MURPHY BROWN: Results May Vary {Roundtable}

This week Murphy and the gang cover the midterms. Murphy and her team struggle during a full days’ broadcast, while Avery tests his mettle next to big name conservative journalists over on the Wolf network. Pat makes his onscreen debut and brings a little zhuzh to the lineup. Let’s see what Roz and I thought of this week’s episode.

Old News

Roz: Bad jokes of old election days and nights of yore were amusing in a way that broke up some of the internal tension of an episode that was predictive. I mean, we don’t know how this election will play out until the next episode so I guess we’ll see where the show goes if the election goes one way or the other. Which is refreshing to be timely but not trying to influence the election at the same time. That PSA at the end was a good way to remind people that elections do matter.

Cara: I think it was a good way to handle the midterms. They had a timely, relevant episode over a very current topic. Like Roz, I’m interested to see where it goes next week. Watching the crew all slowly lose it over the course of the broadcast brought me back to the old days of the show. Frank’s high energy melt down and Corky’s menopausal outburst were entertaining, and I loved Pat’s deer in the headlights debut. 

New News

Roz: I don’t know where else to put this, but WHAT ARE YOU DOING PETER GALLEGHAR? I was so flumoxxed by his role on The Gifted this week that to see if followed up by his role as lead Wolf reporter, I don’t even know. He was a smarmy guy who has the ear of the President (and wow that was a dig at 45 for how much time he spends talking to Fox News anchors), but also had that smugness from Center Stage that made me want to punch him in the face.

Cara: Yes, Gallagher’s character was so entertainingly pompous and unlikable. I think we could all sympathize with Avery. I loved Pat’s debut. He’s always so cool and collected, it was great to see him off his game. Then when he came back and gave the show some zhuzh, I loved it. I think bringing Pat and Miguel to the forefront a little more could give the show the energy it needs.

Murphy Brown airs on Thursdays at 9:30PM on CBS.