Crime Drama TV

No More Novak

Cameron Gordon — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 06:29:22 +0000

NBC aired its final episode of Season 9 on May 13, signaling the departure of both Adam Beach (my heart will go on . . .) and . . . *sigh* . . . Diane Neal, who spent the last five years tantalizing me with her beauty and spunk while portraying ADA Casey Novak. Her final episode was the culmination of a delicate balancing act that ended the way it should have, the way Law & Order die-hards had always suspected yet dared never hope–true justice.

Casey’s been playing the system, flawed though it is, for a chump over the course of four seasons, and this time the system called her on it. A delicate case involving Beach’s Chester Lake (a guy I never grew attached to and therefore will not sorely miss) as the potential suspect in a convoluted series of events saw Novak delay the results of evidence analysis longer than the law specified, and for that she was brought to account. Judge Who’s-the-Boss, portrayed by Judith Light, ever-so-delicately revealed that Novak would have her legal ass punished for the sin of premeditated omission, and shame on Light for making my Novak cry. Her next-to-final words were delivered with a vulnerability I’ve not encountered with any of the other SVU legion: “What’ll I do?!”, to which Light answered bluntly: “Something else.”

Anything else, Diane, as long as I can see you on my screen. Anything.

Buck You!?

Cameron Gordon — Tue, 13 May 2008 01:40:22 +0000

The Bravo Network, along with KUSI, TNT, and USA air reruns of L&O: Criminal Intent, and on Sunday evening they ran a mini-marathon: three episodes back-to back, mostly in sequence, which I thought was fairly interesting. Each of the episodes featured (and I so use that term lightly) Samantha Buck in the role of Goren’s temporary partner, G. Something-I-don’t-care-to-remember Bishop while Katheryn Erbe’s Det. Eames was on real-life and cinematic maternity leave. Buck was only on the show for twelve episodes, and I gotta hand it to the writers and Vincent D’Onofrio–Goren’s shaky adjustment to this temp character certainly echoed mine as a loyal viewer. Don’t take me wrong–I had no problems with each of Det. Logan’s partners, and am currently smitten w/Alica Witt as the married, mother of (I think) three Det. Falacci, but that’s because Logan’s character doesn’t require much to work with. Goren, conversely, has been, from Episode 1, a composite of personality oddities ranging from obsessive compulsion (bow down to the master, Monk!) to high-functioning autism, and Eames was and is the only person aside from psycho-nemesis Nicole Wallace capable of handling Goren’s complex character.

Buck irritated me, frustrated Goren, and the first episode Bravo aired, “F.P.S.” (a reference to first-person shooter games) portrayed that emotional instability beautifully. The bad guy was experiencing many of the similar feelings toward his slowly-becoming-ex partner that Goren was toward Eames, and was thus motivated to commit a series–a series–of intricately planned crimes that sent Major Case on a satisfyingly long hunt for the truth. In the end, however, justice was served, and some of Goren’s demons were purged with the news that Eames would be shortly returning.

Bishop didn’t even try to get Goren, and thus, during her brief time on CI, she caused some serious and lasting damage. Like Cousin Oliver, or the second Aunt Viv on Fresh Prince. Adieu, mon cheri.

“Goren hates you and you really suck . . . bye bye Buck.”

‘Farthingale’

Joshua Holmes — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 04:00:02 +0000

Another piece of episodic brilliance has emerged in this fresh show. Our victim today is a man that has had a bomb vaporize the lower half of his body leaving the top half still upright. This scene is one of the weirdest I have seen on TV. If there was better access to recent pictures of episodes I would have it, but I am forced to recycle pictures from other episodes. Well anyway it turns out that this extremely ordinary seeming man is actually leading two separate lives with two separate wives. One is a Mrs. Farthing and the other is Mrs. Gale. Somehow he has convinced both of these women that he is a secret agent for the government. With each woman he acts completely different with very few similarities. So Charlie starts doing a private stakeout on the lead detective in his own case. He sees him having a heated argument with some unknown man at the park. He snaps a couple of shots for his conspiracy wall. Charlie gets back on he case at hand by meeting Dani at the police department. While he is having a conversation with Dani about Farthingale they get a officer down call from in the building. Everyone rushes down to the parking deck only to find the body of the detective in Charlie’s case. Immediately the blame starts to shift towards Charlie even though clearly he didn’t do it. After all that calms down for a minute they get a hit from the federal database. Apparently he did work for the government, wait for it, as an IRS agent. Charlie has an epiphany about the case. They start looking for only things that were the same in his double lives. It turns out that he did have a lead on a serial bomber. The whole time he really did truly just want to be a hero. Charlie and Dani catch the bomber and arrest him for Mr. Farthingale’s murder. By the way what is the twist of this week? The man arguing with the detective on the day he was murdered was Dani’s father. I hope everyone checks out my last post by clicking here.

‘SVU’

Joshua Holmes — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 20:27:05 +0000

So this week there were a couple of very good twists in this week’s episode of ‘SVU’. It starts out as the detectives find an elven year old girl who has been kidnapped, raped, and put in the trunk of an impounded car. Benson and Stabler run the tags only to find that the car was rented by a man from Louisiana named Saul. They go to this man’s apartment to conduct an interview. The man nervously tells them he returned the car and shows them his paperwork. Well that checks out because it turns out that it was stolen from the rental agency. With that not checking out, they get a call over the radio saying another girl was taken. This time security cameras clearly show Saul leading the girl out of the bookstore. It turns out that right after he turned the car in he just stole it back. Through excellent detective work they luckily find them before the girl was hurt. Stabler cuffs him and starts walking toward the car when a car with a sign saying ‘Time to escape’ passes by. The man see this and proceeds to head butt Stabler which sends his head though the back window. He doesn’t get away though. Stabler is taken to the hospital where it is found out that he has been temporarily blinded. After they bring Saul in it is apparent that he is totally insane. He refuses to plea insanity. Louisiana also has a hold on him for a rape there so the FBI is trying to extradite him to Louisana. ADA helps the defense to show that he is insane putting herself in hot water with everyone around her.

‘The Civil War’

Joshua Holmes — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 02:48:48 +0000

So we’re back to my favorite show of the week. ‘Life’ just has such interesting writing with an out of the box kind way of storytelling that just makes this show very refreshing. With some of the other shows I watch sometimes it just feels like they are going through the motions with the storylines. Anyway I’m getting off the subject, this week’s episode starts with two Persian people were shot in a gas station and a third missing. So the owner of the store comes in and identifies one of the suspects as her son. When they do a little digging they find that the three Persians were dealing drugs. The mother of the missing boy gets a call saying that if they wanted the son back they would have to get them all the drug money. Meanwhile at the house Charlie’s mother in law to be rides along on a trip to check out a solar farm. They run out of gas there and have to spend the night out there. The detectives start searching through the boy’s things to try to find any records of the drug money. The only thing they find is a link to a file that isn’t on his computer. Eventually they figure out that it is referring to a level on a video game of his. His little sister helps them get to the level and viola’ there are the records of all the drug transactions. They also found a separate file with the initials of the owner of the store. That’s when they figure out he has both his mom and the boy. Charlie finds them in a bank where he is making them do a wire transfer.So now this has become a mexican standoff of sorts.The swat sniper shoots the suspect and that’s it. By the way check out my last post by clicking here.

“Svengali”

Joshua Holmes — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 01:05:41 +0000

I have to say that this weeks visit to the world of ‘SVU’ was one of the most intriguing episodes that I have seen. This is one show that I would hate to have pushed into reruns by the writer’s union. Not that I have anything bad to say about the strike. Quite the opposite, actually I think that the creative minds behind our favorite tv shows are more than justified in this attempt to receive more money. They create the characters, the plot twists, and just generally make TV shows more than just reality TV. I’m sorry I guess I’m getting a little offtrack here. So two people stumble across a body stashed in an elevator shaft. It was this lady who had been dosed with GHB then strangled with her own pantyhose. The killer also cut her breasts off as a trophy. So they go to the victim, Tina Snow’s apartment to find out from her roommate that she was involved in something weird. They find a burnt piece of paper that, through modern forensics, has a location and a time. The detectives head to the location only to find some kind of weird adventure seekers. They say that the night she died they left her at the Hata Mari bar. The bartender, Cecilia, says she left with some guy later that night. After she gives a description to a sketch artist, she calls Detective Benson during which she is apparently attacked. When they get to the bar they find what appears to have been a struggle and a picture of the Venus De Milo painted in blood. After running the painting through the symbol recognition software at the precinct it turns up with hit on the serial killer Robert Morton who is currently serving eight life sentences. He is expertly played by Jared Harris. He was known for torturing women for exactly twelve hour before murdering them. This means that they have a limited amount of time trying to catch this copycat before he murders Cecilia. It turns out that he has quite the following outside of prison. After wading through a number of dead ends, they find that Tina’s murder was a mirror of the cover of a graphic novel made about Robert Morton. The comic basically explores the possibility of what would have happened if he wasn’t caught. They question the writer, but his alibi is confirmed. They find that the picture left at the bar was the cover of another issue of the comic. The comic says that the girl is killed in Robert’s childhood home. They arrive there to find Cecilia barely alive. She has been cut, but she is OK. At the precinct they receive a bomb hidden in a pizza box. After they evacuate the building someone comes up to Stabler and Benson saying that the girls wounds were self inflicted. So she turns out to be intimately connected to him through his lawyers. She ends up getting off on mental defect. Morton gets his though when he is transfered to a Supermax prison allowing no human contact. By the way check out my last post by clicking here.

“Depths”

Joshua Holmes — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 04:04:10 +0000

Well this week starts out with a washed up body and a coin in a fish belly. Immediately the FBI is there with the suspicion of terrorism. Just because he is Muslim doesn’t mean that he is a terrorist. It turns out that he is a treasure hunter who was just framed to look like a terrorist. So they do a little digging and find out about the coins. After a little looking around they find the fence that the woman used. Well they trace the woman back by her husband who owns a salvage company called Camelot. They go to her house but the husband has tipped her off so she is long gone. They do find the victim’s passport there. They find two sizes of males underwear at the loft which leads them to suspect there is an man involved. The mans name was chili, but by the time they catch up with him he is dead and his boat abandoned. So the list of suspects is very quickly narrowing. It’s down to the husband or the wife. Who is it you ask? Neither, it turns out that it was the dive investor. He stood to lose his fortune if this ship was salvaged. Goren and Eames crack another one wide open. By the way I want to make sure everyone checks out my last post by clicking here.

‘Life’

Joshua Holmes — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 03:16:09 +0000

Dani Reese starts off this episode with her visit to a bar where she sees a man drinking just like her. It turns out that they were both heading to an AA meeting where he says something that makes it seem like he is a rapist. There seems to be a 911 call where larson was implicated, but later the woman recanted. Then out of nowhere Charlie shows up at the AA meeting. Dana leaves with the Larson. Larson gets angry with her and storms off. They find the previous victim, Nancy, but she refuses to testify. So Charlie and his supervisor are on a stakeout finding nothing. Meanwhile Dani catches Nancy going to shoot Larson. They pull Nancy in and try to talk some sense into her. Larson has disappeared from everywhere. Dani starts looking around AA trying to find Larson. A girl there says she meeting him at a local bar. On the poop stakeout they find out that it was her cameraman pooping on her yard. Charlie has to leave to get to the bar. There they arrest Larson for Nancy’s rape. He says the sex was consensual. They still arrest him. Larson makes bail and goes after Dani. He takes her gun and forces her to drink vodka. She slyly calls Charlie in her pocket, and he along with their supervisor heads to the rescue. They rush in and save the day. Hey check out my last post by clicking here.

‘Screwed’

Joshua Holmes — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 03:34:36 +0000

I’m pretty sure that the episode that NBC played today was a rerun, but it was so good I’m still going to do a recap. Well this episode had an all star guest line up with guest star Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges playing our suspect on trail as well as cameo appearances by Nancy Grace and Star Jones. I personally don’t think that Nancy Grace has any right to be on TV after driving Mrs. Duck to suicide by brutalizing her with that interview about her missing son not to mention that Star Jones is scary looking anyway. I have to say though that Ludacris has some serious skills acting. When this episode starts up the case is already at trial. A confession has already been thrown out due to procedural errors, but they still have the murder weapon and his DNA. The ADA was having a very hard time getting his mother to testify and ends up having her charged with contempt. Throughout the trial the defense puts all the cops involved on trial systematically ruining their credibility particularly Detective Fin. I guess that this is also the episode where Adam Beach a.k.a. Detective Lake joins the cast permanently. So it all comes down to the line and whats the verdict, not guilty. By the way I want everyone to check out my last post by clicking here.

This week’s recap of ‘CSI Miami’

Joshua Holmes — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 22:11:55 +0000

With Halloween just around the corner last night we got treated to a special ‘CSI Miami’. There was a solar eclipse in Miami during which a man was garroted to death. So they start their evidence collecting at the scene, but there are no witnesses because everyone was watching the eclipse. So they start talking about how eclipses are associated with evil. The case takes another strange twist when they find out that the hair that they found at the scene was from a wolf. Do you see the Halloween theme yet? They also found some blood on the scene that was definitely human. One of the people working there has cut on his hand, so he slides over into the suspect category. Now the bodies are starting to pile up when a woman is killed. There was also a man attacked, but he survived thanks to his pet wolf hence the wolf hair. They find the same man’s blood on this crime scene as well. Does this seem to be coming together a little too neatly? Horatio thinks so as well. The suspect tells them about the chair he cut his hand on. Upon further inspection the chair was intentionally tampered with so that he would get cut. They run trace on the chair and find that there is a topical cream used for people with extreme sensitivity to the sun on there. This explains why the killer attacked during the eclipse and only at night. That eliminates that suspect so Horatio follows a hunch and asks a suspicious guy that was at the scene of the first murder to come in so they can run a test to see if he has that cream on. He didn’t have it on so it seems that he isn’t a suspect either. Now they look into the survivor thinking that maybe he faked his attack, but he gets ruled out too. They end up catching the guy in the act. It was the guy that came in to be tested. He was covered in burns. He admits to it all saying that they were wasting their lives. Hey don’t forget to check out my last post ‘The Latest News’.