watcher1006

My goodness, Hinton Battle, who was the dancing demon in S6 "Once More With Feeling", passed away on January 30. He was only 67. https://www.playbill.com/person/hinton-battle-vault-0000100485 He was a delight to watch and to hear, with his dancing and wonderful rich voice. So clearly the Broadway performer.

When the video evidence turned up so late in the episode my first thought was "the show is almost over, how are the attorneys going to deal with this?" As it turned out, they didn't show the defense making any effort to disqualify or discredit the evidence. There just isn't enough time on this show anymore. The Order side of the episode gets weaker writing than the investigative Law side but it also gets shortchanged on time. I guess we just have to assume the defense tried to challenge the video.

Yes, this episode echoed the real life Jeffrey Epstein/Ghislaine Maxwell case, even if it was about a cult rather than about serial sexual exploitation. Even down to the death in prison. Viewed in this light Maroun was right, Jocelyn did not deserve leniency based on her own status as a victim. The two witnesses changing their stance from one of being in the thrall of their cult leader to one of cooperating with the prosecution had a contrived feel to it. As for the discovery of who the cult leader was mid-trial I think it brings to the fore a problem with the show's structure. The wheels of justice don't move that fast, particularly in a populous jurisdiction like in New York City. I would think that in real life there would be much more time for the DA's office to properly investigate what was going on with the cult.

I couldn't see how Price /Maroun could have possibly gotten a conviction in this case, given all the stumbles and Price's compromised position. Speaking of which wouldn't there be grounds for appealing the verdict? As this episode struggled towards its conclusion I started wondering whether the biased judge would overrule a guilty verdict handed down by the jury.

When I watch Season 1 now I wonder if, in the original concept for the show, Xander was meant to have the primary role in backing up Buffy. It's Xander who resuscitates Buffy in Prophecy Girl. I wonder if, as the show progressed, the writers/producers realized just how much they could do with Alyson Hannigan as Willow and her role in the group and the show unfolded accordingly. Her direction is certainly set by the end of Season 2 (think Becoming Pt.2).

I also don't see how the knife should be excluded. What Shaw and Cosgrove did might have been stretching their jobs a bit, but it seemed to me that they still stayed within the boundaries. Does the judge give motorists the automatic right to bend the traffic laws of NYC? It feels as if Maroun has been de-emphasized somewhat recently, with Exec ADA Price taking the more active role. Who knows, from the preview it looks like she'll have a big part in the next episode.

I agree with all the above posts pointing out that the prosecution's case was thin. The courtroom drama shown was about nothing BUT Reilly and his actions /inactions. No doubt we were supposed to believe that more was presented by the prosecution than we were saw, but it doesn't seem that there was all that much to present in the first place. Regarding Reilly's freezing up in the emergency, Price did try to treat him sympathetically and nobody can know how they'd react in a similar situation. Still, given his long experience, it could have been pointed out that he could have gotten on his radio and issued a report about someone fleeing the scene, whether he got out of the car immediately or not. The guy might have gotten away but a report with description recorded at the scene /at the moment at would have had more credibility than later testimony based on later recollection. It might have also helped deflect the blame heaped on the officer for his inaction. Honestly, these end of episode "twists" are getting tiresome.

Regarding the judge, I thought it was a reach for him to declare that the church was illegitimate and that the confidentially rules didn't apply. There are crooked church leaders for sure, but I wonder if that ruling would be grounds for appeal. It seems a very significant matter for a trial judge to decide.

To me this seems to be a trend of this reboot. The crime investigation parts of the episodes seem better written and more engaging than the legal proceedings. Of course there is less total episode time than there used to be. I liked Dylan Baker in his recurring role as Colin Sweeney on The Good Wife.

I suppose that seeing Amy in S3 "Gingerbread" (which is when she turns herself into a rat) one could see her being far enough into the magic to be getting "fixes" from Rack.

More bad talk about the set of BtVS, this coming from Sarah Michelle Gellar herself: https://www.thewrap.com/sarah-michelle-gellar-extremely-toxic-male-set-buffy/ This after Charisma Carpenter's revelations. Coming from a show that supposedly broke ground for women in the world of show business, this is very disappointing.

This brings up the question of when a season finale actually lives up the buildup that preceded it. No, technically "Primeval" wasn't the season finale but it was the culmination of the main season arc, with "Restless" being more of a coda. Season 3 had a great buildup to the ascension then capped it off with the silliest looking giant snake. Sure they went for broke in "Graduation Day Pt. 2" with Angel, Faith, Percy, Harmony, heck the whole high school getting in on the action but I thought it fell short of all the anticipation. In that respect, "Primeval" was less of a disappointment since the season arc never cohered all that well.

I gasped during the hostage situation when Shaw was trying to talk Booker into surrendering and he told him to "believe in the system". That was the last thing that Booker was going to believe in at that moment. The message of this plot was certainly clear, that black people and especially black men don't get fair treatment in the criminal justice system. The episode was compelling to watch, but there were certainly plot problems, such as in Shaw's past actions and in the way the video miraculously turned up so late in the process.

I wonder if the reference to "Sabrina" makes any sense to a viewer seeing this episode/show for the first time more than a quarter century after it first aired. Maybe not. Yes, Cordelia seems unusually nasty to Amy in their confrontation scene. Far past her usual putdown routine.

I can't see a deal being made without a Federal attorney being attached to the prosecution as co-counsel, as a bare minimum requirement. The judge's rulings early on about revealing the confidential informant's identity and tossing the gun evidence made me wonder if this was going to be a case of a biased judge (think Kyle Rittenhouse). I guess it didn't quite turn out that way but why did the defense decide to go with a mental illness/defect plea at the point that they did? If it was going to be so improbable to win a straight out not guilty verdict why go through all the motions?

I can't see how Price and Maroun would be talking to Rublev about a deal without the Feds present in one form or another. And with heightened federal security surrounding the place where the discussion was taking place. If Rublev really was close to Putin then the FBI, NSA, the State Department and so forth would IMO keep a close eye on everything that was happening to him, knowing full well what can happen to people who expose information about the Russian state. This felt was a three hour movie, as noted above. Crossovers often have some degree of awkwardness with the characters from the "other" show(s) seeming a bit out of place in the "base" show's setting. But this three hour string did bring the characters from the three shows together into one cohesive story.

I agree. Xander with the sign at the airport and Dawn ribbing him about it somehow cheapened what happened between Xander and Willow in S6 Grave. They could have left everyone wondering what had happened, except perhaps for Rupert Giles, who seemed to be mystically in contact with what was happening with Willow during that moment (opening his eyes and exclaiming "There!")

Yes, now that I think of it I have seen that myself. Yes, that's a good point. I think that there were opportunities missed for David Boreanaz to have more screen time with Alyson Hannigan and Anthony Head. But sometimes you can question cause and effect. The writers of the show may have not given the pairing of NB and DB much material and it may have been their own missed opportunity, but it may also have been at least partially due to the fact that they knew the two didn't connect well on screen and didn't want to put too much effort there. There were only slightly less than 45 minutes of time to work with in each episode. Plus forcing actors who don't like each other to work together takes up time and effort on set and so on.

I always wondered about this. The characters of Xander and Angel had SO little chemistry on screen (S1 "Prophecy Girl" notwithstanding). Even if characters are supposed to not like each other they can still interact in a way that works. I thought Xander and Spike together were far more interesting to watch than X/A.

Does Beth's resentment toward Tara seem natural? I can understand Tara's father's attitude better, and her brother seems to be something of a dimwit, but I don't get the intensity of Beth's resentment toward her cousin. Amy Adams looks really young in this episode. BtVS was a long time ago.

When the original Law and Order was canceled the franchise lost its anchor. I never watched LA. I don't watch Organized Crime. SVU continues to this day, having had marginally higher ratings back in 2010 but (IMO) sinking slowly in quality as it became ever more of a character showcase. I thought that bright spots in the SVU cast in the last decade included Raul Esparza and Danny Pino, but I stopped watching the show years ago. I think there were ways to reinvigorate the original, I think I heard that the decision to cancel was at least partly driven by disagreements over money and production cost.

If I recall correctly they did delve into stories of character lives for a brief time during the period when Carey Lowell and Benjamin Bratt were part of the ensemble. They didn't do so for long though, they soon went back to the show's tried and true case driven format. A new psych person would be fine but I wouldn't mind seeing Carolyn McCormick reprise her old role as Elizabeth Olivet or J.K. Simmons his role as Emil Skoda, even if just for an episode or two.

IMO the risk of getting shot is much higher if one reaches into one's coat for a gun while being confronted by a cop with a gun already drawn. But maybe he DIDN'T have his gun drawn. That's the point - Price needed to probe for inconsistencies in the defendant's story since there was no person and no visual evidence to give a separate account of what happened.

Mostly I liked this finale to the season. Maybe it was okay that the rich investment/finance witness got immunity. I think his karma is coming to him. For one thing turning up like that in a high profile case where it comes out that he dated a teenager won't do much for his career. The jury delivered an ambiguous verdict but hard evidence of the situation was lacking and the defendant did present a sympathetic figure. Trying to protect her sister when everything went south. Perhaps Price could have pressed her a little harder on her story. She claimed the gun was in her coat and that she pulled it out when the detective approached her with his gun drawn. If that is what happened then IMO a more logical course of action would have been to just throw her hands up and plead surrender.

I'm happy to hear that the L&O reboot has been renewed. Overall the cases/plots may not reach the level the original show did in its heyday and I'm still reserving judgement about the characters aside from veteran Sam Waterston. Yet I find myself watching it with a sense of nostalgia. It's great to see the old format (for the most part) and remember how dramatic TV was written decades ago. I was also put off to see Mariska Hargitay being featured in the season finale. Make no mistake, I like her and I know her heart is in the right place with her outreach efforts. But the show doesn't need her "star power". The original L&O distinguished itself by not being a star vehicle for any one actor and by building itself around the plots. I gave up L&O SVU several years ago because with the departures of Dann Florek and other actors the show evolved to center too much on the Olivia Benson character and away from being a true ensemble act.