MY BROTHER'S KEEPER (reviewed by Paul Jennings)

It's hard to sum up this episode in too many words, it was simply boring. There have been dull episodes in the past, but this truly was almost sleep inducing!

Straight off it is easy to see that the writer of this poor episode [Doug Molitor] was a viewer of "The Breeder" and apparently liked the episode enough to take an element of that story and write what I can only say is a bad sequel to a bad original episode. Can someone be that dumb, the answer is yes?!

There was barely any character development at all in this episode and much of the plot was very obvious, with the team joining a group of rebels and eventually saving the day and changing the world they had visited. This was okay in the first two seasons when the plot was strong and the world was changed in a significant way to make the viewer really think, but the conclusion to this episode was just crap. Everything about the episode just didn't quite click.

The guest cast was average at best and John Walcutt just doesn't carry Michael Mallory like the original actor did in the very few occasions we saw him. He doesn't fit into the character of the head of the Mallory clan. Also it seems this season Jerry O'Connell's finding it harder to carry himself and doubles as well as he previously has, but this only shows in this episode because there are three quite different Quinns.

The idea itself was interesting, but poorly executed, much like the episode it pretty much follows; "The Breeder". I'm sure many read the synopsis and thought this sounds great. Shame the idea was tainted by a badly written script and a terrible guest cast, especially the totally unbelievable RJ.

Overall, a wasted opportunity, or an episode which wasted its potential for what could have been a superb character piece.



« Way Out West The Chasm »