MovieChat Forums > Moonlighting (1985) Discussion > This show doesn't break the 4th wall...S...

This show doesn't break the 4th wall...Spoilers

posted 15 years ago by juviejay
5 replies | jump to latest

It destroys it!

I just watched the season 2 finale and I didn't remember how loose they got with the format. I didn't mind the talking to the audience on occasion. Those moments were usually pretty funny. I tolerated the ridiculous ending chase scenes because, hey, you know, it's just a TV show. But when they totally go off set and onto a sound stage, run over a midget and miraculously change outfits in an instant, I got fed up. It was too much. I stopped watching after a while. What's the point? It wasn't even funny.

I hope season three doesn't have too much of that.

Tigers love pepper; they hate cinnamon.

[–] opryphantom 15 years ago

Wait 'til you see the final ep. "Haven't you heard, you've been canceled."

[–] Star_blazer_9000 14 years ago

From that episode onward they really let themselves go. I really hated the fan mail thing.

[–] mroodge 13 years ago

Most of the time i reckon it's funny. I just watched 'here's living with you kid' in which one of the final lines is 'but this isn't tv, bert'. I was very amused, given that in that very episode they broke the 4th wall a few times, and yet i still kind of believed it

[–] moosefeathers 9 years ago

Since this was the premise of the show from the beginning, then why did you stick to watching it if you couldn't stand it?

What exactly if your point, if any?

Swing away, Merrill....Merrill, swing away...

[–] ClementinaSpur (1201) 6 months ago

You are correct. Moonlighting was appointment viewing for me in its first run when I was in middle and high school. I'm going through the episodes again on Hulu, and by the end of season 2 it's getting a bit long in the tooth.

The first season and the majority of the second season were amazing. It had a superb noir quality and established a great mood using music, etc. to support that. They actually solved mysteries, and fairly entertaining ones. The majority of the most memorable and best episodes are found in these first two seasons such as The Lady in the Iron Mask and The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice (an amazing TV moment for any show from any era). Then they start trying to stretch out the episode run time by opening the show with a heart-to-heart with the audience and then resorting to the other gimmicks you mentioned. It's obvious that they were struggling to produce the same quality of writing even that early in the show's run. By the way, I just watched the season 2 closer last night. Billy Barty???? What did I just watch?

One thing I will give the show -- Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd had amazing chemistry from the first moment. Even The Andy Griffith Show had some growing pains to figure out the dynamic between Andy and Barney.