Xeliou66

I watched The Good Doctor again last night on Charge, this is one of my favorites, and every time I watch it I think about how I wish Carver had gotten more screen time - he was awesome in court in this one. He could’ve been just as beloved as any L&O lawyer had he gotten more screentime. It’s a travesty he barely got to go in court. Carver’s cross of the smug Kelmer was awesome, he threw him off balance by asking about the dissections in between asking about his marriage and then got him to explode. Goren was at his best as well in this one. It’s a classic CI episode. I watched some of The Third Horseman a bit later, I love the manhunt for the sniper in this one and how they figured out who was his next target. Eames was great and very passionate in this one. But it’s the one time Carver kind of annoyed me - he seemed to have personal anti abortion views and it seemed like he was letting it cloud his judgment.

I figured I would start the episode thread for tonight, hope this is done properly. The synopsis says “When a successful Wall St investor is murdered in his home, Shaw and Riley dig into his professional and personal lives to identify his killer. DA Baxter puts pressure on Price and Maroun to make sure his first case in office is a success”.

Maybe Jack was more sympathetic due to age, plus he knew the judge for a while and maybe he wanted to grant him the benefit of the doubt that he would know if he wasn’t fit anymore. It was a sad situation, and I felt for the judge. Fortunately Jack stayed mentally sharp during his entire run as DA, I’m really glad he got such a strong exit this season.

Knock-Off is such a great episode, it’s really interesting to see the detectives and prosecutors go to a small town upstate outside of NYC and deal with the corrupt sheriff and the inept judge. Very strong case with good stuff for the detectives and DAs. I liked seeing Lupo and Cutter in their hotel room, it was so unusual to see them in a casual setting with Cutter in his pajamas, and it was interesting seeing Cutter and Lupo work together in the small town to get to the truth. Jack was great as always, and it was very satisfying to see him get the upper hand on Shalvoy at the end and force his hand to turn on the scummy sheriff. I loved Jack’s “I’m too old to play Hamlet” line, funny since Sam did play Hamlet in theater productions years earlier, and when the woman who ran the AA meetings said she had to answer to a higher authority, Bernard replied “so do we, you haven’t met our lieutenant”, that was great. It was interesting seeing Bernard talk about how he hated small towns while Lupo liked them. This is probably my favorite season 19 episode, and 19 is a good season, this one is outstanding, great case and great character interactions. Sweetie is an interesting episode, even though it was ultimately predictable that the literary agent would turn out to be the murderer. It was still an interesting plot that took some good twists and turns, and it was kind of a surprise that Sweetie’s story was actually the murderer’s story, that she was the real “Sweetie Ness”. I doubt they could ever prove she committed the murder though, so it’s likely no justice could ever be served, which sometimes happens. Pretty good episode. Watching Zero now, with the judge with dementia, I felt sorry for the judge, he was a good judge and decent man who just couldn’t come to terms with the fact that he was no one longer mentally fit to preside over cases. Dementia is a terrible illness, I’ve had a couple of family members who developed it late in life. I was surprised that Jack wasn’t more concerned about the judge’s mental state, and it was interesting that it was Cutter who was for once more concerned about ethics and doing the right thing than winning the trial, frequently Cutter came off as though he would do anything to win, but in this case Cutter wanted to ensure there were no miscarriages of justice with a mentally unfit judge. The case kind of took a backseat to the situation with the judge, but it was interesting.

Good and creepy episode tonight. This perp was one of the sickest and creepiest they’ve had - a cannibal serial killer. I always like a good dark creepy case like this one, and it was a good investigation with nice work from the entire team. I think this show has the most interesting cases of the 3 FBI shows. This team gels well together, Nina is a good addition and I like all of the characters. So Barnes’ wife is cheating on her? I didn’t see that coming, I had a feeling they might be headed for a split but I didn’t see the infidelity angle coming. I don’t care much about personal stuff but I’m curious to see how this plays out.

After tonight, I’m ready for them to get rid of Powell. Dude went pure psycho tonight, and I don’t like how it’s apparently just been swept under the rug. Powell seemed to be a loose cannon before and he went off the deep end tonight. I’m not sure how the others can trust him going forward given that he jeopardized them all with his stunt, but I bet we’ll never hear of it again. And once again Forrester stays behind - that’s very odd, why is the leader of the team not going out in the field? I hope they get him back in the field soon, the show is better when he’s more involved. I do like the new agent Amanda Tate, she fits in well. Nice to see Jubal pop in a couple of times once again, I like his cameos. Other than that the case was predictable with a cartoon villain, not much suspense or intrigue. I just find myself not as into this show as the other 2 FBIs, the other shows have better cases and more likable characters. It’s time for them to get Forrester back out in the field, and I’ve had it with Powell, he needs to go.

This was a good storyline - one of the better OA centric episodes. I liked the investigation into and taking down the terror cell. That being said Hassan was a complete idiot - I was glad he was facing repercussions at the end, and I think he should be charged with negligence in the judge’s death, he basically manipulated the shooter into committing his crimes - if it wasn’t for Hassan the shooter might not have turned out that way - he was a terrible agent and I hope at the very least he loses his job. And yeah OA should’ve reported Hassan for not telling them he knew the shooter - I think Hassan was just trying to cover his own ass by not coming forward. Not enough of Jubal in the command room, and Scola/Tiffany didn’t even enter the picture until about 20 minutes in. So it’s surprising I liked this episode as much as I did, given that I prefer episodes that are more of a team effort where this one was almost all Maggie/OA. But it was a strong case that was gripping from start to finish - this show is consistently solid and enjoyable, and it helps that I like all of the characters a lot. I was glad they briefly followed up with OA and Gemma after what happened last episode - I think that relationship is about to bite the dust, Gemma’s friend Kate was epically stupid and got herself killed by running back to her scumbag murderer boyfriend.

It was excellent continuity to bring Connie back in that episode - he was still a smug bastard but he did assist their case against Ethan Garrett.

Season 3 was on BBC America today A Murderer Among Us is an interesting episode, Brody is such a chilling perp, so filled with rage and hate, his explosion at the end was quite memorable. I really felt for his daughter and I don’t know if she would ever be okay, knowing her dad was a monstrous serial killer/hate murderer and her mom killed herself because she couldn’t live with the knowledge. I did think the pieces came together rather quickly in finding out about Brody’s crimes, but I guess finding out about the murder of the relative of the guy from the home who’s info Lena was accessing led them to the crime and then finding out about the injury to the knee that matched Lena’s knee injury caused them to realize Brody was a murderer - it was an interesting investigation with a very memorable perp. Sound Bodies is a good one as well with Connie and his 3 female followers poisoning and drowning people. It’s a strong plot, although it seems like the boat being tampered with would’ve been discovered sooner, other than that the story flowed very nicely and Connie was a memorable sociopathic criminal mastermind. I love when Goren subdues Connie after Connie slaps him and then says “ouch!”. It does make me laugh that they called City Island “Channel Island”, I wonder if someone from City Island didn’t want the place associated with a string of murders.

Ugh, the part about Benson trying to reconnect with a victim she saved sounds nauseating - I guarantee we are in for more St Olivia worship. It’s gotten to a ridiculous all time high this year.

That’s always puzzled me, it didn’t make sense that Goren would have a niece, I’m pretty sure that the girl wasn’t Frank’s child, but who her parents were was a complete mystery to me. Did Goren have a half sibling or something, either from his bio father the murderer or the guy he always thought was his dad? It’s a puzzle that was never explained. Very odd.

I just watched it as well, it’s a great episode. I liked the complex plot of how each suspect had something to hide. The Monsignor was a creep, and hopefully he lost his position after it came out he was blackmailing women into sex, it looked like he was in major trouble with his superior the cardinal. I liked when Eames called him slime. I loved how Goren figured everything out and his interrogation of Johnny at the end was great. I didn’t feel sympathy for Johnny, yes his backstory was tragic but he murdered Theresa out of greed because it was about to come out that Theresa helped him steal the money. I didn’t buy his crying that he didn’t want to kill her and didn’t mean to kill her, he planned it out carefully so that the death would look like a suicide, I think he was just upset he got caught. This really felt like classic CI with a strong intricate case and good detective work from Goren/Eames. It was interesting when Goren casually told Hannah “don’t be a moron” and Hannah reprimanded him.

I agree that it will be easier to adjust to a new DA given that Jack had a reduced role in the revival, but still, Jack McCoy is a living legend and there’s no replacing him - he was still an essential part of the show even in the revival. I do like that it sounds like Baxter will be different from Jack and more similar to Adam and Arthur, but I’m still nervous about him - hopefully he’ll have more success than Nora did replacing Adam or Fontana did replacing Lennie.

This is one reason why I am very intrigued as to how new DA Nicholas Baxter does as Jack’s replacement - Jack is arguably the show’s most iconic character, and it’s very hard to replace a legend - as shown by how Nora wasn’t a great replacement for Adam and Fontana was no Lennie. L&O got very fortunate that they hit a home run with Sam/Jack replacing Moriarty/Stone, who was awesome in his own right. I hope Baxter is a strong character, Tony Goldwyn is a good actor and hopefully he’ll add some intrigue and a spark into the legal part, but there’s no replacing Jack McCoy.

No it was by a different author, Rodgers clarified that, she got both the book and author wrong. I lean towards agreeing with Jack that the judge and jury should know, but Arthur made a good point that the judge might dismiss the case or declare a mistrial if he found out, the judge was unfit and unstable. But it did seem like the Senator would realize Rodgers got the book wrong, given that he’s a big fan of crime fiction, but maybe he didn’t want anyone to know that he knew about the book that used the trick. Still it feels like someone following the trial would recognize that. Yeah Cassady was the weakest L&O character in my opinion, she had no chemistry with anyone and came off as very wooden, not likable and kind of fake. The whole “detective beauty queen” back story they gave her was awful and it just didn’t feel right having such an unqualified and inexperienced detective. They made a smart move replacing her and bringing in the much more interesting Lupo.

Yeah Jack absolutely did the right thing in Over Here, it was one of his many awesome moments in court. And I liked that Arthur was going to represent him at the contempt hearing “at a reasonable fee”. It’s a good episode. In The Family Hour it did seem like a plot hole that no one noticed Rodgers named the wrong book - the defendant himself was a big fan of crime fiction so it seems like he would’ve known, and someone paying attention to the trial would’ve noticed. Like I said, I understood where both Arthur and Jack were coming from and I’m not sure whose side I agreed with more - Jack clearly thought it would be ethical to turn over the statement while Arthur didn’t want the defendant to get off on a technicality and there’s no telling what the judge would’ve done with it. I liked how Arthur said at the end that prosecuting cases wasn’t mathematics and you couldn’t just apply a formula to each case. It’s a very compelling episode. The judge almost crying in chambers was kind of funny. I’m glad they got rid of Cassady after this one, she’s L&O’s worst main character, although she did get a solid moment when she testified that she could’ve shot the Senator if she really had it in for him. That was about her only good moment.

Definitely, and Nora was a professor for a while before becoming DA. She just didn’t seem to exercise her authority like the others did. But she had a few good moments, and I’m willing to cut her some slack in that she was replacing the awesome Adam. It’s always hard to replace a great character.

The end of season 17 was on tonight Jack exposing the rotten conditions at the VA hospital in open court in Over Here is a great moment for Jack, he was right and Anita was right as well that it was worth exposing, even though it didn’t help Jack’s case, he was right to do it, it needed to be exposed and it wouldn’t have been if not for Jack. It’s a good episode, I liked the ending a lot, where Jack told the perp he was sorry for his injury and his treatment but that he was sorrier for the two people he killed, and then when Arthur said he would represent Jack at the contempt hearing “for a reasonable fee” that was great. I also liked when Green told off the dude who was suing the homeless vet victim and sarcastically telling him that was a nice flag pin on his shirt. The Family Hour has been discussed before here, it’s a compelling episode with some extremely messed up people. I’ll say again that it was kind of hard to believe that no one would notice Rodgers’ error in naming the wrong book, it seems like someone paying attention to the trial would’ve caught it, I know this was before social media and all, but still if someone figured it out the defense would have an issue to raise on appeal. I understood both Arthur’s and Jack’s position about whether or not to disclose Rodgers mistake. Connie was great as usual - I wish she had become lead prosecutor in season 18, she would’ve been better than Cutter. It was a natural progression for Jack to become DA, and it added some intrigue and drama, but there’s no denying the show lost something when Jack left the courtroom - his successors don’t come near being as strong as Jack was. It’s great that we got to see Jack return to the courtroom one final time and get one more win in his goodbye episode this season. Cassady just weakened season 17 and she never improved. Glad they got rid of her. But season 17 still has several good episodes.

I’m looking forward to meeting DA Baxter - I’m glad it seems they are making him different from McCoy - from this it sounds like Baxter may have a mix of Adam Schiff and Arthur Branch in him - Adam was well acquainted with a lot of prominent people in the city and had to deal with them, and Arthur was very good at the political aspects of being DA and had ambition and charisma. Obviously no one can replace the legendary Jack McCoy but I think Tony Goldwyn is a good actor and hopefully Baxter will add some intrigue into the legal parts of the show - Price and Maroun are very low key most of the time and so hopefully Baxter will add a new spark to the show.

Nora had a couple of interesting episodes - this one and Bronx Cheer were definitely Nora’s two best episodes. In Teenage Wasteland, it was interesting seeing Nora consult with the others and decided what to do, and in Bronx Cheer she did a good job standing up to the Bronx DA who refused to admit his office made an error. Other than those two episodes she was usually pretty dull. She just lacked personality and seemed in over her head a couple of times, then again it was impossible to replace Adam who was such an awesome DA.

It is very odd that 2 pretty big recurring characters in the franchise have the name Declan - Goren’s mentor turned perp Declan Gage and Lt. Declan Murphy from SVU. I’ve never known anyone with that name outside the L&O franchise. Frank is another name they’ve used over and over - it’s a pretty common name but there have been a ton of characters over the years with that name in the franchise.

Yeah the battle between detective and criminal felt like classic CI - one reason why I like that episode a lot - CI had many great episodes with a nasty criminal mastermind who thought they could get away with anything and it’s always satisfying to see the detective outwit them. In this case Henry might’ve gotten away with it if it wasn’t for his own ego, he thought he would be safe if he framed someone else and that proved to be his undoing. Fascinating plot. I like Nichols, but he never had a good partner other than the 2 episodes with Eames. Not sure who was more boring - Wheeler or Stevens.

Yes it was clear that Mitch was a sociopath who wanted to kill the restaurant owner all along and he was only sorry he got caught. And I don’t think he would change after spending many years in prison. His lawyer still made a strong argument for him. I liked the scene of Nora discussing the case with all of the high ranking prosecutors in the office. It’s a very strong and interesting episode. Celia should’ve gone to prison - she planned the kidnapping and the victim died as a result, I have no idea why they went so light on her. I hope Albers kept the kid far away from Celia. And yeah the defense lawyer was a homophobe, she seemed to agree with her client’s hateful views. I loved when Jack provoked the perp into lashing out and calling the victim a pervert on cross. And Jack’s closing was great - he directly called out the defense for their homophobic bullshit and said he hoped the jury would decide the love and care the victim and his partner provided for the baby would deserve better than the victim being killed. Glad the jury got the right verdict.

I saw Major Case last night, and this may be the best Nichols episode - it’s a shame Nichols had two dull as dirt partners in Wheeler and Stevens, because he was an interesting enough character, and I loved seeing Nichols work with Eames on the case, it added a lot having a strong partner for Nichols. And the case was really good - Henry Muller was a memorable villain, being a forensics expert and a creepy pervert attracted to teenage girls who murdered the victim when she rejected him. It was a classic case of the detective trying to outsmart an expert villain - and the thing is is Henry might’ve gotten away with the murder had he not tried to frame the drug dealer - if he had just stayed out of it instead of visiting Ross to see what they knew, finding out about the dealer and then trying ti frame him, he might’ve gotten away with it and the case might’ve never been solved. But Henry trying to frame the dealer aroused Nichols suspicion, and he soon figured out Henry did it. I guess Henry thought he was too smart to get caught but his own arrogance is what brought him down. I liked how Nichols trapped him and used Rodgers to help pull off the deception. It’s a great episode, although Ross was a douche as usual in it. Like I say, I think it’s my favorite Nichols episode, and I also like Revolution, where Nichols worked with Eames again. It’s too bad they never found a good partner for Nichols. Season 8 had its ups and downs and the oddities with the episodes being aired out of order and all, but it has some good episodes.

I dislike Borgia mainly because of the episode In God We Trust, she basically came off as against the separation of church and state in that one and thought religious beliefs should influence the law. Other than that Borgia was bland and just kind of there - she had one good episode, Cost of Capital. My favorite ADA is Connie, she was really great and a stellar prosecutor, and she elevated the later season episodes tremendously, breathing new life into the legal part of season 17 and making the Cutter episodes more enjoyable - I have real issues with Mike Cutter but Connie really elevates those episodes. I wish Connie had become lead prosecutor when Jack became DA and had gotten a male second chair, that would’ve been interesting and Connie would’ve been an awesome lead prosecutor. I also love Paul, Claire, Jamie and Abbie. The only two second chairs I dislike are Serena and Borgia. Maroun is just kind of there, she’s irritated me a couple of times, she’s been decent a couple of times, but for the most part is bland.