Date of airing: October 31, 1998 (CBS)
Nielsen ratings information: 10.58 million viewers, 7.1/14 in Households
written by: Bob Brush
directed by: Gary Nelson
This episode could be considered more supernatural than previous attempts at making the show supernatural, with the cat changing its color from orange to black (and I thought that was just a gimmick-y joke to celebrate Halloween), as well as the thing about the two witches. At first, it was just a sorry attempt at cashing in on the recent success of The WB's CHARMED (their building even looked similar to that of the Halliwell sisters), but then I was wondering if the writers and producers of EARLY EDITION even knew about CHARMED already. That show premiered in the Fall of 1998, together with the third season premiere of this show, so chances are that this episode was in production already before they could have a look at what CHARMED looked like.
Plus, I don't mind EARLY EDITION going down the route of the supernatural once or twice a season, as long as it is fun and it makes sense in the story, but it also has to make sense within the established rules of the series. There has never been a mention of the cat being magic (then again, it seemed to be alive for decades now, so who knows if the cat is also a witch?), and the notion of witches existing in this series universe is a bit weird, even if it kind of fits, considering Gary gets tomorrow's newspaper today and there is not a lot of distance between that and Gary finding evidence of the existence of witches. And demons? What about vampires? Does Buffy live in this series universe as well? Do Mulder and Scully investigate here also, and have they already encountered Gary's name in one of their case files? Okay, I'm making fun of the show right now, but that is what it is doing to me when serving up witches when the magical elements of the series were closer to magical realism than straight-up supernatural science-fiction.
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| Why does this house look like a trio of witch sisters, whose names all start with "P," live here? |
And I thought the two witch sisters could have been used to save the evening and lead Gary to the elderly woman with the poisoned apples, essentially being the plot device to Gary's heroic save. Less than two years later, the UPN time travel action pulp hour SEVEN DAYS would introduce three witches for an episode and make a spoof out of CHARMED for real, but even that show decided for the main character to use the women, so he could save the day. It seemed incredibly obvious that Gary, while asking for help or some other kind of guidance to find out how he could save the kids from getting poisoned, would turn to the witches, just in case they do indeed have something to offer that would help him. But I guess Gary is anything but a believer in the supernatural (after receiving tomorrow's newspaper today for more than two years), and I also guess that the writers thought it was much funnier for Gary to be kidnapped and force-fed a frog – sorry, I mean a toad – because apparently, that is what made the story more entertaining for the writers' room. Only it wasn't, because in a way, this episode made fun of kidnappings. If the two sisters would have been real, and who knows if they actually were, then Gary would have been in the hands of two crazy women who were ready to torture a man, just to prove he is a warlock. Talking about Chicago citizens being nuts sometimes... Also, no one gave a damn when Gary was maced and thrown into a black car? Damn, Chicago, one of your citizens was just kidnapped and you don't lift a finger?
In the meantime, it was also not a good idea to portray the old woman the way she was portrayed. If it would not have been for her establishing scene where she was this very nice old lady buying a box of apples, planning to make some kids happy tonight, she could have been the evil witch from Hansel and Gretel, waiting for kids to arrive, so she can poison them with her apples, laughing menacingly after she closed her doors. This old woman was giggling about preparing her apples and waiting for children (as if that was the only happy part of her life this entire year), and she even expected for Henry to take a taste test right in front of her, probably so she can see him fall to the ground and die immediately right in front of her, ending the scene with said manic and villainous laughter. For most of the episode, I was believing that the old lady came straight from the rogue gallery of some fairytale character, ready to exact revenge on the kids who locked her up for hundreds of years. But no, she was just a sweet old lady who wanted to spread some happiness with chocolate-covered apples. Nothing more, nothing less.
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| Ginger Spice is back in business after leaving the band. |
However, I was glad about almost everything that involved Patrick, and I say that as someone who doesn't like the character after it became clear that he was only being put into the narrative for the sake of being the comedic foil. But the guy turns out to be a gold mine for great (but absurdly dumb) scenes, and his dress-up as Ginger Spice was golden. I love it when broadcast network shows from the 1990s advanced crossdressing and drag as something fun to experience, and even I have to say that Patrick looked kind of hot as Ginger Spice. And I am pretty sure that Henry had absolutely no issue or brain damage while looking at Patrick in drag – an argument that certain Republican idiots and Congresspeople want to make these days.
By the way, Henry knows that Ginger left the Spice Girls (the episode aired exactly five months after she left the group), but had no idea who Richard Nixon was. Someone needs to send that kid to school (I'm looking at you, Erica), because that was another moment that almost sent my eyes out the back of my skull. The kid hangs out at McGinty's for too long and doesn't seem to be learning American history in school.
