First. Kudos to Melina. For jumping into the challenge of following up her idea pitched by accepting the invitation to write an ep. For jumping into the thick of things in an unfamiliar capacity in such a high profile show. For also taking a chance also on incorporating what obviously resonates personally for her and adapting it and putting it out there for public consumption. Congrats for having the hutzpah to get into it. End. That's about as nice as I can be for what came of it.
Note. There seems to be an awful lot of personal crossover stuff from actors and writers into the show. Some of that is a fun nod or simply taking advantage of what people can bring to the show. But. The show is fiction. Supposedly well-written fiction, a
made up world. Not fan fiction. I dunno what kinds of meetings and note sessions the execs and the writers have been having about eps in development, Melina included, but something's gotta give here.
They get one last shot to impress people and entice them back for S6 now, cos the whole of the season has been underwhelming crappage. And after S4 I'd hoped for better. I left during S4. Every week I approached with great hope and optimism. Looking back on it all, now that it's far enough behind to be looked at as a whole, I can't believe I've stuck out S5. I think only because the show itself is turning into a puzzle that needs solving. I tune into CSI (vegas) rarely enough anymore, but I caught "If I had a Hammer" and it was a great ep. I haven't watched enough of the season to know if that's representative of their season, but when I tune into NY in the face of solid eps like that, the NY franchise comes off rather poorly.
Um.
...sigh.
I wish Melina hadn't written it. It would be so much easier to rip it like I wanna... :lol: But she did. And I like Melina. It shouldn't matter, and, ultimately, it really doesn't. Sorry Melina, Duane. Wasn't in the least keenly impressed with this one. It wasn't just the writing that wasn't impressive, but the realization of it as a whole. It just didn't raise the bar. Didn't even meet the bar. Might compell me to visit one. But I can drink at home...
Pretty much just added to the completely mediocre season as a whole. Disappointed. I don't think my expectations were heightened because Melina wrote it, but I suppose my hopes were, and both were disappointed.
Haven't voted yet. Will vote once I actually mull this for a sec. Gonna kinda round out bullet points. I really don't think I can bring myself to think about this one too much.
The set up was interesting, that it was Stella who placed the anonymous phonecall about the initial dead dude, perhaps in hoping that she'd be assigned to work on the case after the fact. It was nice to get the impression from the beginning that Mac wasn't just upset about breach of protocols, etc, but was personally upset.
Soundtrack was rather heavy handed thru-out. Sheldon using a maglite in a darkened scene that actually required a maglite to see was somehow amusing to me. Really strong presence of reds and blues in the early going. Lx, play, clothes, labs. Wonder wtf that was allabout.
Well. One question answered. I wondered, in the last ep dealing with the coins etc, where Stella stuffed the guy into a shipping container, and then spoke on the walkie talkie, who she was talking to when she did so. It was indeed a member of the Cypriot government. Man. Not exactly executive class travel...
My my. Very busy camera work. Very busy. And more reds and blues.
Oh. Joyous. Danny and Adam and Lindsay. Ack. DL in Adam's face. Double team. Hardly fair.
Danny is after Blake? Go Blake. Run. Run boy... I was willing to accept that there was gonna hafta be
some DL stuff this ep. But it was waaaaay overkill. As usual. Incredibly unsubtle handling of things this season. Blech. But I suppose they hafta be shown to be a supremely lovey happy family this ep incase anything else happens in da finale... Speaking of...
Angell's outta town? Uh huh. Like others, was disappointed she wasn't in the concluding ep of a plotline she was instrumental in. Especially in light of next ep. It was an interesting scene with Don and Stella, with him pressing her about the whole matter. It was also interesting by implication that Angell herself didn't tell him much about it either.
Perfesser P was way easily set up to be suspicious with the whole passport sequence, very early on. Made me suspicious of
that. Somehow wondered if he'd be set up for the murder, and that the ep would likely circle around how much to feel betrayed by her Guardian angel or eventually vindicated for her faith in him for Stella.
The Mac/Lindsay scene.
She does her schpiel, shorter than usual, there's the pause, Mac's eyeing her for some reason, and I was hoping the take on things was gonna be in the line of him waiting for the more usual extended demo sequence, and poking fun at that. But no. It was simply asking her what she thought she was doing there. Something I've been asking all season... :lol: It was a relatively innocuous scene until "...this lab would fall apart without me..." ...major dropkick to keister forthcoming. Fall apart without just about anyone but.
What? Whoa. Seriously? Alexander's Tomb. Carbon dated and everything? Um. New York. Right? Crime show. Guest appearance by CSI Croft? I'm sorry. But it don't matter anymore who wrote this. This is not irresistable teevee to me. Too many things being juggled, not enough time to really devote to all of them. They're not interesting simply by mention alone.
Oh. More happy family.
Danny, Lindsay and Lucy. DLL? DLL. I think that's how I'll start referring to them now. Freakin delightful...
Prof P's a suspect officially now, but hey, he got Stella out of foster care, so he can't be a truly evil bastard now can he. Stella smashing glass in her office. And not damaging the canvas at all. That woulda done her mama proud... Interesting to put canvas behind glass at all, but it's not necessarily uncommon.
More testy Flack. Mac inna lab coat. Been awhile. Soundtrack is ever present. A round table meeting with ...Mac, Danny and Adam? And Flack's running down Stella's credit cards. One big happy family.
Greece. Stella. Prof. P has a brother, and you're just telling him where you're staying? Why would you do that. Oh, cos it'll give him the opportunity to go after you later. No, I didn't have him pegged from opening the door at all... Man. I
am way too suspicious. But it was the piece that fit. So whaddaya do... And within ten minutes Mac's put everything back on track with legal particulars. Atta boy Mac. That house call was above and beyond. The jurisdiction of alla yas personal Justice, you and Stella both, knows no bounds.
Stella apologizes profusely. Was glad to see that much. But eh. Ya gotta know it's gonna be glossed over in the end. Wait, now I'm confused, Stella's mother brought her over to the US in 1977 when she was two, so she was born in
'75? No way. Frickin chrissakes. My head hurts. Did I miss something? All these ep references to the characters ages, man, mebbe
five years ago an' all they mighta been these ages... I mean, are they stuck in S1? No, no if they were, I think I'd be a much happier camper... sheesh.
We go from investigation to fortune telling now. Actually , I thought that was kinda fun. More ever present soundtrack. And P's bro's confirmed as the killer. And he does indeed show up at the hotel. At least Stella got some good shots in. And he was just in NY too? Man. Frequent flyer points racking up by everyone. It's a wonder they weren't all on the same damned plane going over.
Interesting Macguyver Science sequence. Not much of a smoking gun all told :lol: And whoa random pesticide knowledge??? :wtf:
Field trip. Peachy. More mighty Mac with Stella left under a tree without her gun. I want NY Stella back.
It was a cheesy end with spilled artifacts and both brothers dead, and how all that went down, a weepage moment, the redemption of P, Stella getting to utter "I was born here." That was a nice moment for the character to have in finally finding her family history etc, but just came across a tich heavy handed.
But the things I did like, one was Stella's line to P "you also stole from me." The other thing I liked was "...the painting I gave you was the last thing she worked on," because it's one thing I didn't see coming, even with the mention she was an art restorer earlier in the ep.
The end scene with Mac and Stella was both meh
and kinda nice, the best line in that was the throwaway at the end, "...sometimes you adore her, sometimes she drives you crazy..." That at least to me felt more like Stella, and the dynamic I like between them. Also kinda how I felt about the ep in general
though it leaned far more to the latter and relied on the former to keep from losing it altogether.
All in all was a kind of frantic, loosely tied ep. After just running thru it, I hafta give is a C-. I'd be tempted to grade it lower, but I damn well know there were worse eps this season, and hafta allow that curve. At least, it wasn't the only one to achieve such a low score from me.
Disappointed. Was hoping for more. Had some nice moments. Was like NY was having a coffee on a terrace somewhere while this ep was going on, pausing to coo at a baby now and then, reading the International Tribune to catch up on news back home. Never woulda guessed it was the same guy who directed Snow Day either.
I hope tomorrow's ep pulls it all together for a really super solid high end eppie. This season has been spinning it's wheels. Hope it doesn't go over the cliffhanger a la wile e. coyote. One last chance, TPTB. C'mon people. Pull it together. :censored: