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.