Written by: Rob Hanning

Directed by: Will Shriner

Original US airdate: 27th March 2001

Original UK airdate: 27th April 2001

• The Silver Fox
  
  
• Check, Please

Two-times the fun, Jun 03, 2011

Reviewer: David Sim from Skelmersdale, Lancashire

You know a show is running low on ideas when it has to rely on an old standby. Take a pre-existing plot and put it through the recycler. Dust it off and polish it like new and maybe an audience won't notice. But if the producers think they can put one over on us, then they're sadly misinformed.

It Takes Two To Tangle is a definite attempt to rehash the Season 6 episode When A Man Loves Two Women. Frasier got involved with Faye and Cassandra, two high-flying career women. Frasier couldn't decide which one he liked more. The episode saw him trying to juggle them like a circus act without the other one finding out. The result was a highly amusing storyline.

This episode substitutes Martin for Frasier, and includes a plot about Frasier and Niles trying to save they're old high school from closure, but its the same basic story put through the grinding mill.

Certainly episodes can be made to work again if the writer is up to it. Joe Keenan took all the great things about The Matchmaker and gave it an even better run-through with Out With Dad. He made it a hat-trick with The Doctor Is Out, and how often can you say that about a third installment?

But Rob Hanning lacks the ability to draw out the same comic inspiration a second time and put it through an even funnier treatment. But then they can't all be Joe Keenan can they?

In the previous episode Docu.Drama, there was a scene where Niles made a hopeless attempt to fly a kite. It was an instance of silent comedy, seemingly modelled on Niles setting the apartment on fire in Three Valentines. I couldn't help but feel that I was watching a tamer version. And I felt the same about ITTTT.

What's crucially missing is the rapid developments of WAMLTW. The way the plot seemed to circle back on Frasier as Faye and Cassandra kept pulling him from side to side without them even knowing it. But Rob Hanning misses the point entirely and only shows us one of the women Martin is two-timing.

The first is Penelope, who runs her own charity foundation (and where the Frasier/Niles story fits in). The second is a waitress called Estelle, who Martin met in a cafe after going out with Penelope. But after one scene, Estelle then vanishes from the episode. Hanning instead resorts to the two women phoning up Martin on his mobile with different ringtones (Can you have more than one?). And getting completely entangled.

I think a reason why this is not as successful is because I didn't care for the characters of Penelope and Estelle. What Martin is doing is certainly reprehensible (but not as out of character as others have said. Didn't he two-time Maureen with Sherry?). He's even eyeing up a third encounter! But where these women differ from Faye and Cassandra is they're not as well-developed.

The Season 6 writers took the time to devote whole episodes to Faye and Cassandra before they unknowingly came together in WAMLTW. They felt like real people with individual quirks and foibles. I'm not seeing anything like that with Penelope and Estelle. How could we with Estelle? She's in the episode for 20 seconds! How can you sympathise with women we know practically nothing about?

Having said that, the episode does get itself together for a pleasing finale. Frasier and Niles are so desperate to save Bryce Academy from bankruptcy, they're prepared to use Martin's affair with Penelope to hit her up for money. They invite themselves to one of Penelope's cocktail parties in the hopes of getting her to write out a very generous endorsement. That's easier said then done, because not only does Estelle keep calling every two minutes, they have an added obstacle in the shape of William, Penelope's son.

William knows his mother's too liberal when it comes to her cheque book. Frasier and Niles have to distract him before they can get Penelope to write out a cheque. The scene is enlivened by John Michael Higgin's amusing performance as William. He brings a sparkle this episode is desperately in need of. In a peculiar coincidence, this is the first of two consecutive episodes where an actor from Christopher Guest's acting troupe appear in Frasier. Jennifer Coolidge appears in the following episode, who co-starred with Higgins in Guest movies like Best In Show and A Mighty Wind.

It all typically falls apart when Penelope discovers Martin's affair with Estelle by answering his phone. And although she does write out a cheque in the end, its only worth $50 (Which they have to give away to replace a vase they break).

Another ho-hum Season 8 episode. I liked Niles fainting in William's arms to distract him. When Penelope needs a pen, Niles (acting unconscious) provides one! But a mediocre episode at best. Roz is even reduced to showing her cleavage at Nervosa. On a nicer sidenote, Jane Leeves had just given birth to her daughter. The opening scene alludes to this when Niles informs Roz that Daphne has lost 9 pounds and 12 ounces. The exact weight as her baby. A lovely touch.

Rating: 56%