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Here I am once again to talk about hit 70s show mash. Alright, for reference, my ranking system is on entry 1 part 1.
- 1x06 - yankee doodle doctor: and if I say this is one of the best episodes from mash that deals with an anti-military message? Well, that I've seen so far at least. I want to go scene by scene with this one because there is so much to say. Laurence Marks wrote this episode and he's becoming one of my favorite writers for the show.
We start with General Clayton speaking to a space beyond the camera, but notably tehre is some fourth wall breaking going on. He goes on about how they are real brave, all the people in Korea fighting for their country, and how the doctors are heroes. Then, the camera appears, and we realize that this is all a documentary they're making about the war. Clayton then mentions the 4077 as "the best surgical team in the whole war, real soldiers" CUT TO Hawkeye and Trapper slow dancing :) they are literally just dancing together, Hawk says to him "you dance beautifully", Trapper says "you're a terrific dipper"... Hawk is leading... it's all very sweet. As always Frank is in the background, all pissed off at them. (Here is gender moment n1, they say Hawkeye used Frank's razor to shave his legs. idk. do with that what you will). Also Henry comes in moments after and both Trapper and Hawk are like "hiya henry" as they sit down, i love it. They're friends! (but as a writing in the show, it shows mocking of the army in the "at ease" stuff and how everyone disregards it). Oh and Henry is wearing his cute little fishing outfit which I love. AS YOU CAN TELL, I LOVE THIS EPISODE LOL
ANYWAY we move forward Bricker wants to make the movie, but immediately Hawkeye especially realizes it's all bullshit and just propaganda for the US. Bricker is just trying to show an idealized version of what's really happening, and Hawkeye won't stand for that. So later that day he and Trapper destroy the film. CUTE MOMENT HERE: Hawk says "oh that's my bad side", Trapper says "it looked good to me" <3 then Hawkeye says "oh, you looked good in that place, isn't that good?" and Trapper laughs that golden retriever laugh, CUTE MOMENT!).
Alright so they destroyed the film, Henry their bestfriend Henry is sad, they decide to do another, but do it properly this time... LET'S TALK ABOUT THE MOVIE NOW... it starts with the iconic MASH 4077TH sign with Trapper, Radar and Hawkeye. Can I just say how very gendery that little dance they do is? Love it. Special mention for Margie cause I love Margie. Hawkeye is dressed as this sort of Groucho character which ... alright... and the whole thing is just a complete mockery of what Bricker was really doing. BUT HERE'S THE KICKER: last shot with Hawk, and here is his speech cause I find it so important to the show as a whole in the message it wants to give.
"Three hours ago this man was in battle. Two hours ago we operated on him. He's got a 50-50 chance. We win some, we lose some. That's what it's all about. No promises. No guaranteed survival, no saints in surgical garb. Our willingness, our experience, our techinque are not enough. Guns and bombs and antipersonnel mines have more power to take life than we have to preserve it. Not a very happy ending to a movie. But then no war is a movie."
As he finishes, the cameras moves to show the whole room filled with injured men. And then it ends. Bless Alan Alda for his incredible delivery honestly, and Laurence Marks for writing such an important message. Like truly!! And it feels so relevant in a way that a lot of media nowadays doesn't. Anyway, here is the ending gem, in which General Clayton essentially says they can use the introduction he does and the final speech by Hawkeye, but to save a full copy for him "to laugh when this whole thing is over". So all in all, brilliant criticism of the army and the war.
AND THE END SCENE, WITH A LITTLE TRAPMARGHAWK GOLDEN NUGGET CUS I LUV EMMM. Hawkeye puts both his arms around them and says "for the next picture, I'd like to try something light, maybe something romantic" ALRIGHTYYY.... LOVE EM.
Ok time for the ranking:
HAWKEYE INDEX: 10/10 we got him dancing, acting silly, being serious. Love ittt.
BISEXUALITY INDEX: 10/10 just for that last scene along I'd give it a ten honestly.
KLINGER INDEX: 0/10 IT WOULD BE ALMOST PERFECT.... ALMOST.
ANTI-WAR INDEX: 9/10 I mean, this is probably thee anti war episode so far.
GENDER INDEX: 8/10 we got some pretty nice moments and some ICONIC moments.
GENERAL LIKABILITY: 9/10 so entertaining and rich, so constantly something going on and perfect.
GOOD TELEVISION: 9.5/10 ok maybe I'm biased. But I don't care. I never said this would be an unbiased ranking.
Overall rating: 7.9 due to no Klinger, otherwise it's a 9 in my book.
Since the next episode is extremely charged as well, I will review now "cowboy" cause I want to do another episode on this post.
- 1x08 - cowboy: ok so the gist of this episode is that there's this helicopter pilot called cowboy who wants to go back to the US to see his wife who he suspects is cheating on him but Henry doesn't allow it. Then Cowboy sets a lot of traps for Henry and almost kills him until Henry finally lets him go. Lol... I think the most important thing this episode was Henry's relationship with Trapper and Hawkeye, and how much they truly care about each other. We get Hawk and Henry playing golf and Hawk in his little blue shirt which I love, Hawk kissing Radar on the forehead and saying "if you were any taller I'd kiss you on the lips"... I don't have a lot else to say about this episode so let's get to rankings. HAWKEYE INDEX: 9/10 there is a lot of Hawkeye so I enjoyed it. BISEXUALITY INDEX: 8/10 gotta say there's a few moments that made me go oh? so yeah it gets a nice rating. KLINGER INDEX: 0/10 they want to kill me. ANTI-WAR INDEX: 7/10 on account of them briefly talking about how war affects people. GENDER INDEX: 5/10 not a lot of gender going on here but it was nice to see Trapper in that one scene. Yeah yeah. GENERAL LIKABILITY: 7/10 to me this is a simple episode to watch in the background, not much to it but entertaining enough. GOOD TELEVISION: 7/10 again, simple episode, not a lot going on in terms of anything, just another mash. Overall rating: 6.1. These episodes wouldn't get such low ratings if Klinger was in them. Just saying.
That's all for this post, see you in the next one.
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