Word: vapidness
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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James, however, never lets character overwhelm crime. Dalgliesh and his Scotland Yard colleagues track the killer through the corridors of Whitehall, the hospital of a fashionable abortionist, a painfully trendy suburban restaurant. Among the suspects: the dead politician's vapid second wife, pregnant with his child even though she has had a lover for years; her con-man brother, who has moved into the politician's room; the victim's conniving mother, who mourns the loss of prewar manners more than the loss of her son. The politician himself is a mystery. Why, Dalgliesh wonders, did he suddenly resign...
...primary focus. She spends most of her time painting her toes, talking seductively to the bathroom mirror, and dressing up in skimpy clothes and excessive make-up to go manhunting at the local shopping mall. Connie is like any other teenage girl in heat, only she seems much more vapid and much less interesting. When Connie argues with her mother (Mary Kay Place) and refuses to help with the dishes or paint the house, she is nothing less than despicable. Connie is a suburban rebel without a cause--she is boy-craziness and giggles, meanness and anger, but not much...
...from? New York, you say? Good answer, but desperation goes too far back and strays too far afield from New York. For all its Newest Wave, mod feel, Susan traces its anxious female motif back to the gangster melodrama films of the 30's, with one twist. Like the vapid blonds in film noir, our housewife seeks her thrills in a more happening world, but there the comparison must end. Her idol is not a man, but Susan; her goal not to grab her idol's pants, but to wear them...
Although some of Marceau's less famous selections can be confusing, his classics may make the show worthwhile. "The Mask Maker" is a delight: Marceau first carves masks, then tries two of them on alternately, frantically switching his demeanor from one of vapid joy to one of scowling horror. The joy mask gets stuck on his head. Another successful number is "The Angel," in which Marceau portrays an angel who periodically visits earth. Just when he is in the throes of embrace or of drink, heavenly music and light surround him to remind him to behave properly...
Among the other cast members. Meg Mackay is very strong as the "other" woman, cuttingly sarcastic and yet quite vulnerable, giving almost a heterosexual mirror image of Arnold. Christopher Stryker is wonderfully vapid and shallow as Alan, the pretty model who Arnold takes up with on the rebound; Jonathan Del Arco is impressive as the gay teenager Arnold seeks to adopt. Only Tom Stechschulte, as the confused bisexual Ed, doesn't quite measure up to the caliber of the other performances...