Date of airing: January 24, 1998 (CBS)
Nielsen ratings information: 12.62 million viewers, 7.6/13 in Households
I can only hope that one day, I will hear a politician say “I don’t run for
office, I walk for office,” just for the giggles and the wordplay, and preferably
before I die a horrible death by nuclear war or climate change. This was an entertaining episode,
although maybe it got a little too deep into the premise of how ugly and
evil and corrupt local politics is, and how you can’t even have
preference voting on such a level, since every vote comes with a
contingency and a favor that could ruin your standing with your constituency. It turns out politics and I could never be
friends either, because I wouldn’t know how to handle the situation Gary
found himself in – voting to erect a new office building and ruin an entire neighborhood in the process, just so I can
get a traffic light? I’m not sure I can ever be this non-caring about a community of
people. And I'm not sure I could survive this cutthroat world of local politics, when the work seems to be more about business than helping people.
The episode showed though how much heart and good intent Gary has, and how much the paper has changed him since he has been receiving it. Maybe he would have acted the same without it (as Gary already had that kind of heart – it's the reason he started receiving the paper in the first place), maybe it’s the paper that changed him into the person he was in this episode and not only saved a neighborhood, but also a couple of kids who would have otherwise landed under the wheels of yet another construction truck. It was to be expected that his deal would fall flat and that he would vote against the contract for Kowaleski Constructions, and it was obvious that his actions would brush off harshly on all the other local politicians who figured they could make a deal with a random construction company and enrich themselves.
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| Welcome to politics, Gary. |
This episode also showed that the writers never cared about
continuity. Dutch and Kowaleski were all weird characters who turned
into good people in the end, even though they were supposedly evil
people in the beginning. Kowaleski didn’t care for anything outside his
work, and all he talked about was getting his men to work, getting
the next contract, and making money, because everything else he is doing is a waste of time that does not bring in money Heck, he even bribed Gary, just so Gary can vote for
the contract and have the construction company finally get to work on the new office building. Yet
at the end of the episode, the guy was ready to have the traffic light
voted on and even sprung in for that and a new traffic island plus a
park the kids can play in (which is a playground on a traffic
island, surrounded by roads – it doesn't get any more dangerous for kids than that). I don’t know where that change
came from (maybe it was just because Gary saved Kowaleski's life), but it was a
weird change. Two villains were suddenly heroes after 40 minutes, and it smells fishy.
And who exactly was Dutch in all of this story? In the beginning, he was the silent old man in the background, presumably running the show from outside the room, but in the end, it was his filibuster giving Gary the time to return to the floor for the vote on the traffic light. I realized that Dutch had no interest in whatever motions were approved, because he had no personal connection to any of them, but between telling his guys to give Gary the vote for the traffic light, and Dutch filibustering to give Gary time to appear, there is a whole lot of story left which the writers neglected to get into.
Then
there is Molly, the glue between Dutch and whatever evil guys were running local politics behind closed doors. How convenient was it that the two shared a
connection, and that the reporter was essentially good enough to remind the aging former politician to get back into the ring and make something good out of the situation? How convenient was
it that Dutch came with the deus ex news scandal from ages ago which helped Gary
secure all the votes he needed for the traffic light? The whole final third of the episode
was a treasure box of convenience, but only because the writers needed it to be
convenient. This was only an hour-long political affair after all, and the story
needed to end at some point. EARLY EDITION only has 45 minutes per episode, it didn't have time to turn into the local version of THE WEST WING or the drama edition of PARKS & RECREATION.
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| Gary is telling his boss that he is going to resign. |
To make local politics interesting for the viewers, it was a good episode though. Yes, local politics is complex and it's filled with corruption, but it’s not like every scripted drama on network television is interested in getting its hands dirty with that premise, so I have to applaud the show for attempting to depict a field of work and politics viewers might not be aware even exists. Who knows, maybe there was a viewer or two that decided to check out who their local supervisors were, decided to sit in on their meetings, and realized that may be a world for them to be in.
By the way, this was the third episode in a row without Shanesia Davis. I assume the production needed to save some money when CBS ordered a second season? It's good then that she was not needed as Gary's conscience, since Chuck hasn't been an asshat these past couple of episodes, giving Gary a reminder that some people would love to use the paper to make money. If Chuck is not the devil on Gary's shoulder, then there is no angel needed in the form of Marissa.
