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episode #21, segment 1: Need to Know

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episode #21, segment 1: Need to Know Empty episode #21, segment 1: Need to Know

Post  BoG Sat Apr 24, 2010 5:33 pm

#21a: NEED TO KNOW written by Mary Sheldon; Directed by Paul Lynch
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This was a late episode of the first season and is not on many favorites lists. Most fans of the show regarded it well, but there are always a half-dozen other episodes which they prefer. But I prefer this new TZ episode segment because it touches upon the ultimate mystery and the ultimate question of our existence. What is the meaning of it all? Why are we here? What is the purpose of existence? This is really the toughest and most intriguing question(s) to tackle on a TV show and this episode managed to strike the right tone in suggesting that the answer is too profound, too unsettling, too surprising, too disturbing, just too plain scary and, in the end, too simple. That's the mind-blowing paradox: as depicted here, the answer is very simple - yet, so simple that it causes madness in most minds, as if we are prepared only for something very complex.
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In the plot, an investigator (William Petersen) is sent to a small town where insanity seems to be spreading. The first half of the episode is basically a detective story, tinged with a hint of the fantastic. The investigator teams up with a local woman (Frances McDormand), whose father is one of the latest victims of the strange malady. Their strategy is to try and trace down the cause by working backwards - going to see people who last had contact with the maddened person. Eventually,
Spoiler:
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The story is wonderfully presented and all the actors are incredible in this one. It's a kick to see Petersen (CSI) and McDormand so early in their careers, but it's all the small supporting roles that make this one work so well. I've never quite seen such an accurate and unsettling portrayal of madness. Those afflicted are eccentric yet also, potentially, quite dangerous. It's the unexpected side to insanity that turns this into an episode that keeps viewers on their toes. Especially effective is Gammell as the main loony, Potts; from the second that Petersen's investigator meets him, we get this feeling that something is terribly wrong and something very bad will probably happen, even though Potts seems harmless during that first minute.
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But, what elevates this episode to the forefront of all the better TZ shows is the impression it left on me as it ended - a powerful, strange impact with its mind-blowing ideas. I started to think about this terrible, unknown sentence-as-an-idea, this small collection of words which overwhelm people entirely, driving them mad. I began to wonder on how I would approach such an idea and how I would react.