OK. Well. Late again to reviewing, but what can ya do. Been an absolute :censored: of a week. I suppose should preface the whole review with that anyways. I watched this ep on a dinner break and running on about ninety minutes of sleep. I'm sure that coloured a few things... :lol:
I did immediately get the feeling that Mac's line was gonna be a thruline for the ep. "...a man who's hit bottom is capable of anything..." Just didn't know it would be Pino who had bottomed out at that point. I thought it was a very good ep for Sheldon, and also for Sid. I think the real star of the ep was Jonah Lotan (Marty Pino), and that if it had been any other random perp character doing such things it would not have been nearly as compelling.
It was a hugely dense eppie. Felt like a lot of the Greek stuff was simply to explain the season and push to Melina's upcoming ep, and that everything outside the Pino story was kinda splintered. I thought it was a good ep for interaction between the boys, and also between Stella and Angell. I thought the best of the ep centred around Pino. I think it brought out some great moments for all the characters. It was interesting that they had Sheldon onside with Marty, and Sid really being closer to Anabel, and recounting things primarily with her in mind. Flack really handled the interrogation of Pino gently, and it led to a good scene between Flack and Sheldon after the interruption. Sid was excellent throughout.
There was lots of ubertechie slickness. Overt, but useful and not too distracting anyways. Led us this to this week's peculiar link, and initial plot twist ...Mad Cow Narcotics? How very curious. As for making heroin by reconsituting it from drug user organ harvesting, well now but that's mighty labour intensive, isn't it? Not to mention more than a tich gruesome.
Sidestepping to the Greek storyline for a bit. Oh Dastardly deedage.
Those parts of the ep felt like they musta been written at the same time as the Indiana Jones segment of the ep earlier this season. There's no other way to explain the tone of it and the casual and inexplicable choices made.
Indy and Hollywoodesque for Stella meeting an old archeology professor. For Angell's line "...if this is a set up, I'll kill you." For taking a potentially interesting docklands locale and turning it into eyerolling exasperation and disappointment. For a cheesy reveal of Stella inna box. For a portable lie detector/heart rate monitor interrogation scene. For stuffing a member of a foreign consulate into a shipping container. What, is the Cypriot government so shortstaffed a boat is the most expedient way to travel? The State Dept. can't be arsed to fill out extradiction paperwork? No one else has mentioned this, but I also wanna know who Angell was talking to on the walkie talkie as they left, telling them "okay, 's 'all yours...". Was that the Cypriot official? Moonlighting as a longshoreman? :lol: Interesting also because it seemed to imply it wasn't just the two of them acting on their own, but that at least one or more knew at least a little hint of something they were doing and cooperated if nothing else.
I admit, the dead Greek guy, I thought was gonna be the professor, and they'd be chasing Diakos to Greece. We're now left with anonymous bad guys after a season's worth of Stella chasing Diakos. I also totally think Mac suspects something, might even know something of Stella's activities. In that final scene it felt like he was edging on baiting her to see if she'd talk to him or not. The writing for the Greek stuff this week was odd and took me out of the show. I thought the behaviour was OOC for Stella in the extremes it took. But I guess that's what that little comment earlier in the season was supposed to allude to, about being willing to break the rules. And Mac calling this case Stella's White Whale. Did I think Melina acted it well? Yes. Which is why there was such a perplexing dichotomy between the believability of the portrayal and the behaviour that seems incongruous with the character as we'd known her. Stella and Angell are fun to watch together, but I hope the writing tightens up. I hope they get more scenes together. I hope Angell stays on the show. I hope that was the last of overly hollywood moments and that Melina's ep suffers less for that sort of thing.
Mind you, we're all picking on the shipping container as being unbelievable in the face of a former city employee with gambling problems turned mass serial who harvests organs of drug addicts and refines them in such a way as to reclaim their drugs of choice (and how does he know which they're on and how to separate them) in a gory rental box of his own in Queens...? :lol:
Back into the NY realm. A lot of Meh moments.
Lindsay. Dear writers. Please feel free not to mention Lindsay amusing herself with her beaver. (Interesting as it is to think she too considers it a crime scene... Sorry. Sorry. Still wrung out). The 'cuteness' inserted was a completely unnecessary moment. Sometimes outta sight/outta mind really is a better way to go. The second mention of Lindsay via the phone call with Danny was better and at least contributed something to the show. And why is Mac the only one asking after her or talking to Danny at all?
Meh Stunt Casting. Dear writers. Please leave off with da hype. If the guests are good we'll remember them. If they're anonymous we won't. Flogging them to promote an ep usually instills a deep sense of foreboding, and not in a good way. Cameos can be fun, but doing up the promos to highlight these two was stupid when they had so little to do with the story itself. I was relieved they were so uninvolved. Stunt promos are nearly as annoying as stunt casting. Willya just freakin leave it alone.
Meh Messer. Forgetting his vest? Who forgets their vest? and btw, y'all keep leaving your car doors open. Or is that what happened? Stopped for coffee and left it open, they ignored all the gear and the car itself and took only Messer's vest? Meh Danny's magic shot. Meh, ring, blood. This is really the kinda pithy scene we're gonna get from Danny from here on out?
Meh an extended death bed confession. Little Stevie coulda just left it at "...was just business..." and left the CSI's to dig a little more figure out what that meant.
Was interesting reading the reviews. Everyone seemed to really love this one and find it exciting. I kept thinking I reaaally need more sleep. For me the ep only really shone when it focused on Pino and the great ongoing reveal of discovering just how far he'd sunk and what he'd become capable of. I thought the last scene was very well done, though god knows how Sid heard where the raid was gonna be in Queens. The ep wouldn't have been nearly as good without a standout performance from Jonah Lotan, and kudos to the writers for thinking of it, and for the material that bringing him back provided for all the rest of the characters, particularly the oft underused Sid and Hawkes.
B.
> Lindsay's taping off roadkill! Danny misses her! He's worried after her and the baby and parenthood! So much so he just took a service pistol into a firefight with a semi-automatic w/o a vest, hit the baddie, in the neck, with a not-instantly fatal magic bullet shot, elicited a death bed monologue with his hand clamped to the bleeder, tried to scrub the blood off the once-pristine ring and finally hadda take it off before answering a phone call from his beloved, and lying to her about the whole deal.
While a certain amount of this kind of material is grudgingly understandable, or at least predictable, with the marriage and baby this season, can we please have some interesting Danny moments that mebbe stem from something, anything else? At all? Can we have some material for each of them that's not somehow tied to the other?
...*sigh* never mind.
I did immediately get the feeling that Mac's line was gonna be a thruline for the ep. "...a man who's hit bottom is capable of anything..." Just didn't know it would be Pino who had bottomed out at that point. I thought it was a very good ep for Sheldon, and also for Sid. I think the real star of the ep was Jonah Lotan (Marty Pino), and that if it had been any other random perp character doing such things it would not have been nearly as compelling.
It was a hugely dense eppie. Felt like a lot of the Greek stuff was simply to explain the season and push to Melina's upcoming ep, and that everything outside the Pino story was kinda splintered. I thought it was a good ep for interaction between the boys, and also between Stella and Angell. I thought the best of the ep centred around Pino. I think it brought out some great moments for all the characters. It was interesting that they had Sheldon onside with Marty, and Sid really being closer to Anabel, and recounting things primarily with her in mind. Flack really handled the interrogation of Pino gently, and it led to a good scene between Flack and Sheldon after the interruption. Sid was excellent throughout.
There was lots of ubertechie slickness. Overt, but useful and not too distracting anyways. Led us this to this week's peculiar link, and initial plot twist ...Mad Cow Narcotics? How very curious. As for making heroin by reconsituting it from drug user organ harvesting, well now but that's mighty labour intensive, isn't it? Not to mention more than a tich gruesome.
Sidestepping to the Greek storyline for a bit. Oh Dastardly deedage.
Those parts of the ep felt like they musta been written at the same time as the Indiana Jones segment of the ep earlier this season. There's no other way to explain the tone of it and the casual and inexplicable choices made. Indy and Hollywoodesque for Stella meeting an old archeology professor. For Angell's line "...if this is a set up, I'll kill you." For taking a potentially interesting docklands locale and turning it into eyerolling exasperation and disappointment. For a cheesy reveal of Stella inna box. For a portable lie detector/heart rate monitor interrogation scene. For stuffing a member of a foreign consulate into a shipping container. What, is the Cypriot government so shortstaffed a boat is the most expedient way to travel? The State Dept. can't be arsed to fill out extradiction paperwork? No one else has mentioned this, but I also wanna know who Angell was talking to on the walkie talkie as they left, telling them "okay, 's 'all yours...". Was that the Cypriot official? Moonlighting as a longshoreman? :lol: Interesting also because it seemed to imply it wasn't just the two of them acting on their own, but that at least one or more knew at least a little hint of something they were doing and cooperated if nothing else.
I admit, the dead Greek guy, I thought was gonna be the professor, and they'd be chasing Diakos to Greece. We're now left with anonymous bad guys after a season's worth of Stella chasing Diakos. I also totally think Mac suspects something, might even know something of Stella's activities. In that final scene it felt like he was edging on baiting her to see if she'd talk to him or not. The writing for the Greek stuff this week was odd and took me out of the show. I thought the behaviour was OOC for Stella in the extremes it took. But I guess that's what that little comment earlier in the season was supposed to allude to, about being willing to break the rules. And Mac calling this case Stella's White Whale. Did I think Melina acted it well? Yes. Which is why there was such a perplexing dichotomy between the believability of the portrayal and the behaviour that seems incongruous with the character as we'd known her. Stella and Angell are fun to watch together, but I hope the writing tightens up. I hope they get more scenes together. I hope Angell stays on the show. I hope that was the last of overly hollywood moments and that Melina's ep suffers less for that sort of thing.
Mind you, we're all picking on the shipping container as being unbelievable in the face of a former city employee with gambling problems turned mass serial who harvests organs of drug addicts and refines them in such a way as to reclaim their drugs of choice (and how does he know which they're on and how to separate them) in a gory rental box of his own in Queens...? :lol:
Back into the NY realm. A lot of Meh moments.
Lindsay. Dear writers. Please feel free not to mention Lindsay amusing herself with her beaver. (Interesting as it is to think she too considers it a crime scene... Sorry. Sorry. Still wrung out). The 'cuteness' inserted was a completely unnecessary moment. Sometimes outta sight/outta mind really is a better way to go. The second mention of Lindsay via the phone call with Danny was better and at least contributed something to the show. And why is Mac the only one asking after her or talking to Danny at all?
Meh Stunt Casting. Dear writers. Please leave off with da hype. If the guests are good we'll remember them. If they're anonymous we won't. Flogging them to promote an ep usually instills a deep sense of foreboding, and not in a good way. Cameos can be fun, but doing up the promos to highlight these two was stupid when they had so little to do with the story itself. I was relieved they were so uninvolved. Stunt promos are nearly as annoying as stunt casting. Willya just freakin leave it alone.
Meh Messer. Forgetting his vest? Who forgets their vest? and btw, y'all keep leaving your car doors open. Or is that what happened? Stopped for coffee and left it open, they ignored all the gear and the car itself and took only Messer's vest? Meh Danny's magic shot. Meh, ring, blood. This is really the kinda pithy scene we're gonna get from Danny from here on out?
Meh an extended death bed confession. Little Stevie coulda just left it at "...was just business..." and left the CSI's to dig a little more figure out what that meant.
Was interesting reading the reviews. Everyone seemed to really love this one and find it exciting. I kept thinking I reaaally need more sleep. For me the ep only really shone when it focused on Pino and the great ongoing reveal of discovering just how far he'd sunk and what he'd become capable of. I thought the last scene was very well done, though god knows how Sid heard where the raid was gonna be in Queens. The ep wouldn't have been nearly as good without a standout performance from Jonah Lotan, and kudos to the writers for thinking of it, and for the material that bringing him back provided for all the rest of the characters, particularly the oft underused Sid and Hawkes.
B.
I was waiting for the writers to not bombard us with reminders that he recently got married.
> Lindsay's taping off roadkill! Danny misses her! He's worried after her and the baby and parenthood! So much so he just took a service pistol into a firefight with a semi-automatic w/o a vest, hit the baddie, in the neck, with a not-instantly fatal magic bullet shot, elicited a death bed monologue with his hand clamped to the bleeder, tried to scrub the blood off the once-pristine ring and finally hadda take it off before answering a phone call from his beloved, and lying to her about the whole deal.
While a certain amount of this kind of material is grudgingly understandable, or at least predictable, with the marriage and baby this season, can we please have some interesting Danny moments that mebbe stem from something, anything else? At all? Can we have some material for each of them that's not somehow tied to the other?
...*sigh* never mind.
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