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Reviews
Murdoch Mysteries: Why is Everybody Singing? (2024)
A weak "very special" episode
The musical episode of Murdoch Mysteries reminded me of the musical episode of Psych; it was written by someone who believes that a "musical" means every so often people begin speaking their lines in a sing-song tone where their sentences end with words that sort of rhyme. The "songs" have no structure, no verses or choruses, and other than some tempo changes they all sound similar to one another. The Buffy musical episode, still the gold standard, mixed love songs, rock numbers, and "I Want" songs, all distinctive and all forwarding the plot while remaining songs and not simply dialog that's hummed, not spoken.
There is also the fact that almost none of the cast could sing well. They cast member with the best singing vote seemed to be the actor playing Higgins, who couldn't be given his own song because he's a minor character. Again, the Buffy cast had some non-singers but they worked around it; here the lack of strong voices dooms the project.
I guess you have to give everyone credit for trying, but this is one of the weaker musical episodes of a weekly TV series.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Past Tense, Part I (1995)
Eerily prescient
When this episode was broadcast, it was largely ignored; looking at it from 2022 it is eerily prescient in predicting the homelessness crisis and the inadequate government response to it. The homeless encampments where I live look very much like the Sanctuary District Sisko and Bashir find themselves in after inadvertently transporting to San Francisco in 2024.
It is also a wry commentary that two men of color, Sisko and Bashir, and locked away after being discovered without ID while Dax, an attractive Caucasian female, is rescued by a white knight.
This is also the first episode in the series that depicts Sisko as a "hero" whereas he is usually the competent administrator of DS9. This two parter marks the beginning of DS9 finding its footing and becoming what I believe is the best incarnation of the Trek franchise.
Legends of Tomorrow: Séance and Sensibility (2019)
Don't overthink it, it's the Legends
Why would a time travel show visiting Jane Austen in Regency period England suddenly break into a Bollywood-inspired musical number? Because it's the Legends! After a sub-mediocre first season this show hit its stride when it started to take big, ridiculous risks that usually paid off, and this episode is an great example of that. It helps that it focuses mainly on Zari, who quickly became the show's go to character after she joined. The highlight is the aforementioned musical number, which is goofy and inspired. But the show also develops the Ray/Nora romance beyond the flirty stage, and finally integrates Mona into the team.
Speaking of big risks, this episodes also takes one of the biggest in the show's run by revealing the reason for Nate's father's duplicity, and supposedly it was re-written because the showrunners liked guest actor Tom Wilson so much they decided not to make him the bad guy. It's a bit of a heel turn, but they pull it off in the end.
Few shows could manage to have an episode that starts with a funeral be as entertaining as this one is, develop multiple plot lines, and maintain character integrity. This episode is possibly the best of season 4.