Main cast: Marc Singer (Robert Lewis), Katrine Boorman (Jane), and Page Fletcher (The Hitchhiker)
Director: Bruno Gantillon
Oh dear, Marc Singer has a most unfortunate hairstyle here. He looks like he’s doing a rather wretched cosplay of Dr Emmett Lathrop Brown.
He later sports an even more ghastly pair of short shorts, but that’s okay. Maybe it’s just that I’ve dodgy taste, but he still looks hot in spite of the unfortunate aesthetics here.
Looking at him helps me sit through Code Liz, an episode with ludicrous portrayal of technology as far more accomplished than possible in its setting. I won’t be surprised if this had been a rejected script from the second season that they finally used because they had run out quality materials to work on.
He plays Robert Lewis. Six months ago, he followed his wife Jane (who is of course French, making him the designated ugly American of the episode) to Paris. She is very busy and doesn’t have much time for him, as she’s an associate as a high-tech company that sells online solutions to various big companies.
One of these companies is Code Liz, an online sex operator. Bored and envious of his wife’s success, Robert starts engaging the services of Code Liz. Before long, he’s not just hooked; he’s starting to agree with Liz’s suggestion that there are benefits to be enjoyed should he kill his wife.
This is certainly a better episode than some recent ones, in that it at least sort of makes sense. However, it’s hard not to feel bad for Robert, because Jane does treat him like an unwanted puppy here, and until he is driven bonkers due to Liz, his actions are far more due to his innate bungling nature than any deliberate malice on his part.
Jane, on the other hand, is played by an actress that is so wooden that I can only wonder whether this is due to her realizing that this gig is far worse than she suspected, and she couldn’t wait to scream at her agent once her scenes have been wrapped up ASAP. Katrine Boorman’s subpar acting causes Jane to appear more robotic than human, and this only makes it harder for me to appreciate that character’s side of things here.
Not that it matters, because in the end both are crazy anyway. At least Mr Singer tries to do some actual scenery chewing here. Well, that and I am still embarrassed to admit that I re-watch the scene of him bending over while wearing those ugly shorts a few times. He also makes me laugh when his character runs to tear the blankets off his sleeping wife during a fire, because he wants to protect and save his computer rather than actually waking up his wife. I suppose that makes him the MVP of this episode.
Anyway, this is a silly episode with a plot and a twist that have been done many times before, in much more interesting ways by other shows. It may be one of the better ones of this season, but that’s not exactly something to be proud of, considering the overall qualitu of the episodes so far.
