A Televisual Feast

For the entire season, I’ve been commenting on the lack of subplots… now this episode. This episode doesn’t really have a plot. It doesn’t even have any subplots… it just has these things going on–Frank hurting his back, Hawkeye trying to get a night alone with a nurse, Hawkeye’s friend visiting, two guys fighting over lunch meat, and an underage Marine. Going off the pre-end credit closer, one could label the underage Marine and Frank’s back as the two most important items. But it’d be incorrect.

Sometimes You Hear the Bullet sets a new standard–at least in my experience–for what the half-hour sitcom format can do. What’s so incredible about the episode is the handling of everything. It’s like someone who’d only heard about “M*A*S*H” made a “M*A*S*H” episode–it’s so affecting, so it’s hard to describe it.

There have been some great episodes so far, but this one is singular. It’s amazing and is maybe the only episode of a television show (hour-long or half that) I think I’d say people should see. Not as an introduction to “M*A*S*H,” as it is not a pilot, but as a piece of work. The writing perfectly balances humor and drama and the humor isn’t belly-laugh humor. It’s kind of sad and tragic. It’s a beautiful twenty-five minutes.

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