Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Mission: Impossible -- Episode 19: Bayou


To Watch: Click Here

Synopsis in 3 sentences or less:
The IMF team goes to Louisiana to stop a nightclub owner who is running a kidnapping and slavery ring.

Memorable Quote:
Grant, you're now officially a member of the undead.  ~Phelps

Highlight:
When it comes to voodoo story lines, I'm in.  Just ask my good friend Mama Lorraine.

Lowlight:
The big guy's Southern drawl (or whatever that was) was annoying.

Other thoughts, observations, and questions I didn’t ask when I was in fourth grade:
  • Some great Dixieland jazz in the club scenes.
  • I don't see how the two goons in the alley would get the jump on Max so easily after how he was portrayed as a champion boxer in Spy.
  • I'm not sure why Pepper is so mad at Morgan after seeing him at the voodoo ceremony.  And I can't believe that a video screen would be that convincing.  And then how did they know that Pepper would attack Morgan on the porch when she did? 
  • 42:11 - goofy moment when Max and Nick show up to rescue the slave girls and they all pleasantly smile and sigh at the same time.
  • Rather than face Pepper, Morgan decides to run off the boardwalk and get eaten by alligators.  Victoria James would have been proud of that maneuver.

Final Analysis:
Not a great episode by any means, but as is the case with Live and Let Die and Walking Dead, I'm a sucker for a good voodoo plot, and the Dixieland jazz and bayou setting help make this episode seem better than it is.  Ranking it 9 out of 19.

Well, we made it through Season 1.  Having not seen this series since it first aired almost 30 years ago, I wasn't sure what to expect when starting this project, and so far I've been disappointed.  There were two strong episodes (The Pawn and The Legacy), and everything else has been either mediocre, below average, or disastrous.  Hopefully Season 2 will be at least a little more inspired, but first it will be time to resume the movie reviews with MI2, which may be Tom Cruise at his Cruiseiest. 

2 comments:

  1. Like most episodes of this series, the location work was solid and they captured the atmosphere pretty well, but I'm typically not big on voodoo plots and with this series I preferred the quasi-voodoo Aboriginal "Cattle King" episode to this one. It's been a month since I watched this one so I'm not remembering plenty of details but I do remember thinking the say about how easily the random goons laid waste to supposedly tough guy Max. The more the episode went on the less engaged I was and overall didn't walk away impressed here. Nice comparison of Morgan's alligator-dinner surrender to Victoria James.

    Season 1 of this series was a disappointment for me as well. I had only seen about one and a half episodes of season 1 back in 1988 and 1989 so I didn't know what I was getting into. My memories were almost all from season 2 episodes which I preferred (when you resume with the season 2 opener, get ready for some of the most amazing special effects you've seen!! and if you think I'm being sarcastic you're right!). We agree on one episode ("The Pawn") as being a first-rate hour in season 1, but for me "The Killer" was the other masterpiece. Those were the only two I'd rate in the top-tier but "Spy" and "Reprisal" were at least a tick above "mediocre" for me. There was indeed a lot of mediocrity though and a healthier clip of all-out clunkers than most shows of its era. With all that said, I still found it better executed than season 1 of the "MacGyver" reboot! Hopefully you'll find a little more to like in season 2 but I still suspect you'll be relieved to be through this series 16 episodes from now.

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