Briggs or how much he appeared in the episode.
I do kind of like that they had a woman being the fire chief in the episode. I'm not sure how common that might have been in the 80s to have a female fire chief. I don't even know how common it is in the year 2020. In fact, I'm not even sure how many female firefighters there are. I admit that when I think of a firefighter, I tend to think of a man. (I probably picture guys like from EMERGENCY! which I used to watch.....)
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Post by Eclipse139 on Aug 1, 2020 15:49:13 GMT -5
What was it about Briggs that you liked more than Decker? I've come to realise that I really, really don't like Decker. I know we're not supposed to 'like' him because he's basically the enemy of our heroes, but I think he goes way beyond just wanting to recapture The A Team just because he believes they are criminals who broke the law and therefore should face justice. With Decker, you get the feeling his moral code is severely warped and he would do anything to capture them and I find that side of his character really disturbing.
I don't remember thinking this when I was watching the show originally, or when I've watched various episodes in the years since. I guess when I was 10/11/12 years old I was just cheering for Hannibal and the team and I loved it every time they outwitted Decker and escaped from his clutches. It's only when I've been rewatching recently that I've realised Decker wasn't simply representing the law and therefore chasing the team because they were fugitives, he actually has a really dangerous side and I don't think he cares about bringing them to justice.
When Decker is first given the assigment it's made clear to him that the reason he has the the job is because the army know he doesn't care about following the rules and they're prepared to overlook anything he does as long as he gets The A Team. To me that sounds like the military wouldn't even care if Decker killed them and it all feels really wrong to me.
I think the line in RANGE RIDER when Hannibal explains that Decker thought nothing of blowing up hospitals during the war really sets the tone for his character, especially because you can see Hannibal finds this absolutely abhorrent - and rightly so, of course. I don't think Decker would care if innocent people got hurt while he was recapturing the team, he just wanted to get the job done - at any cost - because he craved the self satisfaction of being able to achieve what so many others before him had failed to do.
By contrast, Briggs seems like an honest, upstanding, military man. From the little we see of him, he appears to be trying to capture the team because they are an embarassment to the US Military which is an institution he firmly believes in. The fact that they had evadaded capture for so long and given Decker the runaround gives him determination to complete the task with the aim of restoring honour to the army, not for personal satisfaction - although he'd probably have been happy to accept whatever accolades came his way!
I suppose I just think there would have been more fun to be had from watching Briggs' continuing frustration at repeatedly trying and failing to capture the team, instead of watching Decker becoming more and more menacing and unpredictable.
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Post by HoudiniDerek on Aug 1, 2020 19:46:23 GMT -5
What was it about Briggs that you liked more than Decker? I've come to realise that I really, really don't like Decker. I know we're not supposed to 'like' him because he's basically the enemy of our heroes, but I think he goes way beyond just wanting to recapture The A Team just because he believes they are criminals who broke the law and therefore should face justice. With Decker, you get the feeling his moral code is severely warped and he would do anything to capture them and I find that side of his character really disturbing. I don't remember thinking this when I was watching the show originally, or when I've watched various episodes in the years since. I guess when I was 10/11/12 years old I was just cheering for Hannibal and the team and I loved it every time they outwitted Decker and escaped from his clutches. It's only when I've been rewatching recently that I've realised Decker wasn't simply representing the law and therefore chasing the team because they were fugitives, he actually has a really dangerous side and I don't think he cares about bringing them to justice.
When Decker is first given the assigment it's made clear to him that the reason he has the the job is because the army know he doesn't care about following the rules and they're prepared to overlook anything he does as long as he gets The A Team. To me that sounds like the military wouldn't even care if Decker killed them and it all feels really wrong to me.
I think the line in RANGE RIDER when Hannibal explains that Decker thought nothing of blowing up hospitals during the war really sets the tone for his character, especially because you can see Hannibal finds this absolutely abhorrent - and rightly so, of course. I don't think Decker would care if innocent people got hurt while he was recapturing the team, he just wanted to get the job done - at any cost - because he craved the self satisfaction of being able to achieve what so many others before him had failed to do.
By contrast, Briggs seems like an honest, upstanding, military man. From the little we see of him, he appears to be trying to capture the team because they are an embarassment to the US Military which is an institution he firmly believes in. The fact that they had evadaded capture for so long and given Decker the runaround gives him determination to complete the task with the aim of restoring honour to the army, not for personal satisfaction - although he'd probably have been happy to accept whatever accolades came his way!
I suppose I just think there would have been more fun to be had from watching Briggs' continuing frustration at repeatedly trying and failing to capture the team, instead of watching Decker becoming more and more menacing and unpredictable.
That's interesting. Especially since to me, the Briggs character is written as if for Decker. I see Briggs as fake Decker like we see Dunigan as fake Face.
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Post by Eclipse139 on Aug 2, 2020 10:09:12 GMT -5
You have a good point! It was obvious that the script had been written for Decker, yet to me Briggs still felt very different. I suppose the differences are all in the delivery and the acting (and maybe directing) choices made on the day.
More of this in the other thread, though!
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Post by hasford1978 on Aug 21, 2020 7:46:13 GMT -5
I would like to have seen an episode where it featured both Decker and Briggs together to capture the A Team 😁😁 it's a shame that was never wrote as a script
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Post by HoudiniDerek on Nov 29, 2020 16:20:50 GMT -5
Watched this last night. The oldest was really interested about firefighting, but once it came about the mobster, he grew more bored. My wife and I actually didn't like it as much as we remembered.
How big is Hayleyville anyway? Enough to have a courthouse and to have two competing fire contractors, but appears small enough that they are literally outside of town in five seconds? And the lawyer's office is in town, which looks like downtown L.A. from other episodes... Very confusing.
I love the first scene in the wax museum. Briggs is fun, although I prefer Decker. Always have, always will. And this stretch of the third season without him, both with no military in some and then replacements of Lynch and Briggs, make it seem like too long of a stretch. Hannibal is great having guessed that they might assume he's dressed up and then actually being where they thought, just not in the way they thought.
Face working in the museum and enjoying it is really fun. It actually makes me sad that we didn't see him in more of the situations like we saw Murdock in BEVERLY HILLS ASSAULT. I think it would have been fun to have the Face and Murdock roles reversed in that one. But maybe that's my growing fondness for Face. Anyway, I loved Face working on the wax heads.
The firefighting was eh to me. I didn't care for the secret weapon and I really didn't care for Fireman Fred. I think Face's character was supposed to be feminine so that the firemen were off kilter with him. Although I did like how easily they recognized him later on the fire truck. *Eye roll* Blowing up the fire station was both a fun idea and reckless, especially since there was a guy still there.
I hated the Annie/Hannibal angle. It ALL felt so awkward and forced. Not at all the way it was with Maggie Sullivan. My wife and I were cringing through most of it. Even the final kiss looked forced.
I think one of my favorite scenes was Hannibal and B.A. in the scam about the safe. I can see Face coming up with the scam and enjoying that he didn't have to do the heavy lifting. And as for it not taking an hour, it didn't take Face long to open it, but it might have taken a while to get the pictures on everything. I love that he was sitting there reading. But how did the bad guys find out he was there?
Briggs catching the team was anticlimactic too. It was fun watching Face save himself. He got hit in the face with glass though. Then, he knocked both guys into B.A.'s fists. He was the VIP here because he figured out the real reason for the fire contract scheme.
I hate that they didn't fight the fire too, but hopefully no one got hurt. Maybe they took the yellow fire truck back and made sure?
Overall, it was an okay episode, but not one of my favorites.
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amyk
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Post by amyk on Nov 29, 2020 18:23:14 GMT -5
I lived in a town of about 4,500 that was the county seat, so we had a county courthouse, although it was still a very small town. But usually I think small towns just have volunteer fire departments, don't they? I can't see them having enough fires to support two fire departments.
I don't like that pairing either.
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Post by HoudiniDerek on Nov 29, 2020 19:44:55 GMT -5
I lived in a town of about 4,500 that was the county seat, so we had a county courthouse, although it was still a very small town. But usually I think small towns just have volunteer fire departments, don't they? I can't see them having enough fires to support two fire departments. I don't like that pairing either. I live in a county of 20,000 and there are no paid fire fighters and no towns that look like that. My biggest town is 5,000 people and we had nowhere near the population Hayleyville seemed to. And why have Rogen taken there?
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