This is is one of the darkest, bloodiest episodes of the entire series but it is not of one of the better social commentary episodes. Sam leaps into a young black medical student named Ray Harper who is engaged to a white woman named Susan Brewster and they soon find themselves in the middle of the Watts riots in August 1965. Although Sam has been tangentially involved in historical events before such as the Watergate break-in in "Star-Crossed" and the 1965 Northeast blackout in "Double Identity", this is the first time that an historical event has been the main focus of an episode as opposed to merely a backdrop.
I can't imagine what it is like to caught up in such a bloody riot but the scenes which depicted the fighting on the street were very well done and suitably disturbing, not least because such things sadly still happen in the 21st Century. Deborah Pratt's script depicts both black people and white people as having shades of grey and being very human in that respect. There are good and bad people on both sides. That said, I'm not convinced that it was a very good idea to make Ray's militant brother Lonnie the de facto villain of the piece. It meant that the social commentary was not as effective as it could be since the episode pivots around a black man terrorising a white woman.
I think that it was a mistake to give such prominence to Ray and Susan's "Romeo and Juliet" inspired star-crossed romance as it was more distracting than anything else and wasn't particularly well done. Obviously, the romance was intended to show that everyone can live together in peace which is certainly a laudable attitude but I would have preferred it if a more subtle approach had been taken. For instance, it could have featured one or two white civil rights workers being caught up in the violence and excluded the romance angle altogether. In any event, I much preferred the far simpler and considerably more memorable moment seen in "The Color of Truth" when Miss Melanie invited Sam (as Jesse Tyler) to sit with her at the counter of the whites' only diner in Alabama in 1955.
I'd give it a somewhat generous 7/10 but it had the potential to be a 10/10 with stronger writing. It was especially disappointing since I think that Deborah Pratt is the series' best writer.
I can't imagine what it is like to caught up in such a bloody riot but the scenes which depicted the fighting on the street were very well done and suitably disturbing, not least because such things sadly still happen in the 21st Century. Deborah Pratt's script depicts both black people and white people as having shades of grey and being very human in that respect. There are good and bad people on both sides. That said, I'm not convinced that it was a very good idea to make Ray's militant brother Lonnie the de facto villain of the piece. It meant that the social commentary was not as effective as it could be since the episode pivots around a black man terrorising a white woman.
I think that it was a mistake to give such prominence to Ray and Susan's "Romeo and Juliet" inspired star-crossed romance as it was more distracting than anything else and wasn't particularly well done. Obviously, the romance was intended to show that everyone can live together in peace which is certainly a laudable attitude but I would have preferred it if a more subtle approach had been taken. For instance, it could have featured one or two white civil rights workers being caught up in the violence and excluded the romance angle altogether. In any event, I much preferred the far simpler and considerably more memorable moment seen in "The Color of Truth" when Miss Melanie invited Sam (as Jesse Tyler) to sit with her at the counter of the whites' only diner in Alabama in 1955.
I'd give it a somewhat generous 7/10 but it had the potential to be a 10/10 with stronger writing. It was especially disappointing since I think that Deborah Pratt is the series' best writer.
