Writer:  Laurie Parres
Director: Andy Cadiff

Episode Length: 21:47

Guest Stars:

Rating: n/a

Rating:  TV- 14

First Broadcast: December 10, 1997

Storyline #1: Pale Rider
Mike comes to work showing off his new calfskin jacket, which promptly gets coffee spilled on it by Paul.  Having sent it to the cleaners, Mike starts the morning meeting by informing the Staff that Meg, the Mayor's daughter, is out of school for the holidays and will be popping into town to visit her dad.  When she arrives, Mike is the first to greet her.  But something's changed about Meg since she was last seen in the Mayor's election campaign commercials.  She's now all grown up, spouting off Freedom of Expression credos and sporting a much different look.  She now has a much more revealing wardrobe, a navel ring, and a snake tattoo on her neck.  Mike does his best to hide Meg's new style from the Press and to her dad.  But when Meg walks into a press conference, all The Mayor can do is show faint adoration.  To keep "outbursts" of love like that from happening in public, Mike tells James to keep Meg busy while she's still in town, keeping her away from The Mayor.  When asked about the incident later, The Mayor says that he's uncomfortable showing his love for his daughter, since he's never known how to do so.  Later that afternoon, Mike and The Mayor are presiding over the renewal of the horse carriage licenses when Meg shows up protesting.  Riding a horse.  Nude.  Mike is outraged that Meg would stoop to such a level to gain the attention of her father, and hurt him in the process.   Meg, feeling no love, threatens to go back to school rather than stay in New York.   And James gets an earful from Mike about how he should be looking after Meg better.   When questioned about Meg's whereabouts, James tries to play dumb but he eventually says where Meg is going to go:  a PETA rally.  Mike convinces The Mayor that he should go after her and try to be a better dad, but traffic is backed up, and all they have are horses.  So The Mayor and Mike ride in to the rescue, with The Mayor picking up his daughter and riding off, presumably to make up.  That leaves Mike alone at the PETA rally, wearing his newly cleaned calfskin jacket.  When Mike returns, his jacket is no longer newly cleaned, and James still has a thing for Meg, and The Mayor is still frustrated at his lack of involvement with Meg.

Storyline #2: Paul's Long Lost Love
Since breaking up with Claudia, Paul has been involved with a Lonely Christians anonymous mailing program.  Seems he has a new pen pal that is equally lonely and pathetic.  Paul runs around to try and keep up the "relationship".  At the Landmark, Paul reads the beleaguered Staff his newest letter when Claudia arrives.   The two acknowledge each other, but little else.  Carter figures out neither will be happy until they get back together, so he encourages Paul to meet his mystery pen pal at the bar later.  He'll be wearing a rose and sitting next to the bathroom.   She'll walk in wearing a purple hat.  When Claudia arrives wearing the purple hat, the two make up and get back together.

Review: They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

Overall, a revealing episode.  Clearly, the focus was on The Mayor's relationship with his daughter, and Mike's relationship to The Mayor.  Mayor Winston clearly wants to be a family man, but he doesn't have the experience.  Being a Connecticut White-bred, he didn't grow up with a close relationship.  And when he got married, he clearly put Helen in charge of the family matters.  So, without that a go-between, The Mayor has to relate to Meg on his own.  And clearly he is frightened of a close relationship.  After all, the only other close relationship he's had (Helen) ended pretty badly.  So you can see he doesn't have a good average. 

As for Mike, he has to admit to himself, The Mayor, and everyone else that his relationship with The Mayor is clearly more than boss-worker.  Mike must confront the fact that he and The Mayor are friends.  And in doing so, it sometimes gets in the way of telling The Mayor what he should do personally as opposed to what he can do politically.  Now, enough of that highbrow stuff.  On to the real review.

Glad to see they could incorporate Alyssa Milano into the role of a relative.   That way, she could return in guest appearances.  As Paul would say, "She's a smokin' hottie!"  I am a little disturbed that Meg, although we've never seen her before, appears to have gone through quite a transformation.  Granted, going away to school can do that to a person.  And Berkley isn't known for it's conservatism.  Somehow, I would have thought that there would have been some clue as to Meg's change.  But then again, I don't live in the New York sitcom world.

Well, Paul and Claudia are back together again.  Wonder if they'll last.  I assume Paul is over his commitment phobia that made him run away in Mayor Over Miami.  I wonder if this relationship will pick up where they left off and move back in together.  At least it gives him something to do other than spill coffee on Mike's jacket.

The NYPD Blue bit was truly inspired.  Granted, I've never been a big fan of cross-promoting other ABC shows, but this was worth it.  Mike playing good cop.   Stuart playing bad cop.  Mike deciding bad cop is more fun.  James acting ignorant.  "Well, who gets to smack him around?"  Beautiful.

It almost makes me want to give this show a higher rating.  That bit was truly one of the best scenes in show history, and Milano is certainly inviting.  Plus, we get a deep storyline.  But the rest of the episode's trappings were too much, and although there was deep symbolism, the story never tried to reach as deep as it aimed.  Plus, Paul's end of the episode was only slightly amusing.  And while we did get to see Milano naked (sort of), you can do that everyday.  So the final word will have to be a show with some great individual moments, but they just don't add up to the sum of their parts.

Rating [5 pt. scale]: 3.5

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