Season 1 Episode 5: Happily Ever After

On Friday night, we had our friends Nate and Amanda over. Despite their having pretty much no Internet presence, they're good people. They're hilarious. They can be counted on to pick up ice cream on the way over. Their dog, Maggie, is Eggs's girlfriend, and you've never seen two mammals get along so well. They are our best friends in Mill Valley.

Being good people ourselves, we invited them for dinner of tomato tarte Tatin (ours looked surprisingly similar to the NYT version pictured here) and a nice Napa zin. And then we subjected them to several hours of L&O.

All-time episode 5, which focuses on a couple that gets shot in a parking garage near the precinct house, is a little slow going but is not without its highlights. First, Aida Turturro (Tony Soprano's sister) and Vanessa Williams (Rhonda on Melrose Place) show up for about eight seconds at the beginning of the ep, and they say at least three words each.

Second, there is the hair. The public defender works a multi-tiered Olivia Newton John style (Amanda: "Wow, that's poodle-esque"). And ADA Paul Robinette has a flattop Grace Jones would covet (Nate: "It's weird how this was made in 1990 but looks so much like 1982.")

Third, there is the theme: woman wrongs man (in this case, wife wrongs husband). Amanda mentioned that it would be interesting to keep track of the episodes with this set up, and then later see how that compares to real-life stats. Tag created and deployed; criminal justice experts to be contacted at a future date.

Finally, our geography lesson for the day: There is no 1100 block of West End Ave (it tops out in the 900s). And walking out a building clearly labled "304" doesn't make it seem more real.