On-Season Week 9

WEEK 9

After a very good Week 8, Week 9 brings with it a record: most shows to roundup in one week, as for the first time in this on-season all 13 shows reviewed here will air in the same week. That means that Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Bull's lengthy spells out have finally concluded; can they continue drawing their stable ratings? After hitting series lows last week, can Conviction, Elementary and Quantico improve? And can Hawaii Five-0 repeat its impressive ratings performance? I don't know, but I'm eager to find out!

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - 4x06 "Monster in the Closet"

"Pimento returns from his time on the run and he and Rosa decide to get married."

At Amy's request, Holt reluctantly pops his balloon arch

No word on whether our characters are now off the night shift (the lighting of the episode doesn't give us a clue), but the return of Adrian Pimento breathed some life into already revived proceedings. His utter insanity makes for great hilarity when it's used properly (he kind of fell off during his arc in season 3), but now that he's here to stay (in some sort of semi-permanent capacity), the writers have started to adapt the way he affects the group dynamics. Most notably today, we learn he shares a sort of kinship about the universe with Gina whilst simultaneously being terrified of her.
   Along the way to a wedding that he and Rosa decide they actually don't want to go ahead with, Amy oversees Hitchcock and Scully perfect the seating arrangements (an actually perfect use for their characters; it's ironic their best use isn't even the police work that is the actual premise), Boyle's cooking (which he somehow manages to get wrong?), Terry sorting out hair, Holt taking care of decorations (because decorations is his thing ...) and Rosa's relaxation. In the end, Rosa gets the whole team drunk and sabotages her own wedding because neither she nor Pimento were actually ready to get married.
   Pimento's return to the Nine-Nine was a hilarious one, and I'm keen to see how his relationships evolve in the future. He seems to be a creditable addition to the ranks, and if he nails down his spot he could single-handedly freshen up this season.

   VIEWERS: 2.18m (Rises slightly after a three-week break)

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.9 (Stays level)

VERDICT: Pimento is back with his terrifying outlook on life. A brilliant way to come back from a long absence. 9/10

Bull - 1x06 "Bedside Manner"

"TAC take the case of a surgeon with a giant God complex who is being sued for malpractice."

The best part of "Bedside Manner" wasn't the difficulty created for the viewers in rooting for the overwhelmingly egotistical defendant, Dr. Robison, nor was it the fact that after all this time Cable is growing into quite clearly the best character in the show. It's that we cannot root for Dr. Robison - not because, when stripped of all moral judgement, he was innocent of malpractice - because we still see both sides of the argument, and that's the cleverest thing about Bull. We could root for Dr. Robison - after all, we know he isn't going to be guilty. But in doing so, how do we reconcile that the plaintiff, Emily Provery, a young woman whose fibroid surgery had complications that resulted in a hysterectomy that means she can no longer have kids, is still the victim, a devastated woman caught in the middle of a situation that neither she nor Dr. Robison could control? No amount of egocentricity or otherwise could deflect that.
   But as an issue that TAC needed to overcome, egocentricity was a great obstacle. And it proved to be the final hurdle: even after all the evidence that proved Dr. Robison wasn't liable for Emily's hysterectomy, aptly titled "Bedside Manner" came down to jurors who couldn't relate to Dr. Robison because he had no bedside manner. He displayed no empathy, or even sympathy for Emily's predicament. Not because he didn't care - but because he didn't know how. So what would we prefer if we were Emily: a doctor who was our friend, or a doctor who had a near-perfect surgical record that gave us the best chance of a good outcome, but couldn't hold our hand through it?

   VIEWERS: 11.87m (Stable in the 11m's)

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.5 (Stable)

VERDICT: Asked some great questions of the audience in an episode that really put that audience in a position similar to the jurors: convince us. 8.5/10

Code Black - 2x07 "What Lies Beneath"

"A prison riot floods Angels with patients. Meanwhile, Willis and Campbell are called to help an officer on a Russian submarine."

The two main plot points of "What Lies Beneath" were of contrasting interest. While I was thoroughly disappointed that the Russians didn't kill off my two least favourite characters, they also didn't offer a gripping plot to invest in. Although, perhaps that was because I simply hate Willis and Campbell.
   However, the prison riot that put Angels in its baseline "code black" was much more fun. The two prisoners who spearheaded this plot were a murderer who refused a heart transplant because he was a bad guy, and a white supremacist who killed a black guard and took our Dr. Rorish hostage. The murderer refusing a heart transplant was a decent and unexpected twist, given the way the other prisoner plot went, and surgical intern Dr. Pinkney's early connection to the black guard who was murdered set up her spiral into frustration with the Hippocratic oath when she was forced to help save the white supremacist who killed her.
   At least this episode made some headway in returning to basics: despite Willis and Campbell's inflated presence, there was no sign of any of the two remaining interns, and all of the cast were our favourite carry-ons from season one. Malaya and Jesse trying to help Guthrie with his believed Parkinson's continued with his refusal, and at some point he's going to have to give up and let them. His illness has been the only real arc of the season so far, and Code Black needs a proper character arc soon.

   VIEWERS: 5.68m (Dropped slightly)

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.9 (Equals the previous episode)

VERDICT: Had the opportunity to course-correct and bump off Willis and Campbell but didn't take it, but there were no meddling interns and the prisoner plot was very good. 7/10

Conviction - 1x06 "#StayWoke"

"CIU investigate the case of Porscha Williams, a black activist convicted of the murder of a white cop."

The controversial and edgy is always a great place to stand when you want to create compelling TV. Conviction has done that in the previous 5 episodes, if you ask me, but none of those 5 put together could start as much of a conversation as "#StayWoke". White cops killing black people is a huge issue in the modern-day world; to study both sides of that, "#StayWoke" flips the script and follows CIU attempting to exonerate a black activist for the murder of a white cop.

Tess visits the man she wrongly identified
as her aunt's killer when she was 12

   Everything boils over here: race, sex, profession. There's no side of the argument that's good to be on, and that was well-addressed in the CIU's infighting at the beginning of the episode. Does an all-white jury prosecuting a black woman amount to racism? Is a protest called a riot if undertaken by black people and a demonstration by white people? The furnace got hotter and hotter until the episode concluded in really the only way it could: Porscha was exonerated. Not that there was ever any question of that - ABC and Conviction couldn't have the moral of this story be yes, the black woman did it. And she didn't. Porscha was exonerated. The race debate continues.
   Character-wise, we learnt a little more. Hayes and Wallace's ex, hostshot lawyer Naomi, showed up to defend Wallace's corruption charge and hit on both of them - but ended up in Wallace's office in the final shot. We learnt Maxine is a recovering pill addict (19 months, 2 days), and the man Tess identified as her aunt's murderer when she was 12 wasn't actually the killer, and that every day since his exoneration she's visited his coffee truck and left a substantial tip in penance. I really like Tess and I need her to get her forgiveness before Conviction is over.
   VIEWERS: 4.31m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.8
   (Both tick up)

VERDICT: Racially-charged from the get-go. Such a focus is reminiscent of The Night Shift's season 3 episode "Three-Two-One", and I've rated it the same. 9.5/10

Elementary - 5x06 "Ill Tidings"

"The Head Chef of a renowned restaurant is found dead, after ingesting foie gras laced with fibreglass and snake venom."

Elementary was back with another ridiculously complex episode: this time an art heist hidden behind the evacuation of the New York Stock Exchange incited by the mass murder of seven men, six of whom (the seventh being the restaurant's Head Chef) were part of a group that held parts of an algorithm that verified the legitimacy of website domain names. Every step was cleverly interconnected, but the whole thing just felt odd. A mass murder via poisoned food is a huge way to kick off an episode, as is the reveal that six of those who died held individual portions of an algorithm that had an important role in protecting public safety online. This concept gave Elementary a chance to follow an unexpectedly high-stakes and unique storyline, but somehow the episode spun away from that and the opening sequences became overkill (pardon the pun) in a plot to evacuate the Stock Exchange so art on show inside could be nicked. Don't get me wrong, as a nefarious plan it was quite efficient, but given the episode's starting point it's hard to view this as anything other than an opportunity squandered.
   Speaking of squandered opportunities, the episode's inference that Sherlock, due to some idiotic Sherlock reasoning, broke up with his girlfriend Fiona (who is an amazing character and added a previously unexplored dimension to Sherlock's character), was an absolute pisstake. And even though Bell appeared to be getting a love interest, who really believes that will be relevant by next week? That ADA he likes will probably get mentioned maybe once more before Elementary is cancelled.
   At least the coroner, Eugene, was back. I like Eugene.

   VIEWERS: 5.45m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.7
   (Both rise)

VERDICT: Wasted a good plot premise and wasted a good opportunity for character growth in a Person of Interest-esque break-up that wasn't at all necessary. 6/10

Update: CBS has ordered another 2 episodes, bringing Elementary's fifth season total to 24.

Hawaii Five-0 - 7x09 "Elua la ma Nowemapa / Two Days in November"

"One of Jerry's conspiracy theorist friends meets with him to discuss huge findings - but is murdered before she can speak."

Hawaii Five-0 went right out there with "Elua la ma Nowemapa" by giving Jerry, who for the last few episodes has had very little to do, a starring role in a huge episode that shone a light right in the face of the JFK murder conspiracy. The episode hinged on a secret Honolulu meeting of government bigwigs in the days before the assassination, who conspiracy theorists suspected were meeting to discuss the final aspects of the plan. And as the plot moved along and evidence turned audience's heads this way and that, the writers, through Jerry, had a logical but out-there reason for why each piece of evidence still led to the conclusion that JFK's assassination was an inside job. For those who don't know much beyond the basic details of the assassination, it was an eye-opening and thought-provoking episode.
   But the whole premise fell down at the end, because the writers were never for a second going to stick to one conspiracy theory and say "this is what killed JFK and it was an inside job". They didn't need to - they had an out: the assassination under discussion was actually that of Fidel Castro's - but also decided not to go down that route and instead had Jerry's friend on the receiving end of a bullet because of a pharmaceutical company whose actions weren't really properly explained. It was a weak ending to a very enlightening episode.
   VIEWERS: 10.01m (Only the second episode to hit double figures since the s7 premiere. Superb)

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.3 (Won the night again. Fantastic)

VERDICT: Although the ending was horribly bungled, I'm still giving this an 8.5/10 for an unapologetic and damn brilliant reexamining one of the world's most famous conspiracies.

Lucifer - 2x08 "Trip to Stabby Town"

"Uriel's grave is dug up and Azrael's blade is used to commit a string of murders at a yoga studio."

A more focused and better-developed season of Lucifer has finally shown where it's taking the last 5 episodes of the 13 that will air before midseason: a battle of wits over those who wish to go back to heaven (Lucifer's mum and Amenadiel) and those who wish to stay on Earth (Lucifer), and the episode built to the promise of this future battle.

Ella demonstrating how one of the murders was perpetrated
in an unwittingly sexual manner

   Azrael's blade's whereabouts were known by only Lucifer, Amenadiel and their mum (who for ease I will now call "Charlotte", the name of the human whose body she inhabited). When "Charlotte" has humans - who will be incited to murder by the very nature of the knife - dig up Uriel's grave to cause a killing spree that will pull God's attention, Lucifer and Chloe are cleverly separated in theory: Chloe profiles the overkilling of the victims as a crime of passion, while Lucifer knows whoever possesses the blade will kill for even the simplest of things, and this disconnect followed their investigation. It was a clever way to twist a set-in-stone understanding of the logic of murders - topped off by the blade eventually finding its way into Dan's hands. Who better to wield a knife that could wipe Lucifer out of existence than the one person he's spend truly tormenting?
   Meanwhile, Lucifer grew closer to Ella while she unwittingly helped with his search for the celestial blade in return for him coming to confession with her (oh the irony), and "Charlotte's" attempts to adjust to human life, while much improved, are still producing hilarious moments as she fails to recognise a mum should not brag about her sexual exploits to her son. Amenadiel and Maze becoming cat burglars was a funny sideplot as well, although no Trixie today.
   VIEWERS: 3.89m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.1
   (Both slight ticks upwards)

VERDICT: Lucifer had a clearly mapped-out 13 episode second season, and it will rise to the occasion after an episode like this. But will that direction be delayed, heightened or altered what with Lucifer's back nine order? 8.5/10

MacGyver - 1x09 "Chisel"

"While chasing a terrorist in Latvia, Mac and the team are trapped inside the Embassy with 6 hours to wait before back-up arrives."

MacGyver did good with its ninth episode of the season by just making an episode. "Chisel" wasn't pretty and it wasn't massive - but what it was was one of the better episodes of the season in terms of Mac's on-the-fly creations. Getting Mac, Jack and Riley stuck in a US Embassy building that Latvian terrorists didn't care to siege was a good plan, but the siege aspect took a lot of character goodness away on the day. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing - as I say, this was simply a decent episode. Jack wasn't as funny as he usually is, Riley's airtime was limited as her hacking skills proved unnecessary and Thornton's interrogation of Bozer was a little discomfiting since he was previously the comic relief - without that, this episode had very little humour. But Bozer getting a job as a lab geek for Phoenix is going to bring all of the cast together in much less time than I expected.
   After the cliffhanger ending in 1x08 where Mac's evil ex Nikki returned to warn him of things to come, "Chisel" moved on completely from that. There was no mention or reminder of Nikki and, while that's hardly unexpected, it was perhaps a little jarring. A word to the customary MacGyver cut-scenes: there was none today. Instead, the opening of the show being Bozer's interrogation provided more time for actual substantive subplot - and again, that probably took away from the humour a little. But a stepping stone like this didn't lack much for losing that humour, and now MacGyver is going to take a step towards its endgame as the whole cast are bunched into the same corporation.

   VIEWERS: 8.20m (The first episode to rise above 8m since episode 3)

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.1 (Steady as ever)

VERDICT: A step in the right direction that sacrificed a few key features of the show to get it done. 7/10

NCIS: Los Angeles - 8x08 "Parallel Resistors"

"An engineering student is electrocuted at a trivia night."

In an episode that again lacked Bar Paly, Callen and Sam worked closely with a shy young Russian girl, Nadia, the hugely intelligent daughter of the electrocution victim, Yuri Volanev, to stop a rogue Chinese student from getting his hands on a classified civilian engineering project. Typical obstacles like a patsy were thrown into the mix: Scott Yung had turned a Pakistani student into helping him because the money he offered would be enough to help her family in Lahore. The bait-and-switch was pushed even harder than usual when Ganeev was identified as a patsy: every angle that the team had covered before - rescuing Nadia, not yet arresting Scott - was covered in a brutal interrogation.
   I liked the storyline, and the subplots too. Kensi was feeling better this episode and had stopped jumping down Deeks' throat, while he took some time in the field as well by going undercover as Nell's surfer boyfriend. But the subtleties of the episode were there, too. Following on from the reveal that Granger had been damaged by Agent Orange, his speech was again impaired. Miguel Ferrer has a deep and gravely voice, and it can't be hard for him to put himself on the edge of understandable. But there was a distinct lack of Hetty - which I predicted for this season, but is in full swing a little harder than I expected. Sad times there.

   VIEWERS: 12.11m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.6
   (Huge boosts in both areas after a Trump interview served as the lead-in)

VERDICT: Subtly moved characters forward when it didn't advance them blatantly. Decent episode that just lacked a little urgency. 7.5/10

Pure Genius - 1x04 "Not Your Grandmother's Robotic Surgery"

"One of James's old school teachers arrives at Bunker Hill with stage 4 metastatic cancer. Meanwhile, Brocket and Talaikha treat a blind army vet suffering chronic eye pain."

Pure Genius might have kept me waiting for James's G.S.S. patient Keating an episode longer than I expected, but he returned here to do not very much actually. But then, all this was was a check-up, just to keep viewers in the loop that yes, James still has the G.S.S. gene. After all, since the premiere, while the show found its feet, it hasn't been mentioned.
   The two patients were of contrasting interest: James's heartbreak over the situation of his teacher Mrs Gardner threw him out of wack emotionally, and it was actually hard to watch him do his motivational speeches when he was just so lacking in emotion. Part of that was of course Brocket, upon whom he directed quite a lot of his frustrations after the unwitting knockback in the previous episode. On the other hand, the blind veteran Masood was a fantastic case, emotionally and medically. The whole "never seen his wife" because he met her after he was blind and she looked so different to his previous exes was a heartstrings-pulling scene and when her concerns were vindicated it was almost a celebratory moment.
   Finally, Wallace's adjustment to the unusual (lack of) hierarchy at Bunker Hill continued (and entertainingly) while there was a happy lack of Malik. Fuck Malik.
   VIEWERS: 5.68m (A small tick upwards)

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.9 (Stable but worryingly low ground has been found)

VERDICT: Showing a different side to James was both good writing and yet hard to watch, while the majority of the episode was very good. 7.5/10

Quantico - 2x07 "Lcflutter"

"Alex is captured by the terrorists, who torture Dayana in front of her to convince Alex to tell them where the stolen hard drives are. At The Farm, Owen teaches the recruits how to withstand torture techniques by letting them try to break him."

After the twist-heavy "Aquiline", "Lcflutter" takes somewhat of a breather (it's funny cos the episode's about torture). The juxtaposition of the interrogation plots - Alex at the hands of the terrorists and Owen at the hands of the recruits - was both clever writing and nicely-timed in the overall plot, and the latter came with the decision to use Owen's daughter Lydia as a tool to get him to reveal his CIA alias, which worked. Lesson passed, and it was an intriguing lesson for the audience too.

Owen watching Lydia being waterboarded

   Unfortunately for Alex, while her attempts to get close to Owen may have worked in the end, they didn't work quickly enough and Shelby is now going undercover as Léon's girlfriend. I like Shelby and Léon as a thing (though not as much as Shelby and Caleb in season 1), but I do wonder what direction this fake relationship will go now that Ryan has finally been accepted into the terrorist group dubbed the "AIC".
   In the final loose thread, Miranda, who we know is working for the terrorists, plants her phone on her director boyfriend. She's just about managing to keep her involvement a secret, and it's great TV.
   VIEWERS: 2.75m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.7
   (Both tick up slightly)

VERDICT: Little bit of a comedown from last week, but paced well, cleverly written and perfectly positioned for the overall plot. 8.5/10

Scorpion - 3x08 "Sly and the Family Stone"

"The Scorpion team travel to Ireland for the anniversary of Megan's death, but a nearby lake brimming with carbon dioxide threatens to explode and kill everyone in the village."

Carbon dioxide explodes from the lake

Walter's return to his family in Ireland dredges up a lot of bad blood. Not just between him and his family, but the kids who used to bully him at school (who haven't quite grown out of it yet), while his jealousy over Paige and Tim's relationship also comes to a head. All of these, along with how Toby is becoming a more Paige-like emotional counterweight for Walter, Walter's continuous transition from one crazy invention to the next, and the fact that Sly is closer to Walter's own family than he is (Sly commits to weekly video chats with the O'Brien seniors), highlight just how detached Walter has become from the group since Megan's death and Paige's relationship began. In fact, so does just how little of a factor Megan was in this episode. It's a sad state of affairs, but at least in some ways the air is cleared.
   No pun intended, after a failed attempt to clear the carbon dioxide from the lake spewed a cloud of CO2 over the village that could have killed everyone without Walter and Tim's timely teamwork. He had better not stay long though just because they've made up. #Waige needs to get going.
   Meanwhile, Happy pushes for a quick wedding while Toby tries to convince her it needs to be elaborate and well-planned. I think they'll meet somewhere in the middle and the end of season 3 will see their wedding and #Waige get underway. That's my hope anyway, but for now it's a good starting point.
   VIEWERS: 7.17m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.2
   (Both tick up)

VERDICT: A decent episode, but nothing really more can be said than that. 7/10

Westworld - 1x07 "Trompe L'Oeil"

"Charlotte Hale, Delos board member, begins her plan to overthrow Ford. Meanwhile, William and Dolores split from El Lazo, Maeve threatens to kill the techs if they don't help her escape and a secret is revealed about Bernard."

Now that the glitching Hosts storyline is well underway, the overarching consequences are beginning to show. The face of those consequences: Charlotte Hale. She's cute, she's sweet - and she's super conniving. She likes to intimidate even those she plans to have work under the new regime, as exampled by her inviting Theresa to meet her at the same time she is shagging one of the Hosts. Nothing says I'm powerful and super-confident like a boss who calls her staff to heel while she's sampling the merchandise.

Bernard kills Theresa

   Hale appeared briefly in the previous episode when she arrived at Westworld, but now it seems we at least know why Theresa was committing corporate espionage: Delos wanted backups of the Hosts' programming and Ford wouldn't give it to them. That wasn't the direction I expected this to go in, so it was a good if anticlimactic twist.
   But nothing could prepare us for the final scene.
   Bernard was revealed to indeed be a Host - and his confusion and denial was so superb I almost felt sorry for him - right before Ford triggered a part of Bernard's programming that turned him into a cold-blooded killer. Good night Theresa. Now we'll see how adaptable Hale is.
   Elsewhere, Maeve's storyline is heading towards chaos: now that she knows what Westworld is, she blackmails the techs into helping her escape. That will lead to a colossal crescendo sometime down the line. Contrastingly, William and Dolores ride off into the sunset, and although Lawrence forewarned them of trouble that lay where they were headed, they're in no immediate danger and this storyline's conclusion is therefore more open than the others. Anything could await them.
   No Man in Black. Almost forgot about him. Ah well. Maybe next time.

   VIEWERS: 1.745m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.8
   (Both tick up)

VERDICT: The slow build-up is actually getting to something as characters butt horns. Dat ending scene doe. 8.5/10

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

Bull

Defendant's lawyer (to plaintiff): "Would you agree the defendant is kind of a jerk?"
Plaintiff's lawyer: "OBJECTION!"
Judge: "She's trashing her own client ... Are you sure you want to object?"
Plaintiff's lawyer: "... Objection withdrawn"

LAST WEEK'S ROUNDUP: On-Season Week 8

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

Update: The Night Shift has been renewed by NBC for season 4, expected to air summer 2017.

Final thoughts

Our first full week with all 13 shows (and probably the only week for a very long time), has come to an end with typically varying results. Bull and Brooklyn Nine-Nine returned with fantastic episodes that picked up where they left off; Code Black, MacGyver and Scorpion created filler episodes that remained commendably stable; ratings increases for Conviction, Elementary and Quantico were justified or not by episodes of largely differing quality. The biggest ratings increase of the week was for NCIS LA, but it and Pure Genius managed to continue rather than shine, while Hawaii Five-0, Lucifer and Westworld all tried something huge and pulled it off in the ratings.

Thanks for reading everyone, see you all next time!

Sam