Picket Fences (TV Series) The Autumn of Rome (1992) User Reviews

Dated?

[Hitchcoc · 5/10 · 27 April 2022]

I'm starting to realize that I liked this show more the first time I saw it. Of course, there are four seasons. Complaints about this episode.

Wambaugh is already tiresome, I can hardly stand to watch him.

When the guy gets beat up by the cop, that should have been the end of his career right there along with his partner. The Sheriff fudging on it should be his swan song as well.

I'm really getting tired of the daughter and her know it all business.

The priest is one of the worst cases.

I hope the next episode has some class. At least there was no stupid elephant with constipation.

The Wambaugh theme

[jarrodmcdonald-1 · 28 February 2022]

This is definitely a 10, a must-see episode. Douglas Wambaugh, Fyvush Finkel's character, is in rare form. He comes up with a theme song that is played when he appears before large crowds. He is running for mayor, trying to get the incumbent Bill Pugen (Michael Keenan) out of office. Rome's current mayor has a strange mishap at the beginning of the episode which Douglas uses during their campaigning to humiliate him.

At the same time, the protestant minister, played by Dabbs Greer, doesn't want either one of these buffoons leading the town and appeals to Jimmy (Tom Skerritt) to run as a third candidate. Of course, while Jimmy is deciding what to do, things are falling apart in his marriage. Meanwhile, Maxine and Kenny have issues when Kenny resorts to brutality to stick it to a corrupt businessman who has been causing trouble for the mayor and the police department.

This was a very smart episode that included almost all the different viewpoints in the community, except Judge Bone who was conspicuously absent. It's fun to see how David Kelley is making comments about society at large through the lens of this wacky midwestern community.