What were they thinking?

[Patrick]

I just watched "The Crucible" and I must say I am stunned. I mean, art forgery is a major crime in France and we have a special police to deal with it, with experts and everything. I can't believe it would be any different in America. That episode doesn't have a foothold in reality. For one thing paintings like that are sold with a full dossier with a bunch of certificates of authenticity signed by experts. I mean just imagine the number of people who would lose their reputation or even their freedom if something like that would happen. For one thing there would be a full investigation and the Art dealer had better prove that he was duped as well or he'd spend some time in jail over this.

What do you people think?

[welshben23]

Over to you, Cat!

[Eddie2012]

There is a thread about 'out of character behaviour' where CNR mentions exactly this. To be honest, it never occurred to me that Martin's reaction to the whole forgery thing is completely wrong, especially for a retired cop. Along came CNR and I said to myself - hang on, she's right!

[Moon-Crane]

That's certainly been a topic of discussion around these parts. Definitely on your side regarding the attitude to the crime, OP.

[hansenkd]

It seems that this ep is being discussed quite a bit here. Martin's "ask for the fine arts forgery department" followed by Frasier's "Dad, why are they laughing?" is the earliest truly terrible moment in the series.

I've always thought it was somewhat redeemed by Niles throwing the brick followed by the money at the end (and "Peachfuzz") but the main plot, conflict, and resolution are so infuriating that it's hard to forgive in retrospect.

The next ep, "Call Me Irresponsible," was even worse.

Truth be told, I've never been a huge fan of S1. Some of the early episodes (like this one) are not only cringe-inducing, but horribly dated (which can't be said for much of Seasons 2-5). I even kind of hate "Author, Author." I do love "Midwinter Night's Dream" and "Travels with Martin."

I thought there were a couple of S1 episodes that set a bad precedent for Frasier's love life (the shtick of which was repeated too much all the way up until...well, up until Lana/Claire and then they FINALLY got it right with Charlotte). The aforementioned "Call Me Irresponsible" is one. But I also get VERY uncomfortable watching "Can't Buy Me Love." True, it has many funny bits, but Daphne's drunken binge in the limo (especially considering the later development of the character) is hard to take, and Kristina's rejection of Frasier based on his naive but understandable belief in the daughter's stories has always rubbed me the wrong way. The woman "buys" Frasier for a date, he has a rightfully huge anticipation for it, then he gets stuck with BABYSITTING and then his payoff is...that. The whole thing doesn't sit well with me.

And then those plots would be forever recycled in episodes like "You Scratch My Book...," "Frasier's Imaginary Friend" and so on and so forth. I blame Season 1 for that.

[CatNamedRudy]

I just watched "The Crucible" and I must say I am stunned. I mean, art forgery is a major crime in France and we have a special police to deal with it, with experts and everything. I can't believe it would be any different in America. That episode doesn't have a foothold in reality. For one thing paintings like that are sold with a full dossier with a bunch of certificates of authenticity signed by experts. I mean just imagine the number of people who would lose their reputation or even their freedom if something like that would happen. For one thing there would be a full investigation and the Art dealer had better prove that he was duped as well or he'd spend some time in jail over this.

What do you people think?

Yep! That's one of the reasons I really, really dislike this episode. I can't get past the fact that Martin just lets a major crime go unnoticed.