On-Season Week 23

WEEK 23

And so ends our 3-week streak of premiering shows, but to soften the news that we've no new shows to chew over this week we've instead got every single show on the roundup currently not on hiatus all airing at the same time. That's everything but Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Lucifer airs this week, with the returns of Elementary and NCIS LA. The former ventures into the world of eSports as Bull did so recently, while NCIS LA wraps up the three-part mole arc conclusion - surely a highlight of the week? Let's see.

   Update: Lucifer has been renewed for a third season in what I consider quite a delightful shock early renewal for a show FOX doesn't own outright. (Apologies for the late announcement.)

A.P.B. - 1x03 "Hate of Comrades"

"Murphy's mentor is murdered, so she and Gideon investigate. Ada tries to preempt crime."

The main plot strand of A.P.B.'s third episode was to the death of Link, Murphy's old police mentor, but it was Ada who was the lowkey hero of two stories in an episode that was half-cop procedural, half-Person of Interest-esque preempt. In an unexpected return for the kid who used the APB app in the premiere as a hoax, Ada tries to protect him and his mother from an abusive father before the father hurts them too badly, but she does all this on the down-low and ends up indebted to a shady hacker she turned to for help.
   She then ends up indebted to him twice when Murphy (after some interesting interrogation in a chair that measures the suspect's biometric responses) goes alone to find the killers, who plan to bomb an armoured truck they've cornered. Ada has the hacker find out the details for the phone number that will be used to detonate the bomb - and then detonates it herself, early, killing one of the baddies in the process. And the guilt that eats at her afterwards ... That image of her replaying the bomb explosion was so sad.
   I also wonder if they're going to take her down a dangerous path; to save Marshawn and his mother Ada tricked his father into attacking her, while saving Murphy and the armoured truck guards required her to set off an explosion and kill a man. Is the APB app perhaps not even a quick enough resource for Ada, who early on seems desperate to do more? I guess we'll find out.
   VIEWERS: 3.78m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.9
   (I'm not comfortable with these ratings)

VERDICT: They tried to make this one about Murphy but Ada saved the day twice, and was the emotional heart of the episode too. 8.5/10

Bull - 1x15 "What's Your Number?"

"A skybridge built by developer Andrew Withrow collapses; Bull joins the prosecution to ensure Withrow is imprisoned."

Tonally, "What's Your Number" was very different from the rest of the season so far in that we watched Bull fight for a guilty verdict rather than his usual shtick of getting people off. Of course, Andrew Withrow deserved the guilty verdict: he decided not to fix the skybridge's faults, since the cost-benefit analysis showed that compensating families of anyone who died would cost less than fixing the problem.

TAC get to work in Bull's apartment

   Naturally, Withrow did all he could to disrupt Bull: his company owned the TAC building so he cut the power, whilst he also bought an adjournment of the trial to research Bull and bring his rival Diana up from Callisto to be his defence. On the first point, TAC readjusted by taking their work to Bull's sparsely furnished apartment; on the latter, Diana's return provided a sense of intense rivalry (and lust) - although she dropped the Texas accent. Never have I seen a character drop their accent like this before, and while people can do it easily enough in real life, in television it's just a tad jarring.
   TAC work hard to prove Withrow guilty, eventually digging up a chart that listed what Withrow deemed to be the optimal compensation figures for people who might die on the skybridge by their professions. He's not going without a fight though, as Withrow threatens to appeal on the grounds that Bull and his attorney Diana were colluding - but if he does, Diana won't be back to help him as she recuses herself following the verdict.
   I'd like to see more of both Diana and Withrow: the former provides a romantic element that could be usefully played as a Person of Interest-esque Reese/Zoe "let's-just-have-a-fling-whenever-we-cross-paths"; the latter provides a nemesis in a show that is begging for story arcs.
   Speaking of which, we've gained some clues as to why Benny is being investigated: an old case of his, a murder case 8 years ago to do with a Hayden Watkins, is under review. I hope to see more of that very soon.

   VIEWERS: 10.56m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.3

VERDICT: Diana's appearance always ups the stakes; have her side with an Australian villain and it's very good TV. 9/10

Elementary - 5x14 "Rekt in Real Life"

"NYPD investigates the murder of an eSports gamer who was assaulted during a live stream."

Wait, didn't we just have an eSports episode recently? Once again, Elementary and Bull show that their writers are oddly in tandem, but also prove that that tandem isn't as whole as it always appears; "Rekt in Real Life" (heh, I finally get the episode title) was miles from Bull in plot type. And eSports is a relatively untapped premise that will start weaving its way into a lot of shows; I'm enjoying it right now before it becomes too trope-heavy.
   Shine a spotlight on somewhere usually unseen in all the New York/Los Angeles/Gotham City-centred cop procedurals - like an Inuit town being pressured by shipping companies to give up their ancestral land in order for those companies to gain access to shortened shipping routes that would save them billions in fuel costs - and stick on the "reverse butterfly effect" and what you have is a very different, very interesting way of melding two uncommon plot strands together. Which, when the Elementary writers are on their game, they do with ease.
   On the other hand Shinwell showed up, but do I care? It seems like less and less the writers know what to do with him; if there's an endgame it's not easy to figure out and not in the good, mysterious way either. His road to redemption might lead to some big gang showdown close to the end of the season, but at this point I'm more excited for Kitty's return than seeing any more of Shinwell - and that's no easy thing to confess.

   VIEWERS: 5.05m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.7

VERDICT: Shinwell continuing to show up keeps putting the dampers on strong Elementary episodes, but if you take him out of the equation this was a fantastic 40 minutes. I'll cover my bases then and give it an 8.5/10

Hawaii Five-0 - 7x18 "E Malama Pono / Handle with Care"

"Five-0 discover the missing uranium is being assembled into a dirty bomb in the jungle."

"Handle with Care" was built so the writers could spend some more time on this season's theme of reflection; with the dirty bomb set to blow in 60 minutes and Steve and Danny charged with removing the uranium safely and getting the bomb to a jungle clearing, they have plenty of time to think about what their lives would be like if they weren't actually police officers.
   More so Danny, who wants to set up a future for his 2 kids by retiring soon and setting up a restaurant. That's a fair enough goal - and if Alex O'Loughlin quits the show after next season like he suggests, then this could be a way to wrap up Danny's character. But while they're both here, their characters' chemistry is the best, and Scott Caan's acting of a scared police officer transporting a nuclear bomb was incredible. He knows how to act scared, which is something most actors rarely get right.
   Sang Min, the sneaky recurring villain we all love and love to hate, popped by for a quick cameo, but quicker than his last appearance which was a short birthday message to one of our main cast earlier in the season. We all love Sang Min, but I wanted him to play a bigger role in the main plot. Alas, he ended up being just the messenger, and then stuck around for the feast scene at the end.
   Following which, Lou gets a call that suggests there's an attack planned near the Five-0 headquarters tomorrow. Who's behind this and is it a conspiracy we don't yet know - but we might find out in the MacGyver/Hawaii Five-0 crossover two weeks from now!

   VIEWERS: 9.02m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.1

VERDICT: Built to service the season theme and set up the crossover, but wasn't one of the better episodes. 7.5/10

MacGyver - 1x17 "Ruler"

"Bozer's first overseas mission with Phoenix goes wrong and the team are disavowed."

We'll start with the opening cut-scene, a scene in which Bozer rescued the team from heavy fire in a beautiful car and looked badass as he climbed out suited and booted while an explosion occurred behind him. Of course, it was all a dream sequence - or more accurately a daydream sequence. A nice twist and great visuals too.
   But the main essence of the plot was that Phoenix were sent to Amsterdam to spy on a woman named Olivia Prior suspected of selling state secrets. Only the US can't be caught spying on its allies, so Phoenix had to go in with no safety net, and when they tried to stop a bomb Prior was blackmailed into setting off they were wrongly accused of terrorism and disavowed.
   That wasn't the end of it, however. The usual obstacles presented itself, but the meat of the plot was that this had all been engineered as a revenge play by Thornton. I wish we'd actually seen her, though. The second plot meat was Mac's over-protectiveness of Bozer: it was his first mission in the field and Mac didn't agree he was field-ready; at least by the end Bozer was secure enough in himself to have concluded this, and decided he wanted to stay at Phoenix in the lab.
   Christopher Heyerdahl (Hell on Wheels, Sanctuary) and his infinite accents dropped by to play the Head of Dutch Intelligence, but he was given far too little to do. Like most MacGyver plots the stakes never feel suitably raised, and this is one example where Heyerdahl was used to show that Dutch Intel were a present threat, but not really one that would detract too much from the long-winded route to the reveal of Thornton's revenge play.

   VIEWERS: 7.01m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.1

VERDICT: Wasted Christopher Heyerdahl in an episode that felt criminally low-stakes. But character-wise, this offered a lot. 7.5/10

NCIS: Los Angeles - 8x15 "Payback"

"OSP race to find Kensi before Sullivan can hurt her."

I can tell you in advance that this is the best episode of the week. It might be one of the best episodes of this entire TV season. Not for its individual writing - there was nothing overly exceptional about that; in fact writing-wise it was a very lowkey episode - but for how this neatly wrapped up a storyline that secretly began FOUR. SEASONS. AGO. (And even if it wasn't planned four seasons ago, which it probably wasn't, I literally don't care. The fact that it all fits like a glove makes it perfect.)

   When Kensi and Granger went to Afghanistan in season 5 to kill "The White Ghost", a CIA mole if I remember rightly, he was in the hands of the Taliban. And in season 8, CIA Agent Ferris, who had kidnapped Kensi in the previous episode, 8x14, revealed he was actually disguised as Taliban in Afghanistan in season 5 and had his leg amputated as a result of Kensi's sniping capabilities. Carl Brown was discovered in season 6 as a mole, then in season 7 it was strung out a little more as the team realised he hadn't been the only mole; then in season 8 it was revealed Sabatino had implanted malware in an email two years ago; latterly, Sharov, Sabatino, Brown and Ferris - among others - all transpired to be CIA moles, only Ferris wanted revenge for losing his leg.
   And then it was revealed Joelle - Callen's on-off girlfriend through seasons 5-7 - was another part of the charade, a CIA agent forced to keep an eye on him by forging a romantic relationship.
   This entire episode basically turned every NCIS LA recurring character into a bad guy, or a double agent. They salvaged Sabatino by having him transpire to be a double agent trying to bring down the corrupt CIA agents, and Joelle made a poignant point that Callen will have done this so many times to other people that he'd be hypocritical not to forgive her for her betrayal. But this was a mindfuck of the best kind.
   And Kensi, of course, did not lose her leg.
   What an episode.
   Wow.

   VIEWERS: 8.48m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.1

VERDICT: The writers must be patting themselves on the back knowing what they just pulled off. When I've calmed down I'll look at this more objectively - but while I'm in the period of "wow", I can only summarise this by saying that this was the single most amazing way to wrap up a lowkey four-season arc that people didn't even realise was a thing. Perfect 10/10

Powerless - 1x04 "Emily Dates a Henchman"

"Emily hunts for a date but unknowingly picks a bad guy. Teddy, Ron and Van try to meet Batman."

L-R: Van, Teddy and Ron waiting for Batman

For a workplace sitcom, this episode of Powerless sure didn't feel like one. The premise of Emily's hunt for a date now she has been there 6 months (after only 4 episodes) is a fair one, but the punchline that she's become involved with a henchman of the Riddler (who wants to steal Wayne Securities' new indestructible phone case to reimagine it as armour or weaponry), was very un-workplace-sitcom-esque. The Riddler's riddle to his henchman on what to do to dispose of Emily and Jackie ("What has no legs but never stops running?") was beautifully deduced by Emily to be a river, leading the henchmen to conclude they have to throw them in the river. Good one, Emily.
   Now to Van, Teddy and Ron's search to meet Batman, which was an almost implausible plotline. Van is a Wayne, so unless he doesn't know Bruce is Batman (which would be unlikely given how the first 3 episodes have gone), why would he be trying to meet him? How did this giant plot hole get past everyone involved in making the show? It really bothers me.

   VIEWERS: 2.30m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.7

VERDICT: One half of this episode was very good and the other was shockingly poor. I'll split my judgement evenly then and give it a 5/10

Quantico - 2x13 "Epicshelter"

"The hostage situation at the G20 summit concludes as Alex finds the terrorist."

So there we have it. The AIC aren't terrorists: they're a safety net, one created to preempt terrorist attacks, one called upon by the First Lady when she discovered the G20 was going to be attacked. So who are the real terrorists? After all that, simply, the Islamic Front. The AIC took the G20 hostage under the guise of the Citizens' Liberation Front to try and out the real terrorists, but went rogue and killed the First Lady.

Miranda explains her involvement in the "terrorist" attack

   But what's on the drives the terrorists want? Not information about agents, but information about the countries involved with the G20, information about how each government reacts to terror attacks. With that knowledge, an enemy could implement attacks that governments couldn't prevent or stop. These US scenarios were thought up by Jeremy Miller, an ex-Farm recruit from the beginning of season 2. I don't think I ever mentioned him here because why would I? A recruit not making the cut past day one isn't new to this series and wasn't important last time. How wrong I was.
   Lydia being the terrorist to release the drives was predictable too. There was bound to be one last reveal after we suspected Dayana of treachery and she was the only likely suspect. And despite Will Olsen's attempts to stop it, the information escaped - it's out there just waiting for someone to find it. President Haas's reaction: create a team of our main cast to work to track down the info and stop it falling into enemy hands. Who's their boss? Caleb! He'll be back next time - what a cliffhanger! (I also hope Harry returns; his meltdown at the Farm and exit after the terrorist attack isn't a comfy conclusion for his character. Surely us Brits have to be involved somehow?)
   And we also learn why Owen was arrested in the past: Lydia's AIC wire tap on the NSA - a federal crime - was discovered by FBI, and he took the fall. Oh how differently this might all have gone had Owen not covered for Lydia here.

   VIEWERS: 2.57m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.7

VERDICT: And now it all makes sense - and looks to head in an excellent direction for the remainder of the 22-episode season. There are some character questions now (who will return and who shan't), but the mystery of the G20 terrorist attack, befuddling as it was, was stunningly concluded. 9.5/10

Scorpion - 3x17 "Dirty Seeds, Done Dirt Cheap"

"The Global Seed Vault in Finland experiences technical faults, and Scorpion are called in to fix it."

If ever there was a showcase for background world-building, Scorpion has continued to do it. Walter being barred from Fro-Yo Ma for offending the cashier was brought back as a punchline to Walter's attempts to interact more with normal people - resulting in the positive outcome that he is now allowed back. Meanwhile, Toby's pirate hat makes a comeback as he teaches Ralph about the war.
   This last point while the rest of the team fly to Finland to fix the Seed Vault which is overheating. Three pieces of equipment need to be fixed to complete this task, but the overheating causes a glitch that locks Cabe, Sly and Happy in, while the toxic effects of some of the seeds take them hostage, causing hallucinations of their worst fears. For Sly, it's chickens; for Cabe, it's the fear of growing old; for Happy, it's that she would be rejected. Sly's fear is appropriately underused as Cabe and Happy's provided much more substance and hilarity, with Ray, the fireman from season 2, returning to play a game show host in Cabe's hallucination who would continually make funny references to how old he was.
   But in helping them escape, Paige was also affected by the spores, and in a single hallucination her worst fear was revealed to be ... Walter with another woman? Eh? So Paige has a kid who she regularly puts near danger by hanging around the Scorpion team ... but her worst fear is Walter with another woman? That's fan pandering, faulty logic and poor story progression if ever I saw it.
   Sly's debate for alderman ends the episode, with him beating rival Patel quite considerably. I wonder where this arc goes next.
   VIEWERS: 7.14m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.2

VERDICT: A substantive look into the characters' fears revealed a lot about them and where they were in life. Good insights, although Paige's brought the tone down a little. 8/10

The Walking Dead - 7x10 "New Best Friends"

"Rick tries to convince the new group to help his fight against the Saviours. Richard tries to convince Daryl to ensnare a group of Saviours."

The Walking Dead had a number of plot threads in "New Best Friends", the first being that the Kingdom's dealings with the Saviours are becoming ever more tempestuous, as all but Ezekiel want to break free of their subjugation. Time and the influence of the Alexandria lot can be attributed to this, but Richard's erroneous method of dealing with a small amount of Saviour scavengers was to kill them and leave a trail back to Carol. Of course, Daryl wasn't up for that.
   Cue the reunion of the Boring Ones. Daryl learns where Carol lives and visits her; their reunion is quite emotional, although Daryl's lie that everyone is fine means there's going to be another, littler implosion coming later on; Carol won't take Glenn and Abraham's murders lying down. Of course, this was also a smart move on the writers' part: Carol's self-imposed exile will only end when she wants it to and the story demands more focus on gathering supplies to fight; Carol finding out about Glenn and Abraham and jumping into the war doesn't need to happen just yet.

Rick looks out over the junkyard community

   But the war demands numbers, and Rick, following Father Gabriel's trail, comes across a junkyard community unsullied by Saviour influence. Of course, that makes convincing them to join the war a harder sell, and the only way Rick can get their support is by fighting an armoured walker in a junkyard gladiator battle. There's something about this new group I like, especially how weirdly pleasing I find the junkyard set-up on the eye. I want to see more of them.
   Unfortunately, the overall episode structure was a little dull. Switching between plot strands at cliffhanger points didn't really occur: each scene played out before moving onto another. That could be improved (and we also need more Negan, who has been absent the last two episodes), but I'm hopeful things will look up from hereon in.

   VIEWERS: 11.07m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 5.28

VERDICT: The junkyard community is oddly pleasing to look at and the gladiator battle was cool as hell. Another episode of moving the pieces slowly. 8/10

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

Nell: "Welcome to NCIS Los Angeles. We be crazy."

BEST EPISODE THIS WEEK:

NCIS LA's "Payback".
   Quantico's "Epicshelter" could have made it here but for airing the same week as NCIS LA's "Payback" - "Epicshelter" concluded the terrorist mythology with as much verve, intrigue and twistiness as it had approached the previous 12 episodes, and laid out a great set-up for the next 9 episodes whilst also announcing the return of a fan favourite character from season 1 yet to be seen in season 2: the President's son and ex-FBI NAT (New-Agent-in-Training), Caleb Haas.
   But it was pipped to the post before it had a chance to make its case.
   I've no doubt that when the NCIS LA writers thought up the Afghanistan arc as a way to keep Daniela Ruah (and her character Kensi) involved during Ruah's real-life pregnancy, they did not intend to bring the story full circle four years later at the exact time Ruah got pregnant again. But even this real-life happening just seems to marry up with the timing of an arc that maybe had a different endgame originally. This arc, in a way, came in with Ruah's first child; it almost fully goes out with her second, and in doing so it transforms the world of NCIS LA and all the characters we know and love. And of course, it may yet not be quite over; with Sabatino's escape (to keep his cover intact), we may yet see more of this in the future.
   Stunning.

LAST WEEK'S ROUNDUP: On-Season Week 22

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

Final thoughts

There was a lot going on this week and a number of highlights. Despite a poor side plot, Elementary's main story was incredible; likewise A.P.B., Bull and Quantico all produced fantastic episodes. Meanwhile, NCIS LA knocked the ball out of the park with "Payback", an episode I'm sure I'll figure as one of its best when the series is cancelled in 100 years from now.
   Ratings were typically skewed; A.P.B., Elementary, Powerless and Quantico continued their poor performances and we're now looking at 4 shows that are almost certainly cancelled (A.P.B. is honestly the only maybe of them, and even then it's giant ratings drops are leaving it an episode or two from certain cancellation), while MacGyver and Hawaii Five-0 did well on Friday and Scorpion's consistency saw it retain its typical 1.2 demo share; Bull maintained its series low 1.3 (while though, its consistency is important).

Next week we've only 3 shows to review, A.P.B., Scorpion and The Walking Dead, so what I'll do instead is take my chance to look in more depth at them, and I'll post 3 separate roundups of the episodes. So do look out for them!

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

Sam