Oh, I do like reviving topics. I was just browsing through the animation board, saw this and thought, I know - I'll get it started up again, this time with EGB episodes.
But now I have a problem. I'm looking at an episode guide, just to refresh my memory, and thinking: how can I choose just a handful of favourites? (I'll have an easier time with the "Worst Episodes" thread, I should think, but I'm saving that one for another day.)
Well, these won't be in order of preference - I shall start with the obvious:
"The Unseen"Egon, Roland and Garrett spend a lot of this episode in jail (ha!), leaving Kylie and Eduardo to wander around Manhattan sniping at each other, looking for their lost proton guns and eventually defeating the demon without them. There's some good characterisation for both of them - but is the formula corny, or classic? Maybe a little of both: she's mad at him for losing her gun, he annoys her, then he comes through for her at her time of need, they exchange a little smile and then go off to fight the demon together, almost hug, decide not to, everything goes back to normal. Well, it works for me.
(People have cited this episode as one of the ones in which the effect of the ghost/demon on people should have been irreversible, which is a point I agree with in some cases, but I do think this is a bad example. The demon, Tenebrach, takes away the eyes of anyone who happens to see his magic orb, and everyone gets their eyes back at the end of the episode. And it's fine. Kylie and Eduardo have no equipment [though goodness knows why they couldn't take a trap]; Kylie shows Tenebrach the orb, so he has to forfeit
his sight, which includes the eyes he has stolen - apparently he sees with them as well as with his own personal eyes. So where else would they go, other than back to their owners? Makes sense to me. His personal eyes, incidentally, just disintegrate.)
"Be Careful What You Wish For"After careful consideration, I had to. Eduardo isn't very on the ball for most of it, which is a minus, but he
does come through in the end - and Pagan really should have had more appearances, if you ask me.
"Till Death Do Us Start"Bad title, good episode - although I mostly picked it just for the one scene. It's the kind of scene you don't get in cartoons nowadays (modern kids and their short attention spans
) - everyone just kind of sits around discussing the future, and there's some lovely characterisation in that dialogue.
And they're all in their pyjamas, which makes it a bit different. All of the Kylie/Eduardo moments in this episode are incorporated into that scene, and they are truly lovely. EGB always was a good one for facial reaction, and in this scene their expressions hold a lot of subtext. But the rest of the episode is good too. Leonard Bates is an interesting character, largely as a complication in Kylie and Eduardo's relationship, but that's not all - he's so much more humanised than any other client they have.
This is where I get stuck...
"The True Face of a Monster"A corny title, but still I think it was a good idea to go with it. A few episodes were not aired on EGB's first two UK runs on CITV, but this one sticks out as the only one not shown in sequence from "Darkness at Noon"
at least up to "The Jersey Devil" (episode 15), and possibly more, though this is the last one I can definitely remember watching. Some may disagree, but I think they chose to omit it because of the racism issue. I have
never seen a cartoon deal so overtly with racism, and I thought it was beautifully done, particularly in terms of the characterisation Garrett gets out of it (and, do you know, it's the first episode in which his name is mentioned - not once does anyone say the word "Garrett" in either part of "Darkness at Noon").
My eye is falling on about five or six others I'd
like to mention, but had better not - they just fall short of being favourites, I guess. Except for one other:
"Rage"This episode falls late in the series - episode 35 - just when you think Eduardo is destined to be nothing but comic relief. But then suddenly he has a family, he has drive, he has issues, he has a depth to his character we haven't
quite seen until we are shown his relationship with Carl, Kevin and Beth. And anyone who's read my fanfiction will know how the dinner scene has inspired me to delve into Eduardo's past, and his bruised little heart, bless him.