Monkees Race Again - 1/5 I'd give this a Zilch if that rating was allowed. Definitely the worst one. Never liked it, even as a teen. Pure dreck. The German characters certainly did not age well over time. Indeed, it is The Day We Fall in Love of Monkees episodes. Yes, there are a few laughs but nothing is redeeming about this episode.
Monkees Race Again I don't think this is as bad as 'zilch', but I do find the German characters a bit of a spoof of 'Hogan's Heroes' and very, very, dated. And, there's one thing that wouldn't happen these days that I don't want to mention. Good to see Davy featuring without it being a sappy love story. Not the first such story - but still it's an interesting new context. I can't think of much that really distinguishes this episode. 2.5/5
And here’s where it ended, just a few days before Christmas, 1967. Production of The Monkees limped to the second season’s last filming day, and then shut down—not just for the holidays, but forever. In a few months they would start filming Head, and NBC would quietly pull the plug on its rebellious, reckless, revolutionary little rock ’n’ roll TV show. Some episode had to be the last one made, and Monkees Race Again is it. And oh, my merciful heavens, it shows. It’s not just a lousy episode, it’s an epic failure on three fronts: badly conceived, badly written and badly made. The flat, cold tone is set in the very first scene, which plods along in an emotional vacuum—Mike, Peter and Davy barely speak to each other until 45 seconds in, at which point Davy delivers a few sentences of dry exposition. The episode proceeds herky-jerky through two painfully humorless acts, introducing protagonist characters who do little but sit, stand, and stare, and antagonist characters who monopolize valuable screen time with painfully unfunny ethnic shtick. Eventually we are subjected to two and a half uninterrupted minutes of a loud but not terribly fast two-car road rally, accompanied by jazzy horns playing background music that could have been cribbed from any Batman episode. Because Monkees Race Again was shot in December, the location scenery is a dull, dusty brown, subtracting any possible visual interest from the grainy footage. As Davy celebrates his improbable win, there’s an abrupt cut to a half-hearted romp in which Davy and Peter prance around the Klutz Motors set with a few of the guest stars. Micky's and Mike's participation in the romp is mostly limited to clips edited in from other scenes in the show. Second Runner-Up Nitpick During the race, there are several shots of Davy shifting gears on what is obviously an automatic transmission. At one crucial moment, he slams it into PARK. Runner-Up Nitpick Micky isn’t gagged inside that stack of tires. Why doesn’t he cry out while his friends are in the shop looking for him? Nitpick That tuning fork isn’t a B-flat or an A. It’s a C. For pity’s sake, people, why do you have to make nitpicking so easy? Grading T. N. Crumpets & the British racing team. D for Dull as Dishwater. Baron von Klutz & the German racing team. F for Fail to go Führer. Overall grade: 0 out of 5
Today's episode is The Monkees in Paris: Songs used: Love is Only Sleeping, Don't Call on Me, Star Collector and Goin' Down Another oddity of an episode... The opening faux real argument is interesting, I suppose, but not as clever as it thinks it is. The rest of the episode is sometimes more entertaining than most instalments, but I wouldn't call it good television. You can't help feeling that everyone is getting a little tired of this, and that it is only right that someone put the show out of its misery. 2.5/5.
The Monkees in Paris This is an episode-long breaking of the fourth wall of course. It's an interesting episode, and it's interesting to see the Monkees acting more naturally in Paris. The girls chasing them seemed a bit contrived however. Was the woman Mike was with his wife? Good to see James Frawley get a bit of screen time. Perhaps the time in Paris was a bit repetitive. But, overall this is an interesting shaking up of the format. 3.3/5
The Monkees in Paris -- 2.5/5 I used to hate this episode as a kid, but now that we have a great quality print of it, it's at least watchable. Definitely obvious that the show was quickly running out of steam.
Monkees in Paris — a strong 5/5 Surprised by some of the low scores on this. It’s a real slice of the 1960’s. It’s so different from any other sitcom of its time. Experimental half hour of television… great soundtrack.. It’s a nice precursor to Head. Probably the first exposure for many kids to seeing a different part of the world.
I've got a ton of respect for Monkees In Paris - it's a pretty radical departure for a sitcom to make in any era, it's got 4 great Pisces-era tunes and some iconic incidental music, it's a total snapshot of the times, and looking at Paris is always a pleasure. But do I actually enjoy watching it? No. It bores the hell out of me. I gave it another shot when the blu-ray came out, figuring that maybe the better quality would be more engaging, but... nope. It just annoys me on a molecular level. And I have a film degree, too - it's not like I didn't watch my share of weird French stuff in college. But Monkees In Paris just leaves me completely cold. I appreciate it for what it is and I'm glad it exists so I'll split the difference between head and heart (or eyes) and it gets a 3/5.
Count me as another who appreciates the bluray upgrade but it's still a bit tedious. Bonus points for "Don't Call On Me". Peggy Lee should've covered that bad boy. 4/5
Monkees In Paris - I love the mix of faux sitcom/breaking the fourth wall/semi-documentary feel of this episode. James Frawley is a delight as the frustrated director trying to regain control as Guys stage a mini rebellion and scoot to Paris. Filmed while the group were on their 1967 British tour, it’s fun to watch them romp through the streets of Paris with the “fans” (hired models ) chasing them. The whole show is liked a long form music video, (who’s to say they didn’t invent it?) and the songs used work well throughout. The escapades on the Eiffel Tower is perhaps a precursor to the opening and closing scenes of Head, and maybe it’s what director Bob Rafelson had in mind. Like the Concert episode, this is more of a stage documentary and is one I come back to from time to time for the entertainment value of it. 5/5. P.S.: Also glad that the Blu-ray version has replaced the washed out print that has been circulating for years.
A great deal of this review is going to be about what The Monkees in Paris lacks. So let me start out by sincerely praising what it has. First, it has a high concept. There is no other episode of The Monkees remotely similar to this one. There are few episodes of any scripted television show like this one. It is unique, and that is praiseworthy. Second, it has a strong sense of place. This stands in stark contrast to the last episode I reviewed, Monkees in Manhattan, which obviously had come no closer to New York than possibly a garlic bagel on the craft service table. The Monkees in Paris is marinated in French wine, and even though not a word is spoken, the accent can easily be heard. It’s not just the glimpses of Parisian landmarks, or the extended sequence of Monkees cavorting on the Eiffel Tower, it’s the ancient streets and venerable market and most of all, the people—the merchants and the gendarmes and the children and the elders hanging from the upper story windows. Third, it has whimsy, which helps to fill some of the wide gaps where clever dialogue and silly sight gags and physical humor would usually be. Fourth, it has a structure. Not a very elegant structure, but a rigid exterior framework that tries to bind the chaos together in some form of order. The structure stands like four solid pillars, each one a scene back on the soundstage in Hollywood. One at the beginning, one at the end, and two spaced out evenly in between. Unfortunately, this rigid framework surrounds a story that is fabricated out of cotton candy, flower petals, eiderdown and spider webs. Which brings me to what this episode lacks: A plot. It’s entirely possible to tell a story without dialogue. Heck, the directors and editors of The Monkees are old hands at telling stories with silent movie techniques—for what is a romp, but a little silent picture? They should have been able to tell a story about how the four Monkees managed to meet and establish a tender, teasing, temporary relationship with four beautiful French girls. Instead, we get a mishmash of scenes that veer back and forth between pursuit, romance, escape and play. Costume changes make it clear that we are not seeing any kind of chronology. The action is non-linear and incomprehensible. Characters. I can’t keep track of all the young women, and I never get a sense of who they are. They are never treated as individuals; in fact, I’d have to classify them as Eye Candy under the principle outlined in the essay about female characters (“Any time the show utilizes nubile young female extras in large quantities, the principle of Eye Candy is in effect.”) This takes a potentially sweet romantic story and twists it into something wanton and cheap. A happy ending. The final pillar of the structure sees the Monkees back in Hollywood, shooting the same episode they were trying to escape in the first scene. They have had their vacation, they have blown off some steam, they have proved their independence and they have gotten a little nookie. By all rights, it’s time for a happy ending. And yet, the episode ends with the stars still unhappy, still disgusted, still bored, still resentful. The audience gets one last finger in the eye: no matter how much we enjoy watching their show, the Monkees think it’s dreck. Grading Concept. A Sense of Place. A+ Whimsy. B Structure. B+ Plot: Incomplete Characters: Incomplete Ending: Unhappy Overall grade: 2 out of 5
Monkees in Paris is 4/5 Love the guerrilla style of it and all the sights of Paris from that time. Pretty sure Rafelson was a big fan of the French New Wave and wanted to film something like this there. Really helps that they used the Pisces songs too. Must add that I’m surprised that quite a few people on this thread don’t like the more irreverent and loose style of the second season episodes filmed after the summer tour. How could they not play with the formula and have fun with it even at its own expense? It would have been fascinating if they had made a third season that even was half way close to what they wanted to do. It makes sense that it was too far for the network in terms of style and also not worth it financially. The more I read the Sandoval book, the more it makes sense to me that things couldn’t have turned out any differently. There was no way they were going to stick to any formula or plan for very long, on tv and in the music. It’s amazing they got as much as they did out to the world even if it was self destructive to them in the end. Sticking to the formula results in the Partridge Family, which is sweet and ok but not nearly as interesting or memorable as the Monkees.
The Monkees, the show, may have run out of steam and while only the most ardent fan would know that Race Again was the last actually filmed ( since we have 5 more episodes in their chronology) those five, including this one bring a lot to the table. Paris is unlike anything they did or any 1/2 hour primetime show may have done to that point. That episode has that going for it and great music. During this time you had the musical guest stars, which was great and an episode directed by George Michael Dolenz, so even when not at their best, they were doing some cool and innovative things: The Monkees Race Again aside. I have only given a number rating to a couple of shows but Paris has to be a 5. I am in the middle of Sandoval's new tome so I am knee deep in negative Monkees news that happened in late January and early February, 1967. Things will turn around when The Girl I Knew Somewhere is released!
Monkees in Paris - 2.5/5 Definitely a different episode on a much different tangent. I never really enjoyed watching in full, but in parts was OK. You all pointed out already how different this episode was and is. Just average for me.
I wasn't able to get online the other day, so I missed rating the episode ""The Monkees Race Again": I have to give it a score of negative 1/5. Worst. Monkees. episode. ever.
"Monkees in Paris"- Another bad episode. The only saving grace is the soundtrack music, which bumps the rating up from a 1.5/5 to a solid 2/5.
I find the episodes from the first season just better overall, story-wise and everything... A major plus of the first season compared to the second season is the first season episodes actually have an ending/are resolved, unlike a lot of the second season ones where they just kind of 'end' with no resolution, no tag, nothing... I will say the second season has some of the better music though.
Monkees in Paris 1/5 As Micky has stated, one reason the show was successful is that the show was about a struggling rock band, not a successful one. So I dislike this episode, as well as the concert documentary episode, for focusing on their real life teeny bopper image instead of their tv characters. The opening shows that the Monkees are fed up with doing their show and want to go on vacation. That sounds interesting right? Wrong. I would give the episode a 2 for the music if I didn’t have access to the actual recordings. The full episode of romp is just dull. At the end the Monkees return to again say they hate having to do this show, sort of a mean spirited version of their “isn’t that dumb” catchphrase.
Today's episode is The Monkees Mind Their Manor: Song used: Greensleeves and Star Collector Interesting that the powers agreed to let Peter direct an episode. The cynic in me can't help feel that's partly because everyone is losing interest, though. This again has its in jokes and its gurning at the camera. It doesn't have an awful lot else imo. It feels like a variant on a bunch of other episodes... 2/5.
