5 thoughts on “What’s the Best ‘Rashomon’ TV Episode?

  1. I liked the All in the Family episode where Mike and Archie disagree on a racial sensitivity issue and while Arch is clearly in the wrong (he calls a black man “boy” and the man chastises him for it) the “both sides see things differently” is handled well. And it’s funny.

  2. I also pick the All in the Family. interestingly, from Mike’s POV, the black man is an exaggerated Uncle Tom, suggesting that even a bleeding heart meathead can be racist.

  3. The Don Cheadle Golden Girls episode (not a Rashomon) does a good job of showing there is no both sides and Blanche begrudgingly realizes that and starts to deal with it.

    And not a Rashomon episode but a movie I thought was NOT good was Last Duel.

  4. when I think of ‘Rashomen’ TV episodes, the first that comes to mind is Star Trek Next Generation -“A matter of perspective” which closely follows the pattern of the original showing the events leading up to a death from 3 differing perspectives including that of the victim.

    Of course, being the closest match does not make it the best, and for my choice, I would think Moonlighting – “the Dream sequence always rings twice” is close enough in format and spirit to count so would be my pick. Maddie and David hear of a historic murder and both dream contrasting versions in which they imagine how they believe it happened with themselves as the 2 people at the heart of the crime.

    Honourable mention – my comedy runner up would be coupling (UK). The show first dabbled with the idea in the first season episode “The girl with two breasts” in which Jeff tries to chat up an Israeli woman who doesn’t speak English showing the scene first from his perspective and later from hers showing the misunderstanding caused by the lack of a common language. Season 3’s “Remember this” went more strongly into a ‘Rashoman’ as Sally and Patrick both remember their first meeting at an office party (which Patrick was gatecrashing). Two scenes are shown from both Sally and Patrick’s viewpoint – in each case the second, is suggested as being the closest to the truth with the first version distorted by either Patrick’s sexism or Sally’s drunkenness. [While Patrick’s attitude is fundamentally wrong, there has long been in tradition of mocking such attitudes by featuring them in comedy – and we can sympathise with Morag’s response].

  5. My fave is the Leverage episode “The Rashomon Job” where each member of the team in turn recalls the events of a museum heist from before they formed the team. Each subsequent version reveals that one of the “innocent bystanders” was one of the other team members, played by a different actor the first time you see them so you wouldn’t figure it out. Very funny stuff.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *