Grade 'The Lying Game'

[crankyjules]

Bit late in replying to JDonne's 'review' but here we go.

ROFLAMO!!!!!!!! You crack me up every time!! The tivo story is a classic (why don't we have tivo in Australia???? I want to know).

JDonne said:
3. Someone on staff needs to get over their golf ball obsession.

What IS that about?? I've noticed it too. That's the third one. First was Danny/Flack working on the urban golf case. Then there's this one, and I swear I do remember Danny picking up yet another golf ball as evidence in another case but of course I can't remember which one.

Bad writing coupled with bad acting made for a bad scene, not even Melina or Gary could save it. I didn’t believe for a minute that Lindsay was remembering or feeling anything horrible terrible or bloody in her past it was the emotional equivalent of reciting a grocery list.

I thought she was strangely flat and unemotional in that scene, considering how she lost it and started crying in the autopsy room, considering how the flashbacks had been bothering her. In this scene, it felt like it was 'ah well, I have to go home for some boring family do' or something.

9. Is it wrong that I hope the cabbie drove to the edge of Queens and told Lindsay to get out? You tell the cabbie the address; he knows you’re going to Queens. I can only hope that as I type this she is wandering the streets of Queens aimlessly wondering what the hell happened and how she got there. Maybe she’ll even learn to emote to a believable level and some family will take pity on her and offer her a home and a room under the stairs where she will live out the rest of her days. Just more wishful thinking.

Oooo you ARE mean I don't mind if she comes back from Montana or Queens or wherever she has gone (and I don't really care where she has gone). As long as she stays in the lab and Danny gets over her juvenile behaviour and his little crush and gets on with having meaningful or nonmeaningful relationships, as the mood takes him, with mature and much more interesting women. Can we just let the guy get back to work already??

 

[GreenEyes]

Once again reviewing before I read the thread. And sorry to those reading that my posts get so long...

I had a brief moment where I considered swearing off CSI: NY forever at the beginning of this episode when the guy was about to drop the cute little dig and then there was the sudden splash of blood! Yet, it didn't bother me to discover that the blood belonged to a person in the salt truck.

The drag queen case was good, and was kept interesting by a few plot twists along the way. It was nice that even though the congressman didn't turn out to be the bad guy this time that the DNA evidence for the 8-year-old rape case was going to be turned over to the people who had investigated the rape in Connecticut. Flack is just getting some of the best funny lines lately. There was the bit with him lifting the skirt and peering under... "Make that John Doe." And, you had to enjoy stella and Flack interrogating the guy who killed the drag queen ... "You ever seen Brokeback Mountain?"

In the other case, I liked the use of the "Alibi Agency". I've read about real places that will do things like that or make fake phone calls to you at a specific time to give you an out if you need to get away form something or want to be able to bail in case a date is bad. The case wasn't that note-worthy, though.

I was glad to see that the powers that be did tie everything together with Lindsay and give it plausability. The murder where Lindsay was the sole survivor was 10 years ago, but they contacted her a couple months ago and told her that a suspect was caught and they wanted her to testify. Having to suddenly find out that there is a suspect that she's going to have to face and to know that she's going to have to relive the whole ordeal would be enough to wig just about anyone out. The fact that it has been 10 years also explains why she didn't have any reactions like this at crime scenes in the past until she had the prospect of testifying.

Apparently until now, she's made a sort of an uneasy peace with the past through distance and through choice of profession. It's not unusual for someone who has a truamatic experience when they're young to make that influence their choice of profession to help others who go through the same thing. You hear about people who had childhood cancer growing up to be research doctors. I had a friend in college who was paralyzed in a gymnastics competition accident. Her accident and experiences afterwards caused her to change her major to biomedical engineering so that she could help others who were paralyzed. So, it is true to life that Lindsay would have chosen criminology to help solve crimes so that families like her friends' families didn't go without ever having a resolution.

The scenes with Lindsay, Mac, and Stella were done well and so much better than the dreadful hallway scenes with Stella in Silent Night. I was glad to see that Mac already knew about Lindsay's past. It's something he should have known about, and it would have seemed a plot hole if he hadn't. When she was leaving, I was glad that Mac hugged her too, and not just Stella so that she knows she has the support of both.

Really, the only complaint I have about the Lindsay storyline is a bit of puzzlement at Sheldon questioning her about leaving the card for Danny. "That's how you're telling Danny goodbye?" and when she said she wasn't going to be gone that long added "You could at least call him." We know that Lindsay and Danny had kind of a bantering friendship up until "Not what it looks like", but then after she stood him up and and said she just wanted to work together, they've backed off. They have barely had any screen time together. So, is Sheldon just assuming friendship here or is he thinking more? That just seemed out of place for him to say.

I know some people are going to hate me for saying this, but I thought the note was kind of sweet. I liked that it wasn't all mushy sentimental nor was it an angsty explanation. It was just a cute light-hearted note so that she wasn't leaving without saying goodbye and hurting his feelings. Having read previous things about how some people feel about Lindsay, I know some will think that leaving a note like that is on the jeuvenile side, but I've seen much sillier things done in the name of office flirtations and office romances... and even just in office friendships. Realistically, I don't think it's so jeuvenile when you realize that a lot of people do little sentimental-ish things that just stay private between two people. But those same things would be mortifying if everyone else saw them, which is what happens in the prying eyes of a TV show relationship.

Also, I think it is realistic that someone would leave a note rather than try to just out-of-the-blue dump an explanation of this crime and how four other girls were killed but she survived into someone's lap. It would be awkward as heck, and it would make for an awkward scene.

(And yes, I do get a little on the sentimental side... and honestly, if I'd been in that situation, I could probably have written a note very much like that to the right person. If millions of viewers or a bunch of co-workers didn't know I'd written it. )

 

[Top41]

^I didn't think the note was bad so much as just off--the whole pairing between Danny and Lindsay is so scripted and forced that the note just seemed like another little piece put neatly into place. Bantering back and forth second season, check. The OMG angst that keeps them apart, check. The note seemed off because like you said, she stood him up early on in the season and since then they've barely interacted. How did they get from her blowing him off to her leaving him cutesy notes? I just think it's another example of how she's a character who acts the way the plot dictates, and not from any genuine place of character. She's cardboard flat--one minute she's crying in Stella's arms; the next she's smiling as she tells Stella and Mac about how she's going to Montana to testify (definitely better than the crying--I think by this point they were starting to figure out how bad Anna is at emoting) and leaving Danny a cute card and mooning after him out of a taxi window. I guess if I believed in her as a character, it might help moments like that, but when it comes to Lindsay, I see the script and not a genuine character.

So the note was cute, but did I see it and go, "Oh, that's so like Lindsay!" like I think we were supposed to, or would have if she'd been a better drawn character? No, not at all.

The opposite is true of Flack--every time he comes out with one of those zingers, I laugh and think, "Only Flack would say that." :lol: I love his sharp tongue--it's such a well fleshed out part of the character, and Eddie's delivery of those lines is pure gold.

The Alibi Agency thing was cool, and totally a real thing! :lol:

 

[GreenEyes]

^I didn't think the note was bad so much as just off--the whole pairing between Danny and Lindsay is so scripted and forced that the note just seemed like another little piece put neatly into place. Bantering back and forth second season, check. The OMG angst that keeps them apart, check. The note seemed off because like you said, she stood him up early on in the season and since then they've barely interacted. How did they get from her blowing him off to her leaving him cutesy notes? I just think it's another example of how she's a character who acts the way the plot dictates, and not from any genuine place of character. She's cardboard flat--one minute she's crying in Stella's arms; the next she's smiling as she tells Stella and Mac about how she's going to Montana to testify (definitely better than the crying--I think by this point they were starting to figure out how bad Anna is at emoting) and leaving Danny a cute card and mooning after him out of a taxi window. I guess if I believed in her as a character, it might help moments like that, but when it comes to Lindsay, I see the script and not a genuine character.

I know it's been nearly two weeks but I did want to get back to this.

I think one of the things that makes discussion of shows like this possible is that each of us views fictional stories through the colored lenses of our own life experiences, emotional makeup, and interpersonal relationships. So, we all perceive things a little differently.

I've assumed, though we really didn't see, that Lindsay and Danny just went back to the previous light friendship they rather than having a totally strained relationship during that time. We haven't seen much screen time with them, so we were all pretty much left to fill in the blanks. So, to me, the note didn't come entirely out of left field.

Lindsay isn't my absolute favorite character on the show, but I do like her. And I haven't really seen her as a plot device. At times I've seen her as a more realistic character than some of the other women of the CSI world. Like many prime time shows, in general the women on the CSI shows are more sex-symbolish than most women in real life for the situations they're shown in. They're generally tallish, shapely women who dress for the male viewers and not the job. They always have perfect make-up, perfect hair, never break a nail, and always have exactly the right snappy comeback. Lindsay has been portrayed as someone who is more of a real person, I think.

Since I wasn't on the forum and hadn't read spoilers and other people's thoughts to influence me, I never felt that there was anything special with the banter between them that would lead me to think they'd be getting together. In my mind it was pretty much light banter not all that different than you might see between Nick and Greg or Nick and Warrick on the original CSI. Maybe if I'd read the same things people here read, and read other's posts I might have thought differently but that also leads me to wonder how much group opinion affects our individual perceptions. It wasn't until "Not what it looks like" that I really gave a whole lot of thoughth to the potential of a relationship between them, and that scene made me interested in the possibility -- and if I think about it, I can see things in my experiences that would influence me that way.

Now, I definitely did see the last couple episodes before Anna Belknap's depature as plot devices in the story of Lindsay. I think, in part, that the writers tried to keep with their same visions of where things were going to go before they had to work around the actress's pregnancy rather than make sensible adjustments when they did have to work around it. The lines, the directing, the delivery in "Silent Night" were all bad, but I think that they at least got back to being much more in-character and believable in this episode.

The character that screams Plot Device to me is Peyton. It's not that I hate their relationship, it's that I have little or no emotion regarding their relationship either way. It seemed clear to me from the season opener where the scene opened on them in bed together that this was just a plot device to get a relationship into Mac's life so they could demonstrate that he was growing and starting to be open to relationships again after the lost of his wife on 9-11. I assumed by the abruptness of it all that it was probably in response to viewers. Although Peyton does the whole "hurt" thing very well, I never felt the connection between them. The only time I've felt emotion with the two of them it was Mac's emotion carrying the scene in "Silent Night" - I felt for him but when he swept her into his arms, the only thing radiating from Peyton was the fact that she'd worn too much eye make up again.

She's not even a character that I can work up a like or dislike of. She's simply there. So, to me, she's the plot device. And, as such, I won't be at all surprised if and probably when she disappears. It's my guess that she'll disappear once they've done what they can with her showing that Mac has been able to begin opening up again and begin moving beyond being consumed by Claire's loss. She has no other purpose -- her medicdal examiner parts are certainly not critical when they have Sid there with much more charisma. In fact, she disappears for episodes until we need to see her with Mac.

Of all three series, CSI: New York is the only one that I really don't dislike any of the characters at all. The other two each have had characters that sometimes get on my nerves. But, I think the fact that we all see the characters differently is what makes discussion interesting. What would there be to discuss if we all saw episodes and characters exactly the same way?

Edited to remove a really stupid error caused by far too little sleep the previous two nights.

 

[Top41]

^I agree with you completely about discussion--it's what makes this place so interesting and so much fun to visit. And if we all agreed, it would be pretty boring. I love that we can pick apart the show and discuss different aspects of it.

I agree with you about Peyton being a plot device to show Mac was getting past his wife's death, but because I thought both Claire Forlani and Gary Sinise were so good at portraying their characters, especially in that relationship, it was one I thoroughly enjoyed. And I thought it grew beyond the cliche after "Silent Night." It was nice to see Mac open up, and really warm up to someone the way he did with Peyton. I really enjoyed seeing that side of him.

As for Lindsay, I don't see her so much as a plot device as a bunch of cliches that, because the writing and the acting for her don't come together, never really feels "real" to me. I agree that it's nice to see a woman on screen who isn't played as a sex symbol; it's rare to see someone who's rather average looking on a show like this, and I think that might have more appeal than it does if I found her to be a more likable character. But the bunch of cliches that she is--small town girl in a big city, girl with a deep, dark, traumatic secret, girl with a crush on the cute guy but fighting it because of the deep, dark secret--overwhelm the character in my eyes because Anna never rises above them.

All of the characters started out as cliches--Mac the serene, thoughtful leader, Danny the young hothead, Flack the streetwise, smart alecky cop--but the writing and acting evolved them beyond these cliches. We've seen Mac lose his cool, seen him get personally involved in cases and really have felt for him in those moments. Danny might be a hothead, but he's also the most sensitive and sweetest character on the show. Flack has a mouth on him, but he's incredibly protective of those he cares about and likes being a support for them. There's more to these characters than first meets the eye.

I haven't found that with Lindsay, aside from the fact that she's rather self-involved. Not an appealing trait, but at least it varies from the cliche, which would have her be a selfless superheroine. I won't say any more because I don't want to spoil anything, but I will be curious to hear what you think fo the rest of the season!