Discuss, review and rate Bizarre.
Written by Brian Clemens
Directed by Leslie Norman
6.33 - Bizarre
Bizarre, oh how you disappoint me. Why is it that knowing full well that this was the final episode and should therefore have been a wonderful celebration of this amazing series did Clemens deliver this! It is such a disappointment and there is so much wrong with it that it's hard to find any merit, but, I will say that Roy Kinnear is as wonderful as ever, and the opening scene is great, however Sally Nesbitt was so memorable as Ola in The Joker that she instantly makes me want to watch that instead!
What I find most upsetting about this episode is Steeds attitude to Tara. He delights in offloading the night watch in the graveyard for Tara to just sit there and freeze, then ditches her at the end to shack up with a couple of fillies underground!
The character of Tara was finally starting to find ground and Clemens seems to undo all the hard work in this, she virtually has nothing to do! Quite why he felt the need to include the smug Captain Cordell who achieves nothing but dying is beyond me, and why we have kitchen sink scenes with the bitter old wife is a mystery, it's such a shame as the last few episodes of Season Six are thrilling and to end on this means the show really ends with a whimper.
What I find most upsetting about this episode is Steeds attitude to Tara. He delights in offloading the night watch in the graveyard for Tara to just sit there and freeze, then ditches her at the end to shack up with a couple of fillies underground!
The character of Tara was finally starting to find ground and Clemens seems to undo all the hard work in this, she virtually has nothing to do! Quite why he felt the need to include the smug Captain Cordell who achieves nothing but dying is beyond me, and why we have kitchen sink scenes with the bitter old wife is a mystery, it's such a shame as the last few episodes of Season Six are thrilling and to end on this means the show really ends with a whimper.
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darren
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Seeing this back in 1992 when rediscovering the show was so thrilling but it's an ultimately very disappointing episode.
I agree with Norw27, the treatment of Tara in this episode is awful. She stuck in those repetitive hospital bedroom scenes asking the same question over and over again when we already know the answer. Since this is another one of those rewrite an old Adam Adamant Lives! Episode you can really feel them padding out to the end. You get a totally new agent who gets lots of screen time and even a kitchen sink scene (I get the felling it's supposed to be funny but Leslie Norman doesn't pick up on it - there's reference to having egg on her face and she does and wipes it on everyone around).
The pluses are Roy Kinnear (his death still saddens me as he had so much more to give - at least we can enjoy his son's impressive performance) as Happychap, he and Macnee always had great chemistry. Some of the sets are quite nice. Fulton MacKay is always good value. The funeral theme is nice... The first time before it becomes repetitive.
A sad note to end on. I never really cared for the tag either. It really is shark jumping.
3/10
I agree with Norw27, the treatment of Tara in this episode is awful. She stuck in those repetitive hospital bedroom scenes asking the same question over and over again when we already know the answer. Since this is another one of those rewrite an old Adam Adamant Lives! Episode you can really feel them padding out to the end. You get a totally new agent who gets lots of screen time and even a kitchen sink scene (I get the felling it's supposed to be funny but Leslie Norman doesn't pick up on it - there's reference to having egg on her face and she does and wipes it on everyone around).
The pluses are Roy Kinnear (his death still saddens me as he had so much more to give - at least we can enjoy his son's impressive performance) as Happychap, he and Macnee always had great chemistry. Some of the sets are quite nice. Fulton MacKay is always good value. The funeral theme is nice... The first time before it becomes repetitive.
A sad note to end on. I never really cared for the tag either. It really is shark jumping.
3/10
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Frankymole
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TrueIndigo
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I've been reading Cult TV: The Golden Age of ITC by Robert Sellers (2006) and happen to see that, during this period in time at Elstree actor Kenneth Cope -- who played the ghost Marty in Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) -- had a dressing room next to Linda Thorson, and mentioned that she gave him her electric kettle because she was finally leaving the studio. There's obviously a behind-the-scenes sadness that hangs over this episode, since people knew by then the series as a whole was closing down.
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Ian Wegg
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Some memories of this from first watching, particularly Mother's comment about an open and shut case - "open the grave, shut the grave". Roy Kinnear is always a pleasure; Fulton Mackay usually so but sadly not well utilised this time.
I enjoyed it on the whole but too many faults to give it top marks.
7/10
...and this makes the final episode for me to watch, nothing left on the TiVo. I'm now going to total up all the marks.
~iw
I enjoyed it on the whole but too many faults to give it top marks.
7/10
...and this makes the final episode for me to watch, nothing left on the TiVo. I'm now going to total up all the marks.
~iw
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mousemeat
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Ian Wegg wrote:Some memories of this from first watching, particularly Mother's comment about an open and shut case - "open the grave, shut the grave". Roy Kinnear is always a pleasure; Fulton Mackay usually so but sadly not well utilised this time.
I enjoyed it on the whole but too many faults to give it top marks.
7/10
...and this makes the final episode for me to watch, nothing left on the TiVo. I'm now going to total up all the marks.
~iw
I would concur..about farewell episode...as I re watched it last night..after a hiatus of several years....and for a final episode..it was so lacking...and the end seems that it was tacked one....and with many series, it's not uncommon to have a dismal finale...heck, check out Star Trek ' Enterprise ' that you'll see a real bow wow of a final episode..which saw The engineer Trip get killed, and the story line high jacked by Next generation characters.....
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Allard
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Re: 6.33 - Bizarre
Finally watched this one, I kinda kept this one to have a "new" episode. I was up to watching my 500th episode so I thought I'd celebrate with a first timer for me.
This one feels like a cheapy of a production block. Little outside footage, few sets and no large ambitious one. Most of all no real interesting characters or diabolical plot just a lot of eccentricity. One would almost believe this one of those early episodes salvaged by Clemens / Fennell coming back.
This one feels like a cheapy of a production block. Little outside footage, few sets and no large ambitious one. Most of all no real interesting characters or diabolical plot just a lot of eccentricity. One would almost believe this one of those early episodes salvaged by Clemens / Fennell coming back.