Mystery Woman: At First Sight

"Mystery Woman: At First Sight" is another entry into the Hallmark series. Kudos to director Kellie Martin on this one - there wasn't an establishing shot of the bookstore every 30 seconds.

In this episode, Samantha Kinsey finds her birth mother Hannah (Kathryn Harrold) - just as the woman is about to be arrested for murder. A man is dead in her living room. Without revealing to her half-sister (Christine Lakin) or Hannah's husband (John Aprea) who she is, Sam sets out to help clear Hannah of the murder charges. Meanwhile, back home, Philby (Clarence Williams III) is having his own problems.

The comments on this site were interesting in that some people expressed disappointment in this episode. I'm not sure why - it was just as slow-moving and pedestrian as the rest of them. It was a kick to see Michael Cole and Clarence Williams III, two of the "Mod Squad" members reunited, but despite Philby telling Cole he looked good, he didn't.

And that's the reason I watch "Mystery Woman" when I see it's on - sometimes it features some baby boomer stars, and I also like Kellie Martin. This series, like Jane Doe and McMartin, is okay, but that's about it.

Contrary to another review, just because a storyline seems meaningless, doesn't mean it is.

Most good stories have at least one subplot. In this episode the subplot provided some comic relief to an otherwise very serious episode. I was in stitches!

The fact that it reunited a couple of dear old friends made it much more special - especially to us fans of The Mod Squad. Because The Mod Squad was a very serious show. To have it's two male stars (Clarence Williams III as series regular Philby, and Michael Cole as Desmond) in a more comical situation was a treat to me!

In this episode, while Samantha is off looking for her birth mother, a silly, but fun little subplot has a couple of old spies (Philby & Desmond) get together to free a Russian spy who landed in the local jail.

Philby decides to get himself arrested, so he can tell the Russian spy how he's going to be busted out.

It's the 'how' that is hysterical. The police chief, who has a semi-adversarial relationship with Samantha and Philby, is befuddled when he has to arrest Philby for breaking a window.

Desmond then, comes in 'under cover' to help break both Philby & the Russian spy out of jail. What ensues is like The Keystone Cops. It is hysterical, and so much fun!

A date with a doctor and an offhand comment about the health of her parents, sees Kellie reveal to Cassie that she was adopted and suddenly now wants to find her real mother. She follows up a few leads and gets an address but, on arriving at the house of the woman she believes is her mother, she finds her standing over a dead body. Kellie pretends to the police that she was soliciting for donations and they happily accept this despite all the obvious flaws in that alibi. As her "mother" Hannah is taken away as the main suspect, Kellie stays to help. Meanwhile, back at the bookstore, Philby's quiet time alone is ruined when a man from his past turns up.

So with a shoe horn the size of a canoe, Kellie is set up with a new mystery to try and solve. There is a slight insult to the audience's intelligence by having her suddenly announce her revelation, brush away a tear, suddenly decide to track her down and, after doing it surprisingly easily, she just happens to have turned up minutes after a murder has occurred, but I suppose with daytime TV you can never overestimate the audience's intelligence. So off we go on the usual superficial mystery that never aspires to be more than daytime filler. It drifts forward with unsurprising and dull "twists" and revelations in the plot and the main thing I felt was boredom. This isn't helped by the stupid mood music played throughout as well.

It isn't like the mystery is even enough to fill the film, because we are also treated to a pointless subplot that runs throughout the film that just seems to exist to give Philby and Connors something to do. Done well the two threads would have the film bulging and it is telling that even with them both it is still baggy and boring. The cast don't help much. Martin is cute but that's about it. Siemaszko continue her trend of doing very little while Williams yet again takes his paycheque for strolling round in the background being all mysterious about his past. Harrold is OK but Lakin looks like an actresses keen to make the most of her opportunity and forces it throughout. Sander also does his usual charisma-free turn to no good effect while Podell is smarmy to the point where my stomach churned.

Overall then a dull and boring Mystery Woman film; and I say that as someone who has found some of the other films OK. The main mystery isn't much cop, while the subplot is pointless. Die-hard fans might like it but even for the casual daytime TV viewer this is pretty weak.

The one thing that caught my attention is when she has her date with the eye doctor he makes a cute flirty joke and she calls it lame. She's actually pretty unfriendly most of the date considering she had stood him up on their previous date. The date scene which was supposed to give the happy ending to the story left you wondering if she liked the doctor or not.

This production had an attractive protagonist, a cozy middle class middle American setting, a small cast of journeymen actors, and two prime time television hours (minus commercials) to work with. Yet, in the end, I felt completely let down.

First of all, a significant portion of production resources were diverted into a totally meaningless sub-plot involving Clarence Williams III and Michael Cole, who starred together in "The Mod Squad", back in 1968. I kept expecting Peggy Lipton to show up, but I gather she has been able to find work on her own.

In this episode, Samantha Kinsey ventures out to explore her own roots. Of course, the "Mystery Woman" lives up to her moniker by the end of the two-hour drama, at which point we expect her to explain it all to us. But there is no revelation of "family ties", no exploration of "family values", no knitting together of loose ends, and no answers to pertinent questions. In fact, the most obvious questions about Samantha's roots are not even asked. She simply walks away.

Even if the writers had devoted 100% of their budget to the main plot line, it is not clear that they would have known what to do with these characters. It seems they had not started out with the first requirement, a good story that would involve an audience in the lives of well-drawn characters.

I was left with the feeling that this entire production crew had frittered away a great deal of time, money, and effort, and I had just wasted two hours of a Tuesday night.