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SAMANTHA WHO? - Nice shot

So I was watching Samantha Who? and to my surprise I found myself saying, "Nice shot."  It's rare that a scene in a sitcom is so artfully composed and filmed that you actually notice it, since the goal is to make the viewer laugh, not oooh and ahhh over your cinematography.  But there was a shot in this week's Samantha Who? that was so cool I had to comment on it.

Here's the shot - our perky amnesiac Sam is walking through a field full of lovely butterflies that Evil Pre-Amnesia Sam has arranged to pave over and turn into a shopping mall.  The camera remains in front of them as they walk.  Behind them a line of orange tractors has lined up in front of a hillside full of pink blossoming trees while little blue CGI butterflies flit about everywhere.  The whole shot - the colors Sam and Andrea are wearing, the pink trees, the field - is a perfect little spring snapshot and represents a level of detail and composition one normally doesn't associate with a sitcom.

I think I figured out why the shot stood out, though.  In a brief flashback, we see Evil Pre-Amnesia Sam in her evil hairstyle walking through the same field with Andrea months earlier.  The same trees are still in the background, but now they're grey and colorless winter trees. 

My theory is they shot this episode a while back, before the spring colors were in bloom, so the producers of Samantha Who? digitally colored the trees in the background pink for the present-day shot.  Unless I'm totally wrong and they did film it with real pink tress and then they went in and digitally drained the color out of the trees for the flashback shot.  Anyway, they also had to add in CGI butterflies, right?  I mean, you can't just release a couple dozen butterflies in the background and hope they'll show up in your shot.  So perhaps I was picking up on all the planning and artistic work that had to go into that one shot of Sam and Andrea walking through the field - maybe that's why I noticed it.

Still, regardless of the reasons, it's a pretty shot.

--Dave Campbell

SAMANTHA WHO? - America's Funniest Amnesiac

Samantha Who? returns on Monday, April 7^th at 9:30, right after Dancing with the Stars with 6 all-new episodes.

This is good news.

In case you haven’t seen it, Samantha Who? is about Sam(antha), a woman suffering from amnesia after being hit by a car. She slowly starts to piece together her life and discovers that before the accident she was a truly horrible person. I mean, she's Joan Collins-level horrible. Sam is constantly running into reminders of what an utter witch she was, like when she’s out for a stroll and a man she’s never seen before freaks out and yells at her to keep away from him – it turns out he’s an ex-boyfriend with a restraining order against her.

Christina Applegate does a great job as Sam – she has a wide-eyed charm and excellent comic timing. It helps that the show has a talented supporting cast – my favorite being Frank the doorman, played by Tim Russ (Star Trek: Voyager) with deadpan sarcasm. 

So yes, anytime a well-written and well-acted comedy like Samantha Who? returns to the air, that’s good news in my book.

--Dave Campbell