Frasier Online Episode Guide -> Season 10 -> Episode 10.07

Bristle While You Work (1)

Frasier is having trouble finding a replacement housekeeper and holds interviews together with Martin and Daphne, but none of them find favour with Frasier. Then Trish Haney arrives, who was down to be interviewed an hour ago - not the best way to get on Frasier's good side, but he fact that she was late because she was in line buying Sonics tickets certainly makes Martin find her interesting. Martin then says that whoever gets the job is someone he will have to spend a lot of time with, and he was right about Daphne, so Frasier finally relents and agrees to let Martin hire Trish. On her first day, however, she has to leave at 10 for a hair appointment and then on to lunch. Martin feels that he has to cover for her because otherwise he'll never hear the end of it from Frasier, so Martin cleans the apartment. Trish's unreliability continues - the next day, it's her neighbour's 'funeral', the day after that it's the flu. Martin continues to clean the apartment for her but when Frasier comes home early on day, his cover may be blown.....

Niles, on the other hand, has a lingering toothache which the dentist says is perfectly fine, and confides to Roz in the cafe that it may be referred pain - for example, a heart condition's pain appears as a toothache. Roz says it's probably a sinus infection after learning there is only a 1 in 10,000 chance of it being this, which is followed by Niles winning a fanny pack in a bottled water competition, of which there is a 1 in 10,000 chance of winning. Niles then experiences a large number of improbable events - his car is struck by lightening, he picks the card his father asks him to out of a normal pack of cards, he meets another Niles and Daphne couple - which culminates in him winning yet another fanny pack in a the same bottled water competition. Roz convinces him to see a doctor and get his heart condition checked out, but doesn't tell Daphne as he doesn't want to worry her. The doctor tells him some shocking news - there's an anomaly with his EKG and will have to go the hospital for surgery straight away.....

- Gil says he hasn't seen Roz wearing that Blouse before, at which Roz says it's quite an old one:
Roz: How long can something stay in the closet (!)

- Martin can't believe Daphne replaces his oldest pair of underwear every month:
Daphne: Did it never occur to you that you never had to buy new underwear in 10 years ?!
Martin: Thought I got hold of a good batch!

- Trish is late for her job interview because she was queuing for Sonics tickets:
Trish: Should have guessed everybody and his brother would want to see Vince Carter play.
Martin: Not everybody....... or his brother!

- Niles is explaining to Roz what referred pain is:
Roz: So the pain in my butt might actually be coming from across the table (!)

- Trish has to leave at 10am for a hair appointment and lunch:
Martin: So you're not coming back after lunch?
Trish: Trust me - you don't want me cleaning this place drunk!

- Martin is on the phone to Trish discussing what time she is coming in tomorrow:
Martin: So 9 o'clock sharp....Ten?..... I'll see you when you get here.

- Frasier wants to talk to Trish about her cleaning which in fact Martin has been doing:
Frasier: I want to say something to her about flipping my mattress.
Martin: What the hell are you trying to do - kill her!

This is the first episode in a 3-episode arc which develops a story about Niles heart, but let's discuss the other plot line first - Frasier's search for a new housekeeper. I though that it was great, with a lot of laughs coming from unexpected quarters such as Daphne learning that Frasier didn't want to hire her because he thought she would steal, and Martin covering up for Trish and getting really angry when Frasier criticises 'Trish's' work. I also liked the ending when Martin was pretending to talk to Trish in the powder room on Frasier's behalf and she comes in through the front door. So even though it was another episode where an actress was brought in for one episode to make us laugh, Ana Gasteyer did a pretty good job and made the house keeper storyline highly amusing. The other plotline, about Niles's heart is more problematic for me - I have no problem with Frasier dealing with serious subjects (death, loss, divorce,etc) as it has in previous episodes, but this was different. The storyline saw Niles experience a range of highly improbable events to make him really worried before he got his heart checked out, which on it's own was quite funny, but the ending where we discover that Niles really does have a heart condition made me feel uncomfortable that we had been laughing at what is a potentially serious condition. I would probably go as far as saying that, because this storyline aired during Sweeps week in America, it was a form of emotional blackmail in order to get an audience to watch the following episodes. On the whole, I enjoyed this episode, but I do wonder what direction the series is heading with this storyline.

Rating

80 %

NB: As a footnote to this episode, Ana Gasteyer originally filmed a different storyline for an episode called 'Door Jam' which was due to be the third episode of this season but the producers felt that her storyline wasn't strong enough so they pulled that episode for retooling. This resulted in her being called back to guest star in this episode, while 'Door Jam' finally became the 11th episode of this season.

Avg. Viewer Review: 75.8%
Total Number of Reviews: 5