Written by: Christopher Lloyd

Directed by: Katy Garretson

Original US airdate: 4th November 1999

Original UK airdate: 11th February 2000

• Spy vs. Spy

Strong on plot. Low on laughs, Jul 21, 2009

Reviewer: David Sim from Skelmersdale, Lancashire

Rivals is Christopher Lloyd's last solo script before his three year break away from Frasier. Since this is his last one, he's decided to go all out with a truly complex comedy of errors.

Throughout Christopher Lloyd's time on the show, an increasing sophistication crept into his work. He started out writing amusing offerings, but from the third season onwards he began to gravitate towards more challenging pursuits.

A recurrent theme of parallel viewpoints runs through much of his work. From the hilarious Shrink Rap. To the ingenious Perspectives on Christmas. Rivals blends the sibling rivalry of the former with the nimble scripting of the latter.

But for all that, Rivals comes off the lesser. Its extremely well written. But instead of dazzling us with narrative backflips, the episode becomes more a puzzled scratch of the head. So it never quite becomes the classic it clearly aspires to be.

The episode makes the rather peculiar choice of resurrecting Poppy Delafield, from Joe Keenan's Everyone's A Critic two episodes ago. I never really liked that episode. Mainly because Poppy was a one-note character that wore out her welcome all too soon.

Christopher Lloyd has made a commendable effort to tone down Poppy's loud, obnoxious personality. Something that seriously scuppered her debut appearance. The downside to this is by doing that, there's nothing else to her as a character. Which only shows how poorly thought out she was. And explains why we never see Poppy again after this.

After observing Frasier's tempestous relationship with Poppy, Niles takes a bit of an interest in her when she shows off a whole new side to herself when she's around him. And the interest is mutual.

Meanwhile Frasier's become interested in Regan Shaw, his next door neighbour, who he finds in his apartment wearing nothing but a towel. Martin let her in after she locked herself out. And tries to set her up on a date with Frasier.

Niles is convinced that Frasier's got a crush on Poppy. Something Frasier fervently denies. Either by luck or by good timing, Regan walks in, who happens to be a former patient of Niles'. Daphne overhears half of the conversation, and reports back to Frasier that Regan's been seeing Niles.

Of course Niles can't admit this to Frasier. He's bound by doctor/patient confidentiality. So Frasier becomes convinced that Niles has designs on Regan.

I wonder when writing Rivals, did Christopher Lloyd get as confused as I did? There are a couple of times when Frasier alludes to this, which might be Lloyd's way of voicing bafflement at his own script.

Christopher Lloyd is a true master of plot. But the problem with Rivals is it may be too overwritten. It becomes such a slog trying to keep up with every new plot convolution you wind up worn down by it instead of laughing at it. Even after several viewings, Rivals makes less sense. Not more.

Joe Keenan did the whole thing of mixed signals better in The Ski Lodge, where everybody fancied somebody else. And they were all wrong. Suzanne Martin created her own masterpiece of misconception with Halloween. Two superb episodes that Rivals tries to be like but winds up too entangled in its own cleverness.

Christopher Lloyd brings the two couples together at a Charity Ball. Where Frasier and Niles sneer at one another, both convinced the other brother is after each other's date. Instead of paying attention to Poppy and Regan. The misunderstandings snowball to such an extent that the plot just left me behind. After a while, I couldn't be bothered trying to keep up anymore.

Even the ending is not as funny as it should have been. Frasier and Niles commiserate at the bar after Poppy and Regan have walked out on them. They drink a toast to they're dates and both blurt out the wrong names. It would have been funny, if I hadn't been so exhausted at the end of it. And for all the wrong reasons.

In some ways Rivals is a clever and well executed episode of Frasier. It was nice of Christopher Lloyd to try something ambitious to end his tenure on. If I had laughed more at the plot's twists and turns instead of being baffled by them, I probably would have given it a higher rating.

The jokes just become buried in the plot's own complexities. And even when it does try to be funny, it never succeeds at that either. The tango scene looks like a much sillier version of the far superior one from Moondance (Christopher Lloyd was one of the writers on that script). Its just too flawed to really be funny.

Complicated plots can be funny. My favourite episode of Fawlty Towers, The Hotel Inspectors had a dazzling script where it kept continually misleading you. And when it finally revealed its punchline at the very end, it was a shocking revelation that left me as dazed as it did doubled over in laughter. Rivals tries for the same thing, but ultimately fails.

A rare failure for Christopher Lloyd. But an honourable one.

Rating: 65%