An unusual episode. The Chief is alone in his apartment while Mark is taking a class in college (on the unreliability of witnesses), and Eve and Ed are enduring a dull evening at the opera. The Chief receives a threatening phone call, followed by many more: the brother of a young man who was executed following a bloody botched robbery wants revenge. Most of the episode consists of the Chief setting an elaborate trap for his expected assailant, using household items. The three younger police staff return just as the Chief overcomes the unhinged killer. It's all dark and tense, with good music background. Interestingly, it is reminiscent of the last minutes of the movie Rear Window... where Raymond Burr was the heavy, not the victim. The opera scenes are funny, and the college scenes are good too.
3 Reviews
"Clear" Window
DAshton191816 June 2023
Nice break from the usual procedural as Ironside finds himself "home alone" (just like MacCaulay Culkin) with a crazed man bent on exacting revenge.
Ironside senses something's amiss and starts putting together an elaborate trap to outwit his nemesis (just like MacCaulay Culkin!). He's being watched by the killer though he cannot see him...a nice homage to Hitch's "Rear Window" starring Burr.
Good acting in this one and a very good scene at the college which may have you wondering if what you saw is what you saw!
Eve has to teach Ed better manners, though...chatterboxes like him have no business at the opera. And I hope the couple behind them moved into their seats in the box...better view and MUCH quieter!
9 of 10...one of the good ones!
Ironside senses something's amiss and starts putting together an elaborate trap to outwit his nemesis (just like MacCaulay Culkin!). He's being watched by the killer though he cannot see him...a nice homage to Hitch's "Rear Window" starring Burr.
Good acting in this one and a very good scene at the college which may have you wondering if what you saw is what you saw!
Eve has to teach Ed better manners, though...chatterboxes like him have no business at the opera. And I hope the couple behind them moved into their seats in the box...better view and MUCH quieter!
9 of 10...one of the good ones!
Fascinating, well-constructed, engaging episode.
amorehl15 March 2024
Although 2 people wrote excellent reviews about this episode, there are some other things to mention. This clever, well-constructed episode was written by Sandor (Sandy) Stern, who must be a bright, interesting man. Growing up in Canada, he was interested in writing. Thanks to an uncle (a doctor), who suggested that medicine might offer more involving experiences for an aspiring writer, he went to medical school (oh, sure, go to medical school, no problem! - apparently it wasn't). Thereafter, he opened up a general practice, all the while writing on the side, but eventually demand for his services allowed him to give up the practice of medicine, write full time, and move to hollywood. Ultimately, he moved into directing, then producing as well. He also wrote the 2-parter Ironside episode "Check, Mate and Murder," not surprisingly set in Canada, involving French separatists in Quebec.
Further, as another reviewer wrote about an earlier episode, the writers seemed endlessly inventive (without resorting to redundant plots) at putting Ironside in situations where he had to get himself out trouble alone. That continues here, with Ironside setting up numerous ingenious traps, some of which he didn't even have to use. And Ironside's spoken confrontation with the perp is emotionally devastating - for the perp. If only today's hollywood writers were nearly as skilled now as they were then!
Finally, I don't recognize this opera, it must be somewhat obscure. It sounds Germanic, maybe Carl Maria von Weber or Giacomo Meyerbeer? Anyway, as yet another reviewer alluded to, if I'd been that woman sitting behind Ed at the opera while he was constantly whispering, I'd have conked him on the head to shut him up!
Further, as another reviewer wrote about an earlier episode, the writers seemed endlessly inventive (without resorting to redundant plots) at putting Ironside in situations where he had to get himself out trouble alone. That continues here, with Ironside setting up numerous ingenious traps, some of which he didn't even have to use. And Ironside's spoken confrontation with the perp is emotionally devastating - for the perp. If only today's hollywood writers were nearly as skilled now as they were then!
Finally, I don't recognize this opera, it must be somewhat obscure. It sounds Germanic, maybe Carl Maria von Weber or Giacomo Meyerbeer? Anyway, as yet another reviewer alluded to, if I'd been that woman sitting behind Ed at the opera while he was constantly whispering, I'd have conked him on the head to shut him up!
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