Spoilers

“Fetal Attraction”

One of the great things about Picket Fences when they went into the court room, I was never sure what the outcome would be. In particular, any of the controversial topics of the day could have gone in any direction and with Judge Henry Bone sitting on the bench, it often did.

The controversy of this episode was the use of stem cells from aborted fetuses being used to treat Parkinson Disease.

On Picket Fences, the major argument against the use of stem cells falls into the idea that it becomes an umbrella issue under abortion and that it was argued that this type of experimental procedure would only encourage abortions to be done. Obviously, this wound up involving the church as well as the community.

The other major storyline was the specialist Jill called into the case was her former fiancée before Jimmy. The attraction between the two doctors remained strong and Jill ended up kissing him.

The show used this plot point to investigate the deep ceded resentments by Jill and her choice to come to the small town to be the town doctor instead of becoming a top-line surgeon. This then was used as a conflict within the marriage of Jill and Jimmy. As always, this show uses their stories to inform their characters at a different level than most shows.

Honestly, this is a perfectly enjoyable episode of Picket Fences, but it did not stand out. It was fine. Of course, this hour was probably better than most series like this.

Spoilers

“Be My Valentine”

What a great episode this one was.

Maxine, who in the early stages of the season, killed the criminal the Green Bay Chopper, thinks she found another one.

After taking out a personal ad in the newspaper, Maxine gets a response that she believes is from a serial killer named Cupid. At the same time, Jimmy gets shot in the butt with an arrow. Maxine was sure that this was Cupid because he was known to taunt the police.

She set up a sting operation in an attempt to lure the serial killer to her.

What happens next is a beautiful set up that lands Maxine in the line of fire.

When I watched this episode originally, I remember the shock and the disbelief about the ending. It was one of the best twists of the show, and the performance of Kurtwood Smith as fired FBI agent Barry Jenkins, who was obsessed with Cupid who killed his wife was spectacular. When he turned back to Maxine revealing himself as Cupid, the look on his face was complete psychosis.

The way the show first made us think that Jenkins was Cupid, only to see the other guy, Ben Sasha (Stephen Tobolowsky) to grab the undercover Maxine was awesome. What a great twist to make us think that we had it all backwards and that Jenkins was not Cupid after all, only to reveal that Jenkins and Sasha were both Cupid.

When I watched back in the 1993, I truly thought that there was no way that Maxine was getting out of this. It was a stunning ending.

There are still little bits of character development in the series even in the episodes that are story driven like this one. There was a continuing detail to Carter, showing how lonely and sad he actually feels, which shows why he is always so desperate to be deputized, to make it appear as if he is not as impotent as he feels.

Something that I wanted to mention about Picket Fences that I really love is how they bring back specifics from previous episodes. This episode, they referred to the Green Bay Chopper several times. They have been known to bring up previous characters or storylines in conversation, just like real people would. This is not just a TV series where each episode is stand alone. There is a continuity to Picket Fences and I love that.

As of this moment, Be My Valentine is my favorite episode of the show. We’ll see if it can hold that spot. I am currently five episodes from the end of season 1 and ten days officially into the Picket Fences DailyView Rewatch.

Spoilers

“The Body Politic”

The next episode of Picket Fences brought a couple of major controversial topics to the front of the story.

One, a local dentist is fired because he would not reveal to his patients that he was HIV positive.

Two, a doctor refuses to allow his wife to be disconnected from life support despite the fact that she had been declared dead. The reason? She was pregnant and he wanted to keep her alive so she could give birth to the baby.

The first case was very much of the typical prejudicial situation that the show specialized in. The second case was a whole pro life, pro choice debate that has still be a major issue in the world.

Of course, the cases lead to a fight between Jimmy and Jill as they wound up on separate sides of the debates. Tom Skerritt and Kathy Baker are at the top of their game in these knock down verbal fights.

This was also a great episode for Douglas Wambaugh and Judge Henry Bone. Wambaugh was extremely effective in both of the cases, including a strong cross-examination of Jill. Henry Bone, once again, showed what a well-meaning judge he is. You can see the heavy toll that each decision he makes takes on himself.

Spoilers

“Nuclear Meltdowns”

Religious freedom comes front and center on Picket Fences as there are a couple of stories involving strange uses of the concept.

First, a church that uses ducks and goats as sacrifices? It is funny seeing Maxine flip out while sneaking into a funeral and arresting the entire church full of people. Judge Bone kicked that case very quickly.

The other story was the main one as one of Kimberly’s friends turns out pregnant, but Kim was confused. She had never even mentioned a boyfriend before. However, Kimberly saw her in a romantic kiss with her father and suddenly everything was hitting the fan.

Except, it turned out that it was not incest and instead was polygamy. Kimberly’s friend was not the daughter of the man, but one of his wives. They were Mormon.

There was another story happening as separated-at-birth twins reunited in Rome through a series of coincidences… including one sleeping with Kenny and the other having the orgasm, in her car in another part of the town. Both twins ended up as Kenny’s girlfriend in the weirdest part of the weirdo episode.

Spoilers

“Bad Moons Rising”

This was the ‘menopause-made-me-do-it episode.

I remember this one clearly when the show was first on the air and this might have been the first episode that I really fell in love with the show. The ridiculousness of the court case being argued by Douglas Wambaugh, and yet winning, only to discover that Alice Freeman, who had runover her husband with a steam roller (that image stuck with me), had made up everything as a way to get rid of her husband without a divorce. The last scene of the episode with Carter spying Alice with the doctor who testified against her together in her house was shocking.

Then, as I was watching, the B-story of the episode was fairly shocking in its own right. It was Matthew who was having dreams about sex and having his ‘penis explode.’ That topic has been done before, but what was wild was how the show had Matthew’s dream being Maxine coming to him in a bra and panties (holding chocolate cake and a baseball card). It made me wonder if they shot this regularly or if there was some kind of movie magic involved because it felt a little creepy having Lauren Holly, the actress, approach teenager Justin Shenkarow, barely dressed and, in another moment, undid her top.

Shenkarow had to have been… interested, yes?

It made me wonder how they got away with this.

Spoilers

“Frog Man”

The first time Kenny isn’t a great shot, he gets taken down.

A powerful episode dealing with the consequences of a police officer being shot and the ways that that can mess with someone’s head.

Kenny is shot by Frog Man at a jewelry shop. Frog Man, a person who had been committing crimes with frogs, was at the shop and wound up shooting Kenny twice. He just happened to get the drop on Kenny.

Kenny was rushed to surgery and Jill had to operate to pull the bullet out of him.

Eccentric frog lover Peter Lebeck (Michael Jeter) was an immediate suspect and Maxine overstepped procedure in her investigation, which led to Peter’s arrest and eventual dismissal of charges because of an illegal search and a confession that stemmed from the legal term, ‘poisonous fruits.’

This entire event led to a meltdown between Maxine and Kenny, because Kenny blamed her for not being there when he needed her and Maxine mad at Kenny for going behind her back to Jimmy. These two who have been very close really came to some dramatic tension.

It turned out that it was actually Peter’s son Milton (Chris Owen) who had shot Kenny, as the 11-year old was trying to find a hero, aka Frog Man.

Maxine and Kenny were able to work out their issues, as Jimmy pointed out that they were both at fault for the situation. That Kenny was not mad at Maxine, but at himself because he got shot and that he had taken the situation with such a lazy approach and that Maxine had blown the search and arrest because she was affected by what had happened.

The scenes with Peter and Milton at the police station before Milton was taken away were powerful and painful.

This was a really strong episode that, again, takes the plot and uses it to dive deep inside the characters that we love.

Spoilers

“Pageantry”

“High Tidings”

It’s Christmastime in Rome.

Rome Christmas brings all kinds of conflict.

A female teacher who used to be a male.

Statutory rape. Well, sort of…

Kris Kringle is arrested and takes the police station hostage. Kenny is still a great shot.

A pageant is not allowed because of the Nativity scene. Separation of church and state.

Unfortunately, Judge Bone has an issue with transsexuals. He warned Wambaugh not to bring the case into his court room. That warning was clearly never going to be kept.

Jimmy’s ex-wife Lydia comes to help with Kimberly.

These were two consecutive excellent episodes. The whole Santa takes the station hostage was tense and anxious. As it was mixed with the whole Kimberly drama that was ripping apart the Brock family making it all the more poignant.

Once again, holidays in Rome, Wisconsin are something else.