On-Season Week 33

WEEK 33

The show exodus I've been speaking about the last few weeks is now visibly starting to take place, and it all begins with Hawaii Five-0 airing its penultimate episode this week. There is some fun news, however: following this week's Brooklyn Nine-Nine, the final 6 episodes will be aired two at a time, so it's double bubble from hereon out; and Lucifer still has 5 episodes to air in May before it wraps for the season.
   Also, this is the first time since the middle of the season that all the shows we're currently reviewing come together on one roundup, and it will likely be this way as one-by-one the 2016/17 fall season comes to an end. But there's plenty of time before that and plenty to review so let's get started!

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - 4x16 "Moo Moo"

"When Terry feels racially profiled by a white police officer, he considers how he should handle it."

Brooklyn Nine-Nine's racially charged "Moo Moo" was everything the writers wanted it to be - aside from being funny, which is a thing they claimed they managed to achieve in the midst of sensitively handling their commentary on a pervasive and contemporary issue: racial profiling. That sensitive handling was exactly what they could have hoped it to be, with Holt eventually backing up Terry's decision to file a complaint against Officer Maldack (played by Desmond Harrington, Dexter).

Terry is arrested by Officer Maldack

   But elsewhere, Jake and Amy's side plot in looking after Terry's kids was just ... what? Sure it had a couple of hilarious moments, but Boyle's constant references to Jake and Amy making babies was annoying and if you wanted to know why Jake and Amy needed to babysit Terry's kids at all (which was because his wife was away), then you need to look to the press release because the episode completely ignores that that's a thing it should have explained.
   Oh, and if Charles is an unlicensed doula, that's new! So I guess the whole Nick Offerman as Holt's doctor ex-boyfriend thing in 3x08's "Ava" could have been averted by just having Charles present - which he was. Huh.

   VIEWERS: 1.71m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.6

VERDICT: Without trying to detract from a necessary message, the episode overall was poor. It wasted Desmond Harrington on two scenes, didn't explain it's side plot and forgot about how throwaway punchlines can create frustrating character inconsistencies. 6/10 is generous.

Bull - 1x20 "Make Me"

"Bull takes on a case of Troy Dickerson, tried for murdering his father, because he believes Troy was hypnotised by a cult."

"Make Me" was a key example of what Bull can do when it switches its emphasis from the courtroom scenes to TAC's investigatory work. Troy killing his father was not in question - CCTV plainly showed him bashing his dad's skull in with a golf club - but there was work to be done to prove he wasn't in control of his actions at the time. That meant deep-diving into his history, illegally (as ever) obtaining the golf club's CCTV and going undercover at the cult. All to discover the twist that Troy's golf date with his dad had not been planned and the real target of his murderous hypnosis had been the cult leader, whose daughter wanted him out of the way so she could expand the business.
   The time not spent in court was good for Bull, but the mystery was big enough it couldn't serve up too much court time anyway. It also had to deal with Benny's continued spiralling, with Benny eventually confessing to Bull that he is being investigated for prosecuting the innocent Hayden Watkins - only this time there's the added point that Benny had ignored critical evidence that might have exonerated Watkins. I'm not sure how I feel about this extra nugget yet; this kind of thing is meant to increase the precarious nature of Benny's position and it feels a little forced. But I'll let it run.
   As a final point, it's nice to see Chunk recognise parallels between cult members and the staff at TAC: "a group of people with a fanatical commitment to a charismatic leader, a belief that his way is the only way and a complete lack of life outside of the organisation". To the cult of Bull!

   VIEWERS: 10.64m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.2

VERDICT: A format switch-up helped, and an interesting case worked with that uncommon episode structure, 8/10

Elementary - 5x21 "Flying into a Rage, Make a Bad Landing"

"The NYPD investigate Chantal's vicious assault, with her ex-husband Roy Booker as the prime suspect."

"Marcus, is she OK?" Gregson asks.
   In truth, I don't personally care, although I have to admit Bell was quite heartbroken on behalf of a woman he'd only spent three scattered episodes with. I'd like now to hark back to my point about how Bell (and Gregson) are generally one-dimensional due to the writers' hard-ons for the Sherlock and Joan dynamic (which they are ironically forgetting this season).
   In fairness, the writers did try to make Bell a bit more rounded in this episode, by throwing out that his dad used to beat his mum and thus Bell hates hospitals - this tactic was also meant to elicit a little more sympathy from the audience re Bell's feelings for Chantal given her situation, and an explanation for his overwhelming thirst for vengeance. Only it didn't work: Sherlock would have realised this part of Bell's life ages ago; also, the writers are forgetting Bell didn't hate hospitals in season 2 when he was shot protecting Sherlock and suffered a debilitating hand injury, which, by my calculations, sits neatly between Dad-beats-Mum and Chantal's assault. Character continuity at its finest.
   The investigation into Chantal's assault (and Booker's eventual murder following a frame-up), was well-structured, which was a positive for such a poor, trope-laden, boring episode. The solve was even better: Booker had been working as a PI and the lawyer who hired him, Winthrop, had been conducting drugs tests on his employees. Thus, an explanation for urine matching Booker's DNA at the scene of Chantal's assault, and a clever one to boot - although there's still the burden of actual proof, since that sample is the only tenuous link to Winthrop.
   And as a final remark, anyone else fancy a trip to that insect-cuisine restaurant with Sherlock and Bell?

   VIEWERS: 4.79m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.5

VERDICT: Wait, we still have three episodes left? And we still have to close off Shinwell's story. Ugggggh. 5/10 including 2 extra points for the clever reveal.

Hawaii Five-0 - 7x24 "He ke'u na ka 'alae a Hin / A Croaking by Hina's Mudhen"

"McGarrett is informed by a terrorist held in Guantanamo Bay of an impending terrorist attack."

After a Danny-centric episode, we get a Danny-less episode. These tend to be on the less interesting side of things just by default, because the central pairing of Danny and McGarrett is being divided, but the problem is too many of these big storylines occur when Danny isn't present. Earlier in the season, episode 150 which saw the return of Catherine and McGarrett's mum was devoid of  Danny (and it was a hugely important episode); again, here, Danny was missing from a terrorist plotline that didn't even give one of the usual tired explanations for his disappearances.
   But the episode was pretty good. Coming off the back of the Danny-centric episode it wasn't likely to match up and didn't, but there were some great scenes, including McGarrett flashbacks to 2007 when he worked at Gitmo and showed kindnesses to a terrorist rather than torture him. Ten years later, that kindness is repaid, and because of that Five-0 save a plane full of military.
   The side plot boggled me a little bit - why was it relevant at all that ex-criminal-turned-crime-scene-cleaner Hirsch needed help with his business plan to get a bank loan? - but it took the final scene where Kamekona and his wise words show up to realise how the story fit with the episode theme, which wasn't necessarily about second chances, but about how showing kindness is a good deed and can see good deeds returned.
   Also, no way Chin takes the job offer to Frisco.

   VIEWERS:  7.85m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.9

VERDICT: A decent episode, but writers need to readjust Scott Caan's weeks off with plotlines. There's no excuse he keeps vanishing for the biggest episodes of the season. 8/10

Lucifer - 2x14 "Candy Morningstar"

"Lucifer returns to Los Angeles with a glamorous wife in tow, and tries to resume his normal life. But is he plotting something else too?"

If you listen to "Charlotte" (Lucifer's mum), who is convinced Lucifer is making a plan, you're probably right. But in "Candy Morningstar" she mistakenly assumes Lucifer's plan is more advanced than it really is. For Candy, the wife Lucifer brought back from Vegas after disappearing suddenly, is really a ploy, a dummy: while "Charlotte" attempts to figure out Lucifer's plan by spending time with Candy, Candy is in actuality doing the same for Lucifer. The outcome is "Charlotte" is totally confused whereas Lucifer now knows where his mum's mindset is. And that remains unfalteringly on returning to Heaven.

Dan, Chloe and Lucifer react to Candy pointing out
a significant detail in their murder investigation

   But now, they have a method. It transpires that the flaming sword capable of destroying God is in fact Azrael's blade - which is in Lucifer's possession. Should he be tempted to join "Charlotte" and Amenadiel in returning to Heaven - even if only to take revenge on God for creating Chloe - then that would be possible. Again, it's unclear if Lucifer truly wants to align himself with his mum for such a venture (while, by his own admission, he's more pissed at God, he remains pissed at her too), but he may be tempted by the thought of revenge.
   Meanwhile, Lucifer's use of Candy in discerning Chloe's mindset is a less clever move, but suffice it to say Chloe is extremely furious with him. Of course, she remains unaware that her birth was ordered by God and that that is why Lucifer fled soon after they had admitted their feelings for each other, and thus spends most of the episode refusing to allow him to join the case, a simple one revolving around the murder of a band's lead singer (and don't think I missed the band's name, The Heavy Woolies, an actually real band of which executive producer Ildy Modrovich is the lead vocalist). Of course, the conclusion sees Lucifer granted a return to the LAPD as Chloe's partner, as we knew it would.

   VIEWERS: 3.41m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.0

VERDICT: A return that did everything necessary to head towards a fresh endgame. 8/10

NCIS: Los Angeles - 8x22 "Golden Days"

"OSP search for the stolen gold, but Chegwedden, Bridges and Langston continually defy their orders."

Detective Whiting "blackmails" Deeks

The first part of this two-parter promised a rather crazy hunt for $40,000,000-worth of stolen gold bars that served as ransom money for the elite extraction unit that included the 3 tag-alongs, Granger and Hetty, but the second part failed to deliver. Instead of a rather serious hunt for what is quite a serious breach of national security (and what could technically, if discovered by anyone outside of the good and bad guys that make up the two sides of this plot, blow the lid on the US's unorthodox and probably illegal activities), everyone just ambled from scene to scene so casually it was as if they were just waiting forty minutes to do the arrest bit.
   The only part of the episode that didn't hit these low notes was Deeks and Whiting's meeting, their first since Deeks confessed he killed his ex-partner to Whiting who had been trying to pin the murder on him for over a year. Now Whiting and Deeks are locked in a sort of mutually assured destruction, but one that's a little more in Whiting's favour as she has Deeks agree to help her with suspected corruption in the force. I'm glad for this arc; Whiting probably won't be back until season 9 now, but I like her character and this could get very interesting.

   VIEWERS: 9.08m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.0

VERDICT: The actors did their best but only Eric Christian Olsen as Marty Deeks could lift the script from the paper 6.5/10

Quantico - 2x20 "GlobalReach"

"Alex infiltrates the collaborators. Clay comes up with a plan to take down Roarke."

Things were already hot in Quantico, but with "GlobalReach" they hit boiling point. Alex's actions with the collaborators not only broke her relationship with CIA Director Keyes, but subtly saved six FBI agents from death despite her having no option but to allow them to be poisoned in the first place. Meanwhile, Clay tried to bring down Roarke by framing Roarke's assistant Felix behind Raina's back, but Raina, not fooled, blew their op in hopes of using Felix to free Nimah. The problem is that Raina blowing the op caused Felix to resign, leaving Nimah in an even more troublesome situation and the taskforce with even fewer ways to bring down the collaborators.

President Haas resigns live on TV, as seen from the taskforce
bunker

   But the disunity was a detriment to the quality of the episode. It was, of course, necessary for the characters, broken apart as they were, to try and take matters into their own hands, but that really didn't marry well with their endgame of bringing down Roarke. Fortunately, Clay has resigned as leader of the taskforce, passing control over to Owen - hopefully this signals a reunion of sorts, although Alex will of course remain undercover with the collaborators.
   However, President Claire Haas's impeachment cannot be stopped, leading her to the heartbreaking decision to resign before that becomes necessary. In doing so, she passes the Presidency to Speaker of the House and collaborator Henry Roarke. So what will happen now with the ultimate antagonist ascending to one of the most powerful positions in the world?

   VIEWERS: 2.65m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.6

VERDICT: The separate plot strands didn't work in the Quantico world (where all ops failed), or the real world, where everything just felt a little bit all over the place - just not in the good way. 8/10

Scorpion - 3x23 "Something Burrowed, Something Blew"

"Walter takes a last-minute job that threatens the entire West coastline just hours before Toby and Happy's wedding."

The plot of "Something Burrowed, Something Blew" (see an underground coal fire that threatens to shut down electrical systems along the West coast) was one of the better plots of the season, but it served as a simple detour from the main meat of the episode, which was would Happy and Toby get to their San José wedding in time, or would they miss it and have to conduct an impromptu ceremony in the one place Happy specifically stated she did not wish to locate her wedding: Kawelski's car park? Well, it wouldn't be very dramatic if they made it, so Kawelski's it was!

   To Paige's credit, she did a superb job of dressing up the car park and found a beautiful dress for Happy in only 2 hours, but the wedding's success was dependent on that unorthodox minister, ex-fireman and season 2's recurring character Ray (Kevin Weisman), who had been hired as Scorpion's organiser following Paige's dismissal. Paige's return was, of course, less than cordial in terms of her and Walter's reunion, but it was Ralph who had some of the best moments of the episode (and there were a lot), by confronting Walter on numerous occasions for hurting his mum. Yes Ralph!
   That all came to a head during the wedding, however; after uneven but endearing conduct from Ray, Toby and Happy became Mr and Mrs Curtis/Quinn, while Walter finally admitted to Paige in a wonderfully confused Walter-esque speech that he loved her - and Paige said it back.
   #WAIGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Paige and Walter get caught in the Kawelski's utility closet

   The shot switched back to Toby and Happy, and "Mr Perv" suggested they sneak away for some impromptu loving, which "Mrs Perv" happily agreed to. Only Walter and Paige were already at it and, following an embarrassing but brilliant scene in which everyone appeared one-by-one to catch them in the act, they returned to their business.
   The final clip then leads us into what will serve as a two-episode arc to close out the season: as Scorpion take off for a job/free honeymoon in Tahiti, their plane begins to fail and will crash on a deserted island. I like where this season is ending and I like this episode too.
   Also, how about Toby's tux matching the one Eddie Kaye Thomas wore for his prom scenes in the first American Pie film? Nice reference.

   VIEWERS: 7.11m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.1

VERDICT: A good plot, punchlines stronger than the ramifications of letting the underground fire burn and the moment everyone has been waiting for: #WAIGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 9.5/10

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

Scorpion - Ralph (to Walter): "You're lucky I'm a kid. If I was bigger, I would fight you. You hurt my mother."

BEST EPISODE THIS WEEK:

On a week of very underwhelming episodes, there's only one show that truly stands out: Scorpion. That's not for episode plot reasons - the short-running plot (it was completed by the 28th minute) was intriguing but really just served as a build-up to Happy and Toby's wedding. That and the fact that Walter finally admitted his feelings for Paige, the final fifteen minutes of this episode were everything the show has spent three seasons working towards.
   Of course, the episode's greatness doesn't just hang on those final fifteen minutes. Ralph has some hero moments confronting Walter, the typical Scorpion humour is present throughout and there's a wonderful cliffhanger which will set up what looks to be a brilliant final two episodes. But even if I was basing this episode on its final fifteen minutes, few of the other shows had a full 40 that could match them.
   So Scorpion it is.

LAST WEEK'S ROUNDUP: On-Season Week 32

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

Final thoughts

This week was interesting, for it had a bigger density of average episodes than usual. Perhaps these last couple months of having only a few shows to review each week is making this look worse than it is, but I remain surprised by this nonetheless.
   Ratings are practically unimportant now, but it's worth keeping an eye on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Elementary and Quantico, the only 3 shows on this roundup still without a renewal or cancellation announcement. We can expect one inside the next two weeks!

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

Sam