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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 202222" data-attributes="member: 22">Arsenic and Old Waste (KNOTS, 10 Apr 86) v Asked to Rise (KNOTS, 13 Dec 90) In Arsenic and Old Waste, Karen hovers anxiously while Eric lies unconscious in a hospital bed, suffering the effects of some unexplained form of chemical poisoning. In Asked to Rise, Claudia, Kate and Paige do the hovering while Greg lies unconscious following a liver transplant.In Arsenic ..., most the characters are isolated from each other in some way: Abby is silently torn between her own self-interest and her conscience — how much can she reveal about the contamination at Empire Valley without incriminating herself and losing a fortune? Jill is likewise conflicted between her feelings for Gary and her long term plan to avenge her parents' deaths. Meanwhile, Greg plays the reclusive tycoon, first “conducting the traffic” from the terrace of his high rise office, then hiding out with his polo ponies back at the ranch. A frustrated Laura looks on. (Laura's only real narrative function in this ep is to act as Greg's sounding board so we know what’s going on inside his head, but it’s a credit to both the writing and their relationship that it doesn’t feel like that.) Ben avoids the unspoken tensions in his marriage by pretending to work late at the office while Val is left waiting at home, trying to conceal her anxieties from Lilimae. Amidst all this solitude, the rare moments of contact are all the more striking: Ben slow-dancing with Cathy while sadly admitting the twins aren’t really his; Abby and Karen talking at Eric’s bedside about how much they miss Sid. Even then, just a few scenes later, Karen is angrily accusing Abby of deliberately withholding information about the arsenic poisoning.There’s further isolation in Asked to Rise, but this time it's deliberately orchestrated by Claudia who does everything she can to keep Paige and Greg apart (so that Paige won't be able to accept her brother’s marriage proposal before she has had a chance to forge his will). Although Paige is the unsuspecting innocent in this scenario, she instantly turns into an icy bitch back at the Sumner Group where she treats eager-beaver underling Linda like dirt. Linda is also patronised by Mort and Bob (to a #MeToo extent) which leads her, in turn, to dump on Michael. Mack plays detective in both episodes. In 1986, he’s trying to figure out what poisoned Eric and in 1990, he’s trying to figure out what the deal is with Jason, the young punk who first slashes his tyres and then lies to him about having a dead father. And the winner is … Arsenic and Old WasteBONUS BEATS:[MEDIA=youtube]Aq6yK298c_4[/MEDIA]</blockquote>

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