Alright. Mebbe this just means I was overly exhausted this week, and/or that I need to change the cartridges in my mask at work :lol: but I liked this weeks's ep.
Just running thru it here. Hope it sorta makes sense.
Yep, so another ep, another !Sexy bar scene. And yet, given that I've been able to keep up on spoilers, and recognized Lesley-Ann Brandt straight away, ie. as a character and therefore more than just Random Sexy For Teh Sake of It
, & w/ Ne-Yo's Beautiful Monster playing, well, it did somehow to me read as jumping into the ep a bit more directly. Had I not known of Camille, nor of Ne-Yo guesting, I expect that this would indeed have read on par with NY's other Sexy-In-Teh-Club type intros.
That said. It didn't negate the oddity that was the exchange on Classical vs R&B to start the ep off. *shrug*
About the only other thing I got out of the teaser this week is that Ne-Yo's a lefty
.
~ Act I
Mac, Flack, & Jo together again to start the ep also made me smile. What can I say. I just like the rapport.
I was happy to see Sid back as well.
Less happy to sit thru a Lindsay/Mac exposition sequence early on. Meh.
Nice to see Adam back.
By the time Sheldon was chatting about George Parker, it felt NY was kicking the ep forward pretty quickly. How they pushed the raid forward, while Camille was contemplating circumstances answering a door to a fire inspector with a gun at her head, was well done.
I also thought they intro'd Teh Handsome Man's purely mercenary motives early & well to color the character, and that the guy playing George Parker was also good.
Had a bit of an It's A Small World moment when it was revealed that not only was Sheldon acquainted with Camille, but that he grew up with her
. And I suppose, for my own peace of mind, I may take this tidbit to imply that Sheldon is from New York? Or have they both somehow just wound up here? I mean, seven seasons in, does anyone know where Hawkes is from? Other than the mothership, that is?
And dun dun dunhhhh, Camille, the girl next door, was of course implicated as being a drug supplier. No, Sheldon, nooooOoooOoooOOOOOoooooo... poor guy.
~ Act II
For some reason, I got a kick outta seeing Jo & Mac in da labs all suited up in da white coats
. It's been awhile since Mac was a regular fixture in processing anything. I just thought it was fun to see him back in the midst of it, and also, well, the two of them were kinda adorable in a strange way :lol:
By default now it seems, Flack and Danny were out canvassing clinics and discovering fake meds as a scheme. Still, I like scenes they get together.
By midway thru the second act I had largely concluded that I was impressed with Ne-Yo in the ep.
By midway thru the second act I had largely concluded that I was irritated by Lindsay. Not really AB's fault here. Yet another exposition sequence and revelation of the research some writer's assistant had done about Soap Scum and Pills. About as cute and engaging as one could be expected to be in chatting amicably about Soap Scum and Pills.
Adam analyzing ashes was the magick of the episode. That and Radioactive Blood. But, eh. I didn't really mind. Jo and Adam had a fun scene, and I did like that Jo got a "!Boom" :lol:. I was wondering when NY were gonna give her one. Too bad that wasn't a scene wherein Danny was also present, but eh, still fun.
I also liked the brief scene with Sheldon and Mac. For once, I wasn't sure which way it was gonna go, whether Mac would acquiesce or not, and I'm still mulling how I kinda feel about the scenario, but I liked the scene.
Went for a refill myself when the next excessive club/party scene started, and thought it was also fun to get Flack and Sheldon together again, although they didn't interact much. The bouncer dress code struck me as a tad odd, until of course, I realized that NY had to make it obvious who the bouncers were relative to all the revelers, just so's they could have our brilliant protagonists realize and understand that Janet Scott was already dead, and that
the villain was in a dastardly clever disguise - as a bouncer!! My word how will they
ever track him down now...
Okay, so the ep had more than a touch of teh absurd in a few places. I still found this week's absurdity far more entertaining than last week's
.
~ Act III
Add to the absurd the question of who keeps tumor films in their office. Rather convenient for Sheldon to discover and examine on teh spot of course, but then how else could one determine that Janet died of a stroke so quickly and avoid the costs of having Robert Joy back for another scene? Or am I mis-rememberink here?
More Radioactive Blood fun wif Jo, Lindsay, and Mac. Meds with uranium. No wonder pharmaceuticals cost so much. More Magick wif Adam. The mysterious metal remnants were magickally determined, sans montage even I think, to be hat wire sized 23, an' a pin; (cos the heat from an oven hot enough to melt a Glock and warp it's internal barrel stria would never be able to alter the arc - or dare I say Curvature - of a thin piece of hat wire. Oh no. Of course one could wif absolute certainty determine what size and style of headwear the assassin favored
) And, apparently only one shop in NY sells that particular and incredibly rare combination of items. What
are the odds. Rolled my eyes and snickered aloud, but eh, I was entertained. Besides, teh Jo/Adam interaction was fun too.
Sometimes NY's absurdity can be inexplicably charming and engaging. Not always. But this week I was having fun
. Okay, so mebbe there were a few drinks and whatnot amongst us before heading home. Or mebbe it's cos I had real food for supper. I shrug. Still better n' last week's no matter how I look at it.
Shortly after, it was revealed that the clinic doc was the one commissioning the assassin, Camille was vindicated, and the clinic shut down and vacated. I like that the team was split to cover different areas to track Kumi down.
I thought it was nice for Jo to get to collar Kumi in the middle of shredding documents. I don't think Jo's gotten many scenes like that. I also think it does seem to fit with her FBI background, at least how I read it.
~ Act IV
Mac being rebuffed in an alley shootout was also good. I like that NY didn't just have Mac pick off the shooters one by one. I like that the raid had SWAT with them, I like that Mac was in the alley with a SWAT member, and not just out there on his own. I liked that the commercial break was in the midst of the shootout, seemingly implying that it wasn't a given how it was gonna end. I like that how it did end was with Mac managing to tag one guy, but essentially keeping them engaged while waiting for more back up to find its way to them. A far, far better ep for Mac than last week.
I hafta admit, I thought the ep might end there. I didn't expect further interrogation with Kumi, with Mac and Jo. I didn't expect Danny and Adam to be tracking phones etc, to orchestrate the second raid to get the assassin. It was actually nice to see Danny kinda the lead on that one, at least at first. It was a nice way to include another moment for Adam in an ep too, when the Handsome Man actually called. I didn't foresee the twist that Ne-Yo's character would shoot the back-up hit-man and make his escape, leaving Camille alive. I didn't think he'd kill Camille, given I expected her to be in more than one ep, I just didn't foresee how she was going to extricate herself. (Turns out, of course, that she didn't, and that Sheldon got to free her, if not actually have to "save" her as a damsel in distress. But, part and parcel of getting Sheldon more to do as well, which I certainly can't argue with).
I didn't expect to see Jo pulling surveillance and directing people thru that next raid in progress, and being the one to spot the assassin on the street. ...I didn't expect the Handsome Man to be caught, quite honestly.
I'm not, somehow, surprised that Mac was the one to catch him in the alley, but was pleasantly surprised that he had back up, again, and used it to collar their guy. It was also nice to see that did come about thru teamwork, specifically Jo and Mac working together. It's nice to see the show start to figure out how to use Jo in circumstances like that, and be different from Stella, and to not have everyone an action hero. I think how they are starting to use her does reflect her FBI background as well. It's kind of fun to see her not simply just another Cop, if that makes sense.
I now wonder how NY will write Ne-Yo back. And I do hope to see him back. I think he did well, and I think the character's actually kind of interesting in his choices and motivations.
I also didn't expect the final sequence. I thought giving Sheldon a moment with Camille was nice. I thought giving Jo and Mac a moment noting Sheldon and Camille was funny.
I didn't find it awkward. I might have had that been the first time I saw Jo, but I do see that as part of her character and way of poking people, given how she teased Adam and others, and I also buy her being a bit nosy, given how she snooped on Mac's desk early on. So the combo of the two here didn't throw me, nor did it being a convo with Mac. In that sense I saw it more between friends/partners/peers at the end of a day than boss/subordinate, where it might have felt a bit out of place. I think the unabashed nature of Jo contrasting with Mac being a bit more restrained in this instance was funny, and I think the jostling in personality types was deliberate, still understated, and entertaining
.
I think it also bodes well for Sheldon. Especially if Jo's insights and observations hold true :lol:
I dunno how much of a layered nuance it was Intended to be in having that back and forth on play between Mac & Jo, but it was fun either way. I think it fits at this point into a plausible deniability for TPTB :lol:, while still letting them play the flirt side for folk who find it engaging
.
So, for me, a good ep. There were some of the usual NY tendencies present, but also lots that didn't feel as predictable, and some things I didn't see coming. I liked the story. Fake meds was something different, even if the uranium and radioactive blood steered it firmly into it's CSI unique twist territory
. I also liked Kumi as a villain. I liked that NY had a woman be a villain here, and that she seemed as organized, steely, composed, ice-cold and also as tough as the people she hired. The hint at her background was also good.
Some Absurdities. Some Magick. But also good guests with solid appearances. Few superhero take downs and/or flying leaps. A decent case with a decent villain. A decent investigation to figure it out. An overdue ep that had Sheldon contributing more but not at the expense of the rest of the team. It felt reasonably balanced. It felt solid for content, and while there were some extraneous sequences, not overly filled with fluff. It had some laden exposition, but at least the ep kept kicking itself forward, even if the producers were apparently still worried we wouldn't be able to keep up. It had some fun character moments. It had Sid back. Ever. So. Briefly.
A brief moment here to indulge an :adore:
for Hawkes. If they give Sheldon more to do in future as they did in this ep, I fully and completely rescind my two cents suggesting I could live w/o him as a character on teh show. I'll buy him a sparkly belt myself, even :lol:. I did a wee celebratory boogie shuffle just cos Hawkes finally got something to do this season, and well, after seven years, finally got some
Call it in the
B realm.
After a handful of less than enthralling eps that had nearly used up the latitude which NY had initially earned itself in S7, this one dares me to give them just a wee bit more and see what they come up with.
Keep eating your wheaties, NY.
Oh, Mac don't lie to Jo. You did spy on your neighbors, remember?
:lol:
I also found it quite funny when Mac was running to catch the goons and then suddenly stopped with a "uh-oh" face when he saw some big guns. Good to see Mac and Jo in lab coats.
Good for Hawkes having a love interest. It's really worth the wait
Agree.
cheesy conversation to start with. try telling mozart all that crap about structure.
:lol:. Agree.
credits, real name aka. please!! who does he think he is?! also this ep is clearly just an extended ad for neyo's album? blah.
:lol:. I wasn't bothered with the credits. And in this case, I wonder if it's more n' likely that NY saw a benefit for itself in that, notwithstanding some bureaucratic aspects involved, and less that it was for Ne-Yo's benefit. But who knows.
stop with the flashbacks already, we're not too stupid to work out who's who when there's only 2 vics and it only happened 3 minutes ago!
A coupla years ago a pet peeve with teh show for me was the inserts, and all the fx on cuts and processing. I still notice it, but it gets under my skin less. I guess the "flashbackery" also kinda fits into that for me. Btw, I think Flashbackery will hafta join teh Talk CSI NY lexicon :lol:
is NOT rocket science. we don't need to be handheld through it!
Lol'd. I guess they may presume to have inflicted significant brain trauma due all the mallets wielded, and feel compelled to have us all trundling along like kindergarteners grasping a rope on a field trip
.
dear writers: get some consistency and stop treating viewers like idiots
Yazza.
"atomic bomb uranium? boom!
"
omg - i wrote something positive!
. Um. Hooray? :lol:. Kidding. Was a bit I liked in the ep too
.
wooden crates vs automatic weapon? really? i dunno about this, i'd have to ask someone who knows weapons but i can't really see wooden crates being much of a defence against a machine gun.
...well I suppose it depends on the crates, the wood, an' wot's in 'em, but, more to the point, uh, ...they do seem to squib and do hits nicely
I like jo & mac chats but did she have to go into that much detail about cosmo's top flirting tips? i didn't even mind the sex line, although it was maybe a bit much, but i'm sure at some point most of us have read articles on what signs indicate a girl is flirting, once again we really don't need it spelled out - even the poor ickle menz like mac are probably capable of working it out for themselves...
Dunno. I rather read the extended detail of Jo's commenting on flirting signs as poking at Mac, to see at what point he'd finally say something :lol:
in other words were the writers FINALLY getting some level of nuance and double entendre in by suggesting that there was a meta conversation in which jo was blatantly flirting too? somehow i can't see them grasping that (really not very high) level of subtlety but you never know...
Might be a triple meta if Jo was flirting but in a way counter to Cosmo's overt behavioral tutorial :lol:. If anything, I think NY is capitalizing on what they never overtly highlighted with Mac and Stella but which has grown to be so incredibly prevalent on so many cop/procedural/dramas in the past few years. So mebbe, but not in a way that they'd seem to acknowledge outside of a performance level, as opposed to a scripted level
not because it was, contrary to what i wrote, all that bad as an ep in itself (and has has been said, the guest cast was very good this week), more because i'm sad to see what was once a really good show go so inconsistent, so patronising, so repetitive and so generally crap.
I don't disagree, but actually feel this ep was better than a few of the previous ones, which for me were somehow far more irritating. It would have been nice, but perhaps too much to hope for, that the upswing that NY seemed to be on in the early season didn't dip, but consistency has never been NY's strong suit :lol:
the club thing - meh, i don't mind the scenes in themselves although they are getting a bit excessive now, but it really bothers me how sexist they are, and y'know, on that it's not really NY's fault, all shows do it, it just bugs me when i show i like (or used to like) goes for it.
Teh Glitz and Teh Shiny has been a burr for me since S2's drastic makeover. I think the past few seasons suffered for it horribly, as they seemed to have less of anything that helped to balance it out. It wouldn't be so bad if it felt like there was more to the show than that. At least S7 has better guest stars and less in the way of stunt casting, which was another beef for me, and part of the same Glitz w/o Substance realm.
also, was she dropping hints by having that conversation with mac specifically? it was arguably a girlie chat, i mean that's the kind of chat i might have with a female friend but probably not a male friend unless they were gay. was this more of a precursor to mac & jo?
Mac/Flack/Jo, I'd say.
(Yes, yes, I know - I wish! :lol
:lol:
(sry I stole teh winks but I were running out of my emoticon limit)
Originally Posted By CSI:NYfan:
I <3 Daylor / Tanville / Mosephine or whatever the shipper-name is
...oh dear :lol:. Sry. It's nuthin to do with the ship itself. It's more that in general sometimes the phenomenon of shipper names can be, well, ...nevermind :lol:.
I guess I'm just more happily amused with teh likes of "Awesome Eyebrows" an such
