30 Days of [Any Favourite] TV Show - 6
19. Something that made you think
Public Eye nearly always makes me think, and that's one of the main reasons why I like it. For something that features very low-key, mundane stories most weeks, it causes me to spend a lot of time thinking about it and rewatching things and working out what it's about. It varies (episodic old TV!) but most of the time, it expects me to make my own mind up, it doesn't tell me what I should be thinking. Which takes a little while to get used to, but it's wonderful once you have.
20. Something that made you laugh
Oh, meme, you want me to sit here and describe jokes while everyone else looks on unmoved? Okay, once I rewatched the Christmas episode from S6, that made me laugh quite a bit. (My favourite part is when Frank shouts at two carol singers, and then turns round, looks at them, and plaintively begs for a chip.) Also, the whole of the scene in S5's "Transatlantic Cousins" between Frank and Sir Roger L'Ettrell is just priceless. You'll have to take my word for it, but, really, you should have been there...
21. Best series opener
22. Best season finale
If you've been paying attention so far, you'll realise "Best anything" usually winds up at S4, so... "Welcome to Brighton?" and "A Fixed Address" (S4 opener and finale). "Welcome to Brighton?" is so bleak I find it hard to watch, but it's still exceptional TV.
For the other series: S1-3 don't have any openers/finales surviving. "Don't Forget You're Mine" feels like an opener (and a great one, too), but it isn't. If "Cross That Palm When We Come To It" existed, it might win best finale but it doesn't. (It's quite intriguing that the only time in 10 years that Public Eye knew it was coming back, they set up a really impressive story arc. I can't help but wonder what they'd have done if they'd ever had that knowledge again?) "A Mug Named Frank" (S5 opener) probably has the best opening scene, in terms of effectively introducing the character - Frank, in a supermarket, stops to help a shoplifter. (♥) S7's opener "Nobody Wants to Know" is pretty strong, too. But S4, people, S4.
23. Crackiest moment
There aren't a lot of cracky moments in Public Eye (at least not that I can think of off-hand), but there is one that's down to the fact that the first few scripts were written before the lead was cast, and so Roger Marshall still had in mind that Frank would be a man of iron. (Fate and the S1 producer happily had other ideas.)
So, in the first surviving episode, Frank's getting beaten up by two hired heavies... and the next scene, they're both lying unconscious. How did that happen? The mind boggles. Maybe he tried his divide and conquer tactics and had them fight each other, or an anvil fell out of the sky? Or they both inexplicably fainted, who knows? (I'd add in the whole storyline in which he's hired as bodyguard to a millionaire, except that Frank clearly found the whole idea as amusing as I did.)
Oh, and this:
I've shared it before, I know, but still. Nothing else in the entire series made me laugh so hard. (It's not even the shop he goes into; it's the one opposite.)
There are probably moments from various episodes by a writer called Philip Broadley that should go in here, but... there is just not enough time in the world to explain all the random that might involve. My brain might break again.
30 Days of [Public Eye]
1. Favourite Episode
2. What You Wish Happened
3. Favourite regular character
4. Favourite guest character
5. Least favourite episode
6. Best title sequence
7. Most romantic moment
8. Missing episode you would like to see found
9. Favourite photo/screencap
10. Favourite ship
11. Favourite writer
12. Favourite director
13. What show-related fanworks would you like to see?
14. Worst decision
15. Scene that made your heart break
16. Best scene involving eating/drinking
17. Something that made you happy
18. Something that made you sad
19. Something that made you think
20. Something that made you laugh
21. Best series opener
22. Best season finale
23. Crackiest moment
24. Best scene involving music/dancing
25. Crime against fashion
26. Favourite quotes
27. Favourite non-romantic OTP
28. Most surprising moment
29. Favourite location
30. Favourite costume/clothing/accessory
Crossposted from Dreamwidth -- Comments there:
Public Eye nearly always makes me think, and that's one of the main reasons why I like it. For something that features very low-key, mundane stories most weeks, it causes me to spend a lot of time thinking about it and rewatching things and working out what it's about. It varies (episodic old TV!) but most of the time, it expects me to make my own mind up, it doesn't tell me what I should be thinking. Which takes a little while to get used to, but it's wonderful once you have.
20. Something that made you laugh
Oh, meme, you want me to sit here and describe jokes while everyone else looks on unmoved? Okay, once I rewatched the Christmas episode from S6, that made me laugh quite a bit. (My favourite part is when Frank shouts at two carol singers, and then turns round, looks at them, and plaintively begs for a chip.) Also, the whole of the scene in S5's "Transatlantic Cousins" between Frank and Sir Roger L'Ettrell is just priceless. You'll have to take my word for it, but, really, you should have been there...
21. Best series opener
22. Best season finale
If you've been paying attention so far, you'll realise "Best anything" usually winds up at S4, so... "Welcome to Brighton?" and "A Fixed Address" (S4 opener and finale). "Welcome to Brighton?" is so bleak I find it hard to watch, but it's still exceptional TV.
For the other series: S1-3 don't have any openers/finales surviving. "Don't Forget You're Mine" feels like an opener (and a great one, too), but it isn't. If "Cross That Palm When We Come To It" existed, it might win best finale but it doesn't. (It's quite intriguing that the only time in 10 years that Public Eye knew it was coming back, they set up a really impressive story arc. I can't help but wonder what they'd have done if they'd ever had that knowledge again?) "A Mug Named Frank" (S5 opener) probably has the best opening scene, in terms of effectively introducing the character - Frank, in a supermarket, stops to help a shoplifter. (♥) S7's opener "Nobody Wants to Know" is pretty strong, too. But S4, people, S4.
23. Crackiest moment
There aren't a lot of cracky moments in Public Eye (at least not that I can think of off-hand), but there is one that's down to the fact that the first few scripts were written before the lead was cast, and so Roger Marshall still had in mind that Frank would be a man of iron. (Fate and the S1 producer happily had other ideas.)
So, in the first surviving episode, Frank's getting beaten up by two hired heavies... and the next scene, they're both lying unconscious. How did that happen? The mind boggles. Maybe he tried his divide and conquer tactics and had them fight each other, or an anvil fell out of the sky? Or they both inexplicably fainted, who knows? (I'd add in the whole storyline in which he's hired as bodyguard to a millionaire, except that Frank clearly found the whole idea as amusing as I did.)
Oh, and this:
I've shared it before, I know, but still. Nothing else in the entire series made me laugh so hard. (It's not even the shop he goes into; it's the one opposite.)
There are probably moments from various episodes by a writer called Philip Broadley that should go in here, but... there is just not enough time in the world to explain all the random that might involve. My brain might break again.
30 Days of [Public Eye]
1. Favourite Episode
2. What You Wish Happened
3. Favourite regular character
4. Favourite guest character
5. Least favourite episode
6. Best title sequence
7. Most romantic moment
8. Missing episode you would like to see found
9. Favourite photo/screencap
10. Favourite ship
11. Favourite writer
12. Favourite director
13. What show-related fanworks would you like to see?
14. Worst decision
15. Scene that made your heart break
16. Best scene involving eating/drinking
17. Something that made you happy
18. Something that made you sad
19. Something that made you think
20. Something that made you laugh
21. Best series opener
22. Best season finale
23. Crackiest moment
24. Best scene involving music/dancing
25. Crime against fashion
26. Favourite quotes
27. Favourite non-romantic OTP
28. Most surprising moment
29. Favourite location
30. Favourite costume/clothing/accessory
Crossposted from Dreamwidth -- Comments there: