MovieChat Forums > One Foot in the Grave (1990) Discussion > I really didn't like 'Love and Death'

I really didn't like 'Love and Death'

posted 12 years ago by LemonGrove
15 replies | jump to latest

Though the episode has some very funny parts, the ending really gives me cold feet. Victor and Margaret both cover up the fact that they believe they have cheated on each other and act as if it hadn't happend which puts a very different spin on their marriage.

They both then go on to do very cruel things to their hosts who went out of their way to help them, Victor burning April's wig is portrayed as funny even though she did nothing wrong.

If April and her husband had done something wrong to both of them, then these would be fitting revenges and would be in classic One Foot in the Grave style that we know and love, such as the Computer Salesman and the care staff abusing the elderly. But this was not the case here at all, I really don't like this episode because of it.

Does anyone else feel the same or do you have a different spin on it?

[–] Henry_Marzini 12 years ago

I agree with pretty much everything you said. You have hit the nail right on the head with with I didn't like about this episode. Well the ending atleast.

Like you say there was some hilarious parts ( eg I always find it funny the way Victor describes the bed as "hard as a brick as usual" don't why I just do), Vincent talking to his cucumbers and ofcourse my favourite, the beer stuck to his head ( it's a very rare time when I don't laught at the hilarious line " I just wished for this to round of the day, I prayed for this moment !" I absouletly adore that line, so funny !
But I have never found the ending funny because as you said April and Vincent had done nothing wrong to them.

Victor burning April's wig is portrayed as funny even though she did nothing wrong.

And this is exactly why I didn't find this funny. April like you said had done nothing wrong and so he set her wig on fire. I know the joke is that we are meant to laught that Victor made such a terrible mistake and acted far too harshly but I always thought creating the fire was bad enough but the fact that he set fire to a wig really gave me a sour taste. I'd assume she would have been very sensitive regarding that so I always disliked seeing victor destroy it ( and it would probably be very difficult and/ or expensive getting a replacement wig)

Ofcourse though, this episode wasn't the first time Victor had made a mistake when he was dishing out one of his revenges. In " Dramatic fever" he accidently plants rubbish in the wrong person's car.

We've got to have... MONEY !

[–] LemonGrove 12 years ago

Glad to see you agree on this. For me, the highlights through the episode are Victor running into the bathroom and spraying the dwarfs, and Victor returning to the bedroom at night smirking and laughing saying "Goodnight Petra, Goodnight Marie!" when Margaret is in bed.

The situation in Dramatic Fever is a bit different though, since Victor realises he was wrong, whereas with Love and Death, the episode ends with Victor having a smirk on his face, thinking he has been clever.

He also leaves a clue behind and the owner of the car discovers who it was, vowing to make the culprit pay when he sees him. Victor then of course immediately pops his head through the serving hatch. Should this have not been the end of the episode, the next scene would have most probably been another 'Margaret dabbing Victor's wound' scene, which we of course love.

Hence, I love that episode as much any other. In catering? In Kettering!

[–] Henry_Marzini 12 years ago

The situation in Dramatic Fever is a bit different though, since Victor realises he was wrong, whereas with Love and Death, the episode ends with Victor having a smirk on his face, thinking he has been clever.

Although Victor trashed that poor guy's car, I'm sure it wouldn't have been too difficult for him to get it cleaned and like you say, Victor did receive a comeuppance at the end.

But in love and death, he had set fire on a wig. The wig which I thought was bad enough but the fire could have been dangerous. I do hope though that April (or even Vincent for that matter who was pushed into the water) would have confronted Victor (and Margaret) for their strange behaviour and they would have found out that their behaviour was wrong which I suppose is not too unlikely.

Hence, I love that episode as much any other. In catering? In Kettering!

That is indeed one of my favourite episodes of One Foot in the Grave. My favourite gag (and for that matter one of my favourite gags of all time) was actually Martin (the stage technician) doing a somersault and crashing into the glass and falling.

We've got to have... MONEY !

[–] andlovesaidnohim 12 years ago

I thought it was an interesting episode.

It definitely showed that Victor and Margaret are not perfect by any means. They jumped to conclusions, didn't bother to find out what had really happened and reacted incredibly badly to the situation. I think the episode cleverly built up to this conclusion though.

It was clear that Victor was there under protest. He didn't really like either April or Vince and thought of the whole trip as a chore and he was becoming increasingly frustrated with April's loud and false personality to the point where he couldn't even be polite and he could even manage that with Mrs. Warboys and Patrick a lot of the time. Ironically, April actually came through for him and had his best interests at heart and Victor got it badly wrong.

They both did a dangerous thing (Vince could have drowned) and I think it shows that both are fiercely protective over their marriage to the point where they both did something illegal (Victor committed arson on April's property and Margaret assaulted Vince). April and Vince could well have got the police involved there.

I also think the issue of sex was a big part in explaining their behaviour. When Victor was ranting about other people's openness on the subject, Margaret implied that he was repressed because they had no sex life themselves and she was frustrated because of it hence she became almost mad with jealousy when Victor (innocently from his perspective) became friends with the Romanian girls and Margaret misinterpreted their conversations. She thought Victor was acting out because of her allegation that he is sexually repressed.

Hence, I think they jumped to conclusions because both felt guilty. Margaret for thinking Victor had cheated on her and Victor for inadvertently making Margaret feel inadequate. So it was easier to think that April and Vince had taken advantage of them (it was not possible for them to cheat because Margaret was asleep when Vince allegedly got into the bed and Victor too drunk to consent to anything) because it meant they had a scapegoat for what had happened rather than having to admit they got it wrong, although I think Margaret moreso.

[–] Troll_Dahl 12 years ago

I did feel a little bad for April about the wig. But then, it's little worse than some other things Victor has done. In 'The Dawn of Man', he poured live fishing bait onto someone's food. He also used cement bags to weld wrongdoers to scarecrow poles in Hearts of Darkness (which you referred to--booting them out of the nursing home was one thing, but leaving them stuck to the poles was another). I suppose it all goes to show the darker side of human nature and in this case, it helped that at least the misunderstanding itself was pretty funny to me and you can at least see where their feelings came from. Plus, what I think was really funny in that scene was Victor's impression of April. I thought the episode was funny but not one of my absolute favorites. For me, one of the funniest lines was when Victor complained that there was a dead seagull in the upstairs toilet. April said it must have come in through the window and fall into the bowl, to which Victor replies: "Well, I didn't think it had come out of someone's bottom." Vince with his cucumbers and homemade gravestones was also amusing. In general, the episodes with Victor and Margaret having relationship trouble can be among the more challenging ones to watch.

'Irregardless' is not a word

[–] heat22000 12 years ago

I didn't like that out of all the episodes they used this unusually mediocre one to showcase One Foot in the Grave for the Britain's Best Sitcom contest.
I got the impression that April's apparent generosity was down to a non-so-subtle crush on Victor, rather like Millicent in The Affair of the Hollow Woman. She also ran a dodgy hotel with beds alive with bitey bugs, a shared bathroom with no lock and a cat allowed to roam around the dining room so it wasn't like she was a complete innocent.
Alright, my loves!

[–] Troll_Dahl 12 years ago

Yeah, you would expect one a bit more memorable and characteristic of the show. Any of the confined episodes, like Timeless Time, Beast in the Cage, or Rearranging the Dust, or the power failure one would have showcased the program better (those are the Victor and Margaret in one room-type episodes, which I always find to be outstanding). Hearts of Darkness might have been too controversial. I think the Futility of the Fly from the last series could have been a contender.

'Irregardless' is not a word

[–] LemonGrove 12 years ago

It's funny you say that, I think that The Futility of the Fly is probably the worst episode of the series. Mrs Warboys is a complete quivering wreck throughout, instead of her usual confident (albeit bumbling) self. The explanation of the fly 'being unexplained' did not wash with me and I felt this was just poor writing. There is an explanation for it. Even if the Meldrew's never discovered it, I still think we as viewers should have found out, not coming up with a solution is something any of us could write.

[–] Troll_Dahl 12 years ago

I love that episode! Was amazed that something so brilliant came out of the series that late on. Mrs. Warboys is a quivering wreck mainly because Victor sat on her face and then she thought that he'd got a thing about her. I never questioned whether she was in character. Her behavior seemed quite natural based on what was happening to her or what she thought was happening.

Of course, one can't help but wonder about the titular object. Obviously the point was that no one knew where it had come from or what it was doing there. It was representative of the struggle to find the meaning of life (if such exists) and make just make sense of things in a world that doesn't seem to make all that much sense sometimes. I think Renwick may have been heavily influenced by Samuel Beckett and such absurdist writers. In my mind, though, I couldn't resist thinking about possible solutions. It's amazing how we humans want to find answers and meanings. I thought maybe it could have been sent by his brother, Alfred. He'd be absent-minded enough to neglect sending along a note to explain it. But in this case, the whole point was to leave it unexplained. Victor talked about the seemingly impossible task of finding the meaning of life with the fly sitting on his lap.

I suppose some would argue that as a sitcom, in dabbling in philosophy like this, One Foot in the Grave was a bit too big for its britches but it's always had more substance to it than other shows.

Which episodes do you like?

'Irregardless' is not a word

[–] LemonGrove 12 years ago

See, when Victor pours the bait onto the litterbug's food it was in response to him witnessing him dumping in the river firsthand. As well as that he ends up with head put through the window, that isn't fair. but we don't mind Victor getting the short straw! All the instances (that I can recall) of Victor taking out his revenge have been for valid causes and not mis-understanding, or he ends up getting his comeuppance for an act of vigilante revenge. That is what makes me feel uneasy with regards to this episode.

Binding the care home staff in cement I feel was done for comedy purposes more than anything else, so that they resembled scarecrows and because he had to endure it himself. My opinion is I don't think we are meant to take into account the true severity of it.

[–] andlovesaidnohim 12 years ago

I think turning the staff into scarecrows was overlooked because they were so loathesome but yes, it was a criminal act. Whereas April and Vince weren't loathesome, they were just annoyances. Both Victor and Margaret could and perhaps should, have been arrested for two illegal and incredibly dangerous acts in that episode.

[–] Troll_Dahl 12 years ago

My opinion is I don't think we are meant to take into account the true severity of it.

Probably, and it's the same with April and Vince, or even when he broke that old man's walking stick because he'd let his bees get loose and chase Victor into his garden shed. It's all for comedy and it's pretty believable for someone like Victor who is prone to losing his temper and doing stupid things. Like locking the locksmith out of his own home because he'd bungled Victor's locks. At one level, it's something a lot of us would probably like to do if we weren't also compassionate and sensitive people.

On a similar note, in The Valley of Fear (I think that's the episode) when an old woman gets accidentally locked in the Meldrews' loft, I have a little bit of a hard time laughing at that one, because when she's finally let out, shy's crying and looks really distressed.

'Irregardless' is not a word

[–] LemonGrove 12 years ago

I do understand what you're saying, I just feel the two are different because we see so much more in Love and Death about April and Vince. We see what they are like, how they look after Victor and Margaret, and the rest of the guests. Then the revenge scenes are very prominent.

With the care home staff, all we see of them is that they are horrible, we only very briefly see them 'scarecrowed', and even in that time the camera is panning away. We don't see any of Victor carrying out the act or anything else.

I agree with you on The Valley of Fear. Mrs Birkett is very pleasant and polite, so it is a shame that this happens to her. However, it was accidental rather than intentional, so we just need to think that things like this may sometimes happen. I think her face being covered in soot is added for extra comic effect to soften the blow when she is discovered.

[–] heat22000 12 years ago

Returning to the gripes about The Futility of the Fly a few posts back, the only real problem I have with it is Katie the cleaner/ writer knowing about things that happened when she was not present! How, for example did she know about the fried finger in the chips, Victor sitting on Mrs Warboys in the bath or the jamming the vegetable in the door incident? Hardly the kind of things that would be discussed afterwards with the cleaner within earshot.

[–] andlovesaidnohim 12 years ago

I had the impression that she just heard it while doing her duties. Margaret and Jean were chatting when she was around without any real indication she was there (in the sense of keeping their voices down or anything). All we saw was Margaret and Jean being jealous of Katie and Victor's repressed sexuality coming through eg, "you did a a great job" and absentmindedly checking her out.