A.V. Club highlights 10 great Moonlighting episodes
The A.V. Club has been on a roll lately, dissecting all of my favorite TV cultural touchstones. From 1985-1989 there was no show of greater importance to me than "Moonlighting." The writing was crisp and inspired, the narrative frequently broke and then reassembled a new mold, the pop culture references and influences were deeply layered throughout the run of the series. It was the first show that inspired me to dig deeper into the vast material that had so greatly influenced its creators.
The AV Club reminded me of how great Willis is capable of being.
He's done a handful of projects that have been very good or enjoyable, but nothing approaching an amazing movie performance. In my opinion, nothing he's done has surpassed the early work he did on "Moonlighting." It makes me sad that that sort of character construction has been mostly absent in his movie roles. John McClane is probably the best movie screen character he's done but by and large, his lengthy movie career has been a big steaming pile. (Though admittedly, steaming piles with lots of explosions sometimes make a great deal of money which accounts for his longevity.)
In the early days, he had no bigger fan than me. I hung on his every performance, bought all his albums, was first in line at the theaters when his movies released, and re-played his mockumentary "The Return of Bruno" incessantly. Now, though, he just looks incredibly bored. His wit has turned to nastiness. I can't remember the last time he did an interview in which he appeared awake, engaged, or even said anything remotely interesting. I don't have a problem with movies that have smaller distribution or go straight to VOD, but his movies are template and truly awful without a hint of effort on his part. Every once in awhile, he'll pop up in something and you can see the spark of a good actor in there somewhere ("Moonrise Kingdom" for example) but mostly it's just....ugh. He is literally the only example of a performer that I once so fervently adored falling out of my favor. Generally I tend to keep favored performers in my heart forever.
So I was glad to see the AV Club pay "Moonlighting" it's due accolades. As it turns out, I wanted to be reminded of how and why I had once liked him so much. An article highlight:
In subsequent episodes, the show establishes the dynamic between Maddie and David, an unlikely pair of polar-opposites who only ever agree that they disagree—and they can’t even do that, most of the time. The characters don’t sound so complex or deep on paper: Maddie is beautiful and decent, her icy exterior belying her romantic heart; David is crude and crass and has, as Maddie puts it, “The morals of a rabbit, the character of a slug, and the brain of a platypus.” But in execution, they’re two of the most colorful characters network television has ever produced. They don’t have particularly good chemistry (Willis and Shepherd fought vehemently on and off set) as much as they each fuel the other’s mania. Maddie spends more time slamming doors and yelling at David than she does detecting, while David throws office parties, sets up dating hotlines, and expounds on his profound life observations (Do bees be? Do flies fly?). He’s frequently chauvinistic, his salacious, juvenile mind able to turn anything into an innuendo or come-on, yet he’s inexplicably lovable. Chalk that up to Willis’ ability to go from tactless to tactful on a dime, and then pocket the dime.
I can't argue against the 10 episodes that AV Club selected as a holistic view of the series but I'd add a few more of my favorite episodes to the mix:
"Gunfight at the So-So Corral"
"The Next Murder You Hear"
"The Son Also Rises"
"Twas the Episode Before Christmas"
"It's a Wonderful Job"
"My Fair David"
"Symphony in Knocked Flat"
"Plastic Fantastic Lovers"
If you're a younger Bruce Willis fan that knows him only from his action movies, do yourself a favor and check out "Moonlighting." You're in for a treat--even if he is a mostly grumpy douchebag now.
ETA: As I was writing this post, I got an email from Netflix letting me know that "Moonrise Kingdom" has been added to the service. Nice serendipity there.
http://www.avclub.com/article/10-episodes-highlight-moonlightings-eclectic-bound-225308