DaveL723

Some random thoughts This show seems to have fallen into a rut or has run out of ideas. All their cases are some variation of a 'ticking time bomb' scenario, all too often with a real bomb, that are all conveniently wrapped up by the end of the day. At the end of last night's scheduled foot pursuit, Tiffany (maybe 120 lb dripping wet) manages to knock down and instantly subdue a 250 lb ex con by jumping on his back. Not gonna happen. Rather than be rendered passive by the touch of an FBI agent, just for once I'd like to see someone shake them off and get away. Note that the bomb in the truck was supposed to be comparable to the one used in the Oklahoma City bombing. Why, oh why does every bomb the FBI is faced with come with a digital clock telling them down to the second when it's going to go off. Yeah, I know it's to heighten the dramatic tension for the audience but we all know it's not going to go off.

Once again the basic premises of the plot didn't make a lot of sense to me. The ammonia tank was stored in a customs area (not a chemical plant as the description said) presumably being held for inspection before being imported into (or exported from) the US. The two men attacked were customs agents (CBP on their jackets). Ammonia is exported or imported in large volumes in tankers, not in little two wheel trailers pulled by pickups. I guess the only reason they did it this way was to give the show an excuse to have the FBI investigate a/c the dead federal agent. There are easier ways to get ammonium nitrate besides making it: buy or steal ammonium nitrate fertilizer. Also, the bomb looked much more sophisticated than that bunch of meatheads was capable of making.

Three episodes and I'm out. It's turned into a soap opera--sort of a British version of 'Winds of War'/'War and Remembrance.' (I liked Herman Wouk's books, found the TV series unwatchable). Also, too many contrivances in Ep 3. In addition to the conveniently pregnant Lois popping up at the camp where Harry was stationed, Harry's assignment as an officer in a front line unit just a couple months after joining the army as an officer was unrealistic--that early in the war the British army was made of of regulars with maybe some trained reservists; no need to put an untrained twit like Harry in charge of anything. Worse, Tom being on the Exeter made on sense at all. Let's see, Tom joined the Royal Navy sometime in September 1939. In early October the Exeter was ordered to the South Atlantic. There was no way he could have been on that ship. Even if it had departed from England (rather than directly from some other duty station) they wouldn't have assigned someone with two weeks training to that crew. Another contrivance to progress Tom's plot line that pulled me out of the story. (If they had been patient, they could have waited and shown Tom on the Exeter in early 1942 when it was sunk by the Japanese off of Java and the surviving crew taken prisoner).

Has anyone else wondered about the ubiquitous video cameras that seem to show up in every episode? They're everywhere: on every street, in every store, at street level, looking down from above. They all work all the time, and all are instantly available to the FBI at a moment's notice--no need apparently to get a warrant. And the FBI has software that lets them seamlessly track someone moving around the city and never lose him. Are there really this many video cameras in NYC? Has the FBI put them there? Is it really 1984? Aren't criminals aware of this and taking steps to avoid or fool them? I call lazy writing on this.

While I can certainly understand why the Centre would want to track down a collaborator/war criminal, having her assassinated like they did would serve no real purpose politically or ideologically. She would simply be the victim of some random home invasion murder that would have no connection to her past. It would make more sense to me for the Centre to have P&E snatch her and put her on trial in the USSR (like Israel did with Eichmann). That provides them with a moral justification for executing her and lets her serve as example of what happens to collaborators and war criminals. Alternatively, they could expose her in the US and get the US government to deport her; this has happened to war criminals found living years later in the States, although not sure if any were sent back to Russia. In any event, it hardly seems worth risking two valuable agents on this. A lot could go wrong even on a simple hit like this.

Deleted scene Flunky: Hey boss, you want to wrap a chain around that girl agent's neck and toss her overboard? Lozano: No. When we get to Baltimore stick her in the van with the bomb and drive her to DC Flunky: Really? Would' t it make more sense just to get rid of .... Lozano: Don't argue. Just do it. Oh, and Don't forget to wire that big digital timer into the firing circuit. That way everyone will know it's a real bomb. All real bombs have a clock showing exactly when it will go off.

Dutch and German are very similar. Dutch would be "Wij hebben de moeder" (Also the cc showed "Speaking Dutch: We have the mother.")

The Blackjack guy was Dutch. Listed in the cast as van Westerdam. He also showed up in the earlier Episode where he and other Blackjacks were in northern England looking for the British resistor's mother. He was speaking Dutch in that scene.

Re M-H inventories: I went back and looked again at the segment where Max reports the inventory shortage. It appears that it's more than a discrepancy in unit costs as speculated above--while this a part of it, there also appears to be a lot of physical inventory unaccounted for. Max said there was supposed to be 120 pallets of product in inventory but the distributor only delivered 33. Max used this to reduce the value of the inventory to $70K. Marcus further reduced it to $47K when he applied the $1.79 unit cost Max provided. An inventory shortfall like this can't be explained away as a simple mistake in counting pallets. Some possibilities: 1. Employee or contractor theft: but who the hell steals toilet cleaner? We're not talking high end electronics. 2. Max and hubby selling inventory and diverting revenues to their personal account. This might help explain their lavish lifestyle. If this is the case Max better hope no one from the IRS was watching this show. 3. There really is no missing inventory and Max just made up a bunch of numbers to inflate her balance sheet to hook Marcus. People go to jail for that sort of thing.

It wasn't clear to me why this potential franchisee was even considering taking out a franchise. What exactly would he be getting for his franchise fee? The right to use a very forgettable name and generic decor? Name recognition, based on what, a single store? Hamburger recipes? A wildly successful business model? Business advice from 5 meat heads? Walk away, Mr Franchisee. You can do better than this