Everwood 9/29/03 (1 Viewer)

[Patrick Sun]

Episode 2.3

Talk about inspired casting to have Claudia Christian play young Edna "abandoning" her 2 young children in the name of serving her country.

I liked Marcia Cross's introduction as Harold's sister Linda, and now new resident of Everwood. The hashing out of past hurts among the Abbotts was done well, good dramatic stuff.

Andy's subplot wasn't as compelling, but Nina finally comes forward with her own big secret that she's been carrying for the past 5 months. Andy and Nina would make a good couple, but you know Andy is going to have some attraction to Harold's sister (much to Harold's inevitable bemusement and eyerolling).

Why has Lanie turned into this booze-seeking-party person, or is she just being a private school student turned loose on a public school system. Ephram's retort to the college guys wanting to throw him and Bright out was short, curt and to the point.

 

[Ivan Lindenfeld]

My wife and I are Everwooders now. At least for the next fewe weeks until baby girl comes into our lives!

I told her last year that this was a gem of a show, with good writing and real family situations. Now she's hooked, too.

One nit: It's late September in the Rockies, shouldn't it be a lot colder than they show?

Do they actually film in CO? Some of the action shots have Rocky Mountains in the background and it looks real. (Edit: Answer: Ogden Utah except the pilot which was Alberta, CA.)

 

[Chad R]

This bothered me too. It's a complete 180 with the character. She was introduced as an outsider who dreamed of getting out of Everwood, into some of the same fringe stuff Ephram was into. Now she's a frat loving party girl? I would guess she would feel above that typical teen rebellion. The only way I guess they can justify it is that Lanie is dealing with Colin's death in extreme ways as well as Amy, but I would guess based on her previous wish to escape by way of boarding school, that's how she'd deal with this loss.

Even more perplexing was Amy's sudden forgiveness of Ephram at the end. They certainly haven't set her up to be the forgiving type. She was angry at her Dad for weeks for 'betraying' Colin last season, she attests to never being able to forgive Andy for following Colin's wishes and now she has no problem with Ephram tattling on her? Not very consistent.

Nina is like Luke on 'Gilmore Girls.' She's there for the long term, down the road relationship. The new Dr. Abbott is in Andy's short term sights.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

While the episode wasn't bad, per say, to me it felt more like filler than any episode introducing a major character has any right to. I think the reason it felt that way to me was because none of the standing plot threads were furthered very far. The two I liked best (Ephram tells on Amy to Bright/Nina coming forward to Andy about her husband's sexuality) did to some extent, but they were pushed into the background. I'm not sure what I think of Linda Abbott. After only one episode, it's hard to feel any connection. I hope they make her characterization more interesting as the series continues. She's done all of this amazing shit, but she came across a bit Wesley Crusher-like to me (to reference Trek.)
One thing I absolutely loved, however, was the flashback bookends to the episodes set to "Get Together" by the Youngbloods. Not only was it cool to see Dr. Abbott's office as a functioning train station (and thus get an idea of how Julia Brown saw it as a child) but it was a subtle, effective way to create a setup for the character. I was also glad to see Edna and Irv get to share a storyline, as they were pushed to the background pretty hard in the last two episodes. I'm not sure that I buy the timeline of things though; Edna remarried three years ago to Irv. But Irv said he came to town while working on putting a railroad through, and stayed. I doubt they were putting down like as recent as three years ago. A minor quibble though.
A missed opportunity was the preteens having sex storyline. While it was interesting enough in and of itself, it didn't tie into anything, except maybe Nina's confiding in Andy. Considering that Delia was close to those kids' ages, I think it should have hit home to Andy a little more than it did.
I still liked it, it just wasn't a personal highpoint for me. Next week looks great, as the status quo in the Brown household looks to be upset.

I guess what I missed from the episode was the whimsy that's usually there. But damn good television either way.

Even more perplexing was Amy's sudden forgiveness of Ephram at the end.

I didn't read that as Amy forgiving Ephram; she still looked pretty pissed to me. I think that seen was more about Bright and Ephram finding mutual respect for each other rather than Ephram reconciling with Amy. Hope that made sense. It was one of my favorite scenes in the episode.

 

[Chad R]

The fact that she greeted him at all was too much. To me, it seemed friendly because Ephram looked a bit taken aback by it as well.

I hope they deal with Nina's problems in a much more direct way later this season (or next week, I'm not partial).

 

[RobertW]

maybe irv heard that laugh and fell for edna long ago, but just couldn't do anything while she was married to the first dr. abbott. that would explain the quick re-marriage after her husband died; irv was living with decades of unrequited love.

 

[StephenT]

Unrequited? I'm wondering if there's more to the story? It's something you have to think they'll reveal more about over time. Just because he loved her for years doesn't mean she'd be ready to marry him so soon after her husband's death. She would have had to have felt the same don't you think? Or she was just swepped off her feet in short order.

 

[RobertW]

i think he saw his chance after so many years and just turned on the charm so that she was carried away.

 

[Jack Shappa]

Do they actually film in CO? Some of the action shots have Rocky Mountains in the background and it looks real. (Edit: Answer: Ogden Utah except the pilot which was Alberta, CA.)

I live in Ogden, about a mile or two from where they film it. They put false fronts on a few unused buldings in our historic 25th street area, which is a beautiful street with the Wasatch mountains as the backdrop. They actually film the indoor scenes in Salt Lake.

- JS