Critic2017B

This film I only discovered fairly recently, and just absolutely fell in love with it. It sure seemed familiar and lo and behold then I read about the Pride and Prejudice connection and then it all made complete sense.

This is such a charming, lovely homage to Pride and Prejudice. The three lead characters are just perfect. It is funny, sweet at times, sad at others, and just wonderfully sexy and v. romantic (especially the last 1/4th of it).

Renee is so extraordinary as Bridget Jones, who would have ever thought she could play so believable a modern Brit woman so well. Her accent seems flawless to me. Hugh Grant is hilarious and a charming Lothario throughout. But Colin Firth is who really sold me on this film. His ability to play a guy that you start out not liking but drooling over by the end of the movie is sublime.

I am a big fan of the less is more style of acting that Mr. Firth puts forth in this film...much of his performance is in his eyes and his facial expressions. While Daniel (Mr. Grant's character) chatters on and on and tries to charm with his wit and words, Mark Darcy (Mr. Firth's character) just has a strong and rather silent presence along with an integrity of character that is revealed and he wins us over (as well as Bridget).

This movie has a lot going on outside of the wonderful romance as well. Contemporary events, gender inequities, social differences, work place decorum, fashion, self-image, sex, family, and friendship all come under the scrutiny of Bridget Jones and her diary.

This is a very good adaptation of a beloved novel. The tone, scene selection, dialogue and characters capture the essence of what fans of the book love about it. I cannot imagine it any better cast or written.

I have to admit, I am a snob about TV. There is very little I watch on a regular basis. And I was not familiar with any of the cast here. But one Thursday night, I happened to catch this show, and I have been hooked ever since. Nothing else new this TV season has appealed to me quite like this show has.

It is intelligent, compelling and seems quite realistic. There is a great ensemble of actors here who are the regulars, and each week the missing person case is unique, filled with twists and turns, but also demonstrates the value of hard work, studying the details, and dedication in getting a job done well. I have learned a whole lot about investigative work, something I would have never thought interested me as much as it does on this show. God is in the details here and this show delivers in spades.

OK, turn to the dictionary under the word Chemistry....specifically couple chemistry. There you should find a picture of Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd as David Addison and Maddie Hayes from Moonlighting. This series is a seminal study of sexual chemistry among lead actors and flaunted sharp, sexy, witty writing to match. If you have never seen a single episode of this series, you need to, and be prepared for a real treat. If you start at the beginning and watch this totally wonderful flirty, feisty pair become business partners, then best friends and then so much more, you will find yourself falling in love with these two remarkable characters that head up the slightly dysfunctional Blue Moon Detective Agency. In the process you will flip over how fabulous Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd are in these two roles. I don't think either one of them has ever been better or at least more charming, and that includes movies, other series, guest stints etc.

Equally great is the screwball nature of the whole series, the overlapping rapid fire banter between the two; the convoluted madcap madness of the cases they get involved in; the eccentric, wacky co-workers and relatives; and most of all how well these two play the will they or won't they game. (Pssst! They do; boy do they ever do!)

There have been critics and feminist writers who accuse the series of having a sexist viewpoint and of demeaning the female lead. But I just don't see it. Both David and Maddie are shown to be equally flawed, equally vulnerable, and equally wonderful in their own wacky kind of way. But they are both compelling to watch--hilarious at times, emotionally involving, and smolderingly sexy--especially in their scenes together. Yes, he is a sexist at first and she is an ice queen--but watch them both evolve through the influence of the other. These are two fully developed, wholly created characters, and their relationship and reactions to each other seem as real as real gets.

The peak of this show is the third season when nearly every episode of that season hit a home run out of the park. Of special note, this is the season that brought to our living rooms the famous Taming of the Shrew parody (Atomic Shakespeare), the delightful story told through dance episode of Big Man on Mulberry Street, the Capraesque It's a Wonderful Job, and the riveting four part continuing story line involving the romantic triangle with Mark Harmon guest starring...the storyline that lead to the very very famous consummation scene between Maddie and David. It also had one of the very best season finale episodes (and one of the naughtiest) ever on TV, To Heiress Human.

There are also some very very good episodes early on in the first two seasons as well, one being the critically acclaimed and quite engaging black and white film noir send-off titled The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice.

The fourth season followed the pregnancy of Maddie Hayes, written into the show following the real life pregnancy of star Cybill Shepherd. That season showed some wonderful dramatic acting by Mr. Willis and several unexpected plot twists following Maddie's return from Chicago where she had gone to make decisions about the direction of her life and her relationship with David.

The fifth season was mostly problematic with a few glimmers from time to time of what made the series so great. Following the departure at the beginning of the fifth season of the show's creative center, Exec Producer and Creator Glenn Gordon Caron, the series never quite recovered its magic from seasons 1-4.

Still when it comes right down to it, this was one of the most creative, original and totally involving TV series ever to grace the tube. And through it, I fell in love with both Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd and still follow both of their careers to this day.

I am so excited that this series is coming to DVD in May 2005 with the release of seasons 1 & 2. Now if they will just follow up with seasons 3, 4, & 5.