Main cast: Luis Fernandez (Father Eric Sandoval), Bobby Troka (Mrs Harmon), Harvey Shane (Father Haley), Eddie Allen (Frank Glenn), and Rip Torn (Narrator)
Director: Greg Francis
Well, looks like Stuart Taylor is taking a break after directing the last few episodes back to back. I wonder whether he will be back, or whether he managed to survive this gig with his pride and sanity intact.
Bless Me Father is the hot priest episode, and hot priests are my weaknesses. Oh, don’t worry, I’ll do my confession this Sunday about harboring such sacrilegious thoughts. Unfortunately, Luis Fernandez hasn’t mellowed yet into being the dish he is in recent years. When this episode was filmed, he resembled more like the butt baby of Steve Buscemi and Skeletor. He can act better than some random beefcake this show could have cast by offering weed as payment, so there’s always a silver lining in everything.
Eric Sandoval has been transferred around quite a bit, mostly because his rather unorthodox approach to faith and worship often create friction with the powers that be that run the church. When this episode opens, he arrives at Father Haley’s church, mostly to take over Father Haley that is approaching retirement. Haley isn’t too pleased about his apparent successor having a reputation for being a troublemaker, but he has no idea until later that Eric is far more troubled than a troublemaker. That younger priest keeps seeing the apparition of Emily, his sweetheart that he left behind when he received his calling, and Emily died seven years ago.
Overall, this episode is okay, but it is marred by issues in the script. The most obvious one is the pacing. For far too long, Haley is being a judgmental prick that treats Eric like the younger priest isn’t worth squat, but after a counsel with another priest way too late in the episode, he abruptly does a quick and unconvincing turnaround that has me rolling up my eyes.
The villain has too little screen time prior to the grand denouement, so that climactic moment with this fellow feels more like something tacked on because the episode needs a whackjob to create drama STAT.
Finally, the resolution of Eric and his girlfriend’s ghost turns out to rather anticlimactic in nature. There are many possible routes the show could go with this, but the one that is picked is ultimately the cheesiest and least interesting, turning this episode into something that is more Hallmark than spooky hour. Then again, perhaps that is the intention all along.
Anyway, Bless Me Father has some pretty good acting for this show, so it’s watchable as a result. However, it feels like a much longer episode that has been forced into a shorter run time by having some crucial scenes cut out. The end result is something that feels underdeveloped all around, and it is less hard-hitting because of this.
Also, call me shallow, but I really wish Eric Sandoval had been played by a hotter fellow. Getting the present day Luis Fernandez to somehow go back in time and star in this episode would be a worthy Ghost Stories episode in itself!
