Spoilers

“Without Money”

“Final Judgment”

Picket Fences episodes E18 and E19 were kind of a two-parter focusing on euthanasia and the law against the practice.

Jill aided one of her patient’s death by turning up his morpheme. He was dying from cancer and was suffering and in pain. The patient’s family asked Jill to help him die.

This led to Jill being placed on trial. Courtney B. Vance came to town to prosecute her. He wanted to make a message out of her in the town of Rome.

The chunk of the episode featured the trial and an argument over euthanasia. The biggest argument was that the law of euthanasia was irrelevant because it was against the law and Jill admitted to breaking it.

Shockingly enough, Jill was found guilty. The next episode turned out to be the case against the law of euthanasia.

This was very well done and poor Jill is once again potentially facing jail time.

“Saint Zack”

Zack’s hands started bleeding while he was praying at church and looking at the crucifix. The blood made Rev. Henry Novotny think that Zack was a stigmatic.

The episode went into serious questions about religion, especially for Jimmy. Jimmy’s anger ended up with him declaring that Jesus was a fake.

Other students in the school started treating Zack like a saint, including asking him to heal a leukemia patient. Zack also gets hit in the head by a thrown stone.

Adam Wylie does a solid job in this episode, but there was a lot of pretentiousness in the show.

James Cromwell and Marlee Matlin make appearances in this one.

“Upbringings”

James Coburn makes a guest starring appearance as Jimmy’s big time lawyer father who comes to give Jimmy his law practice. Jimmy flips out.

The latest family episode, where the tangential family members come to the Brock family and fight, involves Jimmy and his father’s relationship.

The kids even made a comment at the family table about relatives coming over and leading to fights.

Yes, they had a family dinner scene that leads to major problems. One wonders where Douglas Wambaugh’s wife was every time he comes over to the Brock’s for dinner.

“The Son of Rome”

Violence comes to Rome once again as a teenager attempts to find money for his gambling debts by holding up Father Gary Barrett in his own confessional. The teen ends up shooting Gary with an Uzi.

This was a tough episode. I remember when it originally aired because I never thought that the show would kill off Father Barrett and I expected him to come out of his state. When he did not, it was quite the shock.

It also provided Henry Bone with some real meaty material as his friend, a man who helped him through the suicide of his son, was brain dead. Judge Bone had a terrible blow up on the bench when Barrett’s assaulter came before him.

This was the first time that we ever saw a case be sent to a different court, but clearly Henry was not impartial and had some deep seeded feelings about the situation.

Wambaugh sings a very emotional song at the end at the special spring pageant that Mayor Bey refused to cancel, despite the shock of everyone over the shooting of the priest.

Spoilers

“When in Rome”

Paranoia and hysteria engulf Rome, Wisconsin in one of the most uncomfortable episodes of Picket Fences.

Adam Wood came to Rome. Adam Wood had spent 16 years in prison for child molestation. By law, he had to announce himself to his new neighbors, which just happened to be the Brock household.

The town rallied against the man. Fear of what could happen with the children of the community sent the people of Rome into a tizzy. While completely understandable, it put the people of Rome’s prejudices front and center. It made some normally good people look unfair and bloodthirsty.

This show is not afraid to make their main characters show their warts and their own dark sides. It is quite amazing.

To throw yet another twist, Adam Wood was revealed, after his own suicide on the steps of the court house, to be the son of Judge Bone. Ray Walston gives a wonderful performance as a grieving father, shamed of his response to his son.

By the way, Ed Lawson is still in the freezer.

“Heroes and Villains”

The Dancing Bandit returned to Rome to wish Zack a happy birthday. The FBI was able to capture her. Marlee Matlin comes back to the show to reclaim the role of Laurie Bey, and she went to trial for the bank robbery she committed in season one.

Marlee Matlin brought a remarkable charm and charisma to this character. She was a trigger for a fight between the Brocks, of course, because this is Picket Fences.

Jane Kaczmarek appeared as the prosecutor for the federal government who, for some reason, wanted to try the case in Rome. She had some of the best moments of the episode, reacting to Wambaugh and looking perplexed when so many of the past things from Rome popped up during the trial (cows giving birth to humans, anyone?).

Though the jury found her not guilty, Judge Bone threw that verdict out and assigned Laurie 3000 hours of community service, meaning Marlee Matlin would be sticking around the town.

Oh, and Ed Lawson is still in the freezer.

“Changing of the Guard”

Hey! They finally pulled Ed Lawson out of the freezer!

Laurie Bey started her community service when Jimmy asked her to help find Ed Lawson, thinking that he had run off with his wife after murdering George the massage guy. They had no idea that Ed’s wife Marsha had killed both men.

When Laurie wanted to go see the Lawson house, they finally found the freezer with a lock on it. Freezers in Rome have now claimed three victims.

When Marsha returned from her trip, she put on an act that she did not know what had happened. Wambaugh was front and center in her defense. However, when she told him that she had killed both men and wanted to get through the trial without testifying so she could avoid perjury because she had book and movie deals waiting for her story, Wambaugh had a crisis of faith in himself and his job.

This case was used to look at the character of Douglas Wambaugh and it gave us dimensions that we may not have seen before. He has always been portrayed as a shyster, a character as he always said. This looked at the toll taken by defense attorneys and how difficult it could be to put guilty defendants back on the street. This is a theme David E. Kelley has used in several series, including The Practice and Boston Legal.

Meanwhile, Laurie Bey was asked to be the mayor of Rome, a job with a short life span. In not even three full seasons, we have had multiple mayors including Bill Pugen, Howard Buss, Rachel Harris, Jill Brock (and the guy who was a temporary co-mayor with her), and Ed Lawson. Three of them are dead now.

Spoilers

“Close Encounters”

It’s Valentine’s Day and the heart is playing tricks on those from Rome, Wisconsin.

Carter pronounces a singer dead, but she comes back to life.

Aisha senses that Littleton was attracted to her… and he was, but could not act on it.

Max and Kenny have sex, and they fight over what it meant.

Unfortunately, none of these stories really worked well for me. I found the Carter and the singer to be the best one, but Carter said that he was not attracted to her and I found that totally incorrect.

Max and Kenny is the only one of the couples who are trying to keep it going, but they were also the ones that were the worst to each other.

Loretta Devine guest starred as Marla Melrose and she was very charming and fun. Carter had to be out of his mind to reject her.

Spoilers

“Freezer Burn”

Another murder in Rome. This time, the victim has been shoved into a freezer, much like Ginny. Except Ginny’s was accidental and this was intentional.

The victim turned out to be a special masseuse who was giving sensual massages to the women of Rome. He kept a book that indicated which women he would give the “Squiggly.” The mind races.

Turned out that Ed Lawson, who was the main suspect because he had threatened the man, was married to the woman who killed the masseuse. She was in love with the man and mad because Ed had chased him off. She then whacked Ed in the back of the head and shoved him into the freezer too.

This was a great episode and I remember the moment it happened, and it was shocking.

“Frogman Returns”

The Frogman returned to Rome, signing and dancing about frogs, and his son, the same son who had shot Kenny in season one, sued for emancipation from his father.

The other story was really strong too. Matthew, in trying to move the car from the driveway, accidently hits Zack and injures him. Thankfully he did not injure him as badly as he could have. However, Jill arrived on the scene and hit Matthew in anger over the accident.

This unseated some deep feelings from Matthew, believing that Jill did not love him as much as she did Zack or Kimberly.

Justin Shenkarow, the young actor who played Matthew, did a tremendous job playing the anger and the pain of his belief his mother did not love him as much as his brother. He was not just mad, there were times when he portrayed the anger extremely well, with a glance or an expression. It was a very solid and, at times, subtle performance.

“Mr. Seed Goes to Town”

Family drama continues in the Brock house. When Lydia arrives asking for permission to use Jimmy’s sperm to become pregnant, she throws the entire Brock clan into chaos. And just like holidays in the Brock house, it always becomes about more than the overlying situation.

Judge Bone, who was tired of the weird cases he had to rule upon, decided to place Jimmy, Jill and Lydia under house arrest until they could come up with a answer without the court having to make the ruling.

So he put them all together and guaranteed fireworks. Deep hidden doubts and motives come crashing out from everyone, including Kimberly, Matthew and Zack. Zack actually had one of the more brutal moments when he wished that Lydia was dead. Zack and Matthew also had overheard Kimberly saying how she was intrigued with the idea of having a ‘real’ sibling, which made them feel terrible.

This type of episode has happened several times over the run of this series, from “Thanksgiving” to “Buried Alive.” There is always something more under the surface in Rome, Wisconsin.

Oh, and by the way, Ed Lawson is still in the freezer. I mean, he was the mayor. Has no one checked on him?

Spoilers

“Away in the Manger”

This was the episode that was supposed to have been the crossover event with The X-Files. Apparently, David E. Kelley and X-Files creator Chris Carter had wanted to do a event involving cows and alien DNA. However, the fact was that Picket Fences was on CBS TV and The X-Files was on FOX TV and a crossover event at that time across two competing networks was just not going to work. So the great idea wound up being squashed.

However, while all the references to Picket Fences were removed from the X-Files episode (Mulder and Scully were reportedly supposed to go to Rome, Wisconsin), there were still references left in this Picket Fences episode. Carter Pike mentioned about weird things going on in Delta Glen, Wisconsin (the city where the X-Files episode was set) such as alien DNA, cows, a plane crash, and a doctor named Larsen (which are all involved in the X-Files episode).

How cool that could have been, this episode has cows giving birth to human babies. You certainly would think that Mulder would be intrigued by that.

As with all Picket Fences episodes, this main plot was used to deconstruct main characters of the show. This one was used to help look at Kimberly’s belief that there is no God as well as continuing to confuse the young Brock boys. Poor Zack has no idea what religion he is or which one he wants to partake in.

Former mayor Rachel Harris returned for this episode. She had really disappeared since losing the mayor’s office back in season two, but she popped up here as the owner of the cow and the mother of the baby boy that cow gave birth to.

Spoilers

“Cold Spell”

The final day of the November Picket Fences DailyView Rewatch arrived. I watched today’s episode early this morning before I went to school and now I am doing the final write-up of November. I will continue watching Picket Fences episodes as I am currently in the third season, but it may not necessarily be every day. For the rest of the watch, if I have a day where I have a lot of things scheduled, I will not compel myself to watch an episode. I will absolutely continue to finish up season three and then go through season four of this series. I do love Picket Fences.

This was a tough episode because it started a trend. Ginny was found in her home, dead and inside a freezer. She had been dead for three weeks, according to Carter. It was a shocking death when I first saw the episode back in the 1990s and it was a reminder of how sad it was when one of the original cast was sent off in this manner.

Paul Williams came to Rome playing Ginny’s brother, who was struggling to understand why it took the people of Rome three weeks to realize that Ginny was missing. He never got a good answer to that question but, as Jill said, “Rome does well with funerals” and Ginny’s service was fully attended. Paul Williams sang a version of his classic song, Rainbow Connection in honor of Ginny.

Ed Lawson continued campaigning for mayor as an election was coming up. Carter declared his own candidacy for mayor, to a series of giggles from the crowd. Jill had decided to run last episode to become a duly elected mayor and not just the temporary mayor that she had been.

The other main story featured a Wiccan family whose daughter painted a pentagram on the school walls to protect herself from the fear of the black kids. Littleton was front and center for this, leading the way in trying to get the young girl removed from her mother’s care.

I find it fascinating that Rome, Wisconsin has Wiccan, Christian Scientists, Jews, Mormons and many other religions floating around, but they are shaken by the African Americans coming into the school. If there was any place that should fit in, Rome seems to be it.

Spoilers

“Enemy Lines”

After trying to stop the bused Green Bay kids from coming to Rome, Wisconsin, Jill Brock, as one of the co-mayors, had to face the consequences of her actions as Judge Nance, played by Paul Winfield, marched into her office and placed her under arrest for contempt of a federal order.

He placed Jill in a jail cell and made noise that she was going to be the one that he made an example out of.

Nance took the time to come and see Jill and the pair of them spent most of the episode engaging verbally with each other. Both gave some great performances in the small jail cell. We learned about the motive of Nance, who had clearly had something driving him to be as desperate as he had been.

Meanwhile, John was struggling with the new normal of Rome, a town that suddenly felt less welcoming than it had before for the D.A. He even tried to get taken off the case heading to the Supreme Court, but Judge Bone would not recuse him.

Kimberly and one of the new black girls from Green Bay got into it as well. I remember these two becoming friends, but their start was extremely shaky. Kimberly was nervous and the other girl, named Aisha, picked up on it immediately, which led to a fight between them.

This was a decent episode, but honestly, some of the discussion between Nance and Jill felt forced. It was the typical Picket Fences fight that had its origins in other traumas. Here it turned out that Nance was dying of liver cancer and he was trying to fix race relations before he died. I’m also not certain that the inclusion of the story about his son made sense when they were including it. Winfield delivered it well, but I’m not sure it worked.

Spoilers

“The Bus Stops Here”

Racial tensions take over Rome as a federal order came down that 400 black students from Green Bay would be bussed into Rome schools.

The parents of Rome got together, fully recognizing their prejudice, but trying to find a way to stop the kids from being brought in.

Paul Winfield played Federal court judge Harold Nance, who made the order. There were some epic scenes between him and Judge Henry Bone. Winfield and Ray Walston bring similar massive personas that take up the whole room.

I have to say that one of the things I really love about this show is how they use all of their secondary and tertiary characters are characters we have seen in previous episodes. Ed from the jury episode was back. So was a couple of the teachers from previous stories. It felt like a real little town with faces that we are familiar with. Cool.

The ending scene with the National Guard coming in to confront the Rome police department who was deployed to prevent the students from getting off the bus. The moment was tense, but Jimmy ordered his deputies to back down and the black kids walked into the school.

In a side story, the murder trial appeal winds up heading to the Supreme Court. Seeing Wambaugh and Littleton hugging in celebration was a hoot.

Spoilers

E1: “Survival of the Fittest”

E2: “Systematic Abuse”

I kicked off the third season of Picket Fences with the first two episodes. They start it off with a murder case over a sixteen year old girl named Susan. A drifter named Brian Latham had tried to pick up the girl and is arrested for the crime.

When they could not find the girl, Kenny, who had found a cross among Brian’s things, went in to see Brian and asked him to help direct the police to a place where the body might be. Kenny asked him to help, Catholic to Catholic. Brian told Kenny that he could check a pond.

Susan was in the pond, wrapped in a tarp. Wambaugh tried to get the body thrown out as fruits of a poison tree, but Judge Bone, in a surprise ruling, decided to allow the evidence anyway.

Episode two focused on the trial itself, with Littleton and Wambaugh battling in court. The show does a great job of showing the trial, with all of the testimony.

It felt clear that Brian Latham was the guilty party. There was nothing that led us to doubt that. Until the final scene that is. When Brian had been found guilty, he spoke to Kenny and told him, Catholic to Catholic, that he did not kill Susan.

What a cliffhanger. There was no question that he was the guilty party. The show went to great lengths to show that. The glances that Brian made when Wambaugh was coaching him on his testimony seemed obvious that he was understanding what he had to do.

And then… like a bomb… everything we knew about the case was flipped on its side. There was some top line writing involved here.

There was one laughable moment. The trial was being broadcast over local TV and they showed a group of boys in what looked like a locker room including Matthew watching the trial. They were arguing about what they thought of the case. This was silly. No group of 5ht graders (I think that was what Matthew was) are going to have a TV tuned in to a trial in the locker room. That scene pulled me out of the story.

Otherwise, this was a great couple of episodes that kicked off a major story for the third season.

Spoilers

“My Left Shoe”

Father Barrett is revealed to have a shoe fetish and, when Howard Buss went on the local station and revealed it to all of Rome, the questions about Father Barrett’s worthiness are raised by the whole town.

It also opened up the whole town to wonder about masturbation. Especially Matthew, who worried that it was actually a sin. Matthew’s discussions with Jill, Jimmy and even, eventually, Wambaugh were hilarious and oh so real.

There was a lot of hypocrisy in this episode, since it was just a few episodes ago that Barrett was one of the leading voices rallying against Rachel Harris, a fact that was brought up a couple of different times.

The ending when the city of Rome stood in his parish in support of him was an emotional moment.

“Frosted Flakes”

A sad and tragic story about a young boy who has leukemia and has been given just 6 months to live. His parents wanted to explore the possibility of the experimental procedure of cryogenics in order to freeze the boy until a cure could be found.

Of course, this topic divided the Rome community, including Jimmy and Jill. Everyone in the community wanted to have their say about the idea of cryogenically freezing a nine-year old boy. Sadly, a lot of the arguments overshadowed the tragic story the show was presenting to us.

Judge Bone always does a great job of summarizing the situation though and wrapping things back up.

“Howard’s End”

Howard Buss’s Alzheimer’s Disease was getting worse. It was so bad that he was in the mayor’s office, in a diaper, with a bow and arrow, thinking that he was Bill Pugen.

His son Kevin, who we saw earlier this season needing a heart transplant, found his father suffering and he took a gun from the desk drawer and shot Howard in the head.

After talking with Howard’s daughter, Jill decided against the surgery that could have saved Howard’s life. This choice made Jill feel very guilty for the rest of the episode.

Kevin stood trial for the murder of his father, and nobody really wanted to see him convicted. Littleton even voiced this to Maxine, wondering if he should cross examine Kevin. He chose to do so to honor the adversarial process.

However, when Jimmy got on the stand, he testified that Kevin was unable to distinguish between right and wrong. This was a switch for Jimmy, helping to open up the insanity defense for Kevin. The perfect image of Jimmy was tarnished, but many were thankful for it.

The funeral for Howard was remarkably emotional, with Judge Bone getting up to prevent Wambaugh from speaking. The whole picture of the town of Rome walking past the coffin, tapping on it because Howard had asked Judge Bone to do it saying that ‘he’ll hear it,’ was extremely emotional and nearly broke me. It was a beautiful end to a character that had been important since the first season.

This brought the second season of Picket Fences to a close. There were some of the best episodes of the series in this season. Overall, it may be considered the best season of the show’s time on the air.

Spoilers

“Buried Alive”

A traffic stop by Maxine leads to a a special episode of Picket Fences that examines the relationships of everyone involved.

I remember this episode, but I have to say I thought it was a holiday episode. However, it was simply a visit. Jill’s father returned and this episode had the flavor of the Thanksgiving episode from season one, which is why I seemed to remember it that way.

Maxine pulled Hayden, Jill’s father, over for rolling through a stop sign (something I think about every time I do the same thing) and things get out of hand. Maxine arrests Hayden, taking him down to the station. She says she would drop the charges for an apology, but Hayden refuses to do so.

In order to try and smooth everything over, Jimmy invites Maxine to dinner with them.

This triggers all sorts of fireworks that somehow ends up with an examination of the marriage of Jimmy and Jill.

It is a classic Picket Fences episode that goes into problem after problem, all stemming from each other. Each character laid out their personal resentments and their inner most dialogue to each other in an uncomfortable and suspenseful manner.

“Buried Alive” used events from the last year worth of episodes to inform the arguments. Episodes involving Maxine’s therapist, Hayden’s girlfriend, Jill kissing her former fiancée, Thanksgiving, the under sheriff drama were all referenced. I love the use of continuity. Despite the fact that these Picket Fences episodes feel self contained for the most part, they constantly use the things that happen as part of their lives. Just like real people.

I’m not sure that real people lay out their dirty laundry like the Brocks and those in their orbit do in real life (without complete devastation to relationships), but there is no doubt that it makes for riveting drama when they do it on screen.

Spoilers

“System Down”

James Earl Jones guest stars in a dramatic episode that is as relevant today as it was back in the early 1990s.

The show is similar to the classic movie 12 Angry Men as the show features the conflicts and dialogue inside the jury room. Jimmy’s reputation as a fair man winds him up on the jury despite the fact that this case was involving the shooting of police officers.

A drug dealing black man shoots two police officers who are kicking in his door. There was a video as well.

It felt as if this should have been an open and shut case, but the defense argued that the suspect had a reasonable fear for his life at the time and that this was self-defense.

Watching the jury debate this point was fascinating. The jury spent almost an equal amount of time attacking each other in the jury room. We meet Ed Lawson, played by Richard Masur, who would become an important recurring character. He is an unlikable man who is implied to be a bigot.

There is no falling action in this story. I felt like I wanted to see how some people reacted to Jimmy on this decision, but the show does go to black with Jimmy sitting in the jury box after giving the ‘not guilty’ verdict.

A few scenes between James Earl Jones and Fyvush Finkel were epic. The show does a solid job of giving the jurors who we do not know personalities and an easy way to familiarize us with who they are as characters.

Spoilers

“Squatter’s Rights”

This was the second consecutive episode of Picket Fences that I had not seen before. It is strange that there are episodes of a show that I thought I had seen all of them keeps finding episodes that I hadn’t.

In fact, this was the introduction of the potential relationship between John and Maxine. I remember during the original run thinking that the relationship came out of nowhere, but this gives the origin of it.

There were two main stories in this episode, one I liked and one I did not. The one I did not involved the alleged murder of a husband by her grossly overweight wife. The one that I did featured Douglas Wambaugh fighting against being thrown out of his synagogue.

Good first. Wambaugh’s outlandishness finally pushed his rabbi over the edge. The rabbi told Wambaugh that he was expelled from the synagogue. Being Wambaugh, he was going to fight. He insisted on a Beth Din, which is a rabbinical court of Judaism, to state his case.

The whole Beth Din was used as a way to deconstruct the character of Douglas Wambaugh, looking at his behavior and how people react to him. An emotional response from Kimberly and a kind note from Zack saved Wambaugh and gave him a chance to show his softer side.

The second story Dealt with an overweight woman and her dead husband. She confessed to his murder, claiming that she sat on his head and smothered him. There was more to the story than that. I am never a fan of using overweight characters in this manner. It felt disrespectful. The actress was grossly overweight and I kept thinking about how she felt doing this role. They never showed her on her feet and I wondered if she was able to walk. None of this helped entertain me with the story.

Spoilers

“Terms of Estrangement”

What a treat.

Today, the Picket Fences series did indeed leave Hulu, so I had to start watching on Amazon Prime and I am so grateful that I could because this was the best episode of the show so far.

In fact, during the X-Files rewatch I have been doing, I have come across a bunch of the first season episodes that I did not remember. Kind of like a special little surprise. However, I had not come across any Picket Fences episodes that I had not seen… until this morning.

I do not remember ever seeing this episode before and, it was so great, that I cannot imagine that I had ever seen it before. As I said earlier, what a treat.

One of Jimmy’s former partners who had gone too far once in an interrogation, leading to the death of the suspect, kidnapped Kimberly.

Rick, played by Louis Gossett Jr., hid Kimberly away in a bomb shelter that was soundproofed, and then he went to see Jimmy at the police station, to “offer help” but actually to to play mind games.

The portrayal of a shattered man who had lost everything, including his wife and daughter, was done brilliantly by Gossett Jr. and his interactions with jimmy showed another level for Jimmy. Tom Skerritt was unbelievable in this performance. His internal anguish and feeling of helplessness came through as he tried to remain strong for his family.

The ending was tense and suspenseful as Jimmy was forced to attack Rick in order for Rick to give up Kimberly. Jimmy mournfully saying “Don’t make me kill you” was heart-wrenching.

I was not expecting something so amazing and unexpected. I loved Picket Fences and I love this episode so much.

It’s funny, but all three of my top favorite Picket Fences episodes as of this watching, featured FBI Agent Donald Morrell, played by Sam Anderson: this episode, The Green Bay Chopper and Be My Valentine. Sam Anderson who played Bernard on my all-time favorite show LOST.