A Televisual Feast

Edith goes on jury duty, which has a lot more potential than the episode has a budget for. Instead of focusing on Edith’s adventures, the episode spends most of the time at home, covering Archie’s suffering in her absence. It’s a funny episode, with Archie faking sick to try to get her to stay, Edith getting some great lines as she annoys a really annoying fellow jury and so on… but it’s nothing near what it could have been.

When the episode moves to a sequestered Edith, after revealing she’s the sole hold-out on a hung jury, it becomes clear following Edith would have provided a wonderful episode. As she points out, it’s the most important decision she’s likely to make. It grounds Edith quite a bit, but lets her still be Edith. It also gives Jean Stapleton a lot of acting room, something she doesn’t usually have when it’s just Edith irritating Archie.

It’s interesting how the episode, which really opens up the twenty-five minutes–it takes place over two weeks, the longest present action for an episode so far–but it doesn’t flex the show’s potential, really. Instead, it proves to be a pleasant coasting experience–not too heady or heavy–and it’s a success. It’s just too bad it didn’t showcase Edith, only prove she’s more than deserving of such an emphasis.

3