Date of airing: October 2, 1999 (CBS)
Nielsen ratings information: 9.55 million viewers, 6.2/12 in Households, 2.7/9 with Adults 18-49
written by: Carla Kettner
directed by: Randy Roberts
I am getting a feeling that the fourth season is going to take care of some serialized storytelling, starting to focus on that and give Gary something more to do than just fix the disaster headlines of tomorrow's newspaper. The Sun-Times photographer Miguel Diaz still had the roll of film on him and signaled to Gary to call him, which for me practically means that Miguel stays a topic in Gary's life, and Gary will have to deal with this issue of being investigated by a reporter (or, as it is the case here, a photojournalist) sooner or later. One good thing about the otherwise very procedural-heavy show is that it has created a row of recurring characters, beginning with retired Detective Crumb, to Sun-Times reporter Molly, to Detective Armstrong, and now Miguel Diaz, even if the latter has not proven himself to be a recurring character (for that, he would need to appear in another episode).
But it is almost certain that Miguel will return. He photographed the hostage situation from Gary's point of view, and he has all the other stories Gary was involved in (with references to episodes like "Saint Nick" and "Fate"). It is not like just because Miguel decided not to go with that story and the pictures in tomorrow’s paper, he leaves the story laying in the ditch completely. It only takes for Gary’s name to be in the paper once or twice for the Sun-Times to realize the guy is following danger everywhere, which means Gary is becoming the story – and that is something the paper hates, which we learned in last season's "Up Chuck" episode. I am kind of glad this is the story the writers were potentially going with after three years, because it seems logical that someone in a newspaper bullpen would notice this guy around chaos and disasters all around town. Okay, Molly could have worked on the story by now, since she has known Gary for a while now (ever since season two's "Walk, Don't Run"), and Meredith knew about the paper fully and has not published about it ever since she took a job in Washington, D.C., but I guess male wannabe journalists are much harder to convince to stop looking. Especially since Miguel probably wants to use the story to get out of the "fun" of photojournalism and become a real reporter.
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| Gary wakes up on the road to freedom from his parents. |
The return of Gary’s parents were pretty good, and I liked seeing them again. Once again I say that including the in the show in very small doses was a good thing to do – like Gary, I would have been annoyed by them, having to spend time with them episode after episode, but only dealing with Lois and Bernie a couple of times per season is perfect. And it was to be expected that they would get on Gary’s nerves quickly, and it was to be expected they would get on my nerves as well, but for some reason, the dialogue exchange they had with Gary at the end of the episode fit the narrative of their characters. It is almost like the writers knew that Lois and Bernie were too much to handle sometimes, so they wrote that fact into the episode and have the viewers' issues with them be Gary's issues. That was almost a meta scene of dialogue, making me wonder if the writers were listening to some previous criticism about the show (I have no idea if they even got that kind of criticism from the audience – this being a show from the 1990s, having existed before social media, I cannot imagine), and decided to take some of it by heart and turn it into a story. That is always a funny thing to do, and in the Marvel Cinematic Universe it was a great joke during ANT-MAN AND THE WASP (the baseball cap joke), so I am glad EARL EDITION did that in 1999 and was pretty easy making fun of itself for a hot minute. A show is always better when it can deliver self-deprecating humor. Sometimes, you need to know that the writers do not take themselves too seriously and can have fun every once in a while. It is an element THE WALKING DEAD needed so damn much, because I could stand the seriousness and darkness of that show (which is why I gave up on it halfway into season three).
There was still some hilarity in the episode's narrative, considering the hostage situation Howard started in the bank, and how he turned into something of an impromptu (and armed) therapist for the Hobson family. That may have been a bit absurd, but it was also hilarious, and the story would have been more bonkers if the police had been given the chance to listen to the therapy session somehow. They were starting to listen when one of the cops said that the situation was getting out of hand, but then there was no sign of the police captain or the hostage negotiator being confused about what was in fact going on inside the bank. All I wanted to see was the “what the heck is going on” faces from the guys outside, while the Hobsons were being therapized (is that a word) by a gun-wielding man. Compared to the previous hostage situation the show had (season two's "The Quality of Mercy"), it was kind of refreshing that the writers went there and simply just had fun with the story. Every once in a while, EARLY EDITION is allowed to not care too much about its stories and just put on an outrageous comedy. As long as it is in small doses though.
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| Freeze! This is a hostage situation! |
And finally, consider me surprised that Patrick is still around. After he was included in the opening credits during the previous season and then got removed from it for the season premiere, I was expecting him to have said goodbye off-screen and between seasons like Erica and Henry did in the previous season finale. But it seems like Patrick is still good to go on the show, his character is still a staff member at McGinty's, and he shows up as something of a friend when Gary and Marissa have lunch or breakfast when Gary's family is in town. That is the right thing to do because Patrick is a solid-enough character to go with when comedy is needed, even if the character himself has been absent when it comes to actual character arcs. The show still needs recurring characters Gary can interact with on a regular basis. Whether it be Crumb, Detective Armstrong from last season, Molly, or his parents, it is always a good idea to have someone jump into Gary's lap who knows him.
