This episode might be the first “M*A*S*H” of the first season where everything is calm. There’s no attempt to reintroduce characters and relationships, there’s no attempt to show heart, there’s no attempt to show comedy. It’s just a simple episode where Hawkeye and Trapper try to set Radar up, but can’t compete with the already working mother nature… only to have to contend with Hot Lips on a rampage. It’s clear, it’s concise, it’s simple….
Yet, there’s something holding it back.
The episode has the progression from being about Radar and his troubles to giving trouble to Frank and Hot Lips, but it keeps forgetting itself. Radar disappears for the second half, only to return for the last scene and its punch line. It might be the Cutler supporter in me, but she’s really wasted in a small part at the beginning, before Hawkeye moves on.
There’s some great stuff in this episode and, any lack of subplot (and forgetting Radar) complaints aside, it really should have been top notch. But the last scene just doesn’t nail it.
3.5
1 response so far ↓
1 Marionette // Mar 28, 2008 at 1:17 pm
You’d think the girls might be a little more sympathetic about getting Radar a date, given that they blackmailed the guys into doing the very same thing for Edwina only the previous episode.
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