2:21- "Graansha" 2003-05-11

[deathroe]

I noticed that this episode didn't have a thread, and USA is currently playing it. It has always interested me (if slightly) because I was living in the area where the case on which it based happened when it happened. An Irish Traveller (Madeline Toogood) was caught on tape beating her little girl outside the Kohl's in Mishawaka (St. Joe county/South Bend area, Indiana). She and other adults had involved the children in a shoplifting scam.

"Travellers" seem to have a reputation everywhere past a certain point in the US, as well as in the UK and Ireland maybe?? They are associated with that area (especially with nearby Elkhart Co., I believe), which is why Goren comments about the family's vehicles having IN plates.

One thing about the episode that made me slightly curious was that the family in question seem to be presented as Irish (the child wedding has "flowers of Ireland," so on). However, it is my understanding that these people are not ethnically Irish at all. They are a separate, nomadic ethnic group, somewhat like the Roma. It's hard to find a lot about them on the internet; I remember being very curious at the time the case happened and looking them up.

side note: Malcolm the Anthropologist has two PhDs, I notice, which seems a little crazy to me ...

[DonnaJo]

No thread? I thought you had missed it way back on another page, but for some reason no one has ever started a discussion of this ep. Yet, it;s been referenced a gazillion times on other threads. "Graansha Bag" is a classic reference to a list of the worst CI episodes. I can't recall who thought that up, can someone help me out?

Actually, the episode has some good moments. One of the gristliest crime scenes ever on CI is the mutilated face of Anne Devlin. It made Eames turn away, which is no small feat. And how quirky & weird was Goren, smelling the corpse's hands for chicken wing/blue cheese residue? Not to mention he was an inch away from her bloody face. Jeez.

What placed this episode, for me, on the top of the list of bad eps was the ending aria under that tent at the betrothal party. So corny, so over the top. Even watching it now, I'm actually embarrassed for D'Onofrio having to do those scenes.

[Patcat]

H-m-m. I've always liked this episode. Not the best of CI, but certainly not the worst. Although the aria always seemed a bit off to me. I wonder if the location had to be changed or adapted because of the clearly bad weather. And I didn't think it was a betrothal party--I thought it was after Anne's funeral, but I could be wrong.

I'm always moved by Goren's comment about what Anne left behind. In Mr. D'Onofrio's reading, it always seems to recognize how much courage it took for this young woman to do the right thing.

Patcat

[deathroe]

Every time that one comes up, I can still smell the buffalo wings. Blech.

I think the end is pretty cheesy too (and the whole thing just has to be kind of fake, because who knows anything about the Travellers)? However, catching the perp out within a community is a distinctive feature of CI in my book. "Privilege" springs to mind as a recent example.

[DonnaJo]

deathroe said:

However, catching the perp out within a community is a distinctive feature of CI in my book. "Privilege" springs to mind as a recent example.

"Privilege" is a good recent example & is also an aria that I really dislike.

A recent example of a clever approach to outing the perp in his community is "Self-Made," the aria in Lionel's "salon" with his proteges around him...very embarrassing.

I also liked the outing of the Pharmacist on the church steps in front of the Congregation in Season 2's "Malignant."

[deathroe]

How'd you know about the flowwwwerrsss, Ernest?

Well, yes *g*

[maherjunkie]

The only memorable thing about this ep for me is it is one of those eps that showcase Goren being good with children.