Triggers in Leash

Here is an interesting development of the 30 minutes formula that this show approaches. I believe people involved in the show could do anything with the specific episode they were granted. These were exercises in working a short measure of time to develop an idea that, in order to work, would have to be clear, clean, grasping and effective. Or not be any of those but made in a way that made the audiences wonder. It had to work. Actually, as i start digging a little deeper into this, i think one can probably go through all the episodes of the show and get, in the end, an interesting glossary on cinematic narrative bending. Probably not so much in visual terms, which is understandable because: -not many directors of the show did really interesting things with their careers; -this Is television, things were shot and edited way faster than feature films.

Here we have an interesting idea. To build (and hold!) a tension based on nothing. A single set, to prevent distractions, and a dispute that will make us follow the two cowboys, and want to know who of them (if any) will break and draw first. The fact that they use a single space is already important, because it notes already an intention to be tense (and intense). Because this is a 25 minute episode (plus Hitch's interventions) they don't have to establish any shots outside the space to allow spectators to breathe. We can be 25 minutes inside the same room.

The interesting thing is to check the narrative devices and modes they choose to build on the tension, or ease on it when needed, and the cleverness of the unfolding. So, tension increases depending on the placement of the cowboys in the space and, more important, Maggie's position in relation to them. So it's a very spatial positioning of the characters which i enjoy, and which the camera helps. We fear for Maggie, when she is just behind Del, and we fear for her when she's in the middle. Comedy; this is a comedy, in the end, and we have a very curious balance between the eminent shooting and the goofiness of having, for example, two fellows who can't eat properly because they won't stop starring at each other. Comedy here happens not because they act to be funny, but because the situation implies that. It's a great type of comedy. And of course, the final twist, when we thought we'd seen something, we are told we've being as deceived as the cowboys.

Hitch's interventions, specially at the end, is again priceless, here enhanced by the really funny nonsense twist. The value of it is that it's not a mere annotation on what we saw, it's a continuation of the narrative, after the end of the episode.

My opinion: 4/5

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Watching this episode, I got a strong feeling that Sergio Leone must have seen it sometime and it made an impression on him. Almost the entire episode is guys waiting to draw on each other while tension builds, just like the ending of The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. There are some similar shots -- a low shot from behind a hand over a holster, and close-ups of the men's eyes (something very rarely done in film before Sergio started doing it).

Also, since the men were supposed to draw when a cuckoo clock chimed, I was reminded of For A Few Dollars More, when a gunfight was supposed to start when a musical watch stopped its song.

Anyway, I can't know for sure, but I feel almost certain that the maestro must have caught this episode and liked it, and found things he wanted to use. Watch the climactic duel from The Good The Bad and the Ugly, and then watch this episode. I think you'll see what I mean.

Simple as could be, this Western drama is skillfully directed by Don Medford, whose expertise in the genre peaked in 1970 when he made "The Hunting Party", an ultra-violent Western that was my favorite in the wake of the new cinema norms following the breakthrough of Peckinpah's classic "The Wild Bunch".

TV favorites Gene Barry and Darren McGavin square off as gunslingers intent on killing each other in a gunfight after a dispute over a poker game. Neither one will step down, but Ellen Corby as a cafe lady preparing them breakfast dominates the show, cleverly outwitting them and saving the day.

A character actress of the first order, Corby makes her character utterly believable, no hint of acting at all, but forceful all the same, and seeing the future "Bat Masterson" versus evilly smiling McGavin in this Mexican standoff is memorable.

This one stood out to me as being more goofy than anything. I guess it can't be called unintentionally funny, as several other reviewers here seem to think that that was exactly the goal, but it still seems to me like there was supposed to be an underlying tension, a risk that something seriously awful could result from the conflict here, that was completely undercut by the way the story was executed.

It amounts to two gunfighters having a staring contest. They refuse to take their eyes off of each other and maintain a barrage of taunts that only heighten the silliness. They are seated at a little table covered by a checkered tablecloth; they stab blindly at the food before them and overturn cups of coffee. Grandma Walton keeps running in and out of frame trying to distract them with different things. It felt like an SNL skitch. There's even a comically over-sized prop that plays a crucial part in the "twist ending". This was all MEANT to be funny, right?

Hitch's epilogue, a much-needed acerbic twist upon the twist, was the part of this episode that I enjoyed the most.

I dont know what to say. I found this episode less interesting. It lack of purpose. Its just two man who want to kill each other. A fight that is not really interesting because we know the two men. And what they are. We just asking when they will act and stop talking and i found it pretty annoying. No other storytelling and its just non sense talk but we still want to know how it will end. But i didnt find the episode really interesting to be honest. Even if the woman was pretty smart but not a good cook.