"The Monkees" Rewatch: The Picture Frame (The Bank Robbery)
"The Picture Frame" begins with Mike, Davy, and Micky entering Mammoth Studios to meet with director J.L. and his assistant Harvey. J.L. offers them rolls as bank bandits in a movie and says he's already arranged a hidden camera shoot at the Ninth National Bank. All the boys need to do is show up, hold up the bank with the list of dialogue, and then come back with the money. Unfortunately for them, the whole thing is a setup to make them the fall guys for J.L. and Harvey's robbery, so once the "shoot" ends and the boys return with the props J.L. reports them to the police. By the time the band eventually figures out that the police aren't part of another shoot and try to explain what happened it's already too late. Mike, Davy, and Micky end up in jail and soon have to defend themselves in court, so it's up to Peter to search Mammoth Studios for the photo that will prove their innocence.
Honestly, I think "The Picture Frame" should've been the first episode of season two, because it's better than "It's a Nice Place to Visit..." In almost every way. It takes a fairly silly (in a bad way) conceit and just runs with it, charging it up with high energy and surreal, Pythonesque bits. Being Pythonesque can also mean silly, but in an absurd and fun way, like the courtroom scenes and when the police station became a movie theatre. The guys also do a great job in it with each of them getting at least one big laugh moment. A couple of my favorites include Mike's ridiculous faces and Davy's greatest line of, "We were shooting a movie! Some cat came up and said, 'You wanna shoot a movie?' Said, 'Yeah, we'll shoot a movie.' So we shot a movie." The episode's so, so silly and so, so great that even its title is a somewhat of a pun.
Another noteworthy aspect of this episode is the romps. One, because they feature the first non-credit sequence appearances of the iconic rainbow room. And two, because they're "Pleasant Valley Sunday" and "Randy Scouse Git," which are simply great songs. Plus, both show the Monkees doing social and political commentary in both direct and subtextual ways. "Randy Scouse Git" may play at being goofy and absurd, but it goes right for the jugular when it counts. I mean, when Micky Dolenz literally shouts, "Why don't you hate who I hate, kill who I kill to be free?" there is no sugar-coating his scorn. Meanwhile, "Pleasant Valley Sunday," by comparison, is more understated if for no other reason than its digs are couched in such a lovely, sunny pop song. As such, I feel like its one of those songs that can be easily misread if you're not paying attention, like Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" (though perhaps not as widely misunderstood as that one seems to be.) Come to think of it, maybe "Pleasant Valley Sunday" is partially responsible for my affinity for happy sounding depressing songs.
"The Picture Frame" begins with Mike, Davy, and Micky entering Mammoth Studios to meet with director J.L. and his assistant Harvey. J.L. offers them rolls as bank bandits in a movie and says he's already arranged a hidden camera shoot at the Ninth National Bank. All the boys need to do is show up, hold up the bank with the list of dialogue, and then come back with the money. Unfortunately for them, the whole thing is a setup to make them the fall guys for J.L. and Harvey's robbery, so once the "shoot" ends and the boys return with the props J.L. reports them to the police. By the time the band eventually figures out that the police aren't part of another shoot and try to explain what happened it's already too late. Mike, Davy, and Micky end up in jail and soon have to defend themselves in court, so it's up to Peter to search Mammoth Studios for the photo that will prove their innocence.
Honestly, I think "The Picture Frame" should've been the first episode of season two, because it's better than "It's a Nice Place to Visit..." In almost every way. It takes a fairly silly (in a bad way) conceit and just runs with it, charging it up with high energy and surreal, Pythonesque bits. Being Pythonesque can also mean silly, but in an absurd and fun way, like the courtroom scenes and when the police station became a movie theatre. The guys also do a great job in it with each of them getting at least one big laugh moment. A couple of my favorites include Mike's ridiculous faces and Davy's greatest line of, "We were shooting a movie! Some cat came up and said, 'You wanna shoot a movie?' Said, 'Yeah, we'll shoot a movie.' So we shot a movie." The episode's so, so silly and so, so great that even its title is a somewhat of a pun.
Another noteworthy aspect of this episode is the romps. One, because they feature the first non-credit sequence appearances of the iconic rainbow room. And two, because they're "Pleasant Valley Sunday" and "Randy Scouse Git," which are simply great songs. Plus, both show the Monkees doing social and political commentary in both direct and subtextual ways. "Randy Scouse Git" may play at being goofy and absurd, but it goes right for the jugular when it counts. I mean, when Micky Dolenz literally shouts, "Why don't you hate who I hate, kill who I kill to be free?" there is no sugar-coating his scorn. Meanwhile, "Pleasant Valley Sunday," by comparison, is more understated if for no other reason than its digs are couched in such a lovely, sunny pop song. As such, I feel like its one of those songs that can be easily misread if you're not paying attention, like Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" (though perhaps not as widely misunderstood as that one seems to be.) Come to think of it, maybe "Pleasant Valley Sunday" is partially responsible for my affinity for happy sounding depressing songs.
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