On-Season Week 28

WEEK 28

We've got 7 shows to come this week, including the penultimate episode of The Walking Dead's seventh season, and I've not got much time this week so let's just get right to it.

Bull - 1x17 "Name Game"

"When a class-action suit is brought against a corrupt bank, Bull fronts the money for the trial."

I can't believe the analysis I'm about to provide for Bull, I really can't. After 16 episodes of waxing lyrical about Bull's need to introduce some solid character arcs, it's finally done so at the most awkward time and in a shamefully intrusive manner.
   The plot of "Name Game" was that 4211 people scammed by a pump-and-dump brokerage scheme at Brannigan Trust would seek Bull's help in a class-action suit against the corrupt bank, but with the cost of fighting against a bank so high and everyone's life savings wiped out, Bull would have to front the fee himself. If TAC lost, then the company would be in dire financial straits.

Bull addresses some of the victims of the bank's scheme

   But Benny beginning to crack under the pressure of the impending investigation into his conduct because he put an innocent man away for 9 years diverted all attentions from what should have been the main focus, which was that TAC had so much riding on winning this case. I get that the story demands Benny crack under this pressure, and perhaps having him do so in the midst of such a critically important case was the way to bring things to a head, but I can't help feeling they made a mistake in the execution. TAC won't be in this unique position for another few seasons - if at all - so they really should have made use of the high stakes by keeping that the meat of the episode.
   However, despite saying all that, the misuse of premise vs arc didn't mean "Name Game" was bad, just weighted badly. The Benny stuff was excellent, along with Bull continuing to beat everyone he looked at - except from the judge, who barred him from the courtroom during voir dire. That reminds me of another small gripe about another missed opportunity: a chance to see Benny trying to cope performing voir dire without Bull's backup. Again, Bull being kicked out of a courtroom won't occur again anytime soon, so the chance to see Benny flying solo in analysing jurors being passed up was a stinker.
   VIEWERS: 10.90m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.3

VERDICT: A very good episode that simply missed a lot of beats. 8/10

Elementary - 5x18 "Dead Man's Tale"

"Sherlock continues investigating Shinwell's guilt. Meanwhile, he and Joan investigate the murder of an amateur treasure hunter."

Shinwell walks away after beating up Sherlock

Once again, Elementary is proving that when it has a bad central arc to a season, that weighs down the quality of not just the season but the individual episodes. With "Dead Man's Tale" we had another excellent murder plot - one more convoluted and twisty than usual - but one which was unfortunately throughlined with regular sidebars about Shinwell who Sherlock and Joan suspected of murdering his friend years ago. The climax of this was Shinwell beating up Sherlock in order to make the point that Sherlock needs to leave him alone, but while this does accelerate the arc towards the impending finale, it doesn't build any real sense of thrill. Elementary has never been known to produce great finales in the odd seasons (seasons 1 and 3 were awful whilst arcs for seasons 2 and 4 were fantastic), and with another awful character, this time one whose ambiguity isn't intriguing, driving us in that direction I don't imagine Elementary can do this right.
   That being said, I can't complain about Shinwell all day. There was some excellent stuff here, especially the murder plot. It involved a good old treasure hunt, replete with pirate lore, sunken gold bullion, a captain's logbook and ... Saudi billionaires and fourteen-year-old Dark Web antiques brokers? I guess things have been updated, but both elements provided a fresh diversion from the typical treasure hunt tropes in what was one of the most brilliantly convoluted plots of the season.

   VIEWERS: 5.16m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.8

VERDICT: Shinwell manages to bring down every episode he's in, but "Dead Man's Tale" was one of the better episodes he's visited. 8/10

Hawaii Five-0 - 7x20 "Huikau Na Makau a Ka Lawai'a / The Fishhooks of the Fishers Become Entangled"

"Old Five-0 ally, PI Harry Brown, brings to them a case of a wealthy man's wife and mistress who have both been kidnapped."

There's two words for this episode: too substantive. So much was packed into this episode that its run time nearly exceeded the 44-minute cut-off. The case itself is a perfect place to start: where better than the end? Not only did it transpire that both the husband and the wife were having affairs, but the wife's affair was with one of the kidnappers; she had faked her kidnap, sold out her husband's mistress and extorted a million dollars from her husband before being discovered by Five-0, at which point Harry decided to show her what a real kidnapping felt like on the way to Five-0 headquarters. They almost double-bluffed me with this: I had suspected her involvement halfway through the episode (I'm shocked I'm still this slow on the uptake sometimes), but considered it confirmed when she was packing to run at the same time as her kidnapper boyfriend fled the police. When she was kidnapped "again", I had to wonder if I'd made a mistake, but it turned out to have been Harry's work. Fair play to the writers for that.
   On the character side of things, the episode started with a hilarious anecdote from Grover about how his daughter getting into college had effectively killed his dreams of retiring on a boat, as fees would set him back $150k easy. I suppose that's the parents' viewpoint they don't present to their kids, but somehow Grover's delivery of it made this more comical than anything else. Of course he's proud, but he's allowed to dream too. Or not, as the case may be.
   Elsewhere, the season's theme of reflection continued to drive home talk of Danny retiring, only this time it did so by bringing him and his family back together. His ex-wife Rachel, rarely seen since season 1, has now split from her current husband Stan. Danny refuses to consider the possibility they will reunite (he still has a girlfriend at the moment), but he helps her tell their kids to show his support of her. I always liked Rachel and I hope now we see more of her.

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VERDICT: A strong episode. The plot was perhaps a little easy to guess but the double-bluff had me doubting myself. Good sideplots continuing the season theme. 8/10

MacGyver - 1x19 "Compass"

"When an old MIT friend of Mac's dies, he heads to the funeral; it soon becomes clear everything isn't what it seems."

Mac learns Franky has died

There was very little about "Compass" that could elevate it to one of the better episodes of the season, but it had some fresh elements to separate it from the rest, namely an electric whip and 40 minutes that were surprisingly low on gun battles. But the most interesting part was catching another glimpse into Mac's past, this time into a different part of his past. When Franky transpired to be alive, having faked her own death, the episode turned into something of a nerd-babble-fest (you tell me what polytropes are), without ever overstepping the line into tedium.
   For the fun finale, Franky's sequencing technique identified the murderer who had tried to kill her: MIT's biggest benefactor, Sang, who had eulogised her at her funeral. The look on his face from finding out Franky was alive was as priceless as those reaction faces usually are.
   Meanwhile, the longest-running arc of the season - Bozer's infatuation with Riley - has closed suddenly after some sharp advice from Jack helped him make the decision to let it go. Riley was all too ecstatic with this decision, which is highly disappointing. While the moral message is fine, I had expected something to come of them in a refreshingly early TV timeframe, and this seems like a far bigger step back than usual TV rebuffs.

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VERDICT: A less intense episode matched with no real gunfights. The regression of Bozer and Riley to a Platonic relationship was awfully handled. 7.5/10

NCIS: Los Angeles - 8x19 "767"

"Sam and Callen investigate the theft of a programme with Navy secrets as the thief tries to fly out to Japan."

Plane-centric episodes are bread-and-butter for procedural TV shows because they represent a fun 40-minute shift from a show's typical format. But they are difficult to make unique: a feeling I've had from seeing previous plane-centric episodes (two of which I can recall off-hand from two of my favourite shows Castle and Person of Interest). But NCIS LA, to its credit, moved to tell the story more directly.

Callen is bemused at sitting in economy class

   By that I mean that almost as soon as the main meat of the episode's action began, the entire plane knew something was going on. Gun battles (an odd thing to engage in on a highly pressurised plane thousands of feet in the air) raging in cargo holds weren't missed by passengers, nor were air marshals getting shot and carried from one end of the plane to the other; the typical ending, however, of a standoff between good guy and villain was assured. But, for the repetitiveness of that, the resolution was unique: having the pilot swerve the plane to destabilise the bad guy long enough for Callen and Sam to subdue him.
   The funniest part of the episode was Kensi and Deeks meeting with a contact of Sam's, an expert in film set prop bombs, who took to winding up Deeks simply because he could. It was hilarious.
   But for all of that, nothing quite topped that final scene: Callen, Sam and Hetty sat in OSP with a whiskey, and Hetty reflecting on OSP's turbulent year. Amid other horrors, they've dealt with Kensi getting shot and ending up in a coma, a rogue CIA group trying to bring them down and Granger dying. It's been a bad year. Hopefully, things can only improve.

   VIEWERS: 11.17m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.6

VERDICT: NCIS LA proved that rehashed premises can be freshened up if even a little thought gets put into them. 8.5/10

Quantico - 2x15 "Mockingbird"

"The team struggle to work together as they investigate a fake news story that hides the real reason government operatives evacuate a small town."

The introduction of the procedural format following the closure of the G20 summit terrorist attack plotline hasn't dialled down the drama or the intrigue, but it has caused it to lose something of the magic. Every main character - each with hidden agendas, secrets and personal struggles - being under suspicion of having an involvement with the rogue CIA group lent every scene an unavoidable tension, made every scene one you had to pay attention to. Without that lure, with these characters just banding together to find your typical spy story villains, Quantico has lost a bit of its identity, a part it will likely never rediscover.

Léon is revealed to have been murdered

   Positives have come from this format shift, however. The main plus side to the characters no longer being under suspicion is that we now have a cohesive group working together towards a common goal, and therefore the dynamics of that team can be intricately explored. It's this exploration of the dynamics that fuelled "Mockingbird", for the team were not yet that cohesive unit Clay Haas desired.
   His authority was not respected because of Owen's presence and the fact that his divisive leadership style was poorly received, whilst Nimah found herself having to prove her value even to be included since Clay simply didn't trust her. Meanwhile, Harry eventually works his way into the team (after failing to convince MI6 to take him back) following some home truths from Alex (Harry gets all the best emotional scenes), and even Ryan and Alex's currently in-limbo relationship had time to be discussed.
   This built around an episode that saw the team put the second of eight faces involved in the leaked documents on their board - one that also revealed Léon Velez's kidnap had ended in his bloody demise. The team might be coming for those involved in the terrorist attack, but someone is coming for the team too. And I doubt if everyone will make it out alive.

   VIEWERS: 0.7

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 3.15m

VERDICT: Bringing the team together after 2 episodes was imperative: headway is being made towards the season's endgame. With 7 episodes left, 6 faces to add to the board and the team being hunted, the drama will continue to rise. 8.5/10

The Walking Dead - 7x15 "Something They Need"

"Gregory considers his decreasing influence as Hilltop leader. Sasha tries to talk Eugene into helping her die, hiding her true motive. Rick leads a group to Oceanside."

The Walking Dead writers need to take a look at "Something They Need" and realise that its format is something they need. For far too long the average-at-best episodes revolving around single plot strands or one or two characters have bogged down one the highest rated TV show in the world, but when episodes come together as cleanly as this one did it just feels good. The problem is that the show's format has been stagnant for so long that this feels like nostalgia more than anything else, as Scott Gimple has generally shown no interest in reverting to the pre-season 4 format of multiple plot strands per episode (we miss you Glen Mazzara).
   However, doing so really fleshes out everything in a much more watchable way. Here, we had everybody: Alexandria, as they fought to convince Oceanside to participate in the war against the Saviours; intense scenes with Negan, Eugene and the captured Sasha at the Saviours' compound (poor Sasha tried to trick Eugene into helping her kill Negan by asking for a weapon with which she could kill herself, but he gave her the poison pill instead); and Hilltop, which is by far the most aesthetically pleasing location of them all - even if Gregory is fated for death.

   While there's moral questions to be raised when comparing the way Rick treats people compared to Negan (in this episode there's almost a reversal), the main point is that this episode has set up everything perfectly for the finale, and if Gimple doesn't see that this tighter format creates stronger plotlines and more opportunities for cliffhangers and audience suspense then it'll be his own fault The Walking Dead's post-season 3 life isn't remembered fondly.
   But back to the final cliffhanger: that silhouette who approached Rosita the episode before outside the Saviours' compound was Dwight, who was looking to defect! This will be fun!

   VIEWERS: 10.54m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 4.9

VERDICT: Format - good! Plots - good! The Walking Dead should stick with this! 8/10

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

NCIS LA - Lincoln Stern: "That's not what Sam said. Don't like to contradict Sam."

BEST EPISODE THIS WEEK:

I wanted to give this to Quantico, for what was an excellent and unique story about the use of fake news and the hidden agendas behind it. But I feel the procedural element has taken something away from its mystery, and the characters being out of harmony didn't quite work for me.
   "Dead Man's Tale" by Elementary was also a solid contender, and for a plot more wavy than the seas its pirates roamed it might have made this spot but for including Shinwell. So I can only really fall back to one show: NCIS LA with "767".
   It did everything I feel a plane-centric episode should do: it utilised more locations than just the aisles, toilets and cargo hold, it wasn't this secret mission that had to be kept secret and thus didn't keep its agenda secret from passengers, bringing them and the staff into action at appropriate times. It was also funny and that final scene with Hetty, Sam and Callen felt like the right way to cap - and I will repeat the terrible pun - a very turbulent year.

LAST WEEK'S ROUNDUP: On-Season Week 27

NEXT WEEK'S ROUNDUP: (will be posted here when complete)

Final thoughts

That's it for Week 27, one that was more consistent than most previous weeks in terms of quality. Next week we drop down to 5 shows, losing our Sunday pleasures in NCIS LA and Elementary, but I'll be in Rome this week so I won't be able to do this roundup for Saturday. I'll try to get Week 28 out to you as soon as I can following my return: hopefully it will be up around Monday 10th. (And no this is not an April Fool's joke!)
   Also, because I'm having to post this early there'll be no ratings for either Friday show Hawaii Five-0 or MacGyver. I might update them while I'm away, but if not I'll do so once I return!

Thanks for reading everyone and I'll see you when I get back!

Sam