The font’s a dead giveaway. (Folio Bold Extended?) If those KNIVES OUT movies saw writer/director Rian Johnson letting his inner Agatha Christie out; this winning streamer (many hands involved, but Johnson's fingerprints over everything), tips its hat at classic tv murder mystery masters Richard Levinson & William Link, by using the same bold, blocky sans serif font Levinson/Link used for decades, starting with the rotating shows that made up NBC Tuesday Mystery Movie which birthed COLUMBO. Famous for showing the crime up front, the trick was in watching detective Columbo deconstruct to reveal what went wrong. Here, a similarly front-loaded murder is immediately replayed, but now with human lie-detector Charlie (Natasha Lyonne) on the scene in some peripheral capacity. The other main influence (also Levinson/Link) is, of course, MURDER, SHE WROTE, with Charlie on the run, stumbling over murder wherever she goes.* Her motivation, which simmers on the back burner for the middle eight (of ten) episodes, is that a Casino Mob is hot on her tail so Charlie hits the road, not for a Book Tour, like Fletcher, but to keep the 'baddies' at bay. Consistently clever, with great guest stars; episodes 4 (fading Metal Rock band); 7 (race car drivers); and 9 (buried alive) come off best, likely because they get to closely imitate moviemaking styles of the ‘70s and ‘80s. Episode 9 exceptional aping an ‘80s Neo-Noir pastiche. Lyonne, something of an acquired taste (but easily acquired!) with a Kewpie Doll face & whiskey-bruised voice, holds the whole thing together. And since she gets to solve a case per episode, while her own troubles take the back burner, it keeps filler to a minimum. All in all, I’ll take this over Johnson’s big screen work any day.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *The funniest MSW episode sees the great Patrick McGoohan as a Canadian lawyer note just how dangerous Mrs. Fletcher is. ‘Everywhere she goes, someone is murdered!'
No comments:
Post a Comment