"Let's go. Call your first witness. Your Honor, the facts here are not in dispute. We could stipulate as to what happened. She flattened dear John with a John Deere." - Douglas Wambaugh (Fyvush Finkel) beginning the defense of his client who murdered her husband by squashing him with a steamroller
Picket Fences: Season One DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
On its surface, Rome, Wisconsin, is a picturesque little burg that would be right at home on a Hallmark card. Bucolic red barns, quaint little shops, and beautiful foliage practically burst from the town's seams. Look closer, though, and you'll see all sorts of stuff that Hallmark would never touch, including severed hands, stolen corpses, a murder committed with a steamroller, and a serial bather who breaks into houses and leaves behind nasty soap rings. Yeah, you might want to think twice before buying land in Rome.
Trying to keep reign over all the chaos is Sheriff Jimmy Brock (Tom Skerritt, Brothers and Sisters). Sheriff Brock means well, but he often comes down on the opposite side of the town's hot button issue du jour from his wife Jill (Kathy Baker, Boston Public), the town's chief doctor. Their disagreements are usually deep but short-lived. Otherwise, they wouldn't have enough energy to raise their three kids: Kimberly (Holly Marie Combs, Charmed), Jimmy's sixteen year-old daughter from a previous marriage; Matthew (Justin Senkarow, Eerie, Indiana), an eleven year-old practical joker who can also bug a room in a way that the Watergate burglars would envy, and Zach (Adam Wylie), an eight year-old trombonist.
Sheriff Brock's work family is just as trying. Officer Maxine Stewart (Lauren Holly, NCIS) has a gung-ho attitude and aspires to one day become Sheriff herself. In her zeal to be a great officer, she often takes things a bit too seriously, such as when she uses a bullhorn to gain control of a possible hostage situation...despite the fact that the perpetrator is just on the other side of a bathroom door. Officer Kenny Lacos (Costas Mandylor, Players) is a lug who moved from the big city for life in a quieter locale. Unfortunately, he chose Rome. Blabbermouth Ginny (Zelda Rubinstein, Poltergeist) runs the office's switchboard. Also helping in many investigations is Carter Pike (Kelly Connell), the town's too-enthusiastic medical examiner who looks forward to the first time he is allowed to exhume a body.
Picket Fences has the down-home charm of a Norman Rockwell painting, albeit viewed through a funhouse mirror. Almost every episode involves a crime of some sort, but always with an amusing twist, like the burglar who targets local businesses and leaves live frogs at each crime scene ("Frog Man"). The series also maintains a wacky sense of humor. During the town's community theater production of The Wizard of Oz, the Tin Man dies of a massive heart attack ("Pilot"). As a matter of fact, he was murdered...by a lethal dose of nicotine. The deceased was a teacher, so a nun comes to the school to serve as grief counselor, singing "Day By Day" to the bewildered children. Falling for an older woman, Kenny wonders if he is developing an "esophagus complex."
In keeping with its twisted themes of family and small town life, Picket Fences also takes perverse pleasure in sending up holidays. Just in time for Halloween, the Sheriff reopens a case that was formerly ruled suicide after a long-mute witness whispers the word "murder" ("Remembering Rosemary"). Thanksgiving with her father and his new 26 year-old girlfriend leaves Jill thankful that Thanksgiving only happens once a year ("Thanksgiving"). The town's annual Christmas pageant is nearly cancelled over issues of separation between church and state. A suitable compromised is reached...until they discover that the female teacher who is directing the pageant and playing Mary is actually a transsexual ("Pageantry"). A despondent Santa Claus takes Max and Ginny hostage on Christmas Eve ("High Tidings"). And then there's Valentine's Day which features a serial killer named Cupid who taunts local officials by shooting them with real arrows ("Be My Valentine").
This season also manages to jam in every hot button issue imaginable, including euthanasia ("Sacred Hearts"), teenage sex ("High Tidings"), menopause-induced dementia ("Bad Moons Rising"), doctors with HIV ("The Body Politic"), and same sex crushes ("Sugar & Spice").
The series is a perfect match of well written characters and talented actors. In addition to its fine leads, Picket Fences includes a number of memorable actors in secondary roles. As defense attorney Douglas Wambaugh, Fyvush Finkel brings a likeable hucksterism to his role that would make even P.T. Barnum blush. The term "ambulance chaser" isn't even appropriate for him-he simply stands outside the courtroom ready to defend anyone who walks through the door. Ray Walston (My Favorite Martian) plays crotchety curmudgeon Judge Henry Bone with grace, power, and dignity.
The twenty-two episodes that make up Picket Fences: Season One are divided onto six discs. The discs are housed in three slim, clear plastic keepcases, each of which holds two discs. The fronts of the cases include bright, cheery photos that perfectly capture the series' tone-a Brock family portrait on the first case, the Rome Sheriff's Department shield on the second case, and a pair of white t-shirts hanging on a clothesline on the third. The backs of the cases include titles, brief synopses, and original airdates for each episode. The interiors of the cases include a large photo of a meticulously manicured lawn under a beautiful blue sky. The keepcases slide into a cardboard outer sleeve.
The DVD menus are simple and easy to navigate. Viewers can play all of the disc's episodes or choose them individually. The episodes are divided into chapters.
