What to say. Only just managed to finally catch the ep at all. Random musings follow.
Call it in the B-ish realm for me.
I'm glad NY devoted an ep to 9/11, and to character material. Was it epic? No. (It was easy for me to overthink and over anticipate it some, being both the premiere and an ep addressing such subject matter, and I knew I would, but there really wasn't much else to talk about
). It was instead a very specifically focused glimpse, and better for it. Was the undertaking worthy? IMO, yes. Was it essentially a separate entity from the season likely to follow? I'd guess very much so.
Case? What case? Ask again after 8.02.
I enjoyed the opening with Claire and Mac. I liked the opening credits fading to grey. I enjoyed the lab opening with Adam, liked how that sequence also laid out where things were at, enjoyed how Adam was used to bring humor throughout the ep, but also got material in his own right.
Back briefly to Mac & Claire. I at first thought the bus scene early in the ep bordered on saccharine cheez, but when they later replayed a snippet of the same again at the end, I didn't think it was quite so cheezy anymore. I liked the depiction of Claire, fun and poking Mac, and thought the opera tickets were a nice touch, from Joe of the Robbery squad to Mac setting them into the ocean as the event he and Claire never got to. I said my piece on the phone-call scene in the spoiler thread, and I'll largely stand by it. I thought it worked well, and was wrenching as a final moment between the couple.
I also thought it fitting that we never knew what happened to Claire, as Mac never knew, and still doesn't know.
I thought a touch like that, as well as Adam's story of sleeping thru it all, and also having a character like the woman who wound up being the killer saying, "...why? What's today?" helped to keep the ep grounded and not falling over the edge of an overly perfect tribute, if that makes sense.
I enjoyed seeing Mac and Jo both doing their respective actual hands-on lab work, Mac in particular being a scientist again; it's not a place we often saw either of them as co-supervisors last season. I also enjoyed Mac/Jo thru the ep, and the depiction of a friendship that looks to have been easily maintained despite Mac's absence from daily interaction.
I thought Hanna was well played too. Interesting too that Mac apologized to her. He is turning into a softy isn't he
. Kidding, but it was nice to see Mac as human and not simply Boss.
It was also nice to see Jo as resisting having that title settle on her shoulders, or being put into that slot. The coffee shop scene between Mac and Jo was easygoing, and the bit about Joe DiMaggio's locker had me smiling inspite of myself. The more I see of Jo, the more I like her, and the more I want to see of her, and the two of them together are also consistently engaging. It was also nice to see Adam poking at Jo as he often did Mac, though the dynamic is different, and nice to see Jo using Mac as a sounding board.
Jo was a bit harsher than I expected in extracting the confession, and so it's possible that keeping Mac's chair warm has had an effect on her, and I'll be curious if that tone surfaces again here and there in upcoming eps.
It was fun if somewhat awkard if also more fun because it was sorta odd and awkward seeing Mac relaxing enough to teasingly allude to himself as a charismatic and charming cop, while being informed he decidely is not by the grumpy old cop, Joe. ...Dunno what it is about coffee shop/deli/diner scenes, but over the years they've consistently brought out different sides of Mac :lol:, and I can't think of one I haven't liked.
I think the Mac/Joe Vincent scenes were some of the best of the episode, especially the wordless hug at the end. The emotion there was the one time in the ep that really tightened my throat.
Mac also seemed to answer his own S7 question of "what am I doing," with his statement, "if you saw what that meant to the victim's family, you'd never question why you do it," and will probably be touched upon again as NY re-integrates him behind DMaggio's locker
.
Flack was good as always, and his typical interaction in interrogation was fun ("I can't imagine what it's like, going thru that withdrawal" / "kinda like cops and donuts"). Flack and Jo with Black and white Mikes was another fun moment, as was "the jury's still out on you, interim boss," and they're another pairing that are fun to watch onscreen.
Word of the ep was Skeletonization, near on par with Curvatures of Lettuce, and Flack noted the same just as I was rolling my eyes at the repetition, and I had to smile again at having been successfully baited by the show. F*ckers :lol:.
As for Messer, it felt easier than I thought it might to see him and Mac both away from the team, and the team running just fine without either directly in the mix. Granted it was case lite :lol:. Still, he was integrated in his new capacity pretty well, and still taking down perps with Flack as ever.
The flashback with Flack was nice, but we really didn't see much of Danny in this ep, and with his upcoming arc, I suppose that's not really surprising. It was similarly nice to see Sid, if also only too briefly. He's apparently also the only one who can tie his own tie to unnamed standards :lol:.
I thought the flashbacks in themselves were pretty good, I liked that they were personal reflections and not discussions, save for Adam & Lindsay at the end. I liked that they did lightly touch upon different moments in the timeline, and that there were references to the days in the immediate aftermath as well as 9/11. All the flashbacks were also paired, save for Mac and Jo having individual ones. Time-saving no doubt, but given Jo was in Washington, it would also have been impossible to double up, unless hers too was conversationally related. I'm glad NY went futher to show the Pentagon, and gave Jo her own moment.
Sid and Hawkes being paired was also nice, and I'm glad Sid was included. That both were treating first responders and general casualties was moving, and then to have Mac stumbling in with more, was something I didn't foresee, although it was no doubt meant as another cyclical moment. I thought it was also a bit wrenching to have Mac driven back and helping those he could. I was personally less keen on the prayer moment, but can see it as fitting the character, and also possibly leading into his later issues with faith. I thought this flashback became more about the first responders in general, beyond the show's roster of characters, that NY nicely stepped back just a bit here, in leading up to the ceremony at the end.
As for Adam/Lindsay, it was one of her better moments too, and as others have noted, the dynamic between them was one I enjoyed more than many of others she's been typically employed in, and the tone for the character was such I found it easier to relate to, and like, for that matter. (I'm still not keen on the character, but I am making an effort to acknowledge even the smallest increments of improvement in her depiction, at least IMO
). That the pair of them had possibly been working the same bucket lines was as cyclical as having Mac enter into Sid & Sheldon's flashback, but what are ya gonna do. It is still NY, afterall.
The tribute at the end with the real families was all the more moving for having included them.
As expected, the ep is drawing a mix of responses. I'm glad the show undertook to do it, even if it was not the tightest or strongest ep the show has done. The "case" felt simply a way of keeping within the mandate, while also providing a context for the character moments, be it the Adam being The Man, impressing Interim Boss with remotely accessing technology for a convenient progression, or getting Jo back into the labs, etc.
Overall the ep was sedate and introspective, and I'm not sure I could see it going another way. As such, it prompted a similar introspection in me. I suppose I can't hope for an ep like this one to do more than that, really. I think it was respectfully done, and I certainly don't think 9/11 should be off-limits from reflection in pop culture, nor the debate each foray inevitably stirs.
As an hour of teevee, it had a pretty low-key pace, had a bit of a choppy flow, but it was trying to cover a lot of ground. Sound and music was a bit hit and miss, but that's probably just my taste. It had the stones to address a tribute to 9/11, it was moving at times, it was a good-looking ep, had some humor, some good character moments and insights, and felt like a deliberate plateau for the show looking back before it sets off into moving forward into the season, taking the characters in new directions. It felt like it was a separate, unique one-off type ep, and it was really.
In any case. Here's looking forward to seeing the show get back into the swing of things this week.
