On-Season Week 20

WEEK 20

Week 20 begins and it's a turning point in the season. Conviction will come to an end with what promises to be a blast of a finale, while Lucifer's second season bows out until May with an expected flourish. Powerless premieres, the mole storyline (presumably) comes to an end on NCIS LA and what about Miranda's confession that she's one of the terrorists and will turn Alex in Quantico? Alongside these massive moments, we have episodes from Elementary, Hawaii Five-0 and MacGyver.

Conviction - 1x13 "Past, Prologue & What's to Come"

"The case of Gerald Harris, Hayes's first as a defence attorney where she first met Wallace, is revisited by CIU. Sam faces consequences for his actions in the Rodney Landon case."

In the season (and likely series) finale of Conviction, the show treats its audience to significant flashbacks to Wallace and Hayes' first meeting during the trial of Gerald Harris, whose wife Claire died when she was struck over the head and thrown off the balcony. Or was she? In the future, CIU finally prove Hayes's original belief that Gerald was innocent by showing Claire wasn't murdered at all. She had succumbed to a cold at the time of her death, which caused a coronary artery dissection, which caused her to stumble backwards and fall over the balcony, hitting her head on the way down. And with the finale we got a review that proved there was never even a murder in the first place - another good twist.
   Wallace and Hayes finally came to the agreement that they loved each other for each other, but in the final few moments their love intertwined with Sam's subpoena for the Rodney Landon trial. Although Hayes had quashed Landon's demand for a trial (because Sam set him up as a snitch to keep him in prison), Wallace told her to fire him. Instead, Hayes made out with Sam in front of a cleaner, now telling him that he had been sexually harassed by his boss and nobody would fire him now. Unfortunately, that deal-clincher was also witnessed by Wallace. Hayes's last words of the series: "I'm sorry." (For the kiss.)
   This was a slight kick in the teeth right after they had sorted their relationship out. The subtext may be easy to read - that Wallace is probably more furious about being undermined than the kiss itself, and that he will soon forgive her because he knows what she's like - but there was an easy 2 minutes of space that could have been used to showcase a final Hayes-Wallace standoff that ended in their continued romance.
   Beyond that, a great finale.

   VIEWERS: 2.48m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.5

VERDICT: The final few seconds were a letdown, but I actually cheered at Hayes throwing Sam a lifeline by kissing ... er, I mean "sexually harassing" him. A solid ending that defined the show and its characters 8/10

SEASON VERDICT: Conviction was one of the flops of the season performance-wise. It represented ABC's apparent attempt to shift towards a more procedural format, but in terms of writing (along with one of its best procedurals in recent times, Castle) it was stronger than many of CBS's own cop procedurals. It had a great cast with great chemistry, good arcs and a strong premise - but it just didn't work in Castle's old 10pm Monday slot and wasn't well-received by critics. Obviously a cop procedural isn't too everyone's taste (and Conviction clearly wasn't right for ABC), but watching it felt like actually watching a story unfold episode-by-episode rather than some of the filler you usually get in CBS shows. I averaged out the ratings I've given it aross its 13-episode season and the average episode rating was an 8.7, which I've no doubt will be the highest of any show I'll review this season, with no episode below an 8 rating. Accordingly, I'm gutted to see the show go. Perhaps alternative universe me is enjoying an 8th season as we speak. But for this universe, Conviction comes highly recommended - but won't get its own get-out-of-jail-free card.

Elementary - 5x13 "Over a Barrel"

"Repeated rebuffs from Sherlock to help him solve his son's assault leads Jack Brunelle to take Joan and 20 diners hostage."

At first glance of the promo, this looked sickeningly close to the Bull concept last week, so imagine my pleasant surprise when the overriding issue for the characters was the statute of limitations rather than Brunelle being unstable. He had come to force this issue, but not to harm anyone. It was last-chance saloon, not only because the statute of limitations on his deceased son Connor's assault five years ago ran out that evening (his son died a year later following addiction issues), but because Brunelle himself had skin cancer and very little time left.
   The episode opened showing Brunelle at least twice in the preceding years coming to ask Sherlock for help and being refused because his case wasn't big enough, so he took to keeping hostages. It was a tired concept done well, but untimely since it kept the crucial Sherlock-Joan dynamic out of play for the second consecutive episode.
   But, in trade, there was a significant amount of Bell for the second consecutive week, as he and Sherlock worked hard to figure out that Brunelle's son, a night guard for a truck company, had been assaulted so that a ruthless drug gang could steal tankers and purchase ... maple syrup? Wait. Really? That was another unexpected twist in a myriad of unexpected twists, and they didn't stop there. When Sherlock and Bell found the man who assaulted Connor Brunelle (Frank Trimble, the truck company owner), they were too late and the statute of limitations had run out. Or had it?
   Step in hacker collective "Everyone", who found footage of Trimble leaving to Canada for a hockey match for 27 hours. And fun fact: if you hop a country, the time on the statute of limitations pauses until you return, meaning Trimble could in fact be arrested after all. This was far too much for me: it would have been nice to see Sherlock and Joan deal with losing a case like this but noooooooo. The writers had to have a diabolical copout.
   Everyone's return came with a fun head-shaving demand for Sherlock. If he's not bald in the next episode I'll throw a temper tantrum!

   VIEWERS: 5.42m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.7

VERDICT: A truly fantastic murder investigation was marred by a lack of Sherlock and Joan and a truly horrible copout. Still, it was good enough for an 8.5/10

Hawaii Five-0 - 7x15 "Ka Pa'ani Nui / Big Game"

"Five-0 pull two bodies on the same day: a big game hunter searching for his first great white shark to kill, and a 30-year-old with a Holocaust POW tattoo."

I have to start at the start, with the worker's protest by Kamekona's workers - including his cousin Flippa - and their attempts to get better pay. This seemed like such an oddball subplot. A protest seems far too damaging in overall scale to work as an episodic subplot (so I'll retract my comments if they arc out a revenue loss in the future), and without any hint of disquiet previously it was disappointing. Especially seeing Flippa lead the line.

Flippa leads the protest against his cousin, shrimp truck
owner Kamekona

   Plot-wise, Hawaii Five-0's two murder strands offered vastly different topics of interest. The first, the big game hunter (Sam Harrison) searching for his first great white, was the side murder, slightly shorter and slightly less difficult to unravel than the Holocaust plot. Harrison had not, as the crime scene was staged to suggest, been murdered by animal rights activists (given how important the shark is to Hawaiians), but by a man who ran a fishing business as a front for his illegal shark finning enterprise, whom Harrison had called upon to help him locate a great white. The shark bit Harrison, and he was strung up on the docks, dead, instead of taken to the hospital. Short, simple, sweet.
   But the title "Big Game" isn't a misnomer for its relegation of the big game hunter to side murder, for in the main plot McGarrett and Chin travel to Kalaupapa, a previously qurantined leper colony, where their victim, Leia Rozen, was searching for a Nazi war criminal named Tomas Sauer who, during the war, had lined up her grandfather, grand-uncle and grand-aunt, and forced her grandfather to choose which of the other two would die. The Kalaupapa storyline was intriguing not only for the insight into Nazi movements following the war but for showing a piece of Hawaii's history, the second consecutive episode to do so. In the end, it transpired that Sauer was the grandfather of Kalaupapa's sheriff, but they were both discovered and arrested in Arizona after escaping. Justice was served - and the importance of that highlighted by the slow-mo and music chosen to define the scene.

   VIEWERS: 9.67m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.1
   (Ticks up)

VERDICT: The subplot was a problematic one realistically, but the 2 murders were intriguing and just complex enough to leave some surprises. 9/10

Lucifer - 2x13 "A Good Day to Die"

"With Chloe poisoned, Lucifer and the team rush to find the antidote. But they realise there is only one way they can find the formula: Lucifer must go down to Hell."

If there's one thing Lucifer doesn't have, it's any problems building to a finale point. But a finale itself (midseason or season, whichever) always presents a particular problem for it. And while "A Good Day to Die" stuck the landing, it wasn't a smooth one.
   After all, someone being sick and everyone rushing to find the antidote isn't a new plot device, but Lucifer generally has enough quality to improve on the topic, incorporating both of its main elements: the police search for the criminals who can provide the ingredients for the antidote - and Lucifer going down to Hell to speak to Dr. Carlisle who was the only one to know the formula.
   Hell itself was incredibly clever. We're all expecting hellfire and flames and physical torture - but what we get is Dr. Carlisle repeating the moment he fled from the car crash while a crowd insult him. That seems a weak way of describing it, but Carlisle's whole motivation for his murders was to prove that this decision was a human one - it's fitting that his Hell is being publicly humiliated on a loop. And thus he gives the formula up without a second thought, hoping Lucifer can help himself escape. Very clever.

Amenadiel and Maze raise their hands when Lucifer
asks who wants to help kill him

   Not to mention how Lucifer then, in his attempts to leave Hell himself, is caught in his own guilt loop where he must repeatedly murder Uriel over and over again. And "the piece/peace is here" is revealed to be what Uriel whispered to Lucifer before he died - but what does it mean? We don't yet know.
   In the end, the only way for Lucifer to be dragged from his hell is for "Charlotte" to kill herself and rescue him (which almost goes pear-shaped as well when she gets caught in a guilt loop that Lucifer then has to rescue her from). These were interesting insights into how Hell works - but how do you just find someone else's Hell and enter it? That's a huge problem for the episode which, along with "Charlotte's" sudden attempt at redemption, really needed more focus.
   But the whole gang piled in to save Chloe. Dr Martin and Maze killed Lucifer and Chloe and then brought them back to life, and Amenadiel heroically guarded Chloe's hospital room, so that Lucifer wouldn't become invulnerable while dead if she was moved too far from him. I found Amenadiel's heroics the perfect tonic for his character.
   Finally, with Lucifer alive he reveals his hatred at having been a pawn in God's game, his manipulation by his mother and his uncertainty towards Chloe's feelings for him - and he runs. Where has Lucifer gone? We'll see in 3 months' time.

   VIEWERS: 4.21m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.2
   (The midseason finale stays level with that 1.2. Bring on May!)

VERDICT: Had some huge problems with landing its midseason finale, but it can't be denied the episode was excellent and had some real character moments to make you cheer, 8.5/10

MacGyver - 1x14 "Fish Scaler"

"Matty conducts evaluations with the team as a mission to recover number 6 on the FBI Most Wanted List goes awry."

Matty's first mission as Director continued with that stoic, scary reputation she had brought to the division, one that terrified Bozer, Mac and Riley and amused Jack. The evaluations were done cleverly however; Jack opened the episode, Riley took the middle part during the mission, Bozer's went beyond well after he challenged Matty's authority and helped save the day; Mac's came at the end of the episode with a stark warning: if he makes a mistake during an op, his improvisation will no longer be tolerated. He'd better not make a mistake then, for Mac's improvisational skills are the foundation of the show!
   The episode itself centred around an algorithm created by Riley capturing a facial recognition ID of FBI's 6th Most Wanted fugitive in a viral YouTube video, but when Mac and Jack attempted to recover him, Douglas Bishop claimed the FBI were in fact dirty and were trying to kill him. Some fun escapes and a couple of twists later and who was the dirty FBI agent trying to kill Bishop? Matty's contact, the one person she could trust, because of course that's who it would be.
   A forgettable episode with a boss whose lack of likeability doesn't translate into likeableness because of it, like with Dr. Romano from ER.

   VIEWERS: 7.49m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.0
   (A small tick downwards)

VERDICT: What more needs saying beyond this was very forgettable. 6.5/10

NCIS: Los Angeles - 8x14 "Under Siege"

"The OSP team attempt to escape custody as the search for the mole reaches a critical stage."

It didn't seem odd to me that with the entire OSP team in very convenient custody, Hetty would make a play to have Carl Brown broken out of prison and brought to her as bait - but it really should have done. Because Hetty had a plan all along: get Carl Brown as bait, draw in the rest of the mole group, cleverly play her way into safety and then blow up the building they're all in. First move: make sure all of her agents are safe, hence Callen, Deeks, Granger and Sam being arrested on trumped-up charges. Then she ordered Kensi, Nell and Eric to stay at the OSP base.
   Only that didn't quite work. Kensi worked her way into the LAPD and ATF to give Deeks and Callen earpieces, and was then kidnapped by the mole - Sullivan. The man she met when recovering in rehab! I knew the moment he turned up something was dicey but until then he never crossed my mind as a baddie. This is how you do reveals!

Three of the moles L-R: CIA Agent Randall Sharov,
Carl Brown, CIA Agent Vostanik Sabatino.
They watch on as Hetty "traps" herself in a metal cage.

   With Kensi's kidnap, LAPD Detective Whiting decides to reluctantly help Deeks in exchange for him admitting he killed his old LAPD partner; Callen breaks out of the ATF and Sam ... reasons his way out? I guess the script needed some condensing. They eventually find Hetty and her exploded warehouse. The moles - CIA agents Sharov (not a surprise he's a baddie) and Sabatino (quite a surprise he's a baddie) - along with Carl Brown were caught in the blast; Brown was shot dead after he shot Whiting in the neck (she remains in critical condition), and Sabatino was the only one to escape alive besides Hetty.
   Meanwhile, Sullivan explains to Kensi that OSP interrupted a CIA op in Syria in the episode 8x02, and Kensi, thinking he was the Taliban, shot his leg and caused him to need an amputation. Going into the cliffhanger ending, Sullivan - whose real name is Ferris - prepares to take a saw to Kensi's leg in retaliation.
   So I guess this is a three-parter!

   VIEWERS: 11.29m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.4
   (A huge increase following a down week last week. Four tenths of a point is a huge rise.)

VERDICT: I'm not sure I completely followed how the CIA part played into the pre-season 8 mole arc (if it did at all), but the rest of the episode was as high-octane as before. Stunning reveals and cliffhanger. 9/10

Powerless - 1x01 "Wayne or Lose"

"Emily Locke's first day as Head of R&D for Wayne Securities begins terribly when she finds out she's the fifth R&D Head of the year, her boss just wants to escape to Gotham and the team are all fired."

I haven't seen a character with as sunny a disposition as Emily Locke since Kaylee on Firefly: it's a necessary character trait given the battles she'll face winning over a team that hate her and a boss who wants to escape to Gotham and doesn't care about anyone else, but it's something that will need to be tempered in the future. It seems far too forced at the moment - but that's OK: we can chalk the episode up to a hurried re-imagining of the premise and the fact that most new shows this year have had iffy premieres.
   There are shining lights, however: Alan Tudyk plays Van Wayne hilariously, and manages to sell the selfish nature of the character with some hilarious one-liners. (They're not as good as the original premise trailer, but there's plenty of time for that.) Danny Pudi, Ron Funches, Christina Kirk and Jennie Pierson play characters from Emily's new team - who all add dimensions of hilarity without yet providing any real laugh-out-loud moments.
   Plot-wise, "Wayne or Lose" seems poorly paced, but that's a lot to do with the set-up: as it is our main lead Emily in this re-imagined premise that is new to Wayne Securities (where before Van Wayne, then named Del Heller, was the incoming character), there's a lot of necessary introduction to her arriving in Charm City and facing the backlash from her unenthusiastic team.
   But there's plenty of positives to take from a decent premiere episode. It's funny, well-cast and likeable, and I look forward to the rest of the season.

   VIEWERS: 3.08m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.1
   (A weak start; there's little room for Powerless to decline)

VERDICT: Another premiere with typical premiere struggles, but found enough from some important characters to create strong laughs amid a sketchy plot. 7.5/10

Quantico - 2x10 "Jmpalm"

"Alex's position inside The Farm becomes tenuous when Ryan is told to force her out; meanwhile their task to get information from an asset by manipulation is a struggle for the recruits. In the future, Shelby tries to stop an air strike."

After a game-changing return, Quantico kept the pace going. In "Jmpalm" (in the past timeline), Harry's manipulation of both Alex and Ryan reaches an all-time high as they both begin to turn against each other, and even though they ultimately stick together it's not expected to last. This throughout a task of manipulating a Venezuelan official into giving up confidential documents by whatever means necessary, which Dayana struggles with.
   Meanwhile, Léon decides, after figuring out Shelby is FBI, to work with the FBI by confronting her handler (which is an interesting and typically unexpected development), while Alex shows her cards to Owen too early - and learns that he isn't involved with the AIC. But as the real AIC meet - including some recruits from ... other agencies? ... who is running the meeting but Owen's daughter, Lydia, who promptly claims they are the real CIA. Every time a new piece of information is revealed things get murkier - and it's delicious.
   And in the future, Shelby tries to convince President Haas, who is struggling with a personal crisis considering she has become the first female President by default, that she shouldn't go through with the air strike; Haas eventually accedes and calls it off. Which means that, after Miranda tries to use Alex as leverage to find Lydia and the incriminating hard drives, Alex escapes and goes in to save the hostages. Miranda's "big twist" that she will convince Alex to join her hasn't happened yet - but I'm sure there'll be meatier stuff on this coming up.
   VIEWERS: 2.76m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.7

VERDICT: Everything is a twist as the plot swerves this way and that. Beautiful stuff. 8/10

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

Lucifer - Dr. Martin (on helping to kill and resurrect Lucifer): "The brain only lasts 3 minutes after death. Or so I read ... just now ... like on the ride over. WHY AM I DOING THIS AGAIN?"

LAST WEEK'S ROUNDUP: On-Season Week 19

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

Final thoughts

Starting my analysis by weekday: from Sunday, it has to be noted that the second part of NCIS LA's apparent three-parter received a huge leap from its season low, rebounding back up to a 1.4 as the arc's middle offering stunned! Also, Elementary's Bull-like hostage plot was well-thought-out and clever, but with a conclusion that understandably rankled. Its ratings remain - as ever they will - in the gutter.
   From Monday, Lucifer's midseason finale drew its second-highest ratings of the season, with a conclusion that saw Lucifer return briefly to Hell - and a very unique depiction of Hell at that! Conviction's season (and likely series) finale wasn't one of its strongest episodes, but given its weakest episodes still garnered an 8 rating that is no detraction from the episode's overall quality. And Quantico's ratings were typically poor, but its focus on Ryan and Alex's struggles undercover in The Farm added new stakes to their relationship.
   Thursday, and Powerless had an underwhelming premiere, both in episode quality and ratings. It has little wiggle room to decline in ratings and hope for renewal, but it also needs to pick itself up and improve.
   And on Friday, MacGyver offered a very underwhelming episode of its own, but Hawaii Five-0, which now takes the lead in terms of most episodes aired this season, was an almost flawless advert for the show.

Powerless begins a three-week run of premiering shows: next week A.P.B. takes Lucifer's place for its 13-episode run; and the week after that we have the long-anticipated return of The Walking Dead!

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

Sam