Haven't had a lotta time to comment on stuff, though I've at least been able to catch up on watching everything. Unlikely I'll bother to retro-comment any further than this ep, but hey, after I base-jump off another cliff work-wise, I may just have time to do so
.
Anyhoo.
I really quite liked this ep.
It was a little slower than some eps, but the pace was consistent. I liked the balance of the character related stuff for Jo, with the case that surrounded it. I liked how PV tied one into the other. It still didn't give a lot of time to the guests they had, DJE and sry but the dude playing the son who got all of one line, but whaddaya do. The weight should be on the case side, not the personal, but I suppose it's a testament to the success of the latter that I wanted more. Cases have never been NY's strong suit :lol:.
The premise for the case was interesting. Reminds me of the news story of the guy who got onto a plane disguised as an elderly man. A nice reference to some RL issues. I also enjoyed the reference to the salvage divers, which reminded me of Robert Kurson's Shadow Divers, one of a few different accounts of the discovery of the German U-boat 869.
As with the case at the school, I do enjoy eps that posit some seemingly absurd piece of trace or some clue that has to be explained. The martian soil in the school ep is an example, the isolated cryogenics here in this one is another. This case actually had a few that were fun; being shot with no GSR and no bullet; a man who's a woman who's apparently, if going by records instead of the body in autopsy, a 68-yr old African-American woman. It's at least entertaining, even if the case wasn't terribly demanding of a viewer.
Brief other comment, the sound fx on Sid cutting the frozen flesh made me wince :lol:. Well done NY. You got an ew outta me on something wot was case related, as opposed to mallets, cheez, DL or suchlike. (That'll be commented more if I manage to get to chatting about Hawkes' big ep later
).
While the motive of revenge wasn't anything out of the ordinary, the surrounding revelation of it was enjoyable enough. The scams were fun to hear of, and having a woman being suggested as a diabolical perp who reaped what she sowed was at least different from typical victimizations.
I liked the early Mac/Flack moments ("...you sound confident" / "I like my coffee black, no sugar" etc), but the delivery of Sheldon's "he's a woman" nearly had me sputtering my drink with a snicker. Whaddaya do.
The Jo/Ellie scene did go on rather a bit, and it felt like the director just let a few takes run as long as it took to hit the emotional plateau desired, but it did feel as if it coulda been trimmed after the fact just a tad.
Similarly, I could not figure out why the scene with Adam, Danny, Lindsay, and subsequently Mac was let to run for so long. At first I thought Adam was laughing at Lindsay's suggestion of a casting call, but then the aging software got played. And played. And played. It was amusing at first, but then just had me wondering what was next. I also then had to wonder if this was setting Mac up to be short with them and a bit testy, something that might be revisited in the later eps where he's to be featured, but NY doesn't do portent often. Ans so, just another sequence that coulda been trimmed. I was as exasperated as Mac was :lol:.
Quite a few montages in this ep, but stylistically they didn't irritate me as much as they sometimes have done.
Well, that's not true. the Sheldon one did, where he was determining the possible murder weapon, and certainly the exposition sequence with Lindsay did. Tacked on with as much subtlety as a knife to the guts
. Not to mention, why does the show insist that Lindsay's major function, outside of being part of DL, is to be able to provide some crucial tidbit in each ep? It's so prevalent that AB herself commented on it being an in-joke among the staff. It's irritating. It's irksome. But. Whaddaya do.
I enjoyed the Mac/Jo scenes; from the "tough confessional," to "...have you lost your mind? ...if I buy you a burger and a beer, will you stop? What, misery loves company, is that it?"
. It was satisfying to see Jo at a loss and looking for reassurance, instead of her usual unflappable self, and her scenes with Mac and with Russ were good in that regard. It was also fun to see Jo back to poking Mac by the episode's end, even if that also felt somewhat tacked on instead of seamlessly integrated. That said, there are eps that have had the "multiple ending" syndrome in ways that were far more hatchett-worthy than this one, and it was fun in the end.
I also enjoyed Jo's later scenes with Ellie more than the first. It felt more concise, and moved from one point to another with purpose. It also would leave the scenario open to be played out at a later date, should the show get another season. One scene, where Ellie wanted a window into her future self, also perhaps helped to tie back to the extended aging-software sequence from earlier. Not much, but it helped :lol:. Wee mallets in passing.
I also wasn't bothered that Reed wasn't mentioned. The opportunity was there, but Mac did not adopt Reed, Reed did have parents and a family growing up, Mac had no hand in it. While he's helped to look after Reed as a young adult, he was never a father figure to him, not really. I certainly doubt that Reed would see him that way. I shrug. Coulda been mentioned, but all the same I'm glad the focus remained on Jo and Ellie, as opposed to it shifting to Mac by bringing Reed up.
The near-obligatory Flack/Danny take-down was played out with well-practiced ease, and was fun. It was also verynice to see hints of Danny's old self, with "...do me a favor and move, go ahead..."
The Mac/Jason interrogation scene was more restrained than I've come to expect. Even hearing "I'm not asking if you did it, I'm here for a motive" was a bit different than the usual. Also appreciated.
All in all, in relative comparison within the season, one I'd have to say was a solid ep for NY, and one that I enjoyed. Of course, I'm typically exhausted by the time I get to catch up on eps these days :lol:. I certainly enjoyed it far more than Sheldon's big ep.
I'll call this one in the B realm. Ish.
i honestly can't remember the case at all. admittedly it was over a week ago but i can remember season 1 cases pretty well.
i liked the jo & her kids interactions. apart from the omission of reed (who should have had a mention) i even quite liked jo & mac's chat. as for whether it means anything, meh. i see more between them than i ever did between mac & stella, but i don't really give a crap either way.
i'm dishing out a C- purely because i have no recollection at all so it can't have been above average
I felt compelled to give it higher, if only because I'd say Sheldon's ep was average at best and irritating to the extremes in some ways, and this one was definitely one I enjoyed far more :lol:. I can't give last week's ep a higher grade than this one. I just cannae do it
.
Crappage, gotta run :lol:.
