Kudos on the review! I was cackled with the Austin reference. Totally. That happens to be my favorite part of True West (that, "..ugh...it's contrived!") :scream: The Mac/Jo stuff is irksome and yes that was girly office chat. Maybe she should've brought that up with Lindsey but not Mac. Why would he care?! I did however like his little Austin-esque chuckle after Jo's comment. Very much reminded me of the scene where Lee makes the crude noise with the beer bottle and Austin chuckles softly :sighs: lol. Neyo's ads for his "music" was irksome too. And yes, why can't they put his real name in unless he is in the witness protection program :lol: The music on the show is pretty useless to me. However, I guess it does fill up some of the dead air. The club thing week after week is driving me nuts. Ugh pinhead writers.
hehe austin <3 i agree, the little chuckle at the end was definitely similar to when austin laughs at lee's suggestion with the bottle i don't mind the mac/jo stuff generally, it just seemed that that particular chat was more suited to a girl/girl situation not a girl/boy situation and definitely not a female colleague/male colleague situation, especially as technically he's her boss. that said i suppose i always used to have quite funny chats about that kind of thing with (much older, much higher up the food chain) although they were almost exclusively jokey conversations, lairy and so on, not analyses of flirting. also they were usually drunken oh i don't mind neyo's music, i'm not a big fan of that kind of music generally but i don't hate it, i just thought it seemed really big headed that they felt the need to put his name in like that, like he's something super special. as for music filling up dead air, that's true - but if the writers were doing their jobs there wouldn't be that amount of dead air. 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.
I gave it a B+ because I'm getting a little tired of the club story-lines, I didn't like Ne-Yo, yet Gary Sinise & Sela Ward did a fantastic job during this episode. I <3 Daylor / Tanville / Mosephine or whatever the shipper-name is
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. :lol: Agree. :lol:. Agree. :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. 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: 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 . Yazza. . Um. Hooray? :lol:. Kidding. Was a bit I liked in the ep too . ...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 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: 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 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: 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. :lol: (sry I stole teh winks but I were running out of my emoticon limit) ...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
hehe, well, why not? it can't get much more implausible can it it's the inserts too - i even made a whole thread on it as it's been bugging me more and more - it's not so much that they use them as they always have, it's just they seem to be using them more often and longer ones, and it's at the expense of the writing. i have no problem with using some of that stuff but at the moment it looks far too much like "oh we have a 30-second slot there, we could come up with some snappy dialogue, or we could just chuck in another flashback/cutaway/insert/whatever" - it just feels kinda lazy. i hope so, as a linguistics student i'd be very proud to have an impact on language even in a small way haha yeah, in a crocodile with those mittens on strings to attach us all together so no one gets lost!:guffaw::guffaw: hmm yeah maybe, i quite like that idea. it still just struck me as a bit of an odd conversation for a mixed gender not attached to each other (yet!) pair to have in an office. do you think they're capable of that kind of subtlety?! it's possible i guess... we'll see. oh i do too, i mean, as i said (very briefly) i didn't hate the ep in itself, i liked the guest cast, the story was halfway decent, but i'm getting so sick of all the inconsistency, treating viewers like idiots, mallets, lazy writing and so on - which i know have always been issues but i think maybe it's grating on me more after 6.5 seasons and especially with other aspects going wrong - in the past it was easier to forgive them. i think it might be because s6 was SO bad that i almost gave up, and then s7 started reasonably well and i got my hopes back up and now.... blah. i totally agree - but the sexism bothers me even more. just as an example, that first scene with neyo aka thingummy talking to the girl in the bar, i lost count of the number of close ups there were of various bits of her (legs mainly), but none of him - the close ups of him were all of his diamonds or his designer suit or whatever. that just screams that women are objects that men can just pick up as they might a diamond or a suit. it's so frustrating! i wouldn't mind the frequent gratuitous body shots of women if they were balanced by the same of men but they're not. and i'm sure this season and the last that aspect has got worse. or maybe it's just something i've got more aware of? either way it saddens me that a show i enjoy is going along with this kind of crap.
This is what I loved most about this scene and similar scenes between Mac and Jo. I love how she has the ability to make him all flustered and how easy it all is for her. I think she gets a kick out of it. I love the contrast between her carefree nature and well... Mac :lol:. Decent episode. Gave it a B+.
normally i like it too tbh, i love how she is so calm and makes his flustered angst seem all a bit silly compared to her laid backness, but i dunno, i didn't pick it up so much in that scene - having seen it again with this idea in mind i totally see what you mean, i think maybe the first time i was just too angry for it to register in my brain!:lol:
:lol:. Mebbe. Mebbe not. I was at my emoticon limit and didn't get to put a "" with that bit. Less triply meta than perhaps demi-meta :lol:, but I guess we'll see. Demi-meta in scripting and triply meta in performance, perhaps, if anything, is how I currently see it. I still think that above all, whatever TPTB do, it will still fall into the realm of plausible deniability but also something that PV can additionally tease at with her "those who see it will see something" pseudo-jedi spin. Both sides of the fence with no committment . Something they never played to so directly between Mac and Stella as they seem to be trying on now. S4 was an odd one for me with the strike. I missed almost the entirety of viewing that prime time "season," such as it turned out to be, for various reasons. S5 was one that really, really turned a corner down a bad road for me :lol:. *shudders* S6 was a new low in medicocrity as an average. I think because the changes in front of and behind the camera could only result in something shifting one way or another, that S7 for me has been one that I'm far happier to check out as NY finds its feet again. I suppose that also falls into my glass-half-full tendencies . True dat. The Lingerie Football League ep from a ways back still stands in my memory as among the worst offenders in that sense too, for gratuitous pseudo-titillation yada :lol:. And then there's how Stella was sometimes used as well. And yes, still very prevalent in much prime time teevee. I guess that's why, despite the opening you describe, I did very much like that the villain in this ep was a woman, and not an oversimplified cut out of one either. That said. Equal opportunity eye candy would surely be welcome. Exactamundo . I think she does generally like poking people to see them squirm, and Adam was subject to that, and it's been additionally fun to see her poke at Mac, although not precisely in the same way, with the likes of her working for a burlesque club, etc. I think her unflappable air is also what makes me curious to see what the show will toss at her in the ep where her adopted daughter is featured, and DJE/Russ also makes a return. It could be interesting to see her less composed too. Partly why I liked to scenes with Russ/Jo in his first appearance :lol: And yes, it's definitely fun to see Mac out of sorts, and there is really no one else currently in the roster who can achieve that in quite the same way that Jo does :lol:. :lol:. Well, I was definitely already in a, uh, mellow frame of mind, and the ep itself was far less irritating to me than its immediate predecessors, so I was quite happy to read it all in a more playful light .
I really liked this episode. Some of Hawkes personal side showed and there was great banter between Jo and Mac.
In the YouTube video of Under the Microscope Blog the costume designer talks about how she chose what Ne-Yo wore and that when Adam was examining the ash from the pizza oven, what had been done to make it accurate. It was interesting how realistic they try to make things.
To add on the "work talk" dynamic, I can totally see that kind of banter happening with a guy like Danny or Flack w/ Jo; just not with Mac. That being said, "work talk" can be very fun. Just today I was walking with the student I tutor while he was debating his underwear choices with another guy. Heh, it is fun to see what someone will say. Of course being a college tutor is a different thing than being a cop lol
maybe i'll just have to analyse it more metaphysically. bring on the aristotle! :guffaw: agreed - s5 definitely went down a strange route and 6 was just awful - at least with the shake up of 7 i was thinking something might improve. i think maybe i'm now desperately hoping it has because right now those first few eps are beginning to look like fluke. ugh yeah the lingerie football one was terrible - although i suppose that's more the fault of the lingerie football leagues for existing than csiny for using them. and i suppose some might say the rollerderby one in s2 was as bad but i disagree as rollerderby is much more about female empowerment, not wearing skimpy clothes to entertain men. and you're so right about stella - for a start she had to wear all those tops that were far too low cut for her job really. agreed. good point it did seem to follow on neatly from the burlesque thing. i agree about, well, flapping her a bit too. lucky you! maybe i should try that for the next ep...:lol:
Okay episode. the person behind the hired killer was way too predictable though. I knew it was the doctor the first minute they showed her. Jo and Mac's talk at the end was cute. Adam was cute with the hat.
That was a fantastic episode...one of the strongest this season has to offer!!That's an A for me!! I loved the case from start to finish..I'm so happy that Hawkes gets a love interest after so many years on the show....