Lights Out: Sucker Punch
In any half-decent writing workshop, someone inevitably says something like, “You know what? I need to know more about (blank) character.” Even if it’s a stupid comment, it always comes up. If Lights Out were being workshopped, that question would be followed by ones like, “Where is the Leary mother?” and “Why did she leave?” And if you’re writing workshop is only half-decent, the writer will carelessly throw in some crazy answers to the crazy questions late in their story just because everyone bugged them about it. Lights Out did just that, introducing Patrick’s mother, Mae, played by Valerie Perrine.
Mae walks back into the Leary life, and Patrick and Pops welcome her with open arms. I’m not sure why Pops didn’t react the way Margaret and Johnny did, because it’s not like Mae has entered and exited their lives five or six hundred times or anything. Patrick’s daughters fawn over their new grandma, too, which is weird. Blah, blah, blah. It’s another cliché plot device in a season full of clichés. She left Pops for a drummer (not to be mistaken for a musician) who is so broke he forces Mae to weasel money out of the Leary family. Patrick finds out and breaks little drummer boy’s hand before giving Mae $20 grand I didn’t know he had and cutting her out of his and his family’s lives.
Yes, this show has been a series of clichés and guest stars, but it’s somehow still very entertaining. Maybe it’s because the acting is great. Barry K. Word should burst into every scene and just start spittin’ hot fire at everyone. Margaret’s hospital freak out was great. (She’s been one of the best characters on the show despite not getting as much camera time as others.) Then Eamonn Walker as Ed Romeo and David Morse as “Rainmaker” were great. Even Lester the drummer, who gets two minutes of airtime was played by the very good Paul Calderon. Or maybe it’s because the show is smart enough to have Margaret (and Johnny) treating Mae the way they did. It adds a nice bit of believability to a show that can feel shark-jumpy with all the coming and going of side characters.
Oh yeah, while all this was going on, there’s some preparation for a big boxing match that is supposed to be happening in the season’s (and series’s) final episode next week. The betting line drops so hard that Barry comes in and spits fire, someone tries to pull a drive-by on Hal and Margaret, and Johnny pulls an amusing prank to steady the line, making the media think Reynolds had a heart attack. It’s a jerkface move that even Pops seems to enjoy. Johnny’s smirk when seeing his work unfold really was a fantastic moment of television. Hal then tells Lights that he was moving the line low because that way, the odds against Lights means a bigger payout for anyone who bets on him. Somehow Barry, Johnny, or anyone else missed that day of Gambling 101.
Sidenote: Ever since I found out Billy Brown is both “Death Row” Reynolds and the narrator of the U.S. Marines commercials, it’s been impossible for me to watch any of his outbursts on Lights Out without thinking, “The few. The proud. The marines.” This amused me even more after he threw a table over on (live?) television.
Gross Sidenote: I mentioned it a few times throughout the season, but I don’t get how schleazy old Johnny manages to hook up with everyone in exchange for promoting his brother’s boxing career.
Hilarious Historical Guest Character Sidenote: Valeria Perrine’s IMDB page says she was the “first woman to display (on purpose) her nipples on American network television.”
