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Disclaimer & some personal notes:

Its TNT and/or NBC playground – I don’t really know which. They own the characters, dialogues, plots, quotes etc. These analysis are for pure entertainment only – mostly my own.

About the analysis:
Ok, this will NOT be an episode guide, though you will find plenty of spoilers! My analysis are purely subjective, my opinion, my take. Simply for the reason that I’m the one on the keyboard!

Disagree with me? Let it be heard! Give feedback and gimme hell if you want! Write a note or your own take!

Special Note:Don’t expect me to go into any length about the pretends, because I won’t. For me its only about the characters, their individual development in each episode and their interaction with each other. The central theme for me is the Centre-related story, and only when the pretends and the people Jarod meets along his travels, are important to his character development or the Centre-related-plot, I will pay attention. And more often than not you will wonder if the series’ main character might be Miss Parker and not Jarod. She of course is as important to the show as he is. Even when her scenes are only short in an ep., you might be surprised at the length I can go about it. It’s a personal thing. I was drawn into the series by her character, and I do regard her not only as very important but also as my favorite one. Go, and hate me for that. *grin*

Oh, and of course, obviously these have been written all AFTER I saw it all. So sometimes I can go ahead of the series – I will try to not do it too much though and try hard to not dwell on it a lot.

And take into account that these analysis are NOT betaed! My first language is German so please don’t mind the inevitable errors!



Review of ‘Risque Business’
Season 4
Ep. 404



This episode is a rollercoaster in emotions. On the one hand we follow Jarod on his pretend as a sexual-therapist, trying to solve a brutal assault on another therapist.
On the other hand we get to see the hilarious but nevertheless sweet attempts by Broots to ‘hit’ on his boss.

The first is a depressing theme, cuz it’s about the painful experiences of a woman that has to deal with the horrors of not one but two sexual assaults on her. One in her past and one just previously.

The side-plot is so entertaining and simply funny, I laughed my ass off! Not really ‘at’ Broots, but at the funny scenes his crush produces. I felt sorry for him, cuz it’s a dream bound to be crushed. She simply is too much woman for a man like him.

Jarod gets into the pretend and visits the assaulted woman, Dr. Melissa Blass. She has closed off completely and aside of trying to find the perpetrator, Jarod tries to get her to open up to him. But of course it’s not so simple for her. She is afraid, scared to death and completely dependent on some drugs. Only the drugs she had been given, intentionally also have a terrible effect on her. She started to not close off emotionally but also physically. Not putting a foot outside her house, she completely withdraws from the world. A formerly well respected and loved woman and therapist, can’t find her way back.

Contrary to what people first think, Jarod finds out who the real assailant is. Its actually her colleague and friend, Dr. Arnett. And not only that, Jarod also finds out that this very man, her so called ‘friend’ from way back during their time at college together, was also her tormentor the first time.

Jarod’s solution is a good scene. His payback at Arnett works very well. The pretender found out that the doctor himself has some fears – hydrophobia – and Jarod builds up a great trap. Michael T. Weiss can be sometimes rather annoying when he starts to whine about his own fate, his facial expressions at those moments have more than once been pretty lost on me. But when he shows his empathy, or his anger like he does here, I do enjoy his acting a lot.

The side plot provides so many laugh-out-loud scenes, it’s incredible. In the beginning they go trough several things Jarod had left behind in preparing for his pretend. Sex-toys, as Broots says, ‘pretty much everything you’re looking for, baby’. I think I almost choked to death when I saw MP grabbing that whip, and lashing it down once or twice. Her look, her appearance, the demeanor, the perfect domina!!

They find some print-out sheet with an address and of course follow this lead. In the meantime we hear – not for the first time – Broots telling Sydney how much MP is impressing him. The picture he draws of her is … beyond words. My o my, Broots draws her in a tight leather suit, hair down and whip in hand. He must have some pretty SM-dreams, our little techie!!

And then Broots and MP go on the search for Jarod together. They end up in a suburban area, and Broots starts to interrogate his boss about women. Apparently – or intentionally - oblivious to his real quest, she thinks he is talking bout some ‘chick’, and tells him that he should simply go for it. Prompted by that advice, he almost tries to kiss her then and there. Unfortunately – or fortunately for his health – a funny lil’ old man opens up the door.
They find themselves in the house of this couple, the small older man and a tall blonde with boobs to boot! When the man invites our two Centre hunters for a little swinger-party I choked for the second time!

But they seemingly get the answers they needed and continue their search for the wayward pretender. At a warehouse surrounded by a huge fence, MP doesn’t wait for long. She tells Broots to heave her up on it. In the smallest tiniest and tightest mini-skirt and high-heel boots up to her knees, no less. I think Broots was never this close to a cardiac-arrest spurred by sensory-overload from the sight he gets that way.

I give MP lots of credit for figuring out that this whole lead was a fake one, conducted by Lyle. Lyle blamed her for not sharing information on Jarod in the beginning and concocted up this rather embarrassing scenario. But she knows Jarod a whole lot better than Lyle ever will, and the little oversight by her twin, that the pretender is allergic to pistachios, gives him away.

The scene where she confronts him about it is a shoot-out. She approaches him like a wild-cat, with a tone low but dangerous. The smug grin the amused Lyle first has plastered on face freezes, when she grabs for his throat.

I watched in awe how she came down on Lyle for misleading her. And I wasn’t the only one, Broots is impressed by it as well, so much actually that he finally decides to get into action.
He shows lots of guts to approach her, but of course gets shot down before he can make a move. MP – not so oblivious as it seemed at first – turns him down. But not the way one would expect from the kick-ass-goddess. She does with tact and even some sympathy. She says she’s flattered and even thinks it’s sweet, but it would never ever happen.


It was a great episode on more than one levels. The pretend was a good one, the story-line build up well and the solution satisfying. I solute the writers and producers for not shying away from sex as a topic. And they approached it from two sides: with tact and subtlety towards the rape-case and with humor towards some the not so often (in-TV)mentioned sexual practices by people

Come on, how often do we get to see couples talking about their public sexual encounters, a woman addicted to sexual pretend-games, and sex-toys lying around like some office appliances. The dummy Broots holds up in hand, was not only a hilarious but also a daring move for a day-time television show in my opinion.

And that the sexually deprived pretender acts as therapist, well kinda shows how talented our genius is, eh?

The acting was fine, by the guest stars as well as by the regular cast. 5 out of 5 points. It maybe wasn’t the jaw-dropping episode throughout but had enough priceless scenes. It had lots of heart and was too darn funny, to take off any rating point.









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