S03.E07: Track

[thewhiteowl]

Thieves are on the run with a high -tech thermal lance that can cut through almost anything.

[Danielg342]

Sometimes I wonder if I'm watching S.W.A.T. or Days of Our Lives With Machine Guns.

Tonight sure felt like the latter...wow, was this episode ever soapy.

Produced some great moments- like Street with Papa Hicks, Hondo and his new flame and Chris and Kira, with Kira getting cold feet- but it was a lot of emotional drama for one episode.

I mean, I don't watch S.W.A.T. for melodramatic overactors who have way more drama in their lives than anyone else could reasonably have- I came here to watch things blow up!

(OK...let me backtrack a bit...I'm not against character drama because S.W.A.T. usually does it well...tonight it just laid the intensity on a little too thick)

Anyway, at least we got a well-paced, action-packed episode where things actually blew up, even if the criminals were a tad generic. Unlike last week, the writer kept it simple, not doing too much with the case which allowed for a nice progression to the story.

...and I will give the show credit for having a plausible reason for Hondo and his new girlfriend meet up (Isha? Nichelle? I couldn't catch her name). I was also surprised at just how much energy and spunk Rochelle Yates has- I guess she has more free reign than on Criminal Minds, where she was a tad flat.

I'm still not yet convinced that Nichelle is better than Nia Wells, but Yates and Shemar Moore did display some chemistry together, so maybe there is hope for this pair too.

[WinJet0819]

39 minutes ago, Danielg342 said:

...and I will give the show credit for having a plausible reason for Hondo and his new girlfriend meet up (Isha? Nichelle? I couldn't catch her name). I was also surprised at just how much energy and spunk Rochelle Yates has- I guess she has more free reign than on Criminal Minds, where she was a tad flat.

I'm still not yet convinced that Nichelle is better than Nia Wells, but Yates and Shemar Moore did display some chemistry together, so maybe there is hope for this pair too.

Rochelle Aytes actually. I can see her character finally being the one for Hondo, considering the chemistry the two actors already have from working together on Criminal Minds. 

Edited November 14, 2019 by WinJet0819

[Danielg342]

On 11/14/2019 at 12:13 AM, WinJet0819 said:

Rochelle Aytes actually.

Whoops. I knew I misspelled it...I should have double-checked it instead of relying on my memory.

Anyhow...I know mileage will vary but I didn't see any sparks between Savannah and Derek Morgan on Criminal Minds...but Shemar Moore must have felt differently and looks like he guessed right.

The only issues I have is that the episode seemed to have two different names for the character (though that could just be on Moore) and that Aytes' character seemed to channel Nia Wells a bit too much...but, Nia was a great character and I guess if we can't have Wells back, Aytes' character might be a good substitute.

[Netfoot]

"It's called a Thermal Lance."

Also Oxygen Lance, or Burning Bar, but I prefer the term Thermic Lance. First encountered these when I was a student, at about 19 years of age.

"Industrial grade cutting tool.  It can cut through anything. Concrete, steel, you name it."

It would be more correct to say it can bore through anything. Like the five foot thick, steel reinforced, concrete walls of a vault. But it isn't very good at cutting.  Just like any boring device you can drill several holes close together to cut a line, but cutting (as opposed to boring) is not the strong suit of the Thermic Lance.

"This thing costs a pretty penny."

Bullshit. Cheap as chips. A Thermic Lance is a steel tube packed with steel rods. Easily made in your garage. You connect an oxygen bottle to one end of the tube, heat up the other end with a torch, and turn on the oxygen.  Once the heated end begins to burn temperatures reportedly reach up 8,000°F. Nothing stands in it's path. (The sun is around 10,000°F I'm told.)

You can buy a small, commercially made lance -- say ½" x 10' -- for around $30 and rent a bottle of oxygen from your local gas merchant. Or rent an oxy-acetylene set to start the lance and switch the oxygen over to keep it running.

A short lance is 10 to 12 feet long.  If you have the room to maneuver, a 20 foot lance is best because even a long lance gets burned away in less than 10 minutes of use. I don't know what that stumpy-assed little thing they were playing with was, but...

[Sweet Tooth]

On 11/13/2019 at 8:34 PM, Danielg342 said:

I guess she has more free reign than on Criminal Minds, where she was a tad flat.

She must have been flat. I have no memory of her on the show, though from what I've picked up here, she'd been paired with him. I think Shemar is so dynamic, you need to be able to carry your own when standing next to him. I found her likable and charismatic and agree they had chemistry. 

(Oh, and it's "rein." Sorry.)

And I don't mind generic bad guys. It's better than the all-knowing, all-seeing villain. 

I also appreciate when the bad guys use a huge lit-up digital timer to let us know when the big boom is coming.

Look, we all know we're headed for a Street/Chris endgame, right?

[Danielg342]

3 hours ago, Sweet Tooth said:

(Oh, and it's "rein." Sorry.)

Oopsie...my bad. That day was a long day.

3 hours ago, Sweet Tooth said:

I think Shemar is so dynamic, you need to be able to carry your own when standing next to him.

If there's one thing Shemar Moore isn't it's "subtle". I'm not necessarily saying that's a bad thing- it's just Moore's style. He likes it loud, he likes it flashy and he likes being the centre of attention- meaning if you're casting someone to pair with him, you need someone who plays it straight with him (which is what Matthew Gray Gubler did so well with him on Criminal Minds) or you give him someone who's equally bombastic. Nikiva Dionne's Nia Wells was the latter while Rochelle Aytes' Nichelle seems to be the former, as Hondo tries to play his game but Nichelle doesn't react the way he thinks she will- and thus keeps him guessing.

3 hours ago, Sweet Tooth said:

And I don't mind generic bad guys. It's better than the all-knowing, all-seeing villain. 

I agree that I don't always want a moustache-twirling, all-knowing Snidely Whiplash but at the same time, I want criminals with a personality and reasonable motivations- not just people who are "evil for the sake of being evil".

[Sweet Tooth]

6 hours ago, Danielg342 said:

I agree that I don't always want a moustache-twirling, all-knowing Snidely Whiplash but at the same time, I want criminals with a personality and reasonable motivations- not just people who are "evil for the sake of being evil".

Totally agree. Sorry. I was agreeing with your original point.

Yes, one important thing I learned from my writing classes is that the villain doesn't think they're a villain. They think they're the good guy. There has to be a reason behind what they're doing, or they're a really boring bad guy.

6 hours ago, Danielg342 said:

10 hours ago, Sweet Tooth said:

(Oh, and it's "rein." Sorry.)

Oopsie...my bad. That day was a long day.

10 hours ago, Sweet Tooth said:

I think Shemar is so dynamic, you need to be able to carry your own when standing next to him.

If there's one thing Shemar Moore isn't it's "subtle". I'm not necessarily saying that's a bad thing- it's just Moore's style. He likes it loud, he likes it flashy and he likes being the centre of attention- meaning if you're casting someone to pair with him, you need someone who plays it straight with him (which is what Matthew Gray Gubler did so well with him on Criminal Minds) or you give him someone who's equally bombastic. Nikiva Dionne's Nia Wells was the latter while Rochelle Aytes' Nichelle seems to be the former, as Hondo tries to play his game but Nichelle doesn't react the way he thinks she will- and thus keeps him guessing.

Shemar just stands there and SMOLDERS. He has a quiet intensity about him, which fits well with the "holding back the monster" thing they've portrayed him as. 

The other thing about MGG is that he has his own set of distinct characteristics. He's never wallpaper in a scene, even if he's just standing there saying nothing. I agree they worked well together in that way.

Agreed that most women he comes across just kind of melt when he turns on the charm, because let's face it, that much pretty and charming is hard to ignore. So I do like it that they have someone who's kinda, "Yeah, I've seen this show before."