Our episode starts with sweet talking lounge singer Steven Castle who visits an up state hotel owned by Olivia Emery and her ailing husband. Castle discovers that the pair have a decent amount of money at there disposal, so he begins the charm the very naive housewife Olivia, who in turn begins to fall in love with him over her boorish husband who barely seems to pay attention to her. Eventually both Castle and Olivia begin to plot to get her husband out of the way, a plan that eventually works and the two get married. However Olivia begins to suspect that Castle is just after her money, and she becomes super paranoid that he's trying to kill her as well. But, the two discover that fate might have a way of settling things for the both of them. This is a much better effort this time around primarily due to it having the great Ian McShane (Lovejoy, Deadwood) in it. McShane is great to watch and if he wasn't here it would definitely suck. The rest of the cast isn't that bad, but, Gwen Taylor is super annoying in her role which makes the ending even more appropriate. As for the ending its fun and worth the 53 minute wait to get to it. As with the first episode this is a pretty tame love triangle murder story which would have worked well as an old "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" episode. Apparently this series is made up of short stories from author Patricia Highsmith, I've heard this one is one of her more well known stories and while I've never read her material before this one comes of pretty enjoyable. Also Perkins narrations are really good here to and seem to be the best part of the episodes.
2 Reviews
Spoiler free review
mdjedovic11 December 2017
Warning: Spoilers
"Sauce for the Goose" is one of Patricia Highsmith's best known short stories but on the screen, it is only slightly above an average "Tales of the Unexpected" with its predictable plot and thin characterisations.
Olivia (Gwen Taylor) is a bored housewife married to a bedridden hotelier (Benjamin Whitrow) pining away for her neglected singing talent until a devilishly charming lounge singer Steven (Ian McShane) comes into her life. The two fall in love and concoct to kill the husband but Olivia starts to suspect that Steven is not the lovebird he pretends to be.
Much more could have been done with "Sauce for the Goose", particularly character-wise because if it had featured deeper, more original characterisations it could have risen above its by-the- numbers suspense plot. Olivia, for one, would have been far more interesting had she been as smart and as cunning as Steven, but sadly she remains merely a housewife, struck dumb by desire until the answer to her quandaries almost literally presents itself on a platter. The male characters in the piece are equally flat as well with the husband nothing more than a whining wreck and Steven, despite being well played by the devilish McShane, turns out to be nothing more than a minor thug. The first should have been given a soul, something for us to care for, and the second one should have turned out to be Satan personified. Now that would be an interesting twist on this rather old tale.
Still, we should be grateful for the small mercy that this episode wasn't produced by the French since what does work in it are its involving dialouge and three subtle and engaging performances that try to further flesh-out the rather dullish characters. The episode is far from boring, in fact, it is often highly entertaining and well directed by Clare Peploe, but it sorely needed a splash of originality to revive its predictable story line.
Olivia (Gwen Taylor) is a bored housewife married to a bedridden hotelier (Benjamin Whitrow) pining away for her neglected singing talent until a devilishly charming lounge singer Steven (Ian McShane) comes into her life. The two fall in love and concoct to kill the husband but Olivia starts to suspect that Steven is not the lovebird he pretends to be.
Much more could have been done with "Sauce for the Goose", particularly character-wise because if it had featured deeper, more original characterisations it could have risen above its by-the- numbers suspense plot. Olivia, for one, would have been far more interesting had she been as smart and as cunning as Steven, but sadly she remains merely a housewife, struck dumb by desire until the answer to her quandaries almost literally presents itself on a platter. The male characters in the piece are equally flat as well with the husband nothing more than a whining wreck and Steven, despite being well played by the devilish McShane, turns out to be nothing more than a minor thug. The first should have been given a soul, something for us to care for, and the second one should have turned out to be Satan personified. Now that would be an interesting twist on this rather old tale.
Still, we should be grateful for the small mercy that this episode wasn't produced by the French since what does work in it are its involving dialouge and three subtle and engaging performances that try to further flesh-out the rather dullish characters. The episode is far from boring, in fact, it is often highly entertaining and well directed by Clare Peploe, but it sorely needed a splash of originality to revive its predictable story line.
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