amyk
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Post by amyk on Feb 23, 2019 23:00:21 GMT -5
Giving this one a 3 on the Sidney scale, i.e. "of limited quality." Too much Stockwell, too little Hannibal, and too little of B.A. actually working with the team as well. I do love Murdock and Face's persistence and insistence that they are not going to just write off Hannibal as being dead. I kind of like Bobby too. But I don't like all the spy kind of stuff in the episode. Too many close-ups of would-be spies. And in my opinion the situation sponges, particularly at the end, where they are apparently the team's "reward" (as well as their 12-hour vacation treat) is degrading and disgusting. At least it makes me glad that B.A. is not there and hopefully he is going to use his 12-hour vacation for something else.
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Post by HoudiniDerek on Feb 25, 2019 10:53:09 GMT -5
For some reason I thought B.A. was there at the end. Been too long since I have watched it I guess.
I have never much cared for this one either. Although I do like B.A. and Frankie continuing to use the same lines on Stockwell when Face and Murdock disappear.
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amyk
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Post by amyk on Feb 26, 2019 23:18:25 GMT -5
It kind of makes me irritated that BA didn't go with Face and Murdock. On the other hand, I suppose it was good for him to keep an eye on what Stockwell was up to....
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Post by HoudiniDerek on Feb 27, 2019 9:26:34 GMT -5
It kind of makes me irritated that BA didn't go with Face and Murdock. On the other hand, I suppose it was good for him to keep an eye on what Stockwell was up to.... It's too bad there isn't a scene of B.A. doing something to keep Stockwell off kilter so we see how instrumental he was as well. |
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amyk
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Post by amyk on Feb 27, 2019 22:27:18 GMT -5
That would have been good!
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Post by Eclipse139 on Feb 11, 2021 17:04:52 GMT -5
I rewatched this one today. I suppose it's a fairly standard Season 5 ep - as you said before, Amy, 'of limited quality'. It's really obvious in this one that Mr T filmed a lot of his scenes separately - even when he's supposed to be in the same room - and combined with Hannibal being mostly absent (albeit explained by the plot) and Stockwell being there for a lot of the action, we completely lose the team dynamic. I did like Murdock and Face working together - I know they do this a lot anyway, but it seemed more important in this ep for some reason. I loved that we got a few glimpses of Murdock's more menacing/threatening 'dark side' - he's the only one who ever seems to really stand up to Stockwell in that way. It was good that the focus of the mission became finding Hannibal and we got to see how much the rest of the team care about him.  With the shift this season to the team carrying out government missions for Stockwell it does lose a lot of the emotional hook - the idea that the team are out there helping people who need them was gone.  This is the ep where Murdock wears a different jacket and it looks all wrong. The only reason I can think that he might choose a lighter jacket for this mission is because of the heat, but he's worn his usual leather flight jacket in hotter places than Hong Kong before now so that doesn't really make sense. I suspect Face's disguise as an elderly Chinese gentleman is probably considered inappropriate nowadays. It's unusual for Face to use a disguise, though - the most we've seen him wear for a scam before is probably glasses, or a hat. And let's not talk about the 'sponges'.  |
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amyk
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Post by amyk on Feb 11, 2021 19:24:25 GMT -5
I don't remember about Murdock wearing a different jacket in this one! I did personally enjoy Face's disguise as the Chinese grandfather. But yes, nowadays it seems like that may be considered inappropriate.
Hate the 'sponges' part though. To me, that is way more inappropriate than Face disguising himself as an elderly Chinese man!
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Post by Eclipse139 on Feb 12, 2021 14:08:40 GMT -5
I don't remember about Murdock wearing a different jacket in this one! I did personally enjoy Face's disguise as the Chinese grandfather. But yes, nowadays it seems like that may be considered inappropriate. Hate the 'sponges' part though. To me, that is way more inappropriate than Face disguising himself as an elderly Chinese man! I agree. The sponges didn't even make much sense, it seemed like someone just wanted a few girls in bikinis to appear in the episode so they wrote in the sponges idea without putting any thought into it at all.
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amyk
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Post by amyk on Feb 14, 2021 18:58:38 GMT -5
At least the bikini girls in BAD TIME ON THE BORDER played some kind of role - taking care of Maria while the team went off to find her mom!
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Post by Eclipse139 on Feb 15, 2021 3:28:29 GMT -5
At least the bikini girls in BAD TIME ON THE BORDER played some kind of role - taking care of Maria while the team went off to find her mom! True!
I don't mind that they had attractive people in the show - girls in bikinis were everywhere on TV back thenn (rightly, or wrongly) - but I wish they'd at least give them some lines. Especially when they're otherwise just hanging off Hannibal's arm while he's talking to the guys.
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Katia
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Post by Katia on Jan 31, 2023 20:50:58 GMT -5
I have never much cared for this one either. Although I do like B.A. and Frankie continuing to use the same lines on Stockwell when Face and Murdock disappear. I did, too! This is the ep where Murdock wears a different jacket and it looks all wrong. The only reason I can think that he might choose a lighter jacket for this mission is because of the heat, but he's worn his usual leather flight jacket in hotter places than Hong Kong before now so that doesn't really make sense. I suspect Face's disguise as an elderly Chinese gentleman is probably considered inappropriate nowadays. It's unusual for Face to use a disguise, though - the most we've seen him wear for a scam before is probably glasses, or a hat. Yes, what's up with that? This was the first S5 episode I saw, because for some reason it was on the end of the S4 DVDs as a "bonus episode" and I watched it not realizing it was just... from S5. And I thought, "wait, did they get rid of his signature jacket in S5?" But nope, apparently just in this episode. Maybe his had a mishap or didn't come back from the cleaners? (But yes, I'm sometimes surprised by the warm places where Murdock's wearing a flannel and a jacket... no way. Then again, we also see Face in a leather jacket in some warm climates. I was thinking about this again the other day while watching a movie set in Bangkok and so many of the characters are wearing leather jackets. Even to fight in. Yeah... no.) And yeah, Face essentially in blackface is... ick. Then again, Hannibal does it often as Mr. Lee (and does not look even remotely convincing), so...
I agree. The sponges didn't even make much sense, it seemed like someone just wanted a few girls in bikinis to appear in the episode so they wrote in the sponges idea without putting any thought into it at all. Yeah, there are some parts of some episodes where I feel like the writers let their middle-school-aged sons take over the script... |
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With the shift this season to the team carrying out government missions for Stockwell it does lose a lot of the emotional hook - the idea that the team are out there helping people who need them was gone. 
