Season 5, Episode 11
Christmas Present
Plot Summary-Ray gets Debra a great present Christmas to butter her up to let him go on a golf trip.
Nitpick of the episode-Robert really thought that tie was what Debra got Ray for Christmas?
Best Line-“What is a DVD player? Is it for pornography?”…Marie
Episode Fun Fact –
Deleted Scenes-The very end of the second act got trimmed, we see frank broke Rays new DVD player (stupid glad it was deleted)
Syndication Edit-never seen the re-run
Best Character-Debra, it’s nice to get a little deconstruction of her character. And Ray’s right, why the hell did she get him a DVD player of all things? More on this below.
Worst Character-Robert, I don’t like his attitude here he seems to care more about golfing than Ray giving Debra something nice for Christmas.
Final Thoughts-I love the tag where Frank gives Marie a really nice gift. He does it quietly and tells her not to tell anyone. That’s how you handle a character like Frank, yeah gruff and tough but knows when to be nice. Unlike a lot of other episode which make a jerk, end of story. Anyway, the episode is really just Ray and Debra having a conversation which turns into “why does Debra like always complaining”. Because she likes to, she loves being a martyr. And it’s true considering how often she whines about how awful it is to deal with Ray’s family. What’s stopping her from locking the door or speaking up..no, she makes Ray do it because she knows he won’t. Then she can keep complaining!
Grade-A-, possibly my favorite Christmas episode
Season 5, Episode 12
What Good Are You?
Plot Summary-After Ray does nothing when Debra coughs on a piece of fruit, Debra claims that Ray is useless in an emergency
Nitpick of the episode-Debra, Debra, Debra….see blow.
Best Line-“what’s wrong Raymond what did she do?”..Marie love how she’s automatically on Rays side
Episode Fun Fact –
Deleted Scenes-none
Syndication Edit-the opening title sequence (which happens a lot in fact)
Best Character-Ray, its one thing when he does something wrong but for him to be reamed out for nothing makes me feel for the guy. Totally on his side here.
Worst Character-Robert, he always favors Debra over Ray (you know, his brother!) but his scene in this episode where he shows her how to the Heimlich to herself annoys me. You weren’t there, you’re just showing off! He’s even worst in the subsequent scene at Nemo’s, especially when he gives grief to Ray for living across the street from his parents even though he lived there for years (a point Ray makes)!!
Final Thoughts- Debra is smarter than this! Ok Ray turning up the TV was a little jerky but still, it wasn’t the near death experience she makes it out to be! And it isn’t like he ignores her totally he asks if she’s ok. The ironic thing is that I do like this episode. Unlike “The Christmas Picture” while Debra is awful it doesn’t ruin the episode. Maybe because she apologizes in the end (even if she only said to get Ray off of her). Thank goodness we don’t get many scenes like the one in Nemo’s where Ray’s friends are ragging on him. All they’re doing is making him feel worst. And the end where Ray fighter to remove the splinter from Debra’s hand is well staged. Gotta love Debra acts all annoyed at the end…it’s her own fault! I think the episode have worked better if it had been a real emergency, but maybe the creators didn’t want to make Ray that awful.
Grade-B+, That scene at Nemo’s is filler (and awful) but the rest works for me, good episode.
Season 5, Episode 13
Super Bowl
Plot Synopsis-Ray gets tickets to The Super Bowl and invites his friend, upsetting his entire family. When he discovers that everyone brought their wives, he brings Debra down.
Nitpick of the Episode-Why in the world did Ray pick Gianni of all people? And he really thought the other husbands wouldn’t bring their wives??
Best Line-“Come on, Gianni, it’s just that Debra does a lot. She deserves to have a little vacation. And if there’s any chance at having hotel sex tonight, I’d just as soon have her in the room instead of you!”….Ray
Episode Fun Fact-This episode aired the day after Super Bowl XXXV on CBS where Baltimore beat the New York Giants in Tampa.
Syndication Edit-
Deleted Scene-more of Ray and Gianni celebrating being at the game
Best Character-Marie, she is so good at the guilt bomb that she does it without even trying. She has almost nothin to do in this one what she does do is vintage Marie
Worst Character-Debra, Apparently it was OK for her to be selfish and take the experience away but only as long as she didn’t feel guilty, which Ray caused her to feel because her whining caused him to give up something he really wanted to do, The Super Bowl of course. The big flaw in this episode is having Debra refuse to do what all the other wives were doing. It makes her look like a stuck up snob.
Final Thoughts- So what does this episode accomplish? Nothing, Ray gets everyone mad at him, we establish he doesn’t like doing thing with his wife, and he misses the big game. The end. There is no follow up of any kind. I guess his family and Gianni forgot this and despite what he says in this episode Ray continues to disregard Debra after this. Why did he hate spending time with her so much anyway? Despite how awful she is here she does make a point when she notes how Ray never spends time with her and it doesn’t seem to bother him. Well that’s a tangent for another day. By the way, the tag is the one laugh in the whole show. We simply see Ray watching the game on TV with Debra napping on him…and with Gianni glaring at Ray. It’s a good visual gag and the truth is, no words are needed. Ray Romano wrote this himself and I saw an article where he noted that he regretted choices he made writing this episode, calling it his least favorite, so it can’t all be me.
Grade-C-, a bad episode, period. It just makes Ray and Debra look like two terrible people (worse than usual anyway).
Season 5, Episode 14
Ray’s Journal
Plot Summary-Ray is alarmed to find out Marie read his journal, but Marie is more upset about something he had written in it.
Nitpick of the episode-You have to wonder, what was 1974 Ray thinking when he wrote I HATE MOM in the journal? Marie wisely points out that there is no other info, nothing similar on the previous or following day, nothing else written on the page and it was written calmly so he wasn’t just having a tantrum or pissed off. So….???
Best Line-“Ray, apologize to your mother”…Debra
Episode Fun Fact –
Deleted Scenes-none
Syndication Edit-The teaser establishing Marie knew about Ray’s girl friend who socked him. Ray later realizes the only way she could have known that was reading the journal. An easy scene to lose.
Best Character-Marie, yeah reading the journal was awful (she does her usual lame defense saying she wanted to make sure he was OK. Yeah still an invasion of privacy). But the scene where she explains to Debra why that passage hurt her is so effective even Debra buys!!
Worst Character-Robert, what the heck can he have in his journal that it needs to be locked in a safe deposit box?
Final Thoughts-I can’t call this a great episode, but it does a nice job of showing the Marie/Ray relationship. Certainly better than “Pants on Fire” two years earlier. Even the episode knows Marie reading the journal isn’t enough so we needed the extra bit about Marie being angry about something he had written. As I noted the scene where Marie makes Ray apologize seems crazy but Marie does such a good job explaining her rationale even Debra is moved by it. The only down side is the scene with Robert which is either filler or an excuse to give brad Garrett something to do.
Grade-A-
Season 5, Episode 15
Silent Partners
Plot Summary-Ray and Debra worry that they have nothing to talk about after they go thru entire dinner hardly saying a word.
Nitpick of the episode-I noted in “super bowl” that the events would be forgotten. This episode is proof since it covers the same issue, why doesn’t ray enjoy doing thing with Debra?
Best Line-Imagine a rain so beautiful it must never have existed
Episode Fun FAdt
Deleted Scenes-original teaser with ray and Debra going out to dinner leaving frank and Marie babysitting, Ray and Debra coming home to frank and Marie on the couch
Syndication Edit-
Best Character-Marie and Frank, once again we see that they while they have an odd relationship it works for them and they’re comfortable with each other.
Worst Character-Debra, does she really think Ray is going to read the book she tries to get him to read?
Final Thoughts-I know that feeling, when you sit down with your wife at a restaurant and…nothing comes to mind! Though the scene is a little over done they seem genuinely unhappy with each other. They kind of covered this before in “The Getaway” but I guess the difference is that was about a vacation. This is just everyday life. So of course Debra tries to force them to do things together which fails. I just talked about this in “Super Bowl” but once again we see Ray can’t stand doing something with Debra, even something he loves like watching sports! But that final scene where Ray and Debra watch how relaxed Marie and Frank are with each other is a nice one. It isn’t necessary to fill every second with conversation just enjoy being together.
Grade-A-
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