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Friday, 12 May 2017

On-Season Week 34

WEEK 34

I feel like I begin every opening paragraph mentioning the season winding down, but it's going to show prominently from hereon out since we have only four more weeks left. This week, however, Hawaii Five-0 will air its season finale - alongside the penultimate episodes of NCIS LA, Quantico and Scorpion - and Brooklyn Nine-Nine goes into three weeks of double-headers to ensure it's run is completed by June. Let's begin by heading to the Nine-Nine.
   Update: Brooklyn Nine-Nine has been renewed for season 5.


Brooklyn Nine-Nine (4x17 & 4x18)

2x12 "Beach House". Wait, I mean 4x17 "Cop-Con"

"The Nine-Nine head to a police convention and try to party under Holt's nose."

There's very little to say about "Cop-Con". It was a poor rehash of 2x12's "Beach House", where Holt comes along to an out-of-town location and the rest of the Nine-Nine try to party under his nose. It even made a nod to "Beach House" (in which Gina tried to find out what six-drink Amy was like), by revealing that eight-drink Amy was very into equestrianism. (Now we just need to know what seven-drink Amy is like.)
   But "Cop-Con" lacked the typical B99 belly laughs, proved why Jake is often the weak link in creating said belly laughs and failed to remember that Scully is married and therefore why is he getting a She-Scully? Admittedly, the episode stayed true to character, and that does make it a good advert for the show, but when the funniest part of an episode is Scully and Hitchcock (who are criminally underused and funnier than half of the main cast), you've put a pretty poor effort forwards.
   VIEWERS: 1.83m
   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.7

VERDICT: Twenty minutes I felt I'd already seen. A rare blip on the season 4 scoresheet. 5/10

4x18 "Chasing Amy"

"Amy disappears hours before her Sergeant's exam. Terry and Holt war over whose model train set would be preferable to children. Gina is banished from the Boyle family."

Given B99's issues over the past two episodes with character continuity, it's fun that they've eased that somewhat by throwing in a number of hilarious throwbacks. Here, we had a reminder of Boyle and Gina's romantic tryst (a plot arc that simply can't be disliked), and mentions of the Boyle family trip to Aruba in 4x08. Holt and Terry's sideplot once again provided the main humour, as usual through Holt's unique love for everything insanely boring.
   Jake and Amy's main plot was typically Jamy: good but not great. Rosa provided the humour for that, with her constant remarks about Jake and Amy's character traits whilst Jake tried to find Amy in time for her Sergeant's exam. I hope they continue this along the road, and Amy passes and becomes a Sergeant: that would provide a new and necessary dimension to their relationship, and change things for Amy with everyone else too. I see a fun arc for season 5 if this is followed up on.
   Once again, however, Scully and Hitchcock stole the show. More Scully and Hitchcock, less Jake and Terry please.
   VIEWERS: 1.47
   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.6

VERDICT: Better than before but not by much. 6/10


Bull - 1x21 "Welcome Back, Dr. Bull"

"Benny goes to trial for planting evidence in the Hayden Watkins case, so Bull hires an expert fixer, J.P. Nunnelly, to help."

An episode that saw Marissa, Danny, Cable and Chunk all massively sidelined may not feel like one that could rank among the best of the season, but Bull achieved something in doing this. Not only did it bring a satisfying and interesting conclusion to the Hayden Watkins arc in an episode naturally Benny-centric, but Bull created an overlap of arcs to round out the season: with Benny's problems with the Hayden Watkins investigation behind them, TAC now has to repay J.P. for assisting them by helping her on three cases.
   You could tell Eliza Dushku had real fun playing sharp-tongued fixer J.P., and she was excellent in the role. I'm not so sure about the love interest dynamic the writers hinted at (Bull is, after all, supposed to be in a sort-of relationship with Diana Lindsay), but I want more of J.P. and I want to see her involve herself with the rest of TAC a little more.
   Case-wise, it was obvious that the detective had planted the evidence instead of Benny when he tried to talk Benny into taking the deal midway through the episode: Bull writers could have been a bit more subtle with this. They also need to rethink the first scene: Bull's voiceover about dodging bullets was a great tone-setter for the episode, but Cable going on a date with a guy she's met on an online app? Isn't she supposed to be in a relationship with Wes? I don't understand how no one ever picks up on things like this, given the lengthy process an episode goes through from the ideas board to the final cut. It really bothers me there's this little oversight and continuity.
   VIEWERS: 10.89m
   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.2

VERDICT: One of Bull's better episodes, and it gave Freddy Rodriguez a chance to shine. However, it was a little too easy to guess the outcome. 8.5/10


Elementary - 5x22 "Moving Targets"

"A police chief involved in a reality TV show is found murdered."

Shinwell's dead!!!
   This is just good on a base level, since it gets rid of a character who has been exceedingly poor throughout the season. On a plot level, it makes sense too: Shinwell's death would totally spur Sherlock and Joan into helping bring down the gang he was infiltrating; in fact, in retrospect it's really the only way they would actively get involved and do that. However, it's hard to even care at all: Shinwell has never been an interesting character and nor has his storyline with SBK, which has been background noise at most. Bringing it front and centre as a way for Sherlock and Joan to exact revenge doesn't have the same weight as if Shinwell had been interesting and the whole SBK storyline had had any weight to it previously.
   But that's that. In the episode's murder mystery we see a police chief competing in a reality TV show for a million dollars. The story is a very simple one, with few twists and turns compared to normal plots. The child soldier turned doctor was a nice touch, if his importance as a prime suspect was overstated; the gun company bribing cops to use their guns was an interesting line of thought. It's worth noting, too, that this episode had oddly garrulous suspects: the child soldier turned doctor was happy to admit to stalking the dead police chief in an effort to study his competition and win the reality show, while the big gun company head was happy to admit to his bribery since he'd already gotten away with it.
Elementary
   In the end, the murderer was one of the reality show producers, who had also taken bribes from the gun company due to a past as a Texas ranger. Not a bad idea, I suppose, although I feel that Sherlock and Joan would have picked up on his Texas ranger past way earlier in the episode.
   VIEWERS: 4.22m
   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.6

VERDICT: An episode of real filler to carry us towards the final reveal of Shinwell's death. 6.5/10

Hawaii Five-0 - 7x25 "Ua Mau Ke Ea O Ka Aina I Ka Pono / The Life of the Land is Perpetuated in Righteousness"

"Five-0 chase a sex trafficker through Hawaii."

I was sceptical that, given Hawaii Five-0's lack of arcs building throughout the season, they would be able to produce a particularly thrilling finale.
   Oh how wrong was I.
   It began tamely enough, with the usual Danny and McGarrett banter, Chin getting it on with Abby and Kono taking Chin's stepdaughter out to collect party goods for a celebration of Jerry getting his badge. The storyline was slowly faded in as the sex trafficking victim from a few episodes ago, Moani, contacted Kono, having sketched the face of one of her captors in a therapy session. Five-0 put out a search for the bad guy, Deon, and found he was driving a truck around the island, with a dozen or so young girls inside.
   Cue some of the most ridiculously amazing stunts I've seen in the show's tenure. Almost the entire second half of the episode was a car chase! Deon blew through HPD roadblocks, before being headed off the road so McGarrett could jump from a tunnel onto the back of the moving truck; they rescued half of the girls in a scene reminiscent of the movie "Speed", before McGarrett was forced to uncouple the truck and kill Deon in order to rescue the remaining girls.
   It was an adrenaline ride far beyond what Hawaii Five-0 usually produces, and was just an all-round well-handled finale.
   But what about the set-ups for next season? Kono, deeply affected by the girls and troubled by how widespread the operation is, has flown to Nevada to try and coordinate an operation to shut down further branches of the sex trafficking ring, while McGarrett has revealed he is suffering from radiation poisoning from the dirty bomb in episode 7x18.
   VIEWERS: 7.89m
   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.0

VERDICT: Stunning episode, well-rounded and thought-provoking. One of the best of the season. 9.5/10

Lucifer - 2x15 "Deceptive Little Parasite"

"Lucifer and Chloe investigate the murder of a Head of Admissions at a prestigious school. "Charlotte's" obsession with returning to Heaven grows stronger and she pressures Lucifer to find a way to get them all there."

Refreshingly, Lucifer is back to normal after the stopgap that was Candy in the previous episode. Here, Lucifer's egocentricity returns to its normal extremes, with Lucifer continually whining about the case, making numerous sex jokes and ignoring Chloe's orders. He's desperate to get "Charlotte" back to heaven and to do so means he needs to ignite Azrael's blade, but that requires Lucifer to control his emotions; thus, a murder based in a school setting itself on that principle made for a way to connect both the murder and Lucifer's singular search for answers.
   And, as per usual, he finds them at Dr, Martin's door: that his pain over finding out the truth about Chloe is the suppressed feeling he could use to ignite Azrael's blade. It doesn't quite work, though: Lucifer fails to light the blade for long enough, causing "Charlotte" to take off and reveal to the audience that she is running out of time. Perhaps something to do with her human form? Who knows, but it's put a timer on the return to Heaven.
   There are a few other things to note from the episode - other extremes. For example, Maze helping Chloe with the case by pretending to be her lover at a school gathering; and Lucifer letting a teacher (who he didn't realise was the killer) into Chloe's car because if he agrees she will teach him how to control his emotions. That only backfired when she pulled Chloe's gun.
   Once again, Dan played a very insignificant part of the story, and there was no sign of Ella at all. They probably won't have much to do in this final run of episodes, but I hope I'm wrong.
   VIEWERS: 3.29m
   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.9

VERDICT: Peak Lucifer, perhaps even beyond that. As whole an episode as there can be. 9/10

NCIS: Los Angeles - 8x23 "Uncaged"

"A Navy SEAL is murdered, but his death is only a distraction for an old foe to kidnap Sam's wife and escape from custody."

Going into this I didn't think I'd enjoy myself: the long-standing arc that was Tahir Khaled and Sam rescuing his sister from his tyrannical rule in Sudan wasn't a very interesting storyline over the past few seasons, and Tahir's return didn't fill me with any confidence. I'm still frustrated - Khaled's inevitable escape from what was a very fun multiple car surveillance scene means he'll be popping up sometime in the future to bore me once again - but for this episode the execution was much cleaner.
   Perhaps that's because all of the focus was on Michelle Hanna, who was locked in an airtight room filled with only 8 hours' worth of oxygen. A live stream to OSP was actually very interesting - you don't often see kidnappings that would give a live stream to those trying to find the kidnap victim in case they could be traced. The storyline needed Michelle's live stream to be untraceable so it was, although I remain sceptical, possibly due to my limited knowledge of tracing video links, that OSP wouldn't have located her way before Michelle's 8 hours were up.
   And they were up. I wasn't sure if they'd go down the route of killing off Sam's wife, but they did. It was a sad scene and very atypical for the show, but beautifully edited to keep us guessing right to the very end. LL Cool J did a great job selling Sam's pain, and this is going to lead us terrifically into the season finale.
   VIEWERS: 9.06m
   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.0

VERDICT: Better than predicted with a heartbreaking ending. Should add an extra dimension to the finale and to season 9 as well. 8.5/10

Quantico - 2x21 "Rainbow"

"The collaborators try to commit a 9/11-type terror attack to win public support."

Quantico went as far with this shocking storyline as a 9/11-esque terror attack orchestrated by a President. It was nail-biting stuff for 28 minutes as the taskforce raced to get the names of on-board Muslims being made patsies, and use the FAA to stop them. This required Alex to give up her in with the collaborators, meaning the penultimate episode has reset everyone to square one.
   Almost.
   Following the taskforce's prevention of the terror attack, Roarke requests the entire team to come to a public address, where he exposes them as an undercover group working against terrorism, making it sound as if they were his friends and not his enemies. (Given this nuclear move, you do have to wonder if the collaborators actually wanted them to foil their plan rather than let it happen. Both outcomes benefited the collaborators.)
   But this was all done towards the end in an episode that finished the main arc after just 28 minutes. The remaining quarter hour spent time on characters reflecting about their lives and worrying about how to move forward and fight the collaborators, with Alex coming to the one terrible, brilliant, amazing conclusion: they have to be terrorists.
   But those terrorists will be a woman short, after Raina gave herself up to the collaborators to provide the taskforce a distraction earlier in the episode. So as the taskforce takes on Roarke, it's 7/8 people against the might of the American government.
   Bring it on.
   (Also, it's nice to see Will Olsen again. If there's one thing I love about Quantico, it's how it utilises its wider character base effectively.)
   VIEWERS: 2.87m
   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.5

VERDICT: Heart-pounding, stomach-churning action mixed with pure horror at the eventual outcome. A truly magnificent episode and a stunning set-up to the finale. 9/10

Scorpion - 3x24 "Maroon 8"

"Scorpion are marooned on a deserted island."

Following on from the cliffhanger of the previous episode, Scorpion are headed to Tahiti on another job/free honeymoon when their plane begins to fail. Much of the first ten minutes or so is spent ensuring that the crash, which can't be prevented, won't be fatal, and for Scorpion it isn't; for pilot Scotty it very nearly is. There's more inventive solutions to life-threatening situations here than on MacGyver, a show built on its inventive off-the-cuff solutions. Scotty is saved from toxin build-up from a crush injury and also internal bleeding (in fairness, it's only possible due to the coincidentally useful wedding presents the team bought for Toby and Happy, though I'm willing to skip over that since the presents were very characteristic).
   Scotty's life saved, thoughts are only of getting rescue (aside from Sly, who in a hilarious turn of events has adopted a fatalistic outlook that gives him a shocking fearlessness). Their window for rescue shortens when a passing Japanese shipping vessel begins to change course, but the flare doesn't manage to attract its attention in time, leaving Scorpion abandoned on a deserted island. To highlight the length of time passed, the show then cuts to three weeks later, where Scorpion have survived relatively well, though some (especially Sly) are starting to go crazy.
   The character beats were centred around our two main relationships: #Quintis and #Waige. Toby is horrified at learning so much about Happy's previously nomadic past, including that she used to date Jake Gyllenhaal. Meanwhile, Walter's romantic gestures to Paige are extreme; not the actual gestures (such as giving her a flower), but in his constant references to their love ie "My little arrhythmia" (because she makes his heart skip a beat), and calling her his soulmate. It's quite difficult to watch, but it's indicative of and complementary towards his lack of emotional understanding. It doesn't appear it will change though, for even three weeks in he remains doing this ("my little asthma" - because she takes his breath away).
   VIEWERS: 7.34m
   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.1

VERDICT: All of the usual first-landing-on-a-deserted-island stuff took place. They were more interesting than usual and the dynamics were fun, but some parts were difficult to watch. 8.5/10

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

Scorpion - Toby: "A water channel? HB-Ocean. Sea-BS. Sea-W?"

BEST EPISODE THIS WEEK:

Without a doubt, the best episode of this week goes to Hawaii Five-0. Its two main mythology arcs, based around the backstories of McGarrett and Chin, were both concluded by the end of season 6, and season 7 has missed some of the drama those backstories created. But the finale dispelled a little of that with some of the best and longest stunt and car chase scenes I remember seeing in a TV show. Add to that the expectation that season 8 will be the last, and the show has actually set up a good arc in the sex trafficking ring to carry through to next year, and interesting sideplots for Danny, Chin, Lou and Jerry. Mahalo.

LAST WEEK'S ROUNDUP: On-Season Week 33

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


Final thoughts

So Hawaii Five-0 is gone for another season - and what a way for it to go out! Brooklyn Nine-Nine's double-header may not have offered its best episodes, but the promise of a season 5 renewal means we've got a lot more to expect from it! And let's look out for three more season finales next week!

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

Sam

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