On-Season Week 5

WEEK 5

If anything at all is happening, the seasons are getting better with each passing week: just as week 3 bested week 2, week 4 bested week 3 with an average episode rating of 8.1 (a single tenth higher than week 3's 8.0). This week Elementary is playing catch-up, with it being the only show not to air more than one episode yet. It, NCIS LA and Quantico all return after the Presidential debate last week; Code Black is the only show taking a rest.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - 4x05 "Hallowe'en IV"

"Jake, Holt and Amy go head-to-head-to-head to win the fourth instalment of the Hallowe'en Heist."

The Hallowe'en arc began in season 1 when Jake bet Holt that he could steal his Medal of Valour before midnight. Each succeeding season featured another Hallowe'en episode: in season 2, Holt beat Jake when Jake bet he could steal Holt's watch before midnight; and in season 3, Amy outwitted both of them by secretly running the show from the background. The latter two were good episodes but not up to the standard of the first; in contrast, "Hallowe'en IV", in which Holt, Jake or Amy must steal a plaque reading "The Ultimate Detective/Genius" by sun-up (smartly proving the current night shift arc remains), might even be better.

The winner: Gina Linetti

   There is almost nothing to criticise the episode for. Pairing up the competing individuals (Amy with Rosa, Holt with Boyle and Jake with Gina) explored different relationships. We were reminded of Jake and Gina's childhood friendship; Rosa pairing with Amy meant she played quite willingly along with all of Amy's booksmart wants (which Rosa usually sneers at); and Holt with Boyle took away the predictability that would have been the Jake and Boyle pair-up. That left Terry - who refused to join in - insistent he wanted to get on with his work, with Hitchcock and Scully minding him in case he was deceiving everyone.
   The eventual winner? Gina Linetti, her position as Holt's assistant enabling her to create copies of the prize plaque and, following a smart distraction, switch them out for the real one. I should have seen that coming really, but regardless, it was superbly written and there were too many laugh-out-loud moments to count.

   VIEWERS: 2.05m (A fair dip from the previous 4 episodes, but shouldn't be troubling)

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.9 (Stable, but fractional)

VERDICT: A practically flawless episode up there with season 3's "Ava". The only question is: if B99 gets a fifth season, will Jake or Holt ever win again? 9.5/10

Bull - 1x04 "Callisto"

"TAC travel to the Texas town of Callisto to defend a young scientist accused of ripping off a large pharmaceutical company for a drug that increases clotting factors in haemophiliacs."

In "Callisto", everything we have seen about TAC's capabilities with its matrix, its jury selection and its analysis is torn to shreds when their latest case takes them to Texas - where things are done a bit differently. The judge allows the defence and prosecution to select jurors up until he gets bored and then just decides who will make up the numbers; he even promises the case will be finished by the weekend - before the case has even started - so one of the jurors can go fishing. The most technical part of the episode is a video chat between Cable, who stayed behind in New York, and Bull in Callisto, while the only psychological profiling necessary was the "Halo effect", which suggested Bull's team would struggle to win their case simply because everyone in Callisto preferred the local prosecutor, Diana Lindsay (the beautiful Jill Flint, currently starring on NBC's The Night Shift). Her guest star (with that lovely Texan accent) was one of the better parts of an episode that was a far cry from the first three.

Bull wakes up in a field in Callisto

   Because of the team's problems acclimating, we weren't actually shown what they could do without their technology, since the case was dropped by the plaintiff when he had a change of heart following a conversation with the defendant that Bull engineered. TAC therefore didn't win the case - they just never lost it.
   The over-arching issue with "Callisto" was that it just came too early in the show's run, consequently disrupting the flow of the series so far. Meanwhile, most of the show's usual formatting features (including the opening montage of people speaking about judicial systems) were lost. Another issue was that Bull seemed to be following a MacGyver-esque structure, introducing us to one character's past in one episode (Benny had a focus last week like Mac did in the MacGyver premiere) and then another the week after (Bull's previous struggles in Callisto were an underlying concern here where Jack's past was explored in MacGyver's second episode). It's almost as if Bull is now trying too hard to play catch-up with shaping its characters - and still I don't know what Danny's actual use is.

   VIEWERS: 12.29m (A tad lower but remains astonishingly high)

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.6 (Even with the previous week)

VERDICT: Despite having the most character balance so far it wasn't a good advertisement for the show. Taking the characters out of their depth took the writers out of their depth, and the ending was a testament to their uncertainty. 7.5/10

Update: Bull has been given a full 22-episode order.

Conviction - 1x03 "Dropping Bombs"

"The CIU investigate whether a hate preacher convicted of bombing a mosque truly was the culprit."

Conviction is making another statement with "Dropping Bombs": even the hateful shouldn't be wrongfully in prison. The man convicted of the bombing, Landon, is an anti-Muslim preacher whose bomb-making instructional blogs matched the composition of the bomb which killed four Muslims in a mosque, although he claims not to have done it since if he had he would have killed more than four. It's on the edge from start to finish, placing front and centre the moral question of whether Landon should be in prison if he was not the bomber, even if by releasing him he will simply go out and actually bomb a mosque himself.
   The strength of this question - and the arguments for and against releasing Landon - permeated the CIU and had them all at odds: some were against Landon being released, some were simply resigned to following the law if he was in fact wrongfully convicted. Frankie's refusal to help vacate Landon's conviction led to Hayes firing him - but Tess talked him into staying. (Also, Frankie's forensics work was shown this week, something I had mentioned previously would need to appear soon. I'm glad it did.) In the end, Sam Spencer arranged for Landon to assault a prisoner, therefore committing a felony that would keep him in prison for a long time. Bit of a copout, but better than having him killed, which had been my first thought.
   We also learnt a little more about Maxine when we met her father running a small bar, and the cliffhanger ending in which leaked CCTV footage of Hayes' imprisonment for cocaine possession (and Wallace's blackmail) sets up a fantastic fourth episode next week. I was surprised by this move: I had figured the writers might wait a little before letting this cat out of the bag in-canon. But after all, they're on fire - and this is as hot as it gets. 

   VIEWERS: 4.49m (Slightly up on last week but it won't matter much)

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.7 (Replacement level. If Conviction is lucky it might get the chance to play out its 13 episodes)

VERDICT: The shockingly unapologetic client caused turmoil amongst the CIU, even if the way he was kept from escaping justice was poor. 9/10

Elementary - 5x02 "Worth Several Cities"

"The boss of a violent street gang kidnaps Sherlock and forces him to identify the person who killed his smuggler. Meanwhile, Shinwell enlists Joan to help find his young daughter."

The one thing I am finding with Elementary this season is it is very easy to review. It makes its positive and negative aspects simple to spot, the plots are intricate but easy to follow and the characters are phenomenal. In this episode, the guest stars more so than the characters are fantastic: Ron Rifkin (of Alias) plays a billionaire trying to secure a land deal in China and Jon Huertas (of Castle) plays the street gang boss Halcon. Even Michael Mulheren (who had a small recurring role in Person of Interest) shows up.

Jon Huertas as Halcon

   The plot centres around the search for the Imperial Jade Seal of China, a legendary and priceless artefact that is the subject of a secret auction. Rifkin's character, Vachs, claims he owns it since he bought it legitimately (in spite of its status as a stolen, lost artefact), but it is discovered that, because he couldn't pay the auction price, he had the smuggler killed and his security team steal the Seal. It wasn't any more complex than that, although Taiwanese officials did show up at one point to make Joan an offer if she recovered the Seal.
   Unfortunately, this episode wasn't as well-written as the premiere. The opening with Sherlock already captured by Halcon was just jarring: since there were no stakes before this scene, they were not raised by the reveal Sherlock had been kidnapped. It's also worth mentioning that some of the episode's early editing was a bit sharp: some lines were barely finished before the next scene had begun. And Sherlock receiving aid from the hacker group Everyone fell flat when he was not asked to humiliate himself in exchange.
   VIEWERS: 5.30m (A big, worrying dip from the premiere)

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.7 (Replacement level. Matches a series low and puts Elementary in the cancellation hotspot. Maybe sooner than we'd like)

VERDICT: The negatives were again clear, but they weren't so huge as to affect the whole episode. Superb guest stars elevate a decent episode from an 8 to a 9/10

Hawaii Five-0 - 7x05 "Ke Ku 'Ana / The Stand"

"A vigilante steals an armoured truck, kills a pro-gun social media star and takes a court hostage."

Just like with episode three, where the victim was thrown from 10,000 feet onto a farmhouse, "The Stand" was a case of: was good, could have been better. The majority of the promotional clips showed a police standoff with someone hidden in an armoured truck - but in actuality that standoff lasted only about 90 seconds until McGarrett tried to flashbang the driver before realising he had escaped down a manhole he had parked above by cutting a hole in the truck directly above the access point. (Which leads us to another flaw: when eventually we do see the vigilante, Kyle Caine, for real, it turns out he is a middle-aged man with, respectfully, quite a paunch. McGarrett struggled to fit down that manhole and he is much younger and skinnier so there is no way Caine could have managed the feat.)
   Although watching Five-0 chase Caine from crime scene to crime scene was interesting, it all culminated in your run-of-the-mill hostage situation, where the typical let's-send-a-cop-in-undercover ruse was quickly identified and quelled. At least the anti-gun argument (Caine professing to want to spread the message of how unchecked gun rights lead to mass shootings and deaths by killing people with guns himself) was interesting, and when Five-0 learned about Caine's son who had shot up a mall, killed six bullies and then himself two years, Danno's heart-to-heart with him over the phone led to him surrendering. The plot, though predictable and generic, was at least very relevant and emotionally resonant - even if pro-gun fans of the show will take a dim view of the episode's message (and I've seen a lot of them bandying about the phrase "propaganda").
   In the subplot, Kono's husband Adam is released from prison after 12 months. First order of business (after having his way with his wife, of course) is to try and convince the daughter of his prison buddy Louis to reconnect by explaining he is a changed man. It's another typical released-from-prison TV trope, but Hawaii Five-0 tugging the heartstrings made it acceptable.

   VIEWERS: 1.1 (Low, but stable)

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 9.30m (Stable. Barely worth commenting)

VERDICT: A very relevant topic strung around a poor rehashing of a common TV scenario: the hostage situation. 7.5/10

Lucifer - 2x04 "Lady Parts"

"A young woman is murdered with a triangular stamp on her wrist. Meanwhile, Chloe struggles with the fallout from her upcoming divorce, Lucifer's mum faces issues living a human life and Amenadiel continues to spiral as his powers deplete."

A series of murders of young women traced back to a secret club where the rich could hire escorts, the victims being two women who weren't previously aware that they were there to work as escorts. The murders were simple and pulled Chloe and Dan together after Dan's announcement that they should divorce: Chloe's response was to throw herself into work, until Lucifer engineered a girls' night out with her, Maze, Dr Martin and new forensic analyst Ella. That was probably the highlight of the episode: the girls revealing secrets about themselves - which Maze failed ("I was forged in the bowels of hell to torture the guilty for all of eternity").
   Elsewhere, Lucifer's mum took a backseat as she struggled to adjust to human life. It's not necessary for her to be heavily involved at the moment and her character is rightly in the background. Also, Amenadiel's depression worsened as his powers continued to fade: he now struggles even to get his wings to work. Amenadiel isn't an uninteresting character, but he's been on the periphery for most of season 2 and his lonely spiral isn't working: he needs to come back into the foray more. At least at the end he was able to remind Lucifer that he hadn't fulfilled his promise to God by shackling their mum in human form - and if God wanted revenge he could un-spare Chloe's life. This leads to the cliffhanger ending as Chloe's car is hit by a truck. She won't die, of course, but if it isn't a shocking reminder of the power of the characters in play in this show I don't know what is.

   VIEWERS: 3.66m (Stable nearly to the ten-thousands)

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.1 (Lower than average, but not bad for a Monday)

VERDICT: A good episode infused with lots of humour, hilarious revelations about some of our characters and a shocking cliffhanger. 8/10

MacGyver - 1x05 "Toothpick"

"The CEO of an aeronautics company finds out his assistant is passing information to Interpol. She is sent on a non-stop train journey from Berlin to Frankfurt and Phoenix Foundation must intervene before a team of mercenaries kill her."

First order of business: the intro cut-scenes. If CBS are planning on cutting them out, then this was the way to break fans' addiction: instead of Mac and Jack escaping from somewhere like usual, their over-long stakeout of Mac's evil ex Nikki's apartment in Lisbon worked to satisfy the episode's introductory needs and remind us all that she's out there somewhere planning dastardly deeds. She even leaves behind a parcel for Mac: a key - but to what we don't yet know. The plot thickens.

Mac and Katarina hide

   Meanwhile Kasha Kropinski (of Hell on Wheels fame) drops by to guest star as Katarina, the assistant of the aeronautics company CEO, Wexler. Train-centred episodes are not as common as planes and generally feel quite individual; when that was mixed with the creative ingenuity of the MacGyver franchise what we got was actually a very concise and inventive battle of wits between the good and evil agents.
   I'm not sure what purpose Bozer serves, however. He's supposed to be Mac's friend and roommate (who knows nothing about their secret government work) but has altered his focus towards (awkwardly) trying to seduce the hacker Riley, and appears in scenes at the beginning or end of each episode. Essentially, Bozer is a base for out-of-mission humour that Jack can't fill, but without actually having a reason to exist beyond that. The writers need to discern a plan for Bozer, because at the moment he is just an awkwardly ill-fitting part of a well-connected machine.
   VIEWERS: 7.99m (An improvement on the previous week)

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.1 (Stabilising now, which is good)

VERDICT: An improvement on last week's offering but there are character issues which, despite having had the time to resolve themselves, haven't yet done so. 7.5/10

Update: MacGyver has been given a full 22-episode order.

NCIS: Los Angeles - 8x04 "Black Market"

"A young Citizenship and Immigration Services agent and his friend are invited to a party, which turns deadly when the Homeland agent's drink is spiked with poison."

"Black Market" is a hard one to judge. The two pieces of the murder plot - the victim, a young man named Jessie Evans who worked for a branch of Homeland Security; and the killers, Chinese smugglers - felt very disconnected from each other, so that there's little more to say about the actual plot than that. I think the murder was perpetrated by a hitwoman for the triads, who were less than happy that some of their Homeland contacts were ripping off their smuggling business - but don't ask me how Evans was involved in a way that led to his murder. I really do not know.
   At least some of the other elements of the episode were clearer. The subplot banter was as funny as it usually is, with Callen and Sam bantering over Callen's performance in an Iron Man marathon with no prior training, and Deeks and Nell quipping about Nell's questionable driving competency. Nell remained in the field with Deeks as Kensi remained in her coma - although her response to Hetty's request to squeeze her hand at the end of the episode suggests she will be emerging soon.

   VIEWERS: 10.76m (On a down night for most shows, NCIS LA put up top viewer numbers)

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.3 (Down two-tenths from last week; there's the downtick)

VERDICT: The murder plot was frustratingly unclear, and even the tease of Kensi's return and the banter between the other four characters simply didn't do much to raise the level of the writing. 6/10

Quantico - 2x03 "Stescalade"

"At The Farm, the trainees are taught to quickly analyse everything they see when they enter an unfamiliar setting; in the present day, Miranda's tip-off to the terrorists alerts them to Alex's presence."

Quantico took its chance to really hammer into the audience the reminder that we should trust nobody - in both timelines. At The Farm, the lessons on analysing unfamiliar settings were as intriguing as each trainee's individual performance, but it was Alex and Ryan's secret mission that served as the stronger reminder. Miranda gave them one bug to place inside The Farm to try and gather intel on the terrorist, because any more would alert suspicion. But that meant identifying the best candidate for the FBI to spy upon. They ran through the list, eventually settling on Leon, who had spent time for an unknown reason in a Mexican prison. Instructor Lydia also confronted her father Owen about how it was at his request she had been transferred from field duty to The Farm. Tearing these two apart could be very interesting indeed.

   In the present, Alex was captured by the terrorists when Ryan's diversion accidentally revealed her identity. She was taken away to be killed but won out over her captor, who was revealed to be one of the instructors from The Farm - a predictable reveal at this point. Miranda continued her work trying to help the terrorists (for now), but she will soon get caught. In the most unexpected twist of the episode one of The Farm's trainees, Brit Harry Doyle, meets with Will Olsen, who we all remember as having been forced to work for the terrorist in season 1. Things really are starting to develop nicely.

   VIEWERS: 3.04m (series low)

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.8 (series low)

VERDICT: As captivating, unpredictable and fast-paced as ever. Each episode grows more addictive. 8/10

Scorpion - 3x04 "Little Boy Lost"

"Scorpion must track a young boy with autism lost in the city after he crosses paths with a mercenary."

Joshua Leonard as Mark Collins

With "Little Boy Lost", the writers managed to take out the deadweight for a while and bring together the team that we knew and love in a better manner than the rest of the season so far. Tim's only appearance was in the beginning of the episode before he left for a Homeland surveillance conference, meaning in his absence (and with the storyline fixed upon a friend of Ralph's [Paige's son] who suffers non-verbal autism) Ralph got to shine. And it worked: the friendship between Ralph and the autistic boy Daniel highlighted everything about accepting people who are different - which has been part of the show's USP from the start. The way in which the mercenaries got onto Daniel (when Daniel accidentally preempted a dead drop they had planned) and followed him was flawless, but the real shining light of the episode was how sensitively and accurately the writers portrayed autism. It was a well-addressed depiction of sufferers and for those of us who do not comprehend the struggles of autism it was eye-opening.
   Elsewhere, the episode dropped some huge clangers character-wise. Not only did Toby's hunt for the identity of Happy's husband lead to a cameo appearance from ex-Scorpion lunatic Mark Collins, but when Toby figured out Collins' mysterious riddle ("The water doesn't lie still, but the water still lies. Add fifty and your answer will be revealed") we got one hell of a shock: the Roman numeral for fifty is L - add L to water and you get -
   Walter.
   He married Happy six years ago to get his green card. Clever riddle, stunning reveal. But it was topped by Happy revealing she needed a divorce because she needed to marry Toby - because she was pregnant. This will be a contentious issue in the upcoming episodes and it's going to be superb.

   VIEWERS: 7.15m (Up from the previous week, leaving Scorpion's ratings hanging between a respectable 7-8.5m so far)

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.3 (Average, but good for a 10pm slot)

VERDICT: Practically flawless with a great cameo from Joshua Leonard as Mark Collins. Terrific writing. 9/10

Westworld - 1x03 "The Stray"

"Ford begins altering some Hosts' narratives, including Teddy, whom he sends to join a hunting posse. Bernard continues to worry about the glitches in consciousness with the Hosts. William and Logan go off on a quest, while Elsie and Stubbs track a stray Host."

This episode was all about reaction, both seen and unseen. The biggest example of this is Dolores, who is given to the audience as a lens through which to recognise the worsening glitches because we have intimate knowledge of her general loop narrative. Again we see her heading to her horse and dropping a can from the knapsack and again we see bandits kidnap and attempt to rape her, but she begins to see the old Host who was programmed to be her father as well as the new one, glitches between the Man in Black and one of the bandits as her rapist, and even appears to reset after being shot and escapes unscathed. The gun she found in the previous episode returns, and the increasing destabilisation of Hosts leads to Bernard having serious conversations with her about her programming and response systems. The over-focus on Dolores in the premiere is paying off, as our deep understanding of her made this storyline easy to follow.

Dolores reading Alice in Wonderland

   Throughout it all, Ford's attempts to alter other Hosts' narratives is creating more problems, both in the park and for the unseen board members: his main alteration is to Teddy's programming, so that he now heads off to hunt a bad guy named Wyatt instead of remain local to the main park. Meanwhile, another Host goes stray and Elsie (Bernard's assistant) and Stubbs (Head of Security) have to track him down - but when they find him the Host kills himself.
   "The Stray" is a light tempo depiction of pure chaos: while Guests like William and Logan ride around in the background enjoying their $40,000 per day experience, the number of Hosts around them that glitch is increasing quickly. These glitching Hosts are yet to interact with the Guests, but that is surely on the horizon - and it's going to be brilliant.
   There was a sad lack of Charlotte, the creepy Host who introduced William to Westworld, the glitching brothel madam Maeve, and the Man in Black with his mission to find "the maze", but the latter will surely return in the next episode.

   VIEWERS: 2.1m (series high)

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.9 (series high)

VERDICT: Focused more on the glitches than deepening the mythology. A Dolores focus was warranted and done better than the premiere, but it still doesn't prove as satisfying as the ensemble second episode. 7.5/10

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - Captain Holt (attempting to psyche out his competition): "I will slit you both open from mouth to anus and wear you like jackets."

LAST WEEK'S ROUNDUP: On-Season Week 4

NEXT WEEK'S ROUNDUP: On-Season Week 6

Final thoughts

Brooklyn Nine-Nine joins only Hawaii Five-0 and Elementary so far with an episode that rates at a 9.5, but the latter two didn't enjoy stellar episodes this week, with Elementary's season 6 chances slimming by the episode (and there's only been two). NCIS LA and Bull both underwhelmed, but on the other end of the spectrum Scorpion and Conviction keep up their good form (although the latter faces the same punishment as Elementary for its poor ratings performance). Lucifer, Quantico, MacGyver and Westworld all put in decent episodes but with varying results: Lucifer and MacGyver stabilised, but Quantico hit a troubling series low while Westworld hit series highs all-around.

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

Sam