Spoilers

“Sacred Hearts”

Picket Fences was a very topic heavy show and one of the topics that David E. Kelley’s show covered a lot was that of assisted suicide/euthanasia. This was the first time the idea came up in Rome, Wisconsin as a singing nun, described by Maxine as a serial mercy killer, helped ease the pain of a leukemia patient by ending her life.

This topic is one that was extremely passionate on both sides and created a lot of uncertainty among all of the characters in Rome. This week, it was Judge Henry Bone who spoke about it on the bench as he made a shocking ruling in the case. Ray Walston was amazing in this performance.

The episode also dove deeply into religion and the questions surrounding what happens when you die, a question that was plaguing poor Zachary Brock after he had seen the leukemia patient’s dead corpse accidentally. His nightmares only confused him more with what Heaven, Hell or any kind of afterlife might contain.

As always, Jimmy is under the microscope as his own religious doubts are touched upon. I know that this is a theme that is returned to again over the life of the series. In this episode, Jimmy’s oldest son Matthew called his dad out on his own habit of breaking the 10 Commandments. This was a hilarious scene.

Picket Fences has never shied away from the controversial and this episode made that case clear. It is brilliant writing when you can take a controversy and make each side of the issue feel both right and wrong at the same time.

Another long term storyline is introduced here as Howard Buss, who made his first appearance recently, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease. Howard’s arc will continue for quite awhile and this is where he becomes a major character in the show.

Spoilers

“The Contenders”

It is election night in Rome, Wisconsin and there is a surprise write-in candidate, Jill Brock.

Jill decided to join the race for mayor initially to try and get Mayor Pugen to agree to some projects that she wanted to get done. Jill decided she really wanted it.

This was a look on the world of politics, especially how the negativity can mess with people. The press brought up the fact that Jill and Jimmy had gotten together prior to Jimmy and his first wife, Lydia, had actually been legally separated. This brought up huge scars for Kimberly and we got some specifics of how this whole thing happened.

Meanwhile, Kenny arrests a man who was on the run from tax evasion who turned out to be a former pro boxer, “The Poet” Jeff Freed, played by Henry Brown. He was a hero to young Jimmy. Jimmy challenges the former champ to an exhibition boxing match to raise money for his defense. Jimmy was a former Gold Gloves boxer and wanted to face off with him. The relationship between Freed and Jimmy was strong through the episode.

Kenny is knocked out and Pugen wins re-election. Watching Douglas Wambaugh sadly leaving the boxing match after losing the election was devastating.

This is a perfect example of Picket fences. It takes the events and plot points to inform conflict among the characters, whether or not it makes the characters look bad. This is such a wonderful character piece.

Spoilers

“Remembering Rosemary“

Picket Fences had a classic Halloween episode as they jumped int0 the history of Rome, Wisconsin and reopened a case from the past.

The case of Rosemary Bauer was unknown to all of us, but the writers did a magnificent job of making it important to the audience by placing several of our key characters at the heart of the original case.

It was believed that the beautiful Rosemary Bauer had jumped out of her window and committed suicide when she had found her husband having an affair with the maid. The maid, Karina Shaw, sunk into a mental breakdown, never to speak again… that is, until the most recent Halloween in Rome when, during the playing of “Ragtime Gal” Karina said the word, “murder.”

That was enough to get Maxine’s investigatory juices flowing and she tried to get the case reopened. The Mayor and Jimmy, who were new to their posts when the suicide happened, were insistent that it was a suicide. Rosemary had been Jill’s patient and the suicide shook Jill’s confidence.

With Maxine, Kenny and Carter leading the way, Jimmy started to wonder if he had rushed to judgement back 10 years prior to get the town past the suicide.

With an ending straight out of Psycho, Leo Bauer, the husband, was revealed to have killed Rosemary in a fit of rage when he found her in bed with Karina, and Leo had dug up the body of Rosemary and was keeping it in his house, dressing her in her wedding gown.

A very engaging and intriguing mystery and a solid pay off. Leo’s insanity did kind of come out of nowhere, but grief had truly crippled him.

The episode was also fun when they went to Carter’s Halloween party and we saw Douglas Wambaugh dressed as Dracula singing songs and Judge Bone dressed as a Martian (a throwback to actor Ray Walston’s past in My Favorite Martian).

This episode saw they debut of Howard Buss, who would become a major character over the life of the series.

Spoilers

“Frank, the Potato Man”

Frank the Potato Man was one of my favorite recurring characters on Picket Fences. He had been mentioned earlier in the first season, but had not made an actual appearance. So now, we get some good people directing their biases toward poor Frank.

There is a serial bather running around Rome, breaking into houses and taking a bath. As silly as it sounded, it planted worries about sexual deviancies and sexual predators. And Frank, who had been watching high schoolers from across the street, becomes a prime suspect.

Because Frank was strange, odd… he became an easy target and Maxine and Kenny went out of their way to prove that Frank was the serial bather. They had no evidence except some of the slightest circumstantial evidence.

Still Rome gets stirred up into a craze. Even Jill, in worry over her children’s safety, was reacting in such a bigoted manner, all because Frank was different.

Douglas Wambaugh stepped up this episode though. His confrontation with Maxine over her tactics in trying to arrest Frank was an episode highlight. Any time Wambaugh drops the clown act and speaks truth, he is powerful. His reference to his parents dying in the Holocaust and that he knows about bigotry and oppression was an amazing moment. It is why a character who is seemingly as over the top as Wambaugh is, truthfully, a compelling and complex person.

Actor David Proval does a great job as Frank, the Potato Man. The sadness in his eyes is just painful as he takes the bigotry from everyone around him.

The ending of this episode was sad as we, once again, see that our main characters are just as likely to make mistakes and be bad as anyone. This show was truly ahead of its time.

Spoilers

“The Autumn of Rome”

A tough episode of Picket Fences that shined a light on the behavior and choices of all of our favorite characters all centered around the upcoming mayoral election between Mayor Pugen and Douglas Wambaugh.

It also goes into some deep character bits throughout the story, including fat shaming, lack of respect, businessmen and their criminal acts, and police overstepping their rights.

The end of this episode did feel anti-climatic and I think that that is the whole idea of the episode. There were no easy answer to these difficult questions and Picket Fences was never about giving easy answers to challenging questions.

One of the best things about the show is that these characters are real people, who all do good, who all do bad, who all just try to get by. No one is one-dimensional. They are all deep and developed.

By the way, there is also Douglas Wambaugh singing. Oh, the outrageousness of this show is just wonderful.

This is really the first time when our heroes looked tarnished. It would not be the last time.

The official DailyView Rewatch of Picket Fences starts tomorrow. I will be watching at least one episode daily through the month of November. I am looking forward to it.

Spoilers

“Mr. Dreeb Comes to Town”

The dancing midget from Twin Peaks arrives in Rome, Wisconsin riding on the back of an elephant.

Okay, so it wasn’t the dancing midget. However, the actor, Michael J. Anderson, who played said dancing midget played Peter Dreeb, a circus performer who had stolen an elephant from that circus because the circus owners were being cruel to the animal and beating it as a way of training.

Honestly, though, the animal cruelty aspect of this episode was down the list of the storylines. Mr. Dreeb and Maxine had some dates, and that was higher up than the case. Wambaugh and Mayor Pugen were looking for any camera they could stand in front of since they were both running for mayor. Kimberly’s gifted teacher was dismissed from his job because of a tumor that he had in his brain that was affecting his mental state. The teacher asked Jill to help with the surgery.

There were a bunch of scenes strung together without that major throughline. The finale of the show was very emotional and helped make the episode finish strongly, especially when focused on Jill, Jimmy and Kimberly.

This was a good episode with a strong ending, but was weaker than what this show is known for.

Spoilers

“The Green Bay Chopper”

The second episode of Picket Fences is a classic episode that brought a serial kidnapper to the borders of Rome, Wisconsin named The Green Bay Chopper.

When a little brought a severed hand to school for show and tell, Maxine knew what this meant. The serial kidnapper who would cut off the right hand of his victims had come to Rome.

The FBI followed close behind and was anything but happy with the involvement of the Rome Sheriff Department.

This episode made the deputies and Jimmy look better than the last one did. M.E. Carter made some crucial discoveries. Kenny and Maxine found the car that they believed the Chopper had left, including samples of urine from victims in the trunk. Ginny could tell the severed hand had been removed from a dentist because, as she said, she could read palms.

When Carter said that the hand had been removed after death, the case was now a homicide investigation, preventing the FBI from insisting that the deputies stay out of the way. Another brilliant courtroom scene featuring Douglas Wambaugh for the Rome Sheriff’s Department! Fyvush Finkel was listed as a guest star on the episode, but this was one more reason why he would become a series regular. The few minutes you spend with Douglas Wambaugh is always some of the most entertaining parts of an episode.

Spoilers

“Pilot”

It is strange how things work out.

I am starting a DailyView through the month of November, re-watching one of my all-time favorite TV shows, Picket Fences. I hadn’t considered doing another re-watch at EYG for now, especially since I am doing Moonlighting, The X-Files, and American Horror Story already. However, when I discovered that I could see the entire series of Picket Fences on Hulu, well, that changed my mind.

I was watching The X-Files episode called “Eve” when I thought that it was the episode that was intended to be the X-Files/Picket Fences crossover. I did my research and realized that it was not that episode, which was among the X-Files’ second season.

I own season one of Picket Fences on DVD, but I have not seen the rest of the series since it was on TV back in the 1990s. I loved this show very much so I took a chance and Googled whether or not it was available on any streaming service. Lo and behold, I fund that it was available on Hulu, the same service where I watch Moonlighting, The X-Files and AHS.

I couldn’t believe it. This David E. Kelley show was so quirky and clever, with amazing characters and acting. I decided that, not only would I watch the series on a re-watch, I would make it a DailyView through November. I had been looking for something to do for a goal for November and this works perfectly.

The pilot episode is listed as both episode one and two on Wikipedia, but only episode one on Hulu, so I am not sure how to classify it. For now, I am considering this only episode one.

This kicked off with the murder of a man who was playing the Tin Man in a local play of The Wizard of Oz. It appeared to be a heart attack, but thanks to the overzealous medical examiner Carter Pike, an injection spot was found and it was proven that the Tin Man had died via poison.

Sheriff Jimmy Brock (Tom Skerritt) and Dr. Jill Brock (Kathy Baker) are at the center of the case as they always would be. Their relationship was the heart of the show, good or bad, fighting or happy, their love was everything.

One of my favorite television characters of all-time was everybody’s lawyer, Douglas Wambaugh, played by the irreplaceable Fyvush Finkel. Judge Henry Bone is another character that makes his debut here, played by Ray Walston.

The show featured a good chunk of twists and turns and plenty of courtroom shenanigans. It also focuses heavily on its characters’ moral dilemmas, just like this episode’s one where Jimmy used his wife’s job as a doctor to gain a confession with the use of privileged information. As many Picket Fences cases, it put a strain on the marriage as well as their jobs.

One of the standouts from the the Poltergeist movie was Zelda Rubinstein, who appeared as police dispatcher Ginny Weeden. She fit right in with the rest of the eccentric residents of Rome, Wisconsin.

I am so excited about being able to re-live this multiple Emmy winning series. Without the X-Files re-watch, I would have never gone looking for this series and I would not have found that it was readily available. Fate is amazing sometimes.