dswaugh-39964

Thoroughly enjoyed Creek during its run, but this is hands-down my favorite episode of the lot. The opening newsreel footage sequence was a stroke of genius, beautifully done, and the episode's ending was one of the most clever, shocking, and thoroughly satisfying conclusions to a mystery that I've ever seen rendered on TV. My only knock against this otherwise perfect episode was its extraneous and inexplicable side-plot involving Adam Klaus's venture into 3-D porn. I'm no prude, but I was left shaking my head and wondering why Renwick saw fit to include it. Not only wasn't it funny, but it added considerable length to the overall narrative and nothing to the main plot. Without it, Renwick could have trimmed the episode down to a manageable 90 to 100 minutes. But with it, the episode weighed in at over two hours. Still, the main plot of THE GRINNING MAN was sufficiently compelling to keep me invested throughout, and again, that ending. Wow. My wife and I sat there with our mouths hanging open like mailbox doors while the credits rolled, and I walked away from this episode thinking that no made-for-TV mystery had left me this satisfied in a very long time. So, hats off to Renwick for taking the time. It was worth the writer's dark night of the soul that he apparently experienced to have made THE GRINNING MAN happen. I, for one, am grateful.