Whoever writes the scripts to these shows should be given awards.....or at least the person who wrote this episode. The use of alliteration and the puns and references to the topic, the unyielding sarcasm and colorful adjectives all make this a fun program to hear. When you add the distinctive voice of Paul Winfield, who accentuates the sarcasm, you have to laugh out loud at some of things he reads in these shows!
This was never more in evidence on this famous case of the Houston mother who hired a hit-man to knock off her neighbor, hoping it would upset the daughter enough so that she wouldn't go out for cheerleading. As totally absurd as that sounds, you know it's true because it became a famous story. The media went berserk on it; some thinking this was the beginning of media overkill, which reached new levels a few years later when O.J. Simpson went on the run.
Anyway, even though this story has been made into a made-for-TV movie starring Holly Hunter and I was familiar with it, the unique presentation in this show made it fun to watch.
As usual, the beginning was very interesting, too, and I learned a lot about the city of Houston and it's immediate surroundings. A lot of that aforementioned alliteration was used in describing Houston, too, such as "this city went from hick to hip." People may picture guys with cowboys hats and big pickup trucks but you're just as likely to see them downtown in three-piece suits and a BMW.
The city, it was said here by locals, was never "the Wild West," but more like "the Old South," its roots coming from cotton, not cattle. With the discovery of oil in 1901, Houston boomed, and it didn't hurt to have NASA put its space center there in 1961. Now, Houston is the fourth-biggest city in America. In the greater Houston, it is like a lot of little cities all one after the other, each very different.
One of those is Channelview, a blue-collar community where football is king. "It's the glue that holds the community together" but it also led to this infamous case where one mother, Wanda Holloway, got obsessed with her daughter becoming a cheerleader. Or as they say in the show, "the Houston housewife who hired a hit-man." See what I mean?
This was never more in evidence on this famous case of the Houston mother who hired a hit-man to knock off her neighbor, hoping it would upset the daughter enough so that she wouldn't go out for cheerleading. As totally absurd as that sounds, you know it's true because it became a famous story. The media went berserk on it; some thinking this was the beginning of media overkill, which reached new levels a few years later when O.J. Simpson went on the run.
Anyway, even though this story has been made into a made-for-TV movie starring Holly Hunter and I was familiar with it, the unique presentation in this show made it fun to watch.
As usual, the beginning was very interesting, too, and I learned a lot about the city of Houston and it's immediate surroundings. A lot of that aforementioned alliteration was used in describing Houston, too, such as "this city went from hick to hip." People may picture guys with cowboys hats and big pickup trucks but you're just as likely to see them downtown in three-piece suits and a BMW.
The city, it was said here by locals, was never "the Wild West," but more like "the Old South," its roots coming from cotton, not cattle. With the discovery of oil in 1901, Houston boomed, and it didn't hurt to have NASA put its space center there in 1961. Now, Houston is the fourth-biggest city in America. In the greater Houston, it is like a lot of little cities all one after the other, each very different.
One of those is Channelview, a blue-collar community where football is king. "It's the glue that holds the community together" but it also led to this infamous case where one mother, Wanda Holloway, got obsessed with her daughter becoming a cheerleader. Or as they say in the show, "the Houston housewife who hired a hit-man." See what I mean?