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Post by chyochyo on Dec 2, 2007 22:11:20 GMT -5
Didn't Goren mention in "The Unblinking Eye" that his father's favorite poem is Fern Hill? (Sad for Bobby, to have that lovely poem ruined for him--is all poetry ruined for him, do you think?) I always thought, based on that comment, that Bobby's father was probably some kind of teacher for a local college, the kind who sleeps with students, and maybe a failed writer in the bargain.
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Post by Patcat on Dec 3, 2007 9:49:42 GMT -5
Chyochyo; That's an interesting observation. I think there's a tendency to view Goren's father as some gambler/low level gangster type, but it actually makes more sense if he were a failed academic or writer. It might be more likely for such a man to meet and sweep Frances Goren off her feet. Working in the academic world, I've seen a few failed teacher/writer types who try to hold on to their youth and perceived success by drinking, gambling and having affairs.
Patcat
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Post by ragincajun on Dec 3, 2007 13:44:03 GMT -5
I have heard people say, That they thought Gorens father was a Doctor since Croyden was like his father, but this makes more sense, Schill(sp), was probably more like his Dad, The drinker, suave, charming, everyone liked him, but was really a loser and a user.
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Penn O'Hara
Silver Shield Investigator
LOCI Cowboys
Posts: 147
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Post by Penn O'Hara on Jan 5, 2008 7:07:34 GMT -5
This one had my head spinning. I wasn't sure who had written what and who had copied what from whom...even at the end. And clever as these detectives are, they manage to make huge leaps in intuitiveness to come up with answers out of obscurities.
In the gym scene...Bobby was taking a risk here, or was he really so confident in TJ's cowardice? Could Bobby have gone a round with TJ if the latter had called his bluff? TJ was pounding the bejeebers out of that punching bag. Come to think of it, Goren's starting to resemble a punching bag, both physically and mentally. ::sigh::
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Post by tjara on Apr 16, 2009 6:23:49 GMT -5
As I'm trying to make the time till Sunday go by faster, I thought I'd catch up on some episode reviews that I "ought to do".
I know I say that about many episodes, but I really did like "Self-Made". It confused me at first, but many CI eps have done that. I generally do like most CI eps, otherwise I wouldn't be watching. *grin* Yet I think Self-Made is one of the very fine servings of Season 7, better that it's predecessors "Smile" & "Depths" (Amends, Untethered and Purgatory for me, are not comparable to the others because they are so different for all the personal stuff that's going on).
Anyway, what I really appreciated about this one was that it was multi-layered and complicated, like "old-school2 CI. I think the only thing missing from the teaser was that we saw Schill "convince" TJ that Keira was a problem - then it would really have been classic CI. Still, for men there was little question as to "who" had done it - it had to be either Schill or TJ, and I think they really spent the rest of the time asking the "why".
What really unsettled me was all the wrist-twisting (I actually thought it was thumb twisting) - because I think it's rather unlike Goren. I thought it was acted brilliantly, by all three people involved, but it didn't ring true to me. KE especially, was great though - she was so unsettled my Bobby "going slightly mental".
I could've done without Eames' mentor-reference. I didn't mind Schill much, when a suspect says such things, it always serves to shed light on their character, too. Also, if Schill said it, I could always brush it off by saying he doesn't know what he is talking about and/or that he was trying to get back at Bobby (because these two didn't like each other from the get-go.) When Eames says it, though, it weighs differently. She knows Bobby inside-out, so when she says it, it's more of a "fact". And that's the "subtelty of a brick" that others have been refering to, I think. If only Schill said it, we could discuss whether that was a nod to Declan, but if Eames says it - it is a reference to Declan.
I'm also a little surprised at the changing state of the B/A relationship. They were mostly fine in Amends, apart from when Bobby picked up Joe's case (at first). They were more or less fine in Smile until the end when we learn that Eames has been wondering about their partnership (and I still think that came out of nowhere), they were so fine in Depths that she covered for him ("He slipped"), in Seld-Made she definitely scared by his actions, yet in Untethered she covers for him BIG TIME. This doesn't ring true to me, and I don't think it's because the production numbers didn't match the order in which the eps were aired. IMHO, it's the writing. This is supported by the fact the Bobby "got better" from ep to ep - meaning he seemed to be putting his mother's death behind him. I wonder why they managed to show a process in that area but not in the B/A relationship. And they did it again later on, with Missing - Please Note - and Vanishing Act - "complete chaos" where the B/A relationship is concerned.
But on to the more positive things. I liked how Goren was playing the suspects in this one. They knew TJ was putting on an act from the time in the bookstore, and I think that was why Bobby played him in the boxing-scene later on. Also, I like how in that scene I get my "Bobby-reaction-pattern". When TJ says that Bobby could beat answers out of Lionel, you can see that it hits Bobby, he's embarrased. He shuffles shortly, throws Eames a look (I think it's a cue) and then proceeds to play the mind-game on TJ. I guess inspite of the fact that Eames knows its an act, she isn't sure how far he'll go, so that's why she's a little concerned in the scene, but she still is playing along. When I see Bobby in that scene, where he "shuffles" when he's hit personally, I always am disenchanted by the scene in Smile. When something gets to Bobby, he needs a second to regroup, and that's so notoriously missing from the scene in Smile. And the stuff in Smile hurt him much more that what TJ said...
Goren was playing Sage to - accepting the water when Sage wanted them out, and of course he played Schill. People commented that his dislike for Schill seemed to come out of nowhere. I don't think so. Bobby has read Schill's first (and sucessful) book about the '67 riots in NJ "when he was in College" (Btw., I think this is further reference that Bobby went to College while in the army). Bobby knew who Schill was before meeting him. Also, right at the beginning the Homicide cop points out to Goren that the gun that was used to kill Keira was "older than the victim" - so for Goren he was just adding up the fact. Also, one couldn't miss Schill's drinking, and that's a sensitive spot for Bobby - especially since the Daddy-question is tormenting him at this point. For Bobby, Schill was a suspect from the start, and he was testing him from the start. He's done it with other people.
As for his ongoing disdain with Schill: Bobby doesn't like mindbenders - I might remind you of "Seizure" or "Legion". In Seizure, he was irritating Dr. Dwyer from the get-go, too.
This ep does get two thumbs up from me!
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Post by idget on Apr 16, 2009 10:32:58 GMT -5
Great review Tjara, I agree with a lot of what you said. I also thought Bobby's immediate dislike for Schill came because of the first book he wrote, because didn't it concern a cop that was killed in the riots and Schill's sympathy for the cop killer? Bobby may not be a conventional cop, but I think he would not have much respect for someone who wrote so sympathetically about a cop killer. I also agree that the state of Goren and Eames' partnership seems to be all over the map in season 7. I was watching Smile Tuesday, during the marathon USA had on, and a thought about the comment Eames made at the end occurred to me. Perhaps some of it had to do with her being upset with him and his penchant to once again to go off and meet alone with female suspects like he did in Semi-detached?
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Post by tjara on Apr 16, 2009 11:52:10 GMT -5
I cannot comment on the parallel to Semi-Detached, Sorry. I havn't seen the latter.
But something else occured to me. Isn't the way Bobby treats Shills strangely similar to the way he treated Sabatelli in Semi-Professional? They were setting Sabatelli up from the get-go.
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Post by Patcat on Apr 16, 2009 12:49:14 GMT -5
H-m-m. My take is that Bobby is playing Sabatelli and stroking the judge's ego. He doesn't even try with Shills. He has no respect for Shill (one of the more appropriately named LOCI villains) because the man has thrown away his own talent and is destroying the talent and lives of others. Goren has always had a particular dislike of people who destroy innocence (Eames is none too fond of them either), and I think the questions about his father increased that anger, and that's why he reacted so badly to Shill.
Patcat
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Post by DonnaJo on Apr 16, 2009 13:50:39 GMT -5
Yes, Patcat. Bobby hates when those he considers vulnerable, like children, young women, the faithful, the elderly and the mentally challenged, are taken advantage of and used badly.
I remember in Season 1's "The Insider,"his comment to the corrupt FBI guy (can't remember it exactly) "You used her, she was weak & you used her..and that really pisses me off."
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Post by outerbankschick on Apr 16, 2009 18:19:07 GMT -5
Most of us would be bothered by innocence corrupted, used or destroyed. Bobby seems to be rabidly so. I think this is because his own innocence was destroyed at a very young age. First by a womanizing, alcoholic father and then by a mentally ill mother. Can you imagine the jokes he and Frank had to endure as young boys about their "crazy" mother?
So it may be that he can identifiy with that kind of pain and it makes him just that much more angry.
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Post by tjara on Apr 17, 2009 3:42:01 GMT -5
You're right, and that's how they ultimately break him, too. I still think there's a strange similiarity, but maybe that's because the way the Sabatelli scene was played. It was one of the scenes where you really knew Goren was putting up an act. He was "friendly", but you knew what he was up to.
@obc Great point!
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Post by Patcat on Nov 19, 2010 8:58:21 GMT -5
Bump for EOTW.
Patcat
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