Main cast: Stephen Baldwin (Barry), Jane Adams (Amanda), Mare Winningham (Kate Morris), Peter Wingfield (David Morris) and Henry Rollins (The Host)
Directors: JoBeth Williams and Ernest R Dickerson
Poor Barry is in a fix. The mean hoodlum Christopher wants back the money Barry owes him, even if he has to break a few bones in Barry’s body with a baseball bat. He barely escapes with his life by climbing into veterinarian technician Amanda’s car and begging her to drive him away, anywhere.
The apparently genial Amanda seems to reluctantly take pity on him, after he spins this sad sack story to her, and even brings him back to her place to nurse him back to health.
Soon, these two are bonding, and even her two Dobermans Val and Max seem to have taken a liking to him.
Well, it looks like things are looking up for Barry, maybe even romance is in the air… until he realizes that he’s in this show and he’s more in The Doghouse than the love boat…
Stephen Baldwin surprises me by being pretty good as Barry, a gentlemanly hoodlum that actually wants to do the right thing… so long as his own ass isn’t on the line, of course.
Jane Adams is also solid as this sweet and apparently naïve young woman that soon reveals her true colors, and they are all bright and garish shades of cray cray. The hints are there, of course, but poor Barry never catches on until it’s way too late.
The only issue I have with this segment is that the threat of Amanda is far overstated. If I think more about this segment, there’s really nothing particularly bad about that ending, in the sense that all Barry has to do is to play along. That cray cray loves her pets, so it’s not like she’s some heartless monster. Maybe just tyrannical and control freaky, heh.
All in all, though, this is a cute fiendish episode, and the dogs are such adorable homicidal monsters.
Next up, Still Life is about Kate Morris, who has the perfect life with her perfect husband David and perfect daughter Wendy.
Well, maybe almost perfect, as she is also stalked and harassed by strangers that can apparently vanish into thin air. The cops have a hard time believing her story, and soon poor Kate is confused as well. Is she losing her mind? What is going on here?
This segment is very watchable too, but folks that are familiar with the tropes of this genre can probably see the twist coming. After all, Kate’s life is too perfect!
Still, Mare Winningham does a great job as this confused and scared protagonist that she elevates an otherwise ho-hum segment.
At the end of the day, this episode may not measure up to some of the better ones in this series, but it’s still a solid duology that puts it slightly ahead of the pack of three-oogie episodes.
