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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 400092" data-attributes="member: 23">Season OneDivorce Isn’t Everything / Keep Your Guard Up / Support Your Local Mother / Toulouse-Lautrec Is One Of My Favourite Artists / The Snow Must Go On / Bob and Rhoda and Teddy and Mary / Assistant Wanted, Female / 1040 Or Fight / Anchorman Overboard / He’s All Yours / Christmas And The Hard-Luck Kid II / Howard’s Girl / Party Is Such Sweet Sorrow / Just A Lunch / Second Storey Story / We Closed In MinneapolisThere have been a number of potential almost or actual love-interests for Mary, and the strong suit seems to be adorably awkward type of young man, such as Paul Sand as Mary’s tax auditor* or the ineffectual police officer played by Bob Dishy (warming up for his Columbo role, no doubt, but last seen in O’Dramavision in the opening episode of Maude). Not that it’s ended there: we’ve also had the deep-voiced overconfident swaggering type, such as Monte Markham’s smooth-talking character. Oh, there was also the Sid Fairgate lookalike who I’ve just found out was actually Valerie Harper’s husband.I do enjoy that neither Mary nor Rhoda has any kind of steady relationship going. Both being freer allows more potential - which is being utilised - and also adds a little edge to the series which keeps it from feeling too safe. On the subject of steady relationships, it was a bit of a surprise to meet Murray’s wife, Marie relatively late in the day. I’d assumed such relatives would be left to the viewer’s imagination, but I do like her. The naming on this series is interesting. One scene had an interaction between Murray, Marie and Mary, which felt as though it broke an unspoken law of television series which requires characters to have names that sound quite different from one another.As far as regular characters go, it’s an understatement to say everyone has gelled with me. Each serves their role really well and is perfect cast. Incidentally, Murray and Ted both initially reminded me of much characters from early Eighties films: Murray resembled that annoying camp guy in Airplane! who skipped round making commentary and crying out things like “Rapunzel. Rapunzel.” Ted - due to his character’s dependence on idiot boards - reminded me of John Van Horn from Tootsie. While the latter is no bad thing, both Murray and Ted have quickly become characters I enjoy in their own right. Poor Ted’s nervous breakdown after being asked questions at Phyllis’s women’s club was brilliant.It possibly goes without saying that Lou is always 100% watchable, while Rhoda is great fun on the home front. The scene where she went into Karen mode, invoking her female privilege to ensure the police attended the scene of Mary’s burglary immediately was hilarious (even though, sadly, there’s more than a touch of social truth in it).The title Christmas And The Hard-Luck Kid II is intriguing since it gave the impression I’d missed something. I’d assumed it was the title of a Christmas-themed film but it seems it comes from an episode of That Girl. I’ve looked up the synopsis and cast and can’t see anything tying the Mary and That Girl episodes more than any number of Christmas specials, so if anyone knows the story behind this one I’d love to know.As always with a period series, the relative lack of political correctness is enjoyable. There’s nothing offensive here, but the abundance of height gags in the Toulouse-Lautrec episode were more enjoyable for feeling a little off-limits. As it turned out the person in question addressed things directly, diffusing the situation and allowing the series to have its cake and eat it while stopping short of being overly issue-based. Topics like divorce and infidelity also give the series a bit of an edge, even if they're generally only touched on in the most tastefully understated way.With just five episodes left, it’s likely I’ll finish Season One in the next couple of evenings.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The idea of doing taxes this way  - combing over every receipt from the last year and explaining purchases to someone - looks very intimidating to me. Going by what TV feeds me, these seem commonplace in America which makes me feel relieved that the standard here is to simply add taxes onto the purchase price at the point of sale.</li> </ul></blockquote>

Verification: Who played Sue Ellen in Dallas?