Finally got to see this one too.
Not a memorable episode. In thinking thru it, it's already hard to recall. There wasn't a whole lot I overtly disliked, but there was a lot of stuff I thought I'd like more. I'm having difficulty trying to figure out why I don't feel inclined to grade it higher. It just... didn't make much of an impact. Call it one that felt left on the page.
Call it a B- or so.
I was amused by the show introducing a debate on the origins of Punk. It got another point for starting with a Ramones cover, even if the cover wasn't that great.
The punk aspect should have been great but "punk" & "princess" don't belong in the same descriptive; the counterfeit aspect shoulda been more complex, but that crime, within the mix of murder & guest character material/focus, felt like a bit of an afterthought.
Put that together and I guess my impression of the ep was that it was kinda Counterfeit Punk.
There was a lot of focus and weight that the case characters had to carry to make this a really noteworthy ep, and they just didn't have the oomph, IMO. Not bad at all, they just didn't make me feel for them in a way that woulda made such focus grab and hold my attention, or empathy.
The two buddies, the immediately smitten punk girlfriend, all that came across as lite personal connections. I wanted to either worry more or wonder more after the guy still missing. That whole trio shoulda felt deeper, less superficial, given the ep rested squarely upon them to draw people in and give a damn. The case was interesting, but again not intriguing or complex enough to carry the ep if ya didn't give a damn about who it happened to.
The team material, outside the case, is really the only thing that kept me watching.
Mac & Sid win for the best sequence of the night and the season, so far
. By far by far by far.
Jo/Adam were fun, and easily a very close second place
. I wanted to like Jo/Sheldon more, but wasn't feeling it. I'd love to say Flack had some good moments, cos he always does, but dang if I can recall what any of them were at this point. Mac/Jo had a nice bit at the end.
Jo/Tyler was again "nice," but I guess I was wondering if something more ominous was in store where the mysterious roommate was concerned, and was a bit disappointed that the issue was street art, and then later, gender. A sealed juvie record and the twizt of her being a !Female, well, I guess that's about all one can expect from CBS these days
. Meh.
Danny at the top of the ep detailing the scene beyond his current job satisfaction was fun, and his best moment of the ep. I was wondering how NY were going to incorporate Messer as a sergeant and working outside the labs. The premiere may have given me hope that wasn't warranted. It sorta feels like like NY essentially
won't incorporate Danny, save for DL nonsense, until his big storyline happens, and they find a way to bring him back into the labs. ...Meh. 10%. Just hope his arc is good.
As for DL. Again Meh. If I look at the scenes as if they were just words on a page, again I see the potential there for a fun moment or three. Didn't feel it between them; found the scenes onerous.
(As for all this discussion about DL & lunchbreaks and who shoulda done what to accommodate whom, I'm admittedly lost :lol:. Beyond recognizing that this goes back to the sad panda spoiler of DL woes
. IMO, honestly, this was certainly not the most difficult element to reconcile, although it was certainly a moment that was among the most difficult to remember :lol
.
There were some nice visuals. The detail within the counterfeit revelation sequence with Lindsay and Mac had some nice close ups, especially in printing (not the slo mo ink mist, but the actual printing), and the sound here worked really well. Was rolling my eyes a bit at Lindsay seemingly being the default for material like this. Adam had the tee-shirt/window bit, which was ok, but perhaps they coulda had Hawkes do this one or something.
Lindsay getting DL & case-cracking demonstrations as a continued default have worn exhaustingly thin. Neither are depicted with enough charm or warmth, or at least not consistently so, to have me entertained in having to sit thru them. Felt formulaic, and another sign of an ep that had had some promise of sidestepping the mold, but pretty much relied upon it instead, and the surrounding material wasn't strong enough to make it a memorable ride. Break teh habit and go back to flying by the seat of your pants, NY. Pants indeed.
Loved the idea of a music shop and tattoo shop featuring as well, were some of the ep's better moments, and I guess those were the scenes where Flack won for me, but again, ...not enough of them. 'Two grand for Flipper' was good :lol:. The scene with the comment tossed out about "if I hafta hear Sweet Home Alabama one more time..." and Jo/Flack responses were fun
.
Had hoped Busey might get more to do. I guess it's hard not to telegraph an ep's likely outcome with guest casting sometimes, and I guess the restraint here was a way of trying to avoid that, and an attempt to circumvent having over many red herrings/tertiary characters, making the unravelling of the mystery relatively uncluttered.
But again, the crux of buddies/punk lover/scammedjammedup guitar shop owner strangely wasn't punchy enough to make an impact. Punk & music make ya feel. Should grab you inside. - ...The discussion of music felt somewhat sterile, and the characters telling the story didn't make me feel a great deal for them. A case engages your curiosity - ...This one was only vaguely interesting in an idle way. This was decidedly not a rock n' roll ep, so to speak, in a way that matched the content. This unfortunate contrast, this lack of a more visceral intensity, given punk music and murder, may be one reason that I didn't warm to this episode as much as I was wanting to.
The ending was odd as well. A bit stuttered, not fluid. Jo meeting Tyler and the roommate was ok. Mac with the suspect, shoulda ended with "I'm trying to sympathize here, but can't," or whatever that line was, and not bothered with the malleted addendum of "leave the innocent people out of it." Why, NY do you insist on that sort of wrap up. Not needed. Let it speak for itself, and stop overly narrarating with the characters.
I want S8 to change things up a bit for the characters. Jo breaking the "mom code" was a bit of that, Mac trying to sympathize was a bit of that. Reverting back to a cardboard cut out for a moralizing fade-to-black ending is NY falling upon old habits for convenient framing.
TPTB:
Stop. Bloody stop. Put the f*cking mallets down. 18 eps will go by inna flash. Don't waste the time. As yet, your cases and stories are
still generally such that we, the meager viewers, are easily able to keep up with. I do not look to NY & CBS or any show for The World As It Should Be. Just tell the story and let us hang out for the ride, taking from it what we will.
A cheez teaser is expected. At least NY doesn't have "yyyyyyyeeeeAAAAAAAAAAhhhhhhhh" as the rimshot. But given that style of intro is not gonna likely to go away, then make the endings tighter - but less form fitting, yes? (Makes sense to me, anyways :lol
Given the option between shiny glitz uber club rich kid type eps & a mediocre Counterfeit Punk as a pseudo rendition of a Common People ep, I'll definitely take the latter. But. Another Lite week for NY. Pick it up kids. Wif only 18 eps on order (so far), I want more for the time spent.
PS. Even more Sid plz
Adam must have been in college a long time for 12 roommates.
I sense a lot of impending 'too much D/L' remarks, but I wasn't terribly annoyed.
re. roomates: ...depends
.
During various years of different studies, I certainly had a few. I had 5 roommates one year, and other years 2; 3 in a place where the apartment above was essentially an extension of our place, with four ppl living there (had a once innalifetime type double decker hallowe'en party that year, i sez god
damn :lol
, and sometimes as few as 1 other.
...I cannot tell you how happy I was the first year I finally lived solo :lol:
I really like Adam getting little moments like that add to his backstory too. I loooooove that he and Sid have all these rather mysterious allusions to quirky personal histories
.
As for DL. Here I didn't feel an overload in volume of material so much as I didn't believe it. Zero chemistry. Words on a page unelevated. Sry.
i made notes. handy really as i was only half watching. and on a teeny weeny screen. anyway....
Ha. Ditto, save for screensize
.
1: starting with the ramones - nice idea, shame that band were a bit crap.
Agree.
(And with apologies to whomever earlier suggested it was the Clash. Wasn't gonna call that out, but do hafta admit I winced when I read it :lol:
).
4: sid teasing mac about his brief "escape" was
brilliant, one of the best bits they've done in a very long time. it would've fit in nicely in seasons 1-4. can we have more of this please?! plus i love the idea of mac as a steve mcqueen type character
Part of me can't believe that so few folk have commented on this scene :lol:. Was easily the best of the night for me.
Mac/McQueen isn't something that had occurred to me. Can sorta see it, yeah.
5: ....i liked the return to mac & adam's comedy double act too. again, more of this please!
Adam's scene was a bit goofy, and it mighta been fun to see Sheldon engaged in activities such as this scene, because it might thwart his polish more than an admission of partaking in street art in his youth, but do agree that the Mac/Adam comic duo was nice to see again.
7: re the counterfeit cash - i guess this is why the uk treasury had the foresight to make our notes (a) on different coloured paper and (b) of different sizes!! :guffaw::guffaw:
:lol:. You mean it wasn't random aesthetics?
Hard to argue. But if counterfeiting was really this easy, you'd think we'd be hearing of it more often
.
one little gripe about the punk thing - given that punk is a genre very very important to me i feel i have to get this off my chest - it's about the argument the 3 kids were having in the shop about who were the first punks. now, technically the girl was probably right, that it was the ramones who started at cbgb in 74 ish. i mean, for me it'll always always be the sex pistols (london, 76) but they, and more to the point their manager/creator malcolm mclaren were extremely heavily influenced by the ramones and cbgb in general - it's just that as far as i'm concerned punk wasn't a definitive movement before the pistols - they were the ones that crystallised it - but y'know that's an argument for a pub
...
I'd be happy to argue this inna pub over a drink or three :lol:
.
One might argue that once crystallized, and a 'movement," that it became less punk
(if that makes sense).
(You helped shoot a vid? Excellent. Mebbe I'll enlist your help if I ever get about to doing one for Methyl, Ethyl & the Ketones...
).
I'm now thoroughly oversaturated with the word "ep" and all it's variants. Bleh :lol:.
*Clicky*
