1023 - KISS OF THE COFFEE WOMAN


Oh well, we've now backtracked three episodes; yesterday Peg returned but
today she's missing. Bah humbug. Again.

This is actually a decent episode and I rather liked it. For once Kelly and
Bud have something to do...in fact, thinking about it, all the regulars get
decent roles (Lucky doesn't count). The image of Jefferson taking over the
couch from Peg after Marcy threw him out is a good one, albeit not one
exploited by the episode...this could so easily have been a two-parter with
the first ep taken up by Jefferson being a substitute Peg. But it wasn't, so
let's forget I said that. :-)

Kelly's on-off life as an actress and Bud's on-off life as her agent is
brought into the story once again to provide us with a decent (but by no
means typical merciless MWC-classic) spoof on coffee adverts - yes, they're
just as bad in this country. I don't know who plays Mr Director but I like
his character very much - the monotonous voice and the deadpan delivery
provide a good contrast to the exaggerated acting of the regulars, and the
'frogs' lines amused me. The best scene by far has to be the one with Al,
Bud and Kelly on the couch; I genuinely couldn't stop laughing at that one.

Bad points? Well, actually, there aren't many at all. I didn't like Marcy's
direct-to-camera "uh oh" and Al's Top Ten wasn't especially funny, and I
still don't know how Marcy threw that thing (what was it anyway?) onto
Jefferson's shirt when Mr Director was between them. Overall, however, the
episode is good...right up until the end. Which really isn't funny at all,
no matter how much we might be amused by the idea of Al and Marcy in bed
together. There aren't any good lines in the scene - especially since we've
been reading through them for the past five minutes - and neither Ed O'Neill
nor Amanda Bearse seem able to come up with anything decent in the way of
physical acting. Just pointless really...the writers' must've got stuck.

Great ep, right until the last 45 seconds. Which knocks the rating to 7/10
instead of an 8.