Date of airing: November 8, 1997 (CBS)
Nielsen ratings information: 14.30 million viewers, 9.0/16 in Households
So far, this season hasn’t been particularly interesting, as it makes its attempt to go from one episodic storyline to the next, without taking care of the characters first, and without making the stories worth remembering. This episode wanted to make me believe that Gary was falling in love with Paulina, but there was never a sense of Gary all over the place in the world of love and affection, and the notion of Gary not being able to get over her seemed like a story that was entirely forgotten by the writers right after Marissa mentioned it when having a chat with Gary in the restaurant. Not to mention that the episode didn't do anything with Gary being in front of an attractive woman who could be his love interest and show him again what it would be like to have a romantic relationship while receiving tomorrow's newspaper today, but Paulina had no time being Gary's love interest. She had to resolve her daddy issues first. Why even get into the topic and possibility of Gary and Paulina in the first place when there isn’t even any time to deliver on that possibility?
The episode was okay. One of those boring hours that make you realize how cheap EARLY EDITION actually was as a TV show, when it can’t even get you to care about the hour-long stories any longer. Seriously, I had no reason to care for Paulina, and midway through the episode, I didn’t even know whether I was supposed to fear for her life or if the writers decided that the story shouldn’t be that big, and it wasn’t actually Paulina who was targeted by the assassin. It was only four episodes ago when the writers delivered a story about an assassin trying to kill one of the guest characters Gary needed to save, and even back then I failed to develop an interest in the thrilling matter. Okay, I didn’t write exactly that, but it’s what I felt, and I felt that way because EARLY EDITION was a completely different show during the previous season. Suddenly the writers come around the corner with much bigger and more "explosive" stories – assassination attempts left and right, for the third time this season, if you count the moment May and her father were locked in their fish factory to burn to death. I mean, what the heck?
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| Gary gets the red roses, and Marissa gets to smell them. |
Of course, there was no real reason for the headlines and articles to be in Russian, since the paper could have easily had Gary focus on the accident with the pregnant woman first, just so Gary can be introduced to Yuri and the paper could change to the article about the fire at the Russian consulate. The way this episode was set up, Gary was intrigued about the Russian headlines, and then the paper brought his focus on the man who could translate them for him – I guess the writers were unable to come up with a different way to bring Paulina’s father into the story. At least the paper continued to play games with Gary, sending him on a goose chase of sorts, completely eradicating the premise that this is in fact tomorrow’s newspaper, when it changes headlines and articles on a whim. It has been established a few times already that the paper is more supernatural and not really just from tomorrow’s future, and it actively steers Gary into certain situations to have him notice the people he needs to help. I'm not sure what to think of that development in the series, because it can only convince the writers that they could do anything they wanted, and that they didn't need to follow the established rules any longer.
The characters of this episode were forgettable. Paulina didn't leave behind a lasting impression, and Yuri was written in something of a weird fashion, as he was dealing with Russian mobsters and the lie of being dead, all while driving around a cab in Chicago and staying close to his daughter – as if there was no direct way to let Paulina know that he was still alive. But hey, Gary was doing something great during this hour by going to the cab company and "forcing" Yuri to reveal himself via the ticket Gary talked about. As if Gary knew that Yuri was in the office and eavesdropping on his combative conversation with the guys. And let's just forget that Yuri essentially broke into Gary's apartment to find and steal the ticket, because that wasn't anything that defined Yuri as a character. No no no, it was all about him wanting to be close to his daughter.
It’s like the writers made Gary smarter in this episode by letting him make that move, and show that he was able to be clever for once, when he was anything but clever when it comes to responding to strangers yelling at him, similar to how Yuri yelled at him in the beginning after stopping his cab. I kind of like that development of Gary Hobson, but again, I wouldn’t mind if it had been an active, on-screen development of his character, but I fear that this was just part of Gary's character in this episode, because Yuri needed to be in Gary's apartment for an easier and quicker way to deliver exposition and backstory.
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| Back in the 1990s, Russian nationals only had to worry about their musical instrument not being tuned. |
Thankfully, Chuck didn't get a B story. He was somewhat involved in Gary's antics and only talked about needing to make some business at the restaurant on Thursday nights. I like this version of Chuck more, because he doesn't talk to a random woman and make himself turn into a fool that way, and that means he is less of an asshat and more of a character I could accept as being part of the show. On the other hand, the writers haven't managed to give Marissa any attention here. Yes, she is around the restaurant for most of the time (what is actually her job? Co-owner? Co-manager?), but seven episodes into the season, and she hasn't gotten a story yet. Will it take until the season finale again for Marissa to become a real character with real issues to deal with?
