There've been a lotta great takes on the ep, an emotionally charged one that we knew would stir some strong responses. It's been interesting reading them. Gave it an A-. But it's the first A-ish anything I've given since the earliest eps of the season.
The intro was slick and very Miami-esque, short and to the point. And then they dove right into setting up the premise that would fuel the rest of the hour, those who would profit from further victimizing and exploiting the holocaust and survivors of it.
Stella had very little to do in this one, but we do all know Melina's ep is upcoming soon. It was nice to see Hawkes get more attention, even if the insights into his family here felt suddenly parachuted in, slighly odd after four and a half years of nada, but I'm not complaining, they gotta start somewhere. It was also nice to see Sheldon get yet more emotionally charged material, due his uncle and then the incident with Elgers, and his response to Danny in light of it. I loved Sid and Pluto (reminded me of the guy Jon Stewart had on a few months back, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, talking about Pluto, very funny, look up the seg if ya haven't seen it). I loved that we got lots of Adam too, and Flack was back to his usual self. Danny, well, Danny's had an odd, inconsistent season, and this ep continued the rollercoaster.
My first thought was that it was indeed nice to see Danny back in form. But it also seems to me that Danny hasn't had the kind of evolution I'd hope to see, given the personal turns in his life this season, and more like the writers as a collective cannot decide who this guy is anymore. This may have been a flash of the Danny of old, but it didn't do much to signal any growth from who he used to be, only a brief respite from who he currently is with Lindsay. Unlike some, I did think Elgers could be said to have resisted arrest when Danny first responded to the spitting by wanting to cuff him for harrasment and Elgers wrenched himself away and then, well, resisted; minimal pretense, but still present, and then Danny went way overboard. Elgers was inciteful and provocative, but Danny was incredibly undisciplined and excessive, and we left the first segment of the show wondering what the hell he'd just done not just to Elgers but to himself.
Danny really wound up being more a vehicle for Sheldon, and personally I'm more than delighted with Hawkes getting some material as a result. I did like the interaction between Danny and Sheldon throughout. Incidentally, Barbie Kligman was a writer for The Party's Over (blu flu), as well as this one, and both eps have had interesting dynamics between the two men. On the same token, Noberto Barba's a name I don't recall seeing in NY for some time. If he's the time available, they should invite him back more often. I think Matt McTighe has been consistently excellent in his depiction of Elgers, belligerent, loathsome, manipulative, unapologetic, yet not invulnerable and seems to know his limitations as well as the system, plays a very convincing bastard. An ep's only as good as the adversaries, and he's proven to be a challenging figure, and not as easy to dismiss as many of them seem to be.
To start the second segment, I thought it was a smart contrast to have Flack, the most disciplined of guys, in interrogation with Elgers after the fact, unflappable in temperment as Elgers tried to continue the same game. I thought it was smart as well to show the contrast between Danny and Sheldon an emotional and philosophical one. Typical of Hawkes, he has obviously given his personal philosphy and outlook a great deal of thought. It was nice to see a depth of reasoning in Hawkes' behaviour and choices. That too contrasted with Danny, a guy who still evidently still has that spark of volatility, giving in to the impulse to introduce Elger's face to the floor in great detail without thinking at all, or thought it justified if nothing else. Sheldon's monologue walked a fine line, but Hill was excellent and kept it from overstepping, even if the rainy piano music within that scene was more than a little syrupy. The reference to Martin Luther King was also a nice inclusion within the ep's overall theme.
I was very happy that the IAB thing did not become the focus of the ep, drawn out in any way. It was interesting to hear that the outcome of it did actually result in a penalty for Messer's behaviour. So often nothing ever seems to result from internal disciplinary issues. The only other ones that come immediately to mind are Mac taking Danny off the promotion grid way back when, and the fact that Stella's had reprimands in her docket in days past. Still, the labs seem to be emptying of staff, with Hawkes going to the funeral, Lindsay in Montana, Danny suspended and about to join her, and well, Stella about to embark on a field trip, and Mac flying somewhere at the end of the ep to return the broach. ...Thanks again, Adam, for picking up all the slack...
As for Mac, he looked mighty bored in his early scenes. I don't think he really kicked into things until the interrogation with Elgers, where he hit his stride and kept it. It was also an interesting negotiation with Elgers to discern how much he was involved versus realizing this bigot could be the best substantial witness. The first scene between Mac and Abe was also engaging, low key, interesting, not overbearing, and Abe's line "there are those who say You Must Remember, but sometimes it is better to forget..." was memorable to me throughout the ep and took on different layers as it progressed. Meeting his son, and the tattoo on his arm was a nice touch, but it was the inclusion of it in the photo Mac took that lodged in my mind as a curious hmm, waiting to be referenced again.
By the time they'd found Elger's print at the B&E on the victims apartment, I felt the ep was flirting but mostly skirting being heavy handed, and while the character interaction regarding Elgers was predictable, the plot about the broach was not, yet. The discovery of the hidden hoards of Xander Green did have me wary though. I agree also that the discovery of the goblet full of teeth had far more punch than the visual impact of the whole of the rest of the room, with all it's flags and weapons and artefacts. They were able to lift Elgers' print from the scene, but as keen as Adam was, we all knew the case was far from over at that point.
The ep moved into more Mac moments. It also occurred to me there was a little bit of a parallel in Mac pursuing the broach with Stella and the coins on some distant level. Everyone's got something they can't help being driven to pursue. The scene with the Israeli official kept things on a deliberately even pace, and the interviews were well done in recreating the impact of the time.
Back to Klaus Braun and the story of Esther's broach - ... the b/w flashback did have me wondering if the murder was gonna be completely set aside in favour of pursuing the broach as an heirloom artifact with a still living history. As the b/w segment revealed the broach's history, I saw the betrayal coming, and somehow also clicked Klein was Klaus at that point. I then wondered how sympathetic or how evil they were gonna make Abe out to be(eg. a kid drafted and brainwashed versus mercenary versus fervent believer etc etc), and they chose to portray the young Klaus as having been a fervent believer. Long before the last segment of the show started I felt I had it pegged, and the only question was how poignant the remainder of the ep was gonna be.
We got another brief Stella scene that did indeed reveal Klein as Klaus, but how the revelation came about was credible and well integrated. The following interrogation of Abe by Mac was an interesting battle. Kinda like shouting at a boulder (and Mac did get to shout a lot), and Abe just weathered it. I was taken out of the ep a little bit by more god-talk, but it was far more interesting and piercing here in it's inclusion for realizing the breadth and scope of the deception of Abe's son, David, and the history and faith he thought he'd inherited versus the true legacy of his father. An aside here, Modi, the man who played David, is someone I'm much more familiar with as a comedian, and it was really interesting to see him play in such a subdued role and guest on the show.
The broach did not wind up being a symbol of regret that Abe held onto as he tried to start a new life, but a momento he thought to further profit from, without any qualms, for his son. Any doubt about which identity was truer for him was answered by Klaus' reply in German. We got evil Braun alright, and Ed Asner did malevolent well; then even that got stripped away when he saw his son in the hallway, and he was human again. An ep of bad guys with complexities, even within unquestionably abhorrent behaviour from each. Gotta give it up for that. Both Asner and McTighe were excellent. Elgers was used as a red herring but who's character wasn't actually able to be pegged so easily, McTighe kept him grounded, in the end much more about tinderbox anger, in your face violently bigoted belligerence, bluster and show, (compare for example the tattoos each character chose to adorn themselves with), contrasting with Abe's true malevolence, understated so powerfully by Asner.
I thought it was a nice touch to have Lesnick send Mac another vid, especially for the content. I really hafta say here that I think Shelley Berman, the actor who portayed George Savar being interviewed as the camp survivor that MaCanna Boyd Taylor helped, I think he was absolutely fantastic, and his two minutes of screen time had me absolutely moved. I think the ep actually could have ended there, with Mac's reaction, and been just as moving, but it wasn't really unexpected to have Mac on a plane to return the broach to Hanna, and Rita Zohar too was excellent.
I think it was a solid episode. I think the guest actors were key to really contributing to making this one so moving and convincing, and giving the core cast something to really push against.
It was definitely one the season's best offerings, and of a quality long overdue, finally taking the show up a notch to a level a lot of us have been waiting on, knowing it could be reached.
The intro was slick and very Miami-esque, short and to the point. And then they dove right into setting up the premise that would fuel the rest of the hour, those who would profit from further victimizing and exploiting the holocaust and survivors of it.
Stella had very little to do in this one, but we do all know Melina's ep is upcoming soon. It was nice to see Hawkes get more attention, even if the insights into his family here felt suddenly parachuted in, slighly odd after four and a half years of nada, but I'm not complaining, they gotta start somewhere. It was also nice to see Sheldon get yet more emotionally charged material, due his uncle and then the incident with Elgers, and his response to Danny in light of it. I loved Sid and Pluto (reminded me of the guy Jon Stewart had on a few months back, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, talking about Pluto, very funny, look up the seg if ya haven't seen it). I loved that we got lots of Adam too, and Flack was back to his usual self. Danny, well, Danny's had an odd, inconsistent season, and this ep continued the rollercoaster.
My first thought was that it was indeed nice to see Danny back in form. But it also seems to me that Danny hasn't had the kind of evolution I'd hope to see, given the personal turns in his life this season, and more like the writers as a collective cannot decide who this guy is anymore. This may have been a flash of the Danny of old, but it didn't do much to signal any growth from who he used to be, only a brief respite from who he currently is with Lindsay. Unlike some, I did think Elgers could be said to have resisted arrest when Danny first responded to the spitting by wanting to cuff him for harrasment and Elgers wrenched himself away and then, well, resisted; minimal pretense, but still present, and then Danny went way overboard. Elgers was inciteful and provocative, but Danny was incredibly undisciplined and excessive, and we left the first segment of the show wondering what the hell he'd just done not just to Elgers but to himself.
Danny really wound up being more a vehicle for Sheldon, and personally I'm more than delighted with Hawkes getting some material as a result. I did like the interaction between Danny and Sheldon throughout. Incidentally, Barbie Kligman was a writer for The Party's Over (blu flu), as well as this one, and both eps have had interesting dynamics between the two men. On the same token, Noberto Barba's a name I don't recall seeing in NY for some time. If he's the time available, they should invite him back more often. I think Matt McTighe has been consistently excellent in his depiction of Elgers, belligerent, loathsome, manipulative, unapologetic, yet not invulnerable and seems to know his limitations as well as the system, plays a very convincing bastard. An ep's only as good as the adversaries, and he's proven to be a challenging figure, and not as easy to dismiss as many of them seem to be.
To start the second segment, I thought it was a smart contrast to have Flack, the most disciplined of guys, in interrogation with Elgers after the fact, unflappable in temperment as Elgers tried to continue the same game. I thought it was smart as well to show the contrast between Danny and Sheldon an emotional and philosophical one. Typical of Hawkes, he has obviously given his personal philosphy and outlook a great deal of thought. It was nice to see a depth of reasoning in Hawkes' behaviour and choices. That too contrasted with Danny, a guy who still evidently still has that spark of volatility, giving in to the impulse to introduce Elger's face to the floor in great detail without thinking at all, or thought it justified if nothing else. Sheldon's monologue walked a fine line, but Hill was excellent and kept it from overstepping, even if the rainy piano music within that scene was more than a little syrupy. The reference to Martin Luther King was also a nice inclusion within the ep's overall theme.
I was very happy that the IAB thing did not become the focus of the ep, drawn out in any way. It was interesting to hear that the outcome of it did actually result in a penalty for Messer's behaviour. So often nothing ever seems to result from internal disciplinary issues. The only other ones that come immediately to mind are Mac taking Danny off the promotion grid way back when, and the fact that Stella's had reprimands in her docket in days past. Still, the labs seem to be emptying of staff, with Hawkes going to the funeral, Lindsay in Montana, Danny suspended and about to join her, and well, Stella about to embark on a field trip, and Mac flying somewhere at the end of the ep to return the broach. ...Thanks again, Adam, for picking up all the slack...
As for Mac, he looked mighty bored in his early scenes. I don't think he really kicked into things until the interrogation with Elgers, where he hit his stride and kept it. It was also an interesting negotiation with Elgers to discern how much he was involved versus realizing this bigot could be the best substantial witness. The first scene between Mac and Abe was also engaging, low key, interesting, not overbearing, and Abe's line "there are those who say You Must Remember, but sometimes it is better to forget..." was memorable to me throughout the ep and took on different layers as it progressed. Meeting his son, and the tattoo on his arm was a nice touch, but it was the inclusion of it in the photo Mac took that lodged in my mind as a curious hmm, waiting to be referenced again.
By the time they'd found Elger's print at the B&E on the victims apartment, I felt the ep was flirting but mostly skirting being heavy handed, and while the character interaction regarding Elgers was predictable, the plot about the broach was not, yet. The discovery of the hidden hoards of Xander Green did have me wary though. I agree also that the discovery of the goblet full of teeth had far more punch than the visual impact of the whole of the rest of the room, with all it's flags and weapons and artefacts. They were able to lift Elgers' print from the scene, but as keen as Adam was, we all knew the case was far from over at that point.
The ep moved into more Mac moments. It also occurred to me there was a little bit of a parallel in Mac pursuing the broach with Stella and the coins on some distant level. Everyone's got something they can't help being driven to pursue. The scene with the Israeli official kept things on a deliberately even pace, and the interviews were well done in recreating the impact of the time.
Back to Klaus Braun and the story of Esther's broach - ... the b/w flashback did have me wondering if the murder was gonna be completely set aside in favour of pursuing the broach as an heirloom artifact with a still living history. As the b/w segment revealed the broach's history, I saw the betrayal coming, and somehow also clicked Klein was Klaus at that point. I then wondered how sympathetic or how evil they were gonna make Abe out to be(eg. a kid drafted and brainwashed versus mercenary versus fervent believer etc etc), and they chose to portray the young Klaus as having been a fervent believer. Long before the last segment of the show started I felt I had it pegged, and the only question was how poignant the remainder of the ep was gonna be.
We got another brief Stella scene that did indeed reveal Klein as Klaus, but how the revelation came about was credible and well integrated. The following interrogation of Abe by Mac was an interesting battle. Kinda like shouting at a boulder (and Mac did get to shout a lot), and Abe just weathered it. I was taken out of the ep a little bit by more god-talk, but it was far more interesting and piercing here in it's inclusion for realizing the breadth and scope of the deception of Abe's son, David, and the history and faith he thought he'd inherited versus the true legacy of his father. An aside here, Modi, the man who played David, is someone I'm much more familiar with as a comedian, and it was really interesting to see him play in such a subdued role and guest on the show.
The broach did not wind up being a symbol of regret that Abe held onto as he tried to start a new life, but a momento he thought to further profit from, without any qualms, for his son. Any doubt about which identity was truer for him was answered by Klaus' reply in German. We got evil Braun alright, and Ed Asner did malevolent well; then even that got stripped away when he saw his son in the hallway, and he was human again. An ep of bad guys with complexities, even within unquestionably abhorrent behaviour from each. Gotta give it up for that. Both Asner and McTighe were excellent. Elgers was used as a red herring but who's character wasn't actually able to be pegged so easily, McTighe kept him grounded, in the end much more about tinderbox anger, in your face violently bigoted belligerence, bluster and show, (compare for example the tattoos each character chose to adorn themselves with), contrasting with Abe's true malevolence, understated so powerfully by Asner.
I thought it was a nice touch to have Lesnick send Mac another vid, especially for the content. I really hafta say here that I think Shelley Berman, the actor who portayed George Savar being interviewed as the camp survivor that MaCanna Boyd Taylor helped, I think he was absolutely fantastic, and his two minutes of screen time had me absolutely moved. I think the ep actually could have ended there, with Mac's reaction, and been just as moving, but it wasn't really unexpected to have Mac on a plane to return the broach to Hanna, and Rita Zohar too was excellent.
I think it was a solid episode. I think the guest actors were key to really contributing to making this one so moving and convincing, and giving the core cast something to really push against.
It was definitely one the season's best offerings, and of a quality long overdue, finally taking the show up a notch to a level a lot of us have been waiting on, knowing it could be reached.
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