Tomlonso

Ignoring the political overtones, this episode was probably the worst Father Brown I've seen. All of the characters were two-dimensional caricatures, Inspector Mallory in particular being little more than a screaming annoyance. The only character to show any depth at all was Mrs. McCarthy, and in a typical episode she's usually the queen of caricature. It felt like this episode should have been stretched out to two parts to give enough time for the red herrings to be developed and the revelation of the killer to not be so trite and pat. Maybe they spent too much of the budget on the special effects.

As someone who remembers the Bicentennial, watching this show in the second decade of the 21st century brought back a lot of memories, not all of them pleasant.

The set-up is that Chief Ironside is using a TV talk show to trap the killer. We can all figure out early in the show who the killer is, the question becomes whether Ironside's ploy will work.

What makes this episode painful is the dialogue on the TV talk show. The host and guests speak in the pretentious, preachy, self-absorbed psycho-babble of the 70's. As someone who was there, all I can say is it seemed like a good idea at the time. But to modern ears it seems as awkward and forced as a middle school date. Nevertheless it fills the time. Without the talk show segments, the episode would be about 5 minutes long.

Avoid this episode if you can.

TV Sitcoms have come a long way from when Lucy trying to get into Ricky's new show, or June burning the roast when Ward's Boss came for dinner could pass as typical American married life.

This episode presents Leonard and Penny with the kind of ambiguous problem that every marriage faces at least once a day. Leonard wants Penny to find a job she likes, but isn't sure she should be working for her old boyfriend. Penny thinks she would be great in this new job but doesn't want Leonard to be uncomfortable with her choice.

The writers deserve credit for finding a solution that was ambiguous as the problem. They also deserve credit for keeping the whole thing light and easy. There weren't really any guffaws, but a lot of smiles and reminders of my own married life.