On-Season Week 32

WEEK 32

This week we have five shows to review; trading a Monday and Tuesday show for two Sundays and a Friday. That means Bull and Scorpion take a week off, while Elementary, Hawaii Five-0 and NCIS LA all return. Among the action this week we get a look into Danny's life prior to joining Five-0, Bell's love life returns to a focus in Elementary and can the Nine-Nine rescue their precinct from closure?

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - 4x15 "The Last Ride"

"Jake and Boyle try to make their last case the best case ever. Holt tries to complete his 9-year mentoring plan for Amy. Terry is appalled when he realises Hitchcock holds the Nine-Nine record for most solves. Gina spends the final day pranking everyone by spiking drink and food with cement."

When you have an A. B. C and D plot to fit into 21 minutes of TV it's probably difficult to pull off, and with "The Lat Ride" there's an odd sense that it both did and didn't quite work. Sure, Amy's rushed mentoring by Holt didn't need any extra screentime devoted to it, but the rapidfire one-liners scene was a golden opportunity to really hit Holt's rigid disciplinarian notes and I feel like the writers instead went for some mid-range punchlines. Likewise, Terry's horror at discovering Hitchcock holds the Nine-Nine solve record and then Hitchcock adding to it was full of good Hitchcock-related gags, but the plot had more potential than time allowed.

The tattoo Hitchcock purchased, in which he "triumphantly
blows smoke from a fired gun".

   Typically, Jake's A-plot was the weakest for the simple reason it heavily featured Jake and Boyle, the pairing with perhaps the most chemistry but the least funny of all the pairings. That's not to say their plot wasn't good, but when every other plot was much funnier and more interesting it was hard to miss the divide in quality. It was also the only plot not troubled by Gina's cement drink pranks (the final scene does not count), a D-plot that really connected the precinct-based B- and C-plots.
   But perhaps crucially, we got more than just send-off plots, we had important backstory into the entire tenure of the Nine-Nine (mainly when you consider the fact that Hitchcock has the record for most solves). It was refreshing to delve a little into the Nine-Nine's history, even if we saw a horrifying truth.

   VIEWERS: 1.88m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.7

VERDICT: An example of how Jake's centrality can detract from impressive plots. What we had was good but more could have been done. 8/10

Elementary - 5x20 "The Art of Sleights and Deception"

"A magician is murdered using a bullet catching trick."

My want to continue watching Elementary was non-existent prior to this episode, but I decided that so close to its (likely series) end it seemed pointless to throw in the towel now. Unfortunately, that resolution was severely tested with "The Art of Sleights and Deception", as once again the quality of a very good, convoluted main murder mystery was soured by the atrociousness of its sideplots.
   Bell's DA girlfriend and her violent, benefits cheat ex weren't exactly interesting in the one episode they appeared in earlier in the season, but Elementary took the level of disinterest to unimaginable levels by having Chantal's ex Roy hire someone to lie about Bell drawing a gun on him during a driving feud, and then when Roy was exposed he (presumably) killed Chantal in revenge. Of course, she could be alive yet, but the sight of her bloody hand by her phone as Bell rings her doesn't bode well. I knew something like this was going to happen when Bell arrived at her house in the final scene, but what Elementary needs to learn is it isn't Quantico. Bloody hands suggesting dead bodies don't work unless we care about the characters and at this point there's not a-one in this show, main character or side, who I care about anymore.
   The murder plot was very good though but ... meh.

   VIEWERS: 4.47m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.5

VERDICT: Season 5 challenging to out-rubbish Season 3. If this is the end of Elementary, it's forgotten to retain its dignity. 5/10

Hawaii Five-0 - 7x23 "Wehe 'ana / Prelude"

"Danny's old HPD captain locates the missing witness from Danny's final HPD case over seven years ago, but so do those who want him dead."

This has to be summed up as one of the best episodes of the season, partly because of its unique structure (I don't remember another Hawaii Five-0 episode built like this). That unique structure was to take the focus of one character and make them almost the only Five-0 character to appear in the episode at all. Sure, Lou, Kono, Chin and Jerry made appearances, but only for a few minutes and never in scenes with Danny. He was off with his old HPD captain saving a comatose witness who had been close to waking up from the cartel who wanted him dead.
   One of the brilliant things about the episode was the use of the flashbacks of Danny six months after arriving in Hawaii juxtaposed with the present day Danny to give us insights into a number of show themes. Not only do we see how isolated Danny was back then in terms of work and personal life, but we then realise how far he's come given he now has an entire circle of close friends and colleagues. Not only that but flashbacks take us to Danny's fractured relationship with his wife Rachel, who blocks him from seeing his daughter Grace, whereas in the present day Danny and Rachel seem close to reuniting (even if Danny needs to break up with his current girlfriend first), while he now has a son Charlie with Rachel as well. And on top of that, the reflective theme of the episode matched with the reflective theme of the season, especially when it returned to talk of Danny retiring.
   But by far the best thing to come out of this episode was an answer to the question "why was Danny at McGarrett's house the very first time they met?" And it transpires it was all because Captain Tanaka took him off the case his witness had gone missing from and put him on the John McGarrett murder case. Cue the final scene a wonderful copy-paste of the very first time Danny and McGarrett met.
   VIEWERS: 7.78m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.9

VERDICT: A well-timed venture into the past of one of the best characters on the show, marrying with the current theme perfectly. 9.5/10

NCIS: Los Angeles - 8x21 "Battle Scars"

"When a homeless vet kidnaps an officer at the VA, a link is made to Hetty's past in Vietnam."

The first part of the first two-parter that will ring out NCIS LA's eighth season thrust the audience into Hetty's past, conjuring her old Vietnam unit with some great guest stars, including Carl Lumbly (Alias) and James Remar (Dexter), and bringing back the character of AJ Chegwedden. In doing so, Hetty received a greater amount of screen time than usual, and was gladly not tied to her desk like she usually is.

Callen & Sam find Chegwedden & Bridges
at their suspect's house

   The homeless vet, Langston (Lumbly), transpired to be among the unit who rescued agents from Vietnam (among those rescued was Owen Granger), and along with Sterling Bridges (Remar) and Chegwedden, antagonised Sam and Callen whilst they figured out what the pawnbroker, Yaniv, to whom Langston had sold a gold bar of ransom money, was up to. And that turned out to be hunting down where Langston had hidden the rest, leaving the NCIS team with the need to retrieve the stolen $40m worth of gold bars in part two.
   There were some good emotional beats too, but they were frustratingly not followed up on. This started with Eric's light PTSD following his car-exploding heroics three episodes earlier, but Sam's advice had no bearing on Eric's few appearances later in the episode. Also, whilst visiting the pawn shop Deeks found a wedding veil and suggested it to Kensi, who admitted sadly she had wanted to ask Granger to walk her down the aisle. Both scenes were very well acted, but they lacked any follow up, which was unfortunate when the episode, under 40 mins long, had a few minutes of extra run time it could have played with.

   VIEWERS: 9.44m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.0

VERDICT: An average start to the first two-parter that will end the season. Missed out on closure for its scattered emotional moments. 7/10

Quantico - 2x19 "Mhorder"

"The taskforce tries to turn one of the collaborators."

I'm not typically a fan of galas or upper-class parties as a setting for undercover work unless it's actually unavoidable due to plot (which it usually isn't). However, in "Mhorder", the only way to get the surviving collaborators together and attempt to turn them was with an invitation from the President to a hastily arranged engagement party for Clay and Maxine. Of course, it never seemed like it was ever going to work: the collaborators were aware of the ploy and had already prepared steps to avoid incriminating themselves or even being in the presence of taskforce members for too long. And the one time it did look like it had worked (with Ryan successfully blackmailing a mercenary called Alice Winter), she reversed the blackmail by exposing the taskforce to the media as an unsanctioned black ops unit and fronting it with video of Ryan heading for a secret meeting. That means the President could be impeached, which I forgot was a thing the collaborators could push for. Juicy.
   Meanwhile, Clay's burgeoning feelings for Shelby were cut off at his request, though I doubt he wanted to see Caleb and Shelby come down from their room, having pretended to have sex to hurt him. But I reckon Caleb enjoyed hurting his brother as much as he enjoys his unceasing remarks about Shelby; job done, Caleb is now taking his leave. I'll miss his character.
   And Alex has now gone rogue with Owen, in what they see to be the only way of stopping the collaborators: by having Alex go in undercover. But to win the collaborators' trust, she's wiped all the evidence the taskforce had on the collaborators, leaving the taskforce completely screwed, almost broken and on the verge of complete exposure.

   VIEWERS: 2.59m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.5

VERDICT: You knew the gala ploy was never going to work, but it failed in a much less predictable and satisfying manner. Caleb's wit punched through the seriousness of the episode, and giant twists rounded off another stunning entry. 9/10

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

Quantico - Caleb (singing to and about collaborator Roarke): "This white man / Old fascist / He wants Muslims on a list / With a knick knack Paddy whack, send them all back! / Soon he'll cooo-ooome for the Jews!"

BEST EPISODE THIS WEEK:

I had doubts anything would top Quantico, but Hawaii Five-0 is taking this one for me. It's hard to find fresh superlatives to describe why it was the best show this week, but the reasons are simple: for an interesting deviation from the typical plot structure, for enthralling flashbacks that returned us to a more unstable time in Danny's life, for the emphasis on how that all connected to the present day, but most of all for the bookending that showed us how Danny and McGarrett first met.
   Scott Caan who plays Danny is now absent from a number of episodes throughout the season after agreeing with the producers that he can take time off to remain with his family in Los Angeles, so to have him get an episode devoted fully to his character was brilliant. He's not the second most important character in this show for nothing, and this episode reminded us why.

LAST WEEK'S ROUNDUP: On-Season Week 31

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

Final thoughts

Elementary might be crawling to its final resting place, but we had a very good week elsewhere, with stellar episodes especially from Hawaii Five-0 and Quantico. Next week, every show we current review airs, which means the return of Lucifer! And of all the shows we review, that's one I'm extremely hyped for!

Thanks for reading everyone and I'll see you next week!

Sam