Date of airing: November 21, 1998 (CBS)
Nielsen ratings information: 11.49 million viewers, 7.4/14 in Households
written by: Carla Kettner
directed by: Ian Barry
It took the writers nine episodes to finally get Gary and Erica on a date, talking about romance, and making sure that even the most clueless viewer knows that these two were destined to be together forever, and it turns out that the two were not ready yet. This story has become a will-they/won't-they back-and-forth, showcasing the writers' intentions to create this plot for Gary and Gary only, while not recognizing Erica as a character in her own right. Nine episodes to make sure that when it comes to the Gary/Erica romance, this story is just about Gary, and Erica is only the plot device. That makes things a little disappointing, not to mention that the scribes were wasting a whole character with that story. Why they couldn't make Erica a character on her own is beyond me, but then again, EARLY EDITION was never good in giving attention to anyone but Gary and Chuck (and maybe Marissa, when she gets screentime).
Thankfully, this was not just a Gary/Erica episode though, and half of the episode was given to another mobster-type storyline involving Gary messing up the lives of criminals and federal officers. It was an entertaining episode, although a little absurd here and there, and it was another one of those EARLY EDITION hours which tried really hard to keep Gary in the corner he has been established in (saving the world one ridiculous story at a time), while also breaking out of it a few times. I mean, the guy actively fought for his life at the marina, trying to punch an armed guy with his fists, essentially telling me that Gary has developed into a guy who does not mind using violence to get things done – which, by the way, is inconsistent with Gary as a character, as the man has never used violence before. So much for EARLY EDITION being a G-rated, family-friendly television drama airing at 8 p.m. on Saturdays.
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| Sometimes, Gary gets threatened with guns. |
Of course Gary’s federal babysitter in the form of Toni Brigatti had to be an attractive woman, just to have her be the stepping stone in Gary and Erica’s buddying relationship. When Toni was revealed, I was rolling my eyes just because of that, as Toni was used as a plot device in Gary and Erica's story, with Erica' being Gary's very own plot device. From here on, the episode became formulaic and written by numbers. It was obvious that Erica would throw an eye or two at Toni and find her to be attractive enough to see the competition in her, and of course, the story would turn into Gary making a fool of himself, because he couldn’t explain any of it to Erica, further over-complicating their building relationship. That is TV Writing 101 when you want to carry a romance from one episode to the next, and this is the way to write episodic television when you have 45 minutes and you are being given the task not to develop a major storyline, as it was not allowed to have more screentime than the procedural story at hand.
At least it made for some fun moments between Toni and Gary. What a shame though that Gary didn't explicitly notice that Toni was pretty much like Gary, with the difference that she was not getting the paper and only had a badge (and a gun) to flash. She takes her job as a federal Marshal as seriously as Gary does when it comes to the paper, and the result is that neither of them have a personal life to live. I feel the writers should have been more explicit about that, to have Gary and Tonic connect over this and become something resembling friends, although I assume that Gary helping out Toni on a date with FBI agent Bob Kingman is a sign of friendship between the two – if Gary cared enough to give Toni some free time with a dude at a restaurant, he must truly care about the woman who was hired as his babysitter for a couple of days.
But yes, the episode needed a way to have Gary and Toni connect over something – either she is connecting with his "obsession" to be the Samaritan for people in Chicago, or he is connecting with her ask-questions-later attitude, where she does not give a damn if something hurts. Instead, the episode made it clear that Toni was thrown into Gary's life to spice things up for him. That is why she took a shower at his place, wrapped herself with a towel, and went down to the bar to look for him (you couldn't have dressed up for that, Toni?), just so that, after a drive-by shooting, Erica can see Gary on top of a woman who is only wearing a towel. All the awkwardness and misunderstandings led to a buddy-comedy-type genre in this episode, giving the series a different tone for an hour, and one that was quite enjoyable, even if the story at hand sometimes turned ludicrous.
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| He doesn't like her being in his apartment, and she doesn't like his cat. |
By the way, Gary has been awkwardly
weird and funny in this episode. His excitement to change the topic
and celebrate the arrival of the pizza during his lunch date with
Erica had me chuckling. I don’t know what was so hilarious about it,
and it’s not really something Kyle Chandler is known for in Hollywood, but it’s something that has been a staple of the character of Gary Hobson
for a while now, where the man gets to be silly at times, giving Chandler a reason to act in a somewhat nutty way – you could believe that the man was just a tad bit crazy and belonging into a mental asylum, and all this because Gary just does not want to deal with his secrets any longer and takes every opportunity to deflect from it, even in conversations. But the excitement about the pizza was
something else. It was almost worthy of a meme.
