My thoughts on the episode tend to run along Jo's line, "It's all fun and gigabytes until..."
.
Pertains to not only the ep's social/tech theme, but also the show's usage of Ubertech in telling/expediting the story, not to mention how some viewers probably watched it.
Was OK. Not outstanding. Some very nice moments, some odd ones, still generally entertaining, and I think the momentum of the show in S7 seems to be moving in a positive direction.
Felt a lite, fluffy ep, possibly best epitomized by the cute girl dancing about in short shorts to start it off. Aside from a handful of moments, it didn't get a whole lot deeper; though it did rather cutely make us all voyeurs, etc. The case and the victim felt like vehicles, not the core of the ep. On the other hand, mebbe that's what made it work, in the end. I am glad that Adam got more than the usual to do. The general character interaction is still what really elevated the show, but it was AJ's contributions that gave it the most pathos.
General musings & observations:
The Medium Is / Six Degrees of / Ubertech, UberPsych, UberDatabases
My umlauts are sadly lacking here, I realize
.
Ubertech should get screen credits, they're nearly prominent enough to be characters in the show :lol:. Sid and the Virtual Autopsy were absent, but Edna made an appearance, wearing pink this week and looking good
. Anyhoo. There definitely was overmuch Tech-Induced Investigative Serendipity, made via an armada of shiny LookitMeh monitors. (That said, the screen content created for that sequence was admittedly pretty and slick). For me, after what seemed a rather long, drawn-out sequence of Sass dancing about in order to establish NY's version of Chatroulette, (not to mention fulfill its mandate of being !Sexy etc.), the zippy fashion of establishing her whereabouts on a global scale was all the more amusing in the juxtaposition.
Okay, dandy, the manner in which TPTB structured the story did let the premise be quickly established, and then put into it's more typical box lunch for the rest of the episode. The series of choices was actually sort of impressive in its chutzpah, if also equally absurd in the disbelief it asked you to suspend in accepting some of the liberties taken :lol:. The Tardis strikes again. Also some impressive databases and software they perpetually have access to, with curiously precise image matches, no less
. It was, however, nice to see that the rest of the world was acknowledged to exist, and that a social media/cyber-based story should and did have to account for physicality in relative Time & Place.
What this ep also provided was an example wherein Empathy & Science, Psychology/Technology, Intuition/Data, yada, met in the middle, (apparently then took Uber-performance-enhancing-'roids), and produced instant Everytink
Iz Connekted/Go Team results: a Cognitive Interview prompts Adam's recollection of a teevee temperature icon, and ever so swiftly, Sass' location is determined, in a way I really don't need to go over again, so thoroughly has everyone already commented :lol:. (I suppose this also makes 58 the new 42
).
In this we clearly see TPTB's approach to the show has not substantially altered :shifty:
. A spoonful of glitz makes the ridiculous go down. Make it !Sexy, !Topical, !Relevant, !Fun, !Expedient, !VisuallyImpressive (all terms are relative with meaning subject to change at any time); combine such sleight of hand well enough and mebbe, just mebbe, it will distract folk from asking questions, or hell, even in retaining any functioning neurons, having been so bombarded :lol:.
...Sigh. Gritty, NY is not, hasn't been for a long time, and it seems it never will regain even a hint of such as a defining characteristic. Glitz does have its uses. It would just be nice if NY managed to feel grounded in the streets of the city from time to time too.
Stuff
- NY is continuing to have an incredibly curious relationship with Time. I'm about at the point of recommending it as a Fringe case, as there seems no explanation. NY's Manhattan is clearly subject to some strange and selectively applied temporal properties :lol:.
- Chelsea University. Seems it's simply not possible for anyone to obtain higher education at any other institution. I suppose that's where Tyler's going, too.
- Diversity seems to have entered the lab settings thru the background characters milling about if nothing else. It's a start.
- the music was a bit better in this ep, more integrated, and where it stood out it was for good reason.
- Production wise, for all the glitz and shinies, there were some less impressive bits. a) Mac driving while taking Adam's call. I can only assume that was a screenshot. Gad help me if they spent the $$ on anything other to have it turn out like that. b) Still more fx/on/cuts. I will put myself to reconciling that this will remain a pet peeve for me regarding NY, cos fer damn certain it don't look like NY is about to make a move to anything other anytime soon. Alas. c) Adam's make-up roofside, post fight/road rash. All things that tweaked an eyebrow in their respective moments.
(The "nice chatting with ya" line was equally cheesy and odd, unless of course Mac was able to fully brief Adam on who was trying to run him down and why in the nanosecond before the rooftop road rash attack started).
Team
- Flack didn't have too much to do this week. Mac seemed to spend a great deal of the early scenes in elevators, or generally in transit, driving, or in walkie/talkie scenes :lol:. I also noted that Sheldon was looking mighty sharp in this ep :lol:. Not that the others weren't, of course. What. Just an observation
- I did like the various Chat scenes added intermittently in the ep, mostly for the humor they brought thru the personalities who popped up as chat partners, but the best for me were Jo & the soldier, Mac and the kid doing his homework, and at the end, surprisingly enough, Mac and Jo. Serious analytic research indeed
. Again, not what I was expecting of a friendly rivalry :lol:, but I do like the dynamic between them already.
- One of the best parts of the ep by far, that captured the spirit and also the pace I'd love to see more consistently thru S7, was Sheldon and Danny, doing Obi-Wannabe-Kenobi for Adam :lol:. It touched on the N(3)RD Squad, pop culture, buddy vibe, and the relationships that do help give this show part of its identity. More of this sort of thing, perty plz.
- DL. They continue to prove an overt irritant to me. I'm still oversaturated from the cliffhanger. And now each of the first two eps has had DL. They process scenes together, they work in labs together, they do interviews together, they have their DL bantery scenes together, they seemingly appear by default together. They are chronically irksome. Even as understated as they may be relative to what was foisted upon viewers in previous seasons. Their end of ep scene of commentary on tech, complete to Lucy, was a little overdone as narrative, and generally just not possessing a dynamic or energy that would make them more fun to watch. Additionally, Messer as over protective dad is also wearing thin.
(Contrast that to the earlier Jo/Mac scene similarly devoted to tech, and also how the ep ended, with Mac & Jo each taking another spin on the chat site; both moments, for me, were far more concise, illustrative of character and issue, and far more fun. And if anyone is reading this thinking I'm suggesting Mac & Jo as a romantic pairing, I am not, though I'm not necessarily opposed to !Tension, and the point has been missed
).
Here's a trade off I'd like to see. Less DL, more Sid, for example. Spend the money, have Bob Joy in more often. Perhaps we can also establish a charity fund, sell some stripey scarves over the holidays or suchlike, to have D & L separated, returned to their own full names and separate entities, who do not by default appear together in every facet of their work just cos it simplifies their commute. If I could Next their scenes, I surely would. O Wait. I can. Ta.
Hacking, Obi-Wannabee, & Mebbe Even Falling in Wuv (a widdle bit).
I was rather surprised that Adam, in his fervor thru stakes made personal, actually proposed hacking as a way to track the killer down at Draga. But McGee he ain't, and Mac ain't Gibbs
.
I like that this also paved the way to Adam and Jo's best scene to date, far better than the "Man Up" poke earlier on. Adam's conflicting drive was nicely played by AJ, managing both to lash out at Jo and also apologize and open up & explain his comment to Jo on her FBI background, also neatly introducing some of her backstory. I'll come back to Jo again later. In trying to reconcile that he'd shared the last three minutes of Sass' life, even Adam's line that he'd "seen her joy," was good; AJ played that in a way that made completely feel for the guy.
But. ..."maybe even fell in love a little bit?" ...Made me snort my beverage a little bit
. It was another piece in the ep that seemed unnecessarily inserted. The moment was already at a poignant level, and, not everything needs to be ratcheted up gratuitously. Mallets and ratchets and ubertech, oh boy :lol:.
I was admittedly surprised by Adam's fighting prowess :lol:. It wasn't beyond the pale tho, especially relative to the rest of the events roofside.
I also appreciated that Mac seemed more concerned about the murder and Adam, than Chatting on shift, and that the reprimand stemmed from the hacking Adam undertook after he'd firmly declined it as an investigative option. I do agree that reprimands have been written in rather haphazardly thru the seasons, and that a lack of seeming consistency is always a background presence when we are presented with such, but I'd rather that there were at least some than none.
Key Masters & Psych Chew Toys.
With affection, Jo has unofficially been dubbed the Key Master at our place :lol:. An occasional demi-god possessed by UberInsight, on a near Mentalist level, ready to bust out Psych Profiling on anyone's arse in any circumstance. (No, she's not nearly at that point :lol:, and it's more of a poke at NY's propensities that will hopefully not befall her
). I like Jo. A lot. Very much indeed. But I'd also love to see the writing relax a wee bit, and continue to also give her more nuanced opportunities for her character, to balance some aspects which, at this point, come across as presented with some rather broad strokes. (I essentially feel the same about Mac, so perhaps it's fitting that the pair of them are running the department
). Poking aside, I am very much looking forward to seeing them do so, I think they do play off each other well.
The show does seem to have been rejunvenated in having Jo and her traits to write to and for, but some scenes have come across as a bit ...exuberant
. Some of the mallets in the premiere, and the interrogation scene she shared with Flack in this ep are some examples of the broad. The interrogation here was ...odd, and for me, not as much fun nor as integrated as the Tissue Box Tactic of the last ep. Not to mention the Bad Ass/Bad Apple boyfriend they were questioning was, IMO, horribly played. What an awkward, odd scene, not really sure what they were supposed to be able to do with that :vulcan::lol:. It was fun to see Flack enjoying the proceedings, and I still
believed SW & Jo, but I was a wee bit perplexed by the whole thing nonetheless :lol:
I also hafta admit I puzzled over something else I'm apparently still adjusting to with Jo. It took a second ep to decipher and confirm it :lol:. I think it has to do with the pacing Jo brings. It is a different rhythm, a different set of gears that shift in and out of different circumstances. I think it does generally work well, but something I've had to mull and adjust to.
I think Jo's scenes with Adam, especially the later ones are among the best SW's had to play so far. I liked that Jo went the personal route, warning him off and giving him a chance to backtrack before things went too far to repair. I also liked all their scenes as progression between them; their interpersonal introduction in the premiere was more bristly than any of the others, and now, conversely, Adam and Jo may have a better or deeper rapport than such yet achieved between Jo and any of the others beyond perhaps Mac.
As far as Jo's background. I liked that another element was hinted at and intro'd in her scenes with Adam. I like that Jo's FBI background isn't simply past tense, and continues to be part of her life and identity. I liked her Chat scene with the soldier from Alabama on leave; it nicely resonated Jo's southern background (and that of SW), and, it was also two characters with a common connection each partly finding themselves considering what home is. NY is only starting to be home for Jo, but one can bet that a realtime webcam view of the NY skyline to a soldier serving overseas would provide a tether home regardless of where he was from.
These moments, along with the phone call in the premiere, also followed up on here, are some of the more nuanced ones letting us get to know her without having to duck mallets. (I think NY, as a trait over the seasons, has often done mini vignettes well). Jo's humor and banter, displayed so prominently in the premiere, were toned down a bit, but still present, which I think continues to bode well; it's a key element she helps bolster on the show, a new variant in that arsenal, if you will
.
The Jo scenes which I've enjoyed less are some of her more "profiley," button-pushing ones, wherein she was written to approach people or situations essentially as near psych-chew toys to play with. She's mostly applied that to either discerning information on a victim, a suspect, or a set of circumstances, and has only, in the team, really plied anything similar to Adam. I like that it's part of
her arsenal, but did hafta muse briefly on what about it I'm wary of the potential for:
Should the the show be too heavy handed with it, it could come across less as a selective and deliberate tool she herself applies in certain scenarios, and could instead be misconstrued as more an over-knowing & manipulative personality trait.
Her sense of fun, blended with her empathy, a certain groundedness, and self humor, have pretty much won me over, and personally I like a bit of frisson in how I feel about a character at times; I'd like to think it indicates a certain humanity. It's early days yet, but IMO I think Jo is working out just fine, and I think the show is already benefiting from SW coming aboard.
-
Torn between a B- and a C. Somewhere in that range.
I think this ep will prove largely unmemorable, even with Adam getting more focus. The first few shows will get some wiggle room. This one? Not bad. If this is a new average, it's still an improvement. Would like to see it find its stride. (With the pace of filming, I hope they've already found it. Guess we'll see). Still think there's potential it hasn't reached yet.
