Waste 'Em! - Episode 57

[amyk]

Just finished this one a little while ago....I give it an 8 on the Sidney scale. Not much to say probably that has not already been said by me about it. I love the clients. I don't really like the whole "Lefty" gag and I think that this VA breakout is one of my least favorites. I like that BA gets to do a lot in this episode, not only making the bug for the dart but also the tracking device they use. And Face also gets to do some things a bit different than he normally does, such as perform the little chemistry analysis and crash the van through something.

[Eclipse139]

Rewatched this one today - I really enjoyed it. I loved the clients, they were very likeable and genuine. It was a shame there was nothing more made of AJ's miliary history, though - it might have been nice to have him and Murdock in a helicopter for some reason or other. It was great that Lisa showed how having a visually impairment didn't hold her back, without coming across as preachy at all. It was very sweet how Face wasn't sure how to behave around her - he genuinely seemed to like her for who she was, not just because she was a pretty girl and he didn't want to upset, or offend her in any way.

I didn't mind Murdock's crazy glove, it was definitely worth it for the tag scene with BA's rival glove. I love that he went to the effort of ordering it specially!

I'm not sure how Face was able to analyse the toxic waste so thoroughly with whatever basic equipment he had in that little bag, but it was a fun scene and I like the idea that the team have other skills we might not have seen yet.

I have a question, though. I was surprised to see the baddie's firm referred to as a 'rubbish' collection company as I thought Americans always call rubbish either 'garbage' or 'trash'. Was this not the case in the mid-80's? Similarly, Hannibal gives Lisa the number of their 'mobile phone' (he says it in at least one other episode, too) - isn't it always 'cell phone' in America? Occasionally I slip up when I'm writing dialogue for American characters (and there's always a reviewer ready to point it out!), so now I'm a little confused.

[amyk]

I think in the '80s, we may have still used the words "mobile phone" and I think that what Hannibal means is probably a phone that you plug into your car jack. For work, I had a giant Motorola phone in this big case that you could plug into the cigarette lighter to get it to work, but that was in the earlier '90s, before I ever had a cell phone. So I don't think I called that thing a "cell phone." I think some people may have called those things "car phones" or something along those lines.

If interested, here's an article about the bag phones - but the ones shown here seem to have a light-up digital screen, and I think mine may have been a bit more "modern" with more of an LCD type display on the screen: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_Bag_Phone

I don't remember "rubbish" in this episode, but yeah, I think most Americans say "garbage" or "trash" except maybe not for non-garbage items, i.e. things like old stuff that you can't just throw out in the trash. But for that stuff, I think most people would call it "junk."

[Eclipse139]

Thanks for the link, Amy. Thinking about it, the phone they refer to is always 'in the van' and I think Face has one in the 'Vette too, so they're not at all like the mobile/cell phones like we have now. I remember those old car phones, they were huge (and definitely not very mobile). We've come a long way!

When AJ is telling the team about Ike Hagen, he says "Guy runs a rubbish company" and then later we see he has a sign at his yard that says "HAGEN RUBBISH DISPOSAL". It was unusual to hear in an American accent.

[amyk]

I have no memory of that! It will be quite a while before I get back around to that episode, so don't know if I'll remember to watch/listen for it by then.