Some fun at the junction
I was beginning to watch this show some time ago, I don't remember when exactly but back then it didn't quite grasp me and I quit shortly after, leaving the rating at 5/10. This year, when I discovered Green Acres, a far superior show to this one so far, I decided to give it another go and this time I left after 31 episodes, improving the rating up to 7. So, what's changed?
Petticoat junction has its moments of greatness and soul, most of them come from Bea Benaderet's character Kate Bradley who is one of the most charming and wise characters I ever saw on television, a true mother figure to the three girls she's raising, along with big child uncle Joe - Edgar Buchanan is great as a recurring character, like in Green Acres for instance, but when he plays the lead in most of the episodes after a while his schemes don't seem to interest any more; the same with Charlie Lane's Bedloe character and his innumerable attempts to bring Kate down - i just hate it when stories keep repeating over and over again (and it was only the first season). The girls' stories are not that entertaining either.
Overall I feel like the TV show does not know what it wants to be because for a sitcom it's not that funny and most of the jokes don't hit the mark, and when they play it serious it isn't deep enough and just leaves you scratching your head and not knowing what to do with those scripts. It does have a great opening music theme, the one you can easily replicate in your head after the second listen. Amazing Bea Benaderet alone is worth the watch but the rest of the cast is supposed to be just as alive and empathic which they don't get over the course of the first 30 episodes. I won't be returning to this show no more but will stick around for Green Acres instead - it seems more well balanced.
P. S. It's funny that I chose Green Acres of the three shows created by Paul Henning which is a spin-off of Petticoat junction which is itself a spin-off of The Beverly hillbillies which I didn't get past even a couple of episodes - they were just plain dumb. Probably Paul got better with time. It's hard to imagine a spin-off of a spin-off nowadays that's better than the original thing.
Petticoat junction has its moments of greatness and soul, most of them come from Bea Benaderet's character Kate Bradley who is one of the most charming and wise characters I ever saw on television, a true mother figure to the three girls she's raising, along with big child uncle Joe - Edgar Buchanan is great as a recurring character, like in Green Acres for instance, but when he plays the lead in most of the episodes after a while his schemes don't seem to interest any more; the same with Charlie Lane's Bedloe character and his innumerable attempts to bring Kate down - i just hate it when stories keep repeating over and over again (and it was only the first season). The girls' stories are not that entertaining either.
Overall I feel like the TV show does not know what it wants to be because for a sitcom it's not that funny and most of the jokes don't hit the mark, and when they play it serious it isn't deep enough and just leaves you scratching your head and not knowing what to do with those scripts. It does have a great opening music theme, the one you can easily replicate in your head after the second listen. Amazing Bea Benaderet alone is worth the watch but the rest of the cast is supposed to be just as alive and empathic which they don't get over the course of the first 30 episodes. I won't be returning to this show no more but will stick around for Green Acres instead - it seems more well balanced.
P. S. It's funny that I chose Green Acres of the three shows created by Paul Henning which is a spin-off of Petticoat junction which is itself a spin-off of The Beverly hillbillies which I didn't get past even a couple of episodes - they were just plain dumb. Probably Paul got better with time. It's hard to imagine a spin-off of a spin-off nowadays that's better than the original thing.
- jamesjustice-92
- May 27, 2024