Let me tell you just how much I
loved this episode!
Let me tell you just how much I
hated this episode!
Let me tell you how this hilighted the fact that people have very different perceptions of things.
Yes, sorry, I'm still bumping old threads as I watch the third season on Netflix. On the other episodes I've reviewed, I read other people's reviews as I might normally if I were reviewing in real time with you all. But I'm going to review this one before I read other people's reviews so I'm not swayed by those opinions first. I just finished watching it this evening.
I loved the whole Marlee Matlin story line. I think it was done amazingly well. The sound editing was excellent -- going back and forth between sound and silence was very powerful in making you feel this story. It was fantastic that they cast all deaf actors for the family. And, if you've had any interaction with the deaf community, you will have recognized that the argument for and against cochlear implants is a huge, huge thing. This story line hilighted the intensity of this argument within the deaf community. There are people who believe that giving someone a cochlear implant is giving them a chance to get back a "lost" sense, but much of the deaf community does not view deafness as an abnormality or feel that they are missing something by being deaf.
Overall, television has dramatically improved the way it deals with people with disabilities or physical differences, but there is still a ways to go. The deaf community is a group that is often ignored on television. This was an excellent story line showing that this was a normal family with normal family issues -- a teen pregnancy that they wanted to hide by moving and raising the baby as the teen mother's sister. This was not a deaf family incumbered by their deafness, just a family that happened to be deaf.
I loved the way they focused on communication and on how important visual cues are to communication. Facial expression is a huge part of communicating with sign language, but it's also a part of communication in the hearing community that we don't always consciously think about. (Lack of visual and tonal inflection in communication, though, can really contribute to misunderstandings in communication with others on Internet sometimes.) The direction and camera work in this respesct was done very well to hilight how expressive sign language can be.
The second story line with Sacha Cohen was very good, though not nearly as fascinating as the "A" story line. I thoght that Sacha did a good acting job for her first acting part, and I enjoy her ice skating, but I liked that they started her segment not with her doing figure skating, but just having fun playing broom hockey.
Now the parts that frustrated me...
If you didn't read my review of "Not What it Looks like", let me briefly state that I didn't go into watching "Not What It Looks Like" wanting Danny and Lindsay to get together. (I didn't have a strong opinion either way.) We all see things based on our own experiences and emotional make-up, and to me the ending of that episode was very believable and touching and I could suddenly see the possibility there and was very willing to see where they would take it. I could see it has potential to be a good thing.
So, I went into this episode, realizing that if there is a relationship, it's not going to happen until after Anna Belknap's return from maternity leave. But then .... Gah! Suddenly there was a Dreaded Set-up for things to come...
I was really happy, all else aside, with the fact that Stella covered for Lindsay. I didn't expect that, for some reason, and I liked the way she showed concern enough for her that she was willing to cover for her with Mac until she could talk to her and try to help her. It was a sort-of gentleness and being in touch with other's emotions that isn't usually very pronounced, except perhaps in her friendship with Mac.
I know from a previous episode that Lindsay has problems with dealing with mothers when she has to deal with them in the face of a child's death. And, I realize that we don't have back story on Lindsay yet. We don't know what made her go into forensic investigation, we don't know why she left Minnesota, and we really don't know what makes her tick. And on shows like this, back story always involves messy and emotional stuff from character's backgrounds. We've seen Danny's messy past, things from Mac's past, and we know about some of Stella's past emotional baggage. And most recently we learned about what brought Hawkes to this point in life. I probably could have dealt better with Lindsay freezing and leaving the scene of the crime better if it had been explained differently.
To be honest, I'm not positive whether I hated how it was done or if I hated my own projection of what I think this means is coming down the pipeline. I thought the part in the hallway where she rejected Stella's offer of friendship was stilted, but really I think it was more my conscious focus on the fact that they were trying to hide the pregnancy than anything that happened there. I did like the way they showed the flash-backs Lindsay was having that gave us a hint of what might be going on, but I'm not sure I liked the whole post-traumatic-stress vulnerability spin that they put on it or at least the way it came out.
I'm mostly afraid of where they're going to go with this. (Please, if you're reading this review, don't tell me what does happen since I haven't seen beyond this episode.) I see there being a fine line between needing the support of a friend and needing someone to come to your emotional rescue. And, it's not Stella's friendship that I'm talking about here. Obviously something is going to come to a head for Lindsay somewhere down the pipeline after the episodes where Anna B. is on maternity leave. Two things could happen...
There's not much doubt that this is going to be a catalyst between Danny and Lindsay. If they tread the proper side of the fine line, he could be there to be supportive of her without making it feel like he's rushing in to her emotional rescue; the damsel in distress. But right now it just seems that they're setting up a role for the wrong side of that fine line where she's going to fall apart and he's going to rush in and pick up the pieces. I just
hate that thought! There's nothing wrong with him being there to support her in emotional and difficult times, but I want to see that she's got her own strength within her that helps her grow and overcome her demons, too.
I know there are those who would say that any show of support from Danny is going to come off making Lindsay's character look weak. But, I don't think that's realistic, either. In real life, people do have bad things happen to them and there is nothing wrong with needing support from friends and loved ones or having moments of weakness. So, I wouldn't mind them showing that. I wouldn't mind it leading to a relationship. I just really fear after this episode how and what they're going to make happen.
I don't mind having some personal story and romance going in a crime show, I think that it can add another enjoyable dimension. I'm in the camp that doesn't think it's out of place in a show of this nature, if done well. If I didn't want any personal stuff, I'd be off watching Law & Order instead.
And, if this isn't long enough already, brief thoughts on Peyton and Mac. I liked his recognition after talking to Marlee Matlin's charcter that he needed to communicate better -- that he needed to let Peyton *see* how he felt. But, I still just don't quite have feelings for them as a couple. Meh.
The odd thing, though, was that when my husband and I were talking about Peyton and Mac's relationship and what we saw, we both started to say the same thing ... that one of the two of them didn't show their emotions for the relationship as well. Except we weren't going to say it about the same one of them!
It just shows how we all perceive things differently.
