It's been a very frustrating and generally unsatisfying season for NY this year. It's getting harder to bother to say anything about it, even in a devoted community such as this. Sorry, Hill, but this is not the golden year some of us had been looking forward to. If the producers etc are happy with how the show and the season are going, the past few even, then I guess we're on increasingly divergent paths, and I'm not likely, as a viewer, to find what I hope for in the show. Whaddaya do.
That said.
This ep. Was actually one of the better ones this season. We're only two thirds of the way thru it. Hadda happen some time...
There were a few miscellaneous oddities. Excessive Chelsea University. LSD as the drug of choice and it's swift ID, tho part of me suspects the writers were also just looking for a way to be able to use the word "psychotropic". Seems to be flava of the month. Vaguely wondering if bingo halls pay out winnings to the tune of $25000 in cash, or else why did the girls drug the guys anyways. Or did they find a bank with unheard of customer service open at that hour of night or just a moneymart. Mebbe I missed something there. A cabbie letting less than sober guys drive his cab for ...$100? Sheldon keenly if somewhat randomly looking up at something (cos he was directed to in order to be able to float the line) and Messer asking "what's up?" (And also somehow foregoing adding "doc" to the end of the inquiry). Later on in the ep I wanted to ask Danny the same thing, with regards to
his hair. What, was he wanting to feel taller? Suddenly insecure or competitve with Hawkes...?
.
- I thought the set dressing, trippy fx (pardon me, psychotropic) (sudden random insertion of "Curvature of Lettuce" here) and make-up was good in this ep, and handled the gore convincingly and well.
- I actually didn't mind Hawke's hair :lol: but I think that's cos I was hoping it might get more than a one ep showcase, just so we could get a good look
.
- I thought the actor playing James was solid. Very good. And that musta been one of the most interesting and fun guest starring roles someone could hope to win in a series.
- Adam's brief appearance simply made me want to see more of him. Mind you, I always feel that way. Same with Sid.
- Good eye Stella with the whole door/blood thing, and yes, she does seem to written more in a supervisory role again. It's like every six episodes that gets re-established. But it's still nice to see.
There were more than a few mallet moments. And that's what I gotta put to a larger overall vision of the show, and not the writers alone. It's getting very frustrating that the producers et al. really don't seem to think much of the audience they're hoping to attract or maintain. Give people a wee bit of credit to catch on, especially when the actors can convey a great deal without their dialogue essentially being used to narrate it all. Case in point in this episode was Mac and James. I hope Stella fares better in her ep with the girl that's coming up.
The very first scene between Mac and Sarah, I think, where the fact James is a science buff came up, from the acting alone I thought it was apparent that Mac felt some kinship or recognition of some part of himself in the younger James. That's great. A nice, subtle moment where we get to read the scene and fill it in. Allows for subtext even. And then the mallets came down. It was apparently necessary to include the dialogue "...I can relate," and it didn't get a whole lot better. Cheers for the effort to show a different side of Mac that didn't overshadow the case. Just. Give us some credit next time. I was literally out of the room long before James ever took off :lol:. I think I was getting a refill. That or I was brushing my aching teeth. And worse. While he often frustrates me, I
like Mac. :vulcan: Sheesh.
I think Gary did what he could. I think it could have been a helluvalot worse. I hope he gets better writing in the remaining episodes this season.
For all the supposed focus and attention that was gonna happen with the characters this season, it's like the writers couldn't decide what to do with them or where to take them, like they didn't want to do anything definitive. I wasn't looking for arcs or big moments, just taking what NY used to do very well, moments of character interaction and brief window insights, and allowing a bit more time for it. We've had a lot of Trying Very Hard, with what often seem half arsed results. For all the half asses, mebbe we can compile a whole baker's dozen or so by the time the season's over... So far, for material, Flack wins. </meh disappointment>
As for Flack. In a way I get why people read him as being angrier or harder than he was before Angell's death, where his sarcasm wasn't quite so caustic. More taut, I might say. He was pissed during his part of the interrogation. And yet while I read that too in the context of the episode and where it sits in the series with his character yada, I also tend to see nuggets that the actors really dig into, material that lets them invest more intensity and emotion than "...suspect was a white male between 25 and 35 / ...we're awaiting results from CODIS / blah blah I'm purveying the pertinent points for picking apart puzzles. And so when those wee scenes arise, it's like they're really played hard, or at least, those versions seem to be the ones picked for the final cut. What was also both nice and a good follow up, if equally mallet heavy in it's set up by the previous scene to contrast, was Flack later finding out James was accurate in his story ("...he was
right??"), about clowns and seahorses etc., and he wasn't the one who killed his friends. It would also be nice for Flack not to be perpetually be used to set up the ever brilliant CSIs.
I liked the pacing of the progression. By the halfway point it was established that James was innocent, and the rest of the ep was filling in the rest of his evening out. In some ways the ep was reminiscent of a Vegas one. That's a good thing, btw.
The follow up of James and Mac in interrogation, that opened up with the trippy fly, was verging on quirky. Off kilter enough to keep me from finding it entirely predictable. Ditto James bolting in the street due the bull poster, or whatever that was. Now, quantum physics is not where I earn my dollar, but the inclusion of all that with a philosophical twist really felt like the show was trying very hard. Sometimes ya just don't want it quite so apparent that it's trying so hard. As in "...you can't believe that God plays dice with the universe" (Mac); later on, "The timing on the sequence of events is unbelievable" (Stella) yada etc. It certainly was not the greatest use of Mac in an episode, but it was a different side to him brought out, if awkward in writing and realization both, and the attempt was appreciated. Further, I won't begrudge an ep like this a) cos however much I get frustrated, I still like Mac, b) Stella will have an ep with some personal link to a girl, I think, c) Flack will have an ep where he tries to help a little boy. (And gad help me, I'm
so glad the writers went with Gary over AB for having a character feel some personal resonance).
The show's conclusion, while still mallet heavy, reigned itself in, and didn't make more of the so-called Connection than should have been.
Things that perhaps endeared the ep to me more than the overall quality might suggest was warranted:
- Bingo, from left field. Was not surprised but nor did I see it coming. Well done.
- "I beg to differ." Possibly the best part of the hour.
- midget wrestling. Beg pardon. Wrestling with little people.
- which gave us "...
what are you talking about..."/"...what're
you talking about??"
- the early going with clowns. Vindication. Doesn't everyone know by now that clowns are evil?? Nor could I help but flash to "can't sleep clowns will eat me can't sleep clowns will eat me..." Well. In my defense. It'd been a helluva week before I got to see it.
Speaking of. Messer and Flack. I like both of them. Well. Messer frustrates me as much as or more than Mac does. But I still like. My point. Iz. I'm not one to fawn and flutter every time Danny and Flack have a scene together, nor is a scene between them simply fabulous by default (go on, "...beg to differ," I know it's comin'
). ...
However. The scene here with the wrestler was among
the best and funniest I recall involving Danny and Flack in quite some time. A very pleasant surprise, and injected some humor in a very dark and gory set of circumstances. The whole episode, really, generally managed to balance both sides of that coin very well, with all the things in the list above helping to keep the show from reveling too deeply in uber seriocity and moodiness, in a way that Sanguine, among others, flirted with a bit.
As for the real Paul Bunyon, Rufus. Just a smidgen over the top :lol:, but a believable purely violent malevolent scumbag. As for his accent. Well. He
had just been shot in the face... beyond that, I got nuthin :lol:. I did find it odd that he was gonna go after James. With a body guard/second who's anything but anonymous and unnoticeable, closer to Paul Bunyon in stature than Rufus himself. To do what, eliminate James, a witness, one who was anything but sober and had just spent the entire evening Not Remembering, kill him in public, in the middle of the street filled with
more witnesses, so Rufus wouldn't be linked to the other four homicides, even though they'd tracked him down, oh, ...cos he was linked to the other four homicides...?? Silly me, in another quantum random curvature of lettuce that makes perfect sense. I dunno how Rufus found Mac and James. ...Perchance he spotted Mac chasing James down a busy Manhattan street while dodging one of their endlessly purchased flying coffees. Which would explain the ongoing walking around and buying coffees, if nothing else.
.
The slo mo shootout was only unpredicatble insofar as I
couldn't believe the show went ahead with it, both the shoot out, as a scenario, and the sloooo mooOOooOoo :lol: as a style. And while I didn't think James was gonna shoot Rufus, the portrayal was such that I at least believed that James thought he was going to.
The ep had some good, darkly funny moments, some extremely violent circumstances, Stella stepping forward in the investigation and Mac playing more of a side role, until the shootout of course. Up till then, it was almost as if Mac and Stella had swapped coffees earlier in the day and wound up taking a page out of the other's more typical memo book. I think Gary did well with what he had, and was probably happy to change it up. I think Joe Reegan was very good. I enjoyed the fact the case was compiled one piece at a time, which I suppose might make those who brought in the unified field theory happy for that as well. I will remember this episode for the bingo hall above all else, I'm sure.
Anyway.
Call it better than their usual. Not stellar. But a step up. C+ to a B-.
Wow this is long. I give up on editing. Mebbe it makes sense. Mebbe it depends on your lettuce. It's been an interesting week.
PS. As for Lindsay, and the suggestion it shoulda been her having some rapport with James. I gotta say. That did not even occur to me. Of course, I don't tend to think about Lindsay unless unpleasantly confronted by her onscreen in my living room. In short. While there is a commonality in surviving a slaughter, there were enough differences it wasn't a natural link I made. Further, I don't think Lindsay does "rapport" well, and it's usually about her and not about the person that's triggered it. I'm glad I didn't hafta sit thru something like that. While Mac was awkward, the situation
wasn't somehow linked into
his back-story, and made about him, while using James as a tool to serve up the opportunity. And the ep was better to keep it on that level. Doubtful it woulda worked the same way had Lindsay been given that "rapport" instead. As it was, I'm glad I didn't hafta witness her bolting from the crime scene.
Someone should call the CSI:Miami wranglers and alert them to the fact that Horatio's lines have escaped the set.
:lol:
