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Post by annabelleleigh on Apr 20, 2009 9:03:43 GMT -5
...The motivations of the villains were also off. You can either be politically savvy or deluded enough to think you can get a sex offender elected mayor; you can't be both. Very astute, R. Welcome back. You have been too long absent. AL
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Post by idget on Apr 20, 2009 9:10:44 GMT -5
I agree with most everything that has been written. It was a good episode, but I felt like something was missing. I can't quite put my finger on what that was though. I was glad there was no rift between Goren and Eames but there didn't seem to be any spark their either. No snarks from Eames was also a disappointment. I know that the story was heavy and that a snark could have been in bad taste, but in the past they have always managed to put it in somehow and make it seem appropriate. I liked that there seemed to be no tension between Goren and Ross. I actually think Ross didn't get enough airtime, his presence would have made more sense with such a "political" case. I liked that Rodgers was in it, she doesn't get out to the crime scenes enough. I also think that there was something creepy between the mother and son. Sexual abuse is usually a learned behavior. The performance from Kathy Baker was great, I agree that the actor playing the role of her son lacked the charisma to pull it off. I have to respectfully disagree with Random on either being politically savvy or a sex offender. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. People in power come to believe that they live by a different set of rules and believe that they can get away with anything. Look at just two recent examples, Blagovetch (unsure of the spelling) and former governor of New York Spitzer. And of course there is that man who has since made this quote infamous " I did not have sex with that woman".
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Post by Patcat on Apr 20, 2009 9:35:59 GMT -5
I could believe in the premise of a man so filled with power and so convinced of his own greatness that the rules of conventional behavior don't apply to him--and I think there have been great LOCI episodes dealing with that--but I didn't believe this man, and I fault the actor and, to a lesser extent, the script.
The actress playing the son's wife (and Stacey's mother) seemed weak to me too. Mr. D'Onofrio and Ms. Erbe were completely convincing to me in the scene where they tagteamed the wife and got her to realize what she was and had done, but the guest actress was less effective.
The more I consider her, the more I like the actress playing Stacey. And I like the gentle way the detectives treat her, especially Goren and Ross.
Have we seen the actress playing the blonde detective before? And the actor playing the killer who supposedly owned the trucking company?
Oh, this episode reruns at midnight tonight/tomorrow morning.
Patcat
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Post by annabelleleigh on Apr 20, 2009 9:45:05 GMT -5
Idget --
Here's what was missing: Much of anything interesting for the actors to do. No zip, zing or zest to any of it. The dialogue was turgid.
Erbe's Eames might as well have been a prop basket introduced to carry forward plot points. And if VDO phoned it in (and I don't claim that he did), I can't say that I blame him. "Playing Dead" illustrates their (well-placed) concerns about the change in writers.
Also missing: The talents of Diana Son and Charlie Rubin; Stephanie Sengupta and and Gina Gionfriddo (teamed with their mentor Rene Balcer); and those masters of subtext, the playwrights Marlane Gomard Meyer and Theresa Rebeck.
I thought Balcer's mentor Walon Green and his former writing partner Michael Chernuchin were actually going to write the G/E episodes. I must be so naive.
AL
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Post by unsteady on Apr 20, 2009 9:49:52 GMT -5
I wasn't sure how I felt about this episode. After coming here and reading all your posts, I'm very depressed. Especially what AL wrote about Antoinette Stella. She wasn't ever mentioned when they talked about the new writers. I wonder why.
I don't want to say things will get better later. I want things to be better NOW.
So, what's to be done? Do we all stop watching? I think AnnabelleLeigh might as well.
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Post by DonnaJo on Apr 20, 2009 9:56:56 GMT -5
I don't see any of us not watching or giving up on the series. Especially not AL. Hopefully there are some really fine episodes coming up. ;D Patcat, the blond Detective has been at the initial crime scene quite a few times. What comes immediately to mind is both "Siren Call" and "Privileged." She was great here, playing along with Goren's theory of how the murder occurred. A discussion with Det. Munch from SVU would have been very appropriate considering the nature of this episode, so sadly I think the scene was cut. I hope I'm wrong & we'll see him banter with Nichols & Wheeler next week. Mixing up the order of episodes made me wonder if Goren & Rodgers have a post morgue trashing awkward moment in an earlier episode.
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Post by ragincajun on Apr 20, 2009 10:07:09 GMT -5
I rewatched again, we had some repeaters, wished Goren would have called the girl detective by her name, he should know it by now, maybe they should date? Mitch from prisioner, will have to look up but was Stacy, Amanda from War at Home? Betty Gilpin? will have to look at credits.
I just felt Goren would have shown more emotion and anger toward a pediphile. But I guess he was after the murderer and had to play it another way. I don't know, he was just sooo unemotional to me. Maybe it was the script.
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Post by jeffan on Apr 20, 2009 10:09:27 GMT -5
annabelleleigh wrote:
Also missing: The talents of Diana Son and Charlie Rubin; Stephanie Sengupta and and Gina Gionfriddo (teamed with their mentor Rene Balcer); and those masters of subtext, the playwrights Marlane Gomard Meyer and Theresa Rebeck.
I thought Balcer's mentor Walon Green and his former writing partner Michael Chernuchin were actually going to write the G/E episodes. I must be so naive.
Why would they not use the writers they originally claimed were going to write the G/E episodes? It seems as if the one who actually has written this episode does not have a very good track record.
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Post by idget on Apr 20, 2009 10:24:45 GMT -5
Perhaps your right Annabelleleigh and it was the writing. I can only hope it improves. The more I think about it, maybe a lot of it had to do with not enough tension. Goren, Eames and Ross didn't seem to portray the urgency to solve this case. They just went to point A to point B to point C with what I can only describe as a causal nonchalance. They didn't seem to be in a hurry to get anywhere or do anything. I do agree with Patcat that the young sexual abuse victim was well played and the scenes between Goren and her were some of the best. Her description of dissociation is something most sexual abuse victims use as a coping mechanism and I could sympathize with her and Goren over their need to have to use it. I also felt like the shooter has been in another LOCI episode and played a similar character. It has been bothering me all morning trying to remember which one. So do all hitman rent an entire warehouse floor, keep it empty and pretend to be in another business? That seems to me that it would bring some unwanted attention.
P.S. I just noticed that I am now a Silver Shield Investigator! I like the idea of having a Silver Shield, it makes me feel like a superhero. WooHoo! ;D
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Post by jeffan on Apr 20, 2009 10:44:27 GMT -5
Taking into account the comments of the experts on the show and, given that this is a Season premiere where USA will be hoping to attract new viewers, I ask the question:
will this episode achieve that aim?
I'm not including Jeff Goldblum fans in the equation as that is a given.
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Post by Patcat on Apr 20, 2009 10:56:32 GMT -5
Idget--I think your comment of getting from A to B to C with little drama is well put. I think that's the problem with this episode, and it's why I think that some scenes with more spark got lost. It's an interesting premise for an episode--sort of Tennessee Williams territory. Perhaps the problem was that the material was so potentially explosive that everyone decided to underplay everything. It was certainly a better episode than a CSI story I saw with a similar story line--wealthy family, father child molester who fathered a daughter with his daughter, abused daughter's boyfriend kills family except for the two girls.
I thought Eames was calm on the surface, but angry underneath. And perhaps Goren was calm because he was "playing dead" and hiding his emotions?
Patcat
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Post by DonnaJo on Apr 20, 2009 11:04:40 GMT -5
Excellent catch, ragin. I couldn't put my finger on who the girl was, but she was indeed the murdered soldier in "TWAH." Goren's lack of outrage over a pedophile? I think since the pedophile was a well known political figure, he knew that he had to keep his cool. Which says volumes to me about his road to good mental health - that he could stay profession. I'm tired of a Goren who acts out by trashing desks, morgues & twisting wrists.
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Post by SarahIvy on Apr 20, 2009 11:08:43 GMT -5
Bah, Sarah's here to be a downer That was boring. Not BAD, but boring. It was absolutely lacking the "zazz" of what made episodes from seasons 1-4 so wonderful. It was definitely not appointment tv for me, just something I might have on while working if I couldn't find something better. This was a retread story I have seen plenty of times before, done just as well on other various cop and drama shows. This was a very serious story that had zero emotional pull for me. It was lacking any depth in explaining/exploring how this mother and son came to be such monsters. I felt no sense of tension or passion to solve the case whatsoever....though yes, Goren's relating to the step-daughter was nice. But that hardly makes for an intriguing episode. Why is it I feel like this show has gotten as subtle as a brick to the head? The step daughter's pulse racing when her step-father approached at the hospital was a perfectly good little detail. done. to. death. I'm not that dense, honest. I didn't need to hear the pulse rate increase, be shown the monitor screen, hear the pulse rate again, then hear the pulse rate start to go down and then be shown the screen AGAIN. Thanks, I got it! Well, as indifferent as I was to this episode, I'm interested to see how the first Goldblum episode goes next week. Perhaps it'll have some actual life to it.
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Post by nomoreexcuses on Apr 20, 2009 11:19:59 GMT -5
I almost hesitate to say this because I don't want to be marked as a one-character fan but where was Captain Ross in this episode? True, Eric B. has a much smaller role but when he does appear on the screen he always - IMO - has presence. His lines could have been delivered by anybody conveniently in make-up when the scenes were shot. Was he "playing dead" too? Was nearly everyone supposed to be aping the show title? That doesn't seem possible as the epi's aim.
SarahIvy described so well my reaction to the episode as a whole I won't try to improve on it, but I will say that I blame the directing as much as the writing.
nme (and when I say "no more excuses" I mean it.)
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ZackNicholsgirl
Detective
I love both doggies and kitties. I could just scrunch up their cute little faces! - Jeff Goldblum
Posts: 423
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Post by ZackNicholsgirl on Apr 20, 2009 11:29:39 GMT -5
I've just watched it! Just sent Z-girl a nice suprise. AWESOME! I'm Watching it right now and Bobby is great!!
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