The Look (4.9)

Rate, review & discuss the episodes from the fourth season

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How Would You Rate This Episode?

10 (Perfect!)
0
No votes
9.5 (One of the Best)
4
4%
9.0 (Excellent)
6
7%
8.5 (Very Good)
27
30%
8.0 (Pretty Good)
22
25%
7.5 (Decent)
16
18%
7.0 (Average at Best)
12
13%
6.5 (Not So Good)
0
No votes
6.0 (Pretty Bad)
1
1%
5.0 (Just Awful)
1
1%
 
Total votes: 89

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charybdis1966
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Re: The Look (4.9)

#46 Post by charybdis1966 »

I watched this one today and rated it pretty good, mainly for the twist of Holly turning her gun on the supposed villan of the show - I didn't see that coming.

I also noticed something that really dated the episode, a picture of Boy George in the corridoor of the radio station. Being a teenager in the 80's boy George was one of the mainstream music medias darlings who I absolutely couldn't stand, and seeing his mug staring over Holly's shoulder made me shudder.

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Re: The Look (4.9)

#47 Post by marlboro »

I liked this episode quite a bit. Probably my favorite since the season opener. I thought the plot was very good; I didn't see the twist coming at all.

The only slight complaint I have about the story is the huge coincidence of the psychotic kid choosing that particular moment to strike. It reminds me of the red herring in "One More Summer" involving the sniper. It's so improbable that it seems like the writers are cheating.

It was also nice to see Gretchen Corbett again. I think she was criminally underdeveloped on the Rockford Files (as was most of the other supporting cast). It was nice to see her play a part that gave her a little more range.

Random shot of Gretchen on Wonder Woman:

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Milton Collins
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Re: The Look (4.9)

#48 Post by Milton Collins »

I hadn't seen this one in quite some time and liked it! Anyone remember Holly "fox" from season ones "Curse of the King Kemehameha Club" where she was the reporter who kept grilling Magnum? Love the emphasis on their time in Vietnam and TC's speech to Maggie about what Holly meant to all of them during battle came off very well. And Higgins birthday bash was great!! Only to find out that it wasn't really his birthday and Robin had screwed it all up, hilarious

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Re: The Look (4.9)

#49 Post by Little Garwood »

Wow, over two years since anyone commented on The Look! :shock:

This is an episode I vividly remember seeing the night of its first airing. I was already interested in pop music oldies, and The Look features several songs performed by what I call the "Universal Studios House Band." Most people dislike these cover versions of 1960s pop songs, but I've always found them charming. :D I sought out the original versions of those '60s songs after hearing them in The Look.

I also liked the refreshing, non-traumatic take on our guys' remembrance of Vietnam though Holly Hudson was certainly traumatized by Don Cassidy leaving her at the altar all those years ago. It's the best performance I've ever seen from Gretchen Corbett, even with that dreadful '80s perm, which I hope was intentional, given that she is supposed to be unglamorous compared to her sultry radio voice.

As for the subplot, it's amusing how Higgins gives Thomas a rather long list of English "comfort products" so that he may properly fight off his nagging cold.

The Look, despite my "Excellent" rating, is an episode that did not make top ten Magnum episode, but it along with several other episodes, is a "nearly top ten" of all time episode.
"Popularity is the pocket change of history."

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Re: The Look (4.9)

#50 Post by Little Garwood »

I thought Gretchen Corbett's permed hairdo in The Look was supposed to be a way of deglamorizing her Holly Fox/Hudson character in order to disappoint her many Vietnam-era listeners, but Corbett sports the same kinky-curly hairdo in the Simon & Simon season five episode Burden of the Beast, which aired October 3 1985, over a year after The Look, which means that doing that to her hair was intentional.

*Sigh* The Eighties. :roll: :lol:
"Popularity is the pocket change of history."

~Tom Selleck

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Re: The Look (4.9)

#51 Post by thechickinthemiddle »

That's unfortunate. :lol: Everyone and their sister flirted with perms in the 80s!

Though perhaps Gretchen's didn't last a lot longer, as by her Murder, She Wrote appearance she seemed to revert back to her natural "Beth Davenport" hair.

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Re: The Look (4.9)

#52 Post by Little Garwood »

Seeking to escape the inevitable sadness of watching Home from the Sea, I instead put on The Look, which I mistakenly believed would provide some humorous value (Holly's hair, e.g.)

Instead, I felt nearly as down after having watched The Look:

I liked that the story tricked the viewer into believing Holly was searching for her lost love, when in fact she was just fomenting a vengeance plot for twelve years. Holly became consumed with hatred, yet in a sick and twisted way still wanted an idyllic wedding, except she was going to go through with it via a murder-suicide (aka a "Cuban Divorce") with nasty Don.

The scene at KTDE--anyone else hear that eerie buzzing outside the radio station?--with Holly Hudson seething with white-hot rage ("Do You know how humiliating that was?!?") at her weasily loser of an ex-fiance, the rubbery-faced Don Cassidy (Stephen Young).

It was surprisingly effective when the Universal House Band's rendition of The Beatles' "Yesterday" plays over the freeze frame at episode's end. Holly Hudson, too, "longs for yesterday." Depressing, really. Only the thought of Holly's perm prevents the viewer from wallowing in a total, abyss-like depression.
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Re: The Look (4.9)

#53 Post by K Hale »

It's a downer for sure. I only like it for the gradual buildup where more and more gets revealed about what Magnum is building, as we are gradually let in on the secret of Higgins' unbirthday party.
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Re: The Look (4.9)

#54 Post by Little Garwood »

K Hale wrote:It's a downer for sure. I only like it for the gradual buildup where more and more gets revealed about what Magnum is building, as we are gradually let in on the secret of Higgins' unbirthday party.
I also enjoyed the scene in the guest house when the guys and Holly are laughing over Holly's amusing 'Nam-era reminiscences.

After all these years and multiple viewings, I don't know how I missed TM's breaking the fourth wall and smile after Higgins incorrectly guessed what Magnum was building. :oops:
"Popularity is the pocket change of history."

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K Hale
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Re: The Look (4.9)

#55 Post by K Hale »

Little Garwood wrote:
K Hale wrote:It's a downer for sure. I only like it for the gradual buildup where more and more gets revealed about what Magnum is building, as we are gradually let in on the secret of Higgins' unbirthday party.
I also enjoyed the scene in the guest house when the guys and Holly are laughing over Holly's amusing 'Nam-era reminiscences.

After all these years and multiple viewings, I don't know how I missed TM's breaking the fourth wall and smile after Higgins incorrectly guessed what Magnum was building. :oops:
The Irrawaddy Bridge. And then the Mag grins slyly at us. LOL
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Re: The Look (4.9)

#56 Post by ENSHealy »

4.9 THE LOOK
Famous guest stars:
Hawaiian shirts:
Tigers Cap: 1
Image
Island Hopper shirts:
Shirtless:
OMG/Extraordinarys:
Higgins Organizations:
Higgins musings: 1.5
Negotiations:
Body Count:
Bullet wounds:
Little Voice: 1
I know what you’re thinking:
When I write HTBAWCPI:
Investigator corrections: 1
4th wall breaks: 1
Magnumometer: 5.5
Magnumometer Moments: https://vimeo.com/389613503

Potential magnumania usernames: Irrawaddy Bridge

50% of all illnesses are psychosomatic

There are at least 11 telephones in the main house.

The Higgins Cure for the Common Cold:
Throat spray atomizer, 6 ounce.
2 tins coId Iozenges.
Mrs. Cywanowitz's canned chicken soup, 12 ounces
6 Iimes
Honey
Tea
3 bottIes rose water
1 bottIe cognac
Pop up tissues
NasaI decongestant
1 Iarge tin UncIe Cy’s sweetened succotash
Mano wrote:I believe that only the army has Warrent Officer pilots. I'm fairly sure thay you have to be an officer to fly for the Marines. If this was true in vietnam then calling TC a warrant officer was a mistake.
Aside from the fact that there may not have been any Marine warrant officer pilots in Vietnam (which if true is definitely a flub), when Maggie refers to T.C. as a warrant officer in Did You See the Sunrise, she is specifically talking about he and Thomas when they were in Vietnam, in the context of having to search through all the possible soldiers, sailors and airmen that might have had contact with them while they were there. Given that, I don’t think it is a flub. She is using his rank at the time, when discussing searching for someone who would have had contact with them at that time
Last edited by ENSHealy on Sat Feb 12, 2022 5:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Luther's nephew Dobie
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Re:

#57 Post by Luther's nephew Dobie »

AmandaByNight wrote:I love this episode. It's not so much the storyline that grabs me as much as Gretchen's character and performance. It's a poignant episode about how we build these people inside our heads, much in the same way she does... fantasies. And then there's the letdown... or the look.
Gretchen often played these kind of outsider characters, like in She's Dressed to Kill (1979), and it worked because she's different looking, but still compelling.
One of her first acting roles is a small part in Let's Scare Jessica to Death where all the women are like Gretchen. Oddly compelling and uniquely beautiful.
As you can probably guess, I like Gretchen! :)
Amanda,
She always impressed me as a very good actress but when people gushed how beautiful she was I didn't see it, perhaps it was because her hair style
always seemed rather matronly to me for some reason. You wrote she was "uniquely beautiful" and as of today I full heartedly agree.
Decades today ran a marathon of NYPD starring Jack Warden, it ran for 49 episodes in 1967 and 1968. In what has to be one of Gretchen's first roles,
she played a breathtakingly beautiful bikini wearing go-go dancer in the "Case of the Shady Lady" at the age of 21.
I had no idea it was her till the credits rolled and was floored because I would never have recognized her in a million years!
She played a sexpot who used not just her body but savvy manipulation(Corbett's acting here was wonderful) to reduce all the males in the
cast to jelly, especially Frank Converse. She indeed had "The Look" in this episode and she nailed it.
Just a side note, the casting directors on NYPD were amazing, almost every episode had young future stars in roles large and small, or just in the background
such as Esther Rolle as a nurse. James Earl Jones played the director of Phoenix House in a memorable 2 parter. Many Broadway actors appeared,
as well as well known character actor types. Filmed on location, Law & Order could learn from them how to use the streets of the City.
The required editing needed to fit in the 8 minutes or more of commercials for the reruns hurts this well written character driven series far more than
other series.
If you want to experience the 1960's or relive it again this series captures the era better than most, the "Candy Man" 2 part episode with James Earl Jones
is a perfect introduction to those times.

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Re: The Look (4.9)

#58 Post by SeamanWolfe »

I never knew about studios having their own covers of songs. From memory (I watched it a few weeks back). She's not there and yesterday were pretty close to the originals, Satisfaction was terrible.

It is always hard to watch shows where they change the music (wkrp in the 90s syndication run coming to the top of my mind) - although there are a few 90s teen shows that suffer a similar fate in syndication (if I list them here I might get my invitation to the king Kamehameha club revoked).

When I turned this one on the other night - I was happy to hear the songs from the original airing (even if they were weird corporate cover versions).

This episode is one of the first ones I remember watching "live" on CBS. Might have been a rerun, but it was definitely in prime time.

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Re: The Look (4.9)

#59 Post by bjs »

Were these songs muzak covers in the original broadcast, or only on the DVD version? Anyway, the muzak cheapens the episode, in more ways than one.

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Re: The Look (4.9)

#60 Post by Pahonu »

bjs wrote: Mon Jul 26, 2021 12:19 am Were these songs muzak covers in the original broadcast, or only on the DVD version? Anyway, the muzak cheapens the episode, in more ways than one.
I’m not certain, but it wasn’t very expensive for TV series to use older music in broadcast episodes, so I’d guess that they were originals. Getting rights to current hits as Miami Vice did, was more expensive, but the publishing rights for DVD copies proved prohibitively expensive for many series.

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