1020  -  Turning Japanese


Yes, you're reading this right. SKY is not showing 'Spring Break'. Waaah!

Oh well, gripes about this aside, 'Turning Japanese' is the subject of this
post. Some excellent stuff here which I really liked, although it's not
exactly a surprise to see Pat Morita doing another guest spot as an
important Japanese man. The best scenes are easily those set in the Darcy
household, exposing Marcy and Jefferson's patronising attempts to 'get
cultural' and also, I think, making a deeper comment about American
attitudes to foreign cultures...though I might be reading too much into that
one as I'm not American myself. 

Like "The Agony and the Extra C" the day before, this episode doesn't focus
on the Bundys as much as normal. We get more of a sense of what it's like to
live with them just next door, as your neighbours. Ed O'Neill gets more
lines than do the kids and he puts in an excellent worthy performance
(though I liked Kelly's "accidental" knowledge of the sleazy motel). Again,
for some reason, Al seems to be easily irritated by Bud, yelling at him
about Q-Tips and so on. Not sure why...maybe that was explained in "Spring
Break". Bah!

For the second half of the episode we return to The Jiggly Room and I
spotted a gi-normous cut here. Officer Dan enters the nudie bar, the picture
jumps suddenly to Marcy pursuing Al and shouting "10,000!" and then jumps
once more to Al and Bud at a side table. In other words, Officer Dan has no
lines whatsoever, just stands in the background. Huh? What'd he say that was
so offensive? Indeed this episode was well-chopped, because the runtime
according to my VCR was only 20 minutes. 20! 

Anyway, to finish up, the scene in the nudie bar was quite enjoyable, as it
wasn't until the last second that I guessed what Al was doing - did he plan
this all along or just come up with it there and then? I'd like to think he
had this plan sizzling in the back of his head somewhere and it sprang into
action fully-formed. It would have made the episode a gem if this was the
case. Amanda Bearse fans take note; that's two episodes with her in
lingerie. And to finish off, a typical Bundy-losers joke about the poisonous
clams. Ah, tradition.

Pretty good and enjoyable. 7/10.