D.C. Episode Guide

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April April 23, 2000 I think that this show is over as demonstrated by this 3 Flush episode. It definitely stands in stark contrast to a good show say like The West Wing. I mean, this episode showed in scenes from last week, a picture of Pete folding his briefs...yeah, that's what's so important about the show: Mark Paul Gosselear's underwear. Although it is interesting to think that there are men under thirty who wear briefs. This week, Pete gets a new job working for a man named Phil Dryden. Phil is one of DC's most powerful lobbyists and hires Pete because he is intrigued by the fact that Pete comes from a working class family. Phil suggests that Pete go to a woman named Julia at Neiman Marcus to get a nice suit. Pete goes, gets a suit, and then has sex with Julia in the dressing room. Two problems with this: first, the sexual attraction between them was pathetic at best; he just kept staring at her. She should've slugged him instead of screwing him. Second, she was ugly. Anyway, Phil finds out about this little affair and is impressed at Pete's ability to get women. What a great story, huh. Pete has a new job. The real story this week, however, involved the DeLuca family. Their fourteen year-old daughter was shot to death by a fifteen year-old boy. Mason's boss, Representative Owens, wants to sponsor a bill which will punish the parents of children who commit violent crimes. Sarah asks Mason if she can interview the DeLucas. Mason says that she can so long as her interview shows them supporting the bill. Sarah does the interview, but during the interview, the DeLucas say that only the perpetrator should be prosecuted, not the parents. Mason yells at Sarah, and she whines back. Mason talks to the DeLucas and learns that really believe what they told Sarah, but he also learns that Sarah, in an attempt to put the DeLucas at ease, lied to them before the interview about her having had a relative die recently. Mason yells at Sarah for lying to the DeLucas to help her get closer to them. She feels guilty and apologizes to the family, but they say that she is OK in their eyes. Mason then goes to speak to the family of the boy who committed the crime. The father of the boy says that he was a good dad and that his son expressed no warning signs that dad should have noticed. Mason decides that his boss's bill should be amended so that only parents who neglect their children should be punished. Then Mason and Sarah make up. Is this story at all believable? A congressman who allows his bill to be changed by an intern. A reporter with a conscience. Friends who screw each other, put each other's jobs in jeopardy and then forgive each other. And let's discuss the bill itself: should we really be punishing parents for crimes committed by their children? OK, 'nough said. Finally this week, Finley cannot decide what to do with her life. One day she is hanging out at the Smithsonian. Finley overhears a tour guide get stumped by a question about Andrew Jackson being in a duel. Finley interrupts the tour and answers the question about Jackson by recreating the duel. How pathetic! No Cornell graduate would be uninhibited enough to dramatize a duel in the middle of a museum. Anyway, the curator of the museum sees Finley's performance and is so impressed that she offers Finley a job. Finley accepts. DID YOU KNOW?: That Finley and Mason are twins. QUOTE OF THE EPISODE: I'd say I'm between goals. --Finley on whether or not she has any goals for the future. NEXT WEEK: I'm not sure that there will be a next week. This show has been canceled. April 16, 2000 This week's 3 Flush episode of D.C. proves an interesting case study of what happens when bad shows get worse. The show spotlights Lewis this week. His cousin Turrell Freeman has been arrested for robbery. Turrell and his friend Billy Riggs are both being suspected in a series of hold-ups in the District of Columbia area. Because I cannot stand bad TV, let's suffice it to say that Billy was the real leader of the robberies. Turrell decides to plead out and testify against his friend. Billy fears what Turrell will say on the witness stand so he murders his friend. Boo hoo! Lewis feels guilty, because he should have known that this was going to happen (don't ask why he should have known...there is no reason...this is a bad show) so Finley gives him deep advice: "Guilt...is the most useless emotion." She also shares the story of her and Mason's older brother Joey who drowned to death at 14 years of age when he fell off of a tire swing into a lake at his grandfather's cottage in upstate New York. We also learn a little about Lewis's background in this episode. He came from a poor, DC home and is considered a local success story because he went to Yale, then went to law school, and now clerks for a Supreme Court Justice. By the way, this justice is the most annoying lady in the world. She talks slowly and gives bad advice. Anyway, before the killing and what not, the home where Lewis and the whole cast live was searched by the police. The police traced the getaway car that Billy and Turrell used to this house. Apparently, Lewis told Turrell he could register the car to this address, because insurance would be cheaper. The whole house gets mad at Lewis for implicating them in robberies, but all is forgiven after the murder. Also this week, Mason starts his new job for Representative Owens. I was wrong last week: Kristi, the girl who got Mason the job at Owens's office, works for another member of congress named Piedmont. Anyway, this week Owen and Piedmont's office staffs have a game of softball against the staff of Mason's former boss. Mason wins the game for his team...yeah! He also wins himself a date with Kristi. Kristi and he really connect. By the way, Kristi once dated Pete. Pete does not mind that Mason is dating Kristi because Pete gave Mason approval to date her. Finally, Dr. Keppler approaches Pete about his house. Keppler lives next door to the home of the cast. Keppler says that he will tell the Sorensens, the real owners of the house, that Mason and Finley allow five people to live in the house and that the house was searched by the police unless they pay him $1000 every month. By the way, Keppler thinks that Pete is Mason for no apparent reason. So, Pete and Finley sit down with Keppler and try to reach terms of the blackmail. They finally agree and Keppler is happy until he learns that Pete and Finley recorded him blackmailing them. They now blackmail him and say that if he tells the Sorensens about the living arrangements that Keppler will be exposed in court as a blackmailer. The end...thank goodness. QUOTE OF THE EPISODE: Let me help. I went to college. I can work a hi-liter. --Sarah NEXT WEEK: A new episode, but don't ask what it's about, because scenes-from-the-next did not air. April 9, 2000 I doubt the lasting power of this show so I will keep the summary of this 5 Flush episode short, but I will not deprive you of knowing everything not worth flushing. Pete goes for a job interview at the State Department. His interview goes quite well, but after his interview has ended, he learns that Mason is also applying for the job. Apparently, Pete has always wanted to work for the state department, and Mason wants to work wherever he can get a job. Well, the two end up in a fight over who deserves the job. Pete tries to reconcile their differences by telling Mason not to be thrown off by a question about drug usage during a second interview. Mason, however, admits to having smoked pot. Well, the two decide that their friendship is too great for words. They get their letters of admission or rejection at the same time. Pete opens his first and is rejected...the State department discovered that Pete did smoke pot despite his denials. Mason realizes Pete's hurt at not getting the job and destroys his own letter before opening the letter. How cute! Two notes for these guys: Note one- Pete will have sex with anyone and will smoke pot with anyone (he even smoked pot with Sarah- maybe she is the one who told the State department that Pete smokes). Note two- this girl named Kristi gets Mason a job with a senator from Michigan. Also this week, Mason and Finley's parents show up. The parents attack Finley for not having any direction in her life. Finley complains that her life is too perfect and that her parents are too perfect. However, at the end of the show, Finley stops by her parent's hotel for dinner. She does not see them in the lobby so she asks the desk clerk for the phone number of the Scotts (Scott being Finley's last name). The desk clerk informs Finley that the two parents are booked in two different rooms, one on the third floor and one on the fifth. As she discovers this, Mason comes by to say that the whole family was waiting in a bar. Mason and Finley arrive at the bar. Finley sees her parents seated apart and unresponsive to each other, but upon the arrival of the children, the two parents embrace each other. Is divorce in the future? or will two repressed parents stay that way? Sarah also has a story this week in which she is supposed to do a news story on diplomats misusing their immunity to park illegally. She finds a deeper conspiracy story in which diplomats use their immunity to import cars without paying tariffs/duties only to resell the cars. Yeah, Sarah! Finally, Lewis wonders whether he and Sarah will get a lease for their apartment. He realizes that if the owners of the house return, then everyone loses a house...immediately. NEXT WEEK: Lewis's brother/friend stashes some drugs in the house. Everyone who stays there is now under suspicion by the police. April 2, 2000 Here's the premise of this 4 Flush show. Mason Scott and Pete Komiskey are best friends. Mason is a legislative correspondent (aka typist) for a senior senator from Virginia. This week he learns something that may help the senator get out of a tough political situation, but as it turns out the information Mason discovered hurts the senator. However, Mason did not try to do anything bad; it was Mason's boss who took the information and misused it which caused harm to the senator. Nonetheless, Mason gets fired. Mason decides that he needs to explain to the senator what happened. He visits the senator, but the senator does not recognize Mason. Mason realizes that the political process is far beyond him, but that he will continue to stay in the game of politics. Believe me when I tell you that this story was the extent of the plot in this show. Mason's best friend Pete (played by Mark-Paul Gosselaar) is a lobbyist for an animal's right group. The two live together until Mason's sister, Finley, shows up. Finley just dropped out of graduate school and wants to spend some time with her big brother only she does not like the apartment he shares with Pete so she figures out a way to house-sit the home of an ambassador. The three move in and rent out an extra room to a reporter named Sarah Logan. Sarah moves in with her boyfriend Lewis who is a lawyer. Sarah and Pete know each other from high school; at first Pete was attracted to Sarah, but then he learned about her boyfriend. My predictions: Mason ends up with Sarah and Pete ends up with Finley (even though Mason constantly tells Pete not to have sex with his sister). The show is boring and has unnecessary scenes to show off how sexy their cast is. The show also includes political anecdotes just to prove that it really is an "insider" show. I'll give this show another week or two, but if it stays where it's at, then it's not worth watching. It's full of idealism in a day and age when twenty-two year olds have no idealism. CHEESY QUOTE OF THE EPISODE: I don't have a job, but I got my entire life ahead of me. --Mason NEXT WEEK: Mason and Pete compete for the same job.