Reviews of the Bosch

Radar’s departure signaled the show’s endgame was on the horizon. At eight seasons, it had already outlasted the Korean War more than twice over and the 1980s were soon to be upon this show that had been such a staple of the 70s. The first episode after Radar left was called “Period of Adjustment” and that was very much where the show was. Its’ central direction and thesis remained the same, but there was space for even more commitment to dramatic stories  and new statements. There  would be no more cast changes to the show, and even just the shift of Klinger into Radar’s role in the company, doing away with both his drag and desperation to get out of the army was a sure sign that the kinds of gags and satire prominent when the show started would no longer be such a signature part of it -in fact some of these would even be challenged. There was still that flavour of late-60s counterculture when the show began, but it made less sense by the dawn of Reagan’s America. In this las...

In the summer hiatus between seasons three and four of M*A*S*H , Wayne Rogers unexpectedly left the series. Having signed onto the show in the expectation that Hawkeye and Trapper would be co-leads as in the movie, he was disappointed with his seeming relegation to the sidekick role as the series went on. And in fairness the early seasons did struggle to find a role for Trapper and to differentiate him from Hawkeye. It made sense for Rogers, but it left the show in an extremely uncomfortable position moving into the new season now with two major cast members to replace and the necessity to explain away Trapper’s absence from the cast. It forced a change, but one that was inevitable. “Welcome to Korea”, the season opener, functions as a second pilot, the first hour-long episode of the series. In its’ first half it bids an off-screen farewell to Trapper, who got his discharge while Hawkeye was on R&R and whom he just misses taking off. In the second half, it more fully introduces his...

Larry Gelbart The chief architects of M*A*S*H  at its’ beginning were Larry Gelbart and Gene Reynolds. Gelbart wrote the pilot, Reynolds directed it, and the two would spearhead the creative direction of the show for its’ first three seasons. The show developed its’ character under their wing, the dynamics of the cast set in place, their routines solidified. This era of the show was characterized by both a light touch and an abundance of silliness to general premises –a sensibility that often boarded on the anarchism of the movie. It’s curious to see plotlines here that would fly very differently had they come later, such as an unexploded shell landing in the middle of the camp in “The Army-Navy Game” or the whimsy with which they treat one very incompetent enemy bomber in “5 O’Clock Charlie”. This mirrors an attitude towards the war and the American army that is patently tongue-in-cheek –every aspect of military life and every austere military figure is played to the utmost goofba...