Well.
Happy for new eppies.
It's been a few days now, so absolute test of memorability vs consumption !lite here. Thought it was B realm material.
I appreciate the occasional ep that is purely a crime-based one. No persecution. No overt politics. No luvvy overly-melo-drama. Just a case to be solved, hopefully with believable people at the heart of it. In that sense, I was happy to sit thru it. But, for all of what is a very dark and gritty subject matter, it was not anywhere in league with it's S1 incarnation in how it might have really grappled with it. Hard to cram all that into an hour I guess.
It came across more in the vein of an oft refurbished, delicately handled storyline. But still, it was reasonably well done.
Misc. points.
- those motion/sloooow/!Go! sequences: can't decide it they're annoying or meh. We're not in Miami. Oh no, not gimmicky or self-aware by design at all. Especially when they don't always seem to stylistically carry it thru the whole ep, or from one to the next as a deliberate overall visual style. Must be a tool on the roster for directors to say, yeah gimme dat. You wanna know why they're re-using action sequences? Possibly to put $ into that kind of post production mod.
- Hawkes seemed to spend a lot of time narrating a lot of visual sequences. Did get some humour though. While not quite Scooby. Dooby Doo. or Late Nite Schnacks, postulating a theory about the correlation between distance of habitation from NYC with the willingness to wear an I Luv NY type sweatshirt was still fun. Usually the kind of realm Sid gets to hang out in.
- speaking of. Sid was too busy trying to make Lindsay look good. Was his usual fabulous self with what he was given. Just a pity it's his turn as the next life buoy used as Lindsay is passed around. (Sounds rather distasteful don't it). They should all check the fine print on their contracts to see what kind of obligations they have in being the resuscitation units for any scene she's in. ...charging.... 100! !Clear! *phoomph: be funny! be brilliant! speak Chinese! If Fishburne can do Japanese you can say Happy New Year in, oh, Mandarin, right?* They should at least see what kind of culpability she has if they need physio for the monkey on their backs.
- possibly a favourite moment of the episode was Hawkes narrating what Lindsay did in one sequence, thus explaining her purpose in being there and also avoiding having to rely on her to do so, and saving airtime to boot. Thumbs up, keep it up, I'm liking the strategy.
...and yes, I'll stop.
- loved Stella, thought this was a good ep for her. But man, they've got some guy trying a line on her in just about every episode now don't they.
- Flack and Danno's respective tackle/perp apprehension scenes were fun. Perp in a box. Who wouldn't want one. But the chase sequences were a little overly drawn out, methinks.
- loved that wee little snide chuckle from Mac at perp humour. The only time he smiles regularly seems to be in interrogation. Hm.
- loved Flack's suit being trashed: any excuse to divest him of it is good for me...
- Nice to see some Danno/Stel moments too. Haven't had those inna bit.
- pegged Katie/Carolyn/the Welcome Girl/"I was just Sleeping here" chickie as Baddie straight off, but hey, sometimes it's curiosity about the path even when you know the endgame that keeps ya watching. Miami hasn't boasted even that for me in years anymore.
- Julia Ormond was a surprisingly pleasantly complicating factor. I'm not particularly keen on her, but I do like that she's not necessarily there to be liked, and that she's a character with her own agenda and backstory, early links to Mac notwithstanding.
- thought the surrounding cast of characters in Rani, and Patrick, Tara's father were all pretty decent.
- overall it surely wasn't a scintillating or even wholly original eppie, but it was a solid one, devoid of DL crappage, and was a straightforward crime episode. How about that. The C in CSI.
