S01.E04: Kendall's Story

[statsgirl]

Quote

When a man learns his daughter was assaulted, his friends encourage him to take justice into his own hands.

Airdate February 14, 2023.

Directed by Clark Johnson (also known as an actor e.g. Senator Robert Bettencourt in Alpha House).

[AnimeMania]

Malcolm-Jamal Warner as Kendall Gomillion

Karen LeBlanc as Kendall's wife, Alisa Gomillion 
Camilla Bascom as Kendall's daughter, Ingrid 

Wendell Pierce as Detective Trent Douglas  
Donald Paul as Kendall's friend, Lamar Mingo
Kobna Holdbrook-Smith as Kendall's friend, David Mingo
Jasmine Burns as attorney, Patrice Leonard
Owen Fawcett as Police Officer
Ian D. Clark plays Father Southgate
Geoffrey Pounsett is ADA Bill Stanley

[Spartan Girl]

Once again another good person winds up screwed over. But at least this time there was a ray of hope: the detective figured out Kendall’s friends were lying and was going to figure out how to expose the truth.

Geez, with friends like those…

[possibilities]

Fucking call a lawyer for godsake! 

[Chicago Redshirt]

Where to begin with this episode....?

Obviously molestation is one of the most pernicious forms of evil. I am glad that if they had to go this route that the molestation was relatively limited. But I don't like that they had to go this route.

I also don't know if I like the show perpetrating the notion of a stranger randomly sexually assaulting someone in public versus the far more likely scenario of the molester being someone the child knows. Yes, obviously there are real-life strangers who molest kids in scenarios like the one portrayed here, but that is pretty rare.

I guess it's worth mentioning how it doesn't really make sense that Ingrid was being babysat at a time when her parents were doing karaoke and for some reason was taken to a park where she could be molested. Or how there's some apparent irony about how a story about child molestation prominently has the Catholicism of its characters as a central point. Like it's not just that the Gomillions are a Christian family but very specifically a Catholic one where this terrible thing happens to Ingrid just before her first Communion. 

It seems a tough sell that the police were canvassing the neighborhood for Molester but they were not able to locate him before Lamar and his brother did. Are we to take it that the cop was lying about the canvass and the work they were doing? Or just write it off as Lamar and David got lucky?

A better show would explore more about why Kendall didn't just call the cops when Lamar and David told him they found Molester. Did he really want to beat the guy on some level? Did he buy Lamar and David's weak notion of "We need to make sure it's really him before calling the cops?"

This was one of the rare times to come to mind on a mainstream network show that tried to touch on the notion of why some Black folks do not trust the police, that the cops might not take things as seriously with a Black victim or a White perpetrator. I am not sure if they handled it all that well or realistically, but kudos I guess for trying.

I thought they might have gone in the direction of Kendall and Co. having killed the wrong person. 

Originally I found the name "Ingrid Gomillion" somewhat weird for a Black girl, but it turns out that Gomillion v. Lightfoot is a Supreme Court case from the 60s about discriminating in drawing electoral districts and there's a Black ballerina named Ingrid, so what do I know? 

I'm guessing in real life, Cincy PD would be big enough that the same detective handling the sexual assault case would not also be handling the homicide of Molester.

In 2023, it seems like there would be infinite ways to break the story apart that the three were at the warehouse handling a "work emergency" prior to Lamar and David's "confession." For the first thing, what sort of work emergency was it? Why did it require the three of them? Were any of the other 20 people who report to Kendall aware of the nature of the work emergency, or involved in fixing it? Didn't anybody see Kendall and Lamar dip out in the middle of the work day? Wouldn't they have been caught on any number of cameras between the warehouse and the park? Wouldn't the GPS on their phones show that they weren't at the warehouse?

I'm not sure if Detective's statement about the forensics coming back was a pure bluff or not. 

Ah, the time-honored Prisoner's Dilemma. But it seems particularly silly for Kendall to wait till the next morning to confess in person, when he has Detective's cell phone and could text/call him about what really happened. 

If it sinks in to one viewer that "Hey, maybe confessions aren't always reliable," then the show has done good work.

We didn't get to see the full story that Lamar and David told, but it seems like it would have to smell a little funky. The notion that Lamar was all "oh, let's call the police" and Kendall was the one who distrusted them should have been easy to tear apart for anyone who knows Lamar or Kendall. Same with the notion that Kendall beat this guy to death solo and that both Lamar and David were somehow unable to stop him. 

The show continues to be meh at the actual courtroom stuff. Once again, the defense attorney is a non-entity. In a better show, Lamar and David would have been torn up on cross. The first time offender who owns his own home would have been out on bail, even for a murder pretty shortly after it happened. At the very least, he would have been able to wear civilian clothes to court at the hearing/trial/whatever it was. They don't even really bother trying to explain what is stage the case is. The defense attorney would have almost certainly been able to get a respectable plea deal, especially since there is a real risk that a jury would nullify the shiznit out of that case. Impeaching Lamar and David would have been pretty easy to do. Lamar is a convicted felon, which in many cases the defense attorney could bring up to impeach his credibility and show that he has a motive for lying. David straight up looks like he is going to have a Perry Mason-esque breakdown if you breath on him hard. 

I would have to think that any halfway competent prosecutor would not buy their story at face value. 

The notion that Kendall lost more control when having to listen to Lamar lie in court than he did when confronted with the man who molested his daughter is supremely contrived. 

Even so, it is unclear why they didn't take the obvious remedy -- having Kendall take the stand after he cooled down and explain what really happened. Or maybe he did and they want us to believe that Kendall wasn't believed? The show just skips through too much.

Like it would almost be better for the show if they didn't bother with the actual courtroom scenes and just had a title card "At trial, the judge found Kendall guilty and sentenced him to 15 years for aggravated homicide."

I don't know what to make of the notion that the first person in this series to get unjustly convicted (it seems -- again, the show didn't really establish where we are in the process) is a Black man.

Edited February 15, 2023 by Chicago Redshirt

[Spartan Girl]

6 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

don't know what to make of the notion that the first person in this series to get unjustly convicted (it seems -- again, the show didn't really establish where we are in the process) is a Black man.

Well, technically Danny from the last one was the first unjustly convicted one, seeing as how he was right about the nurse/stepmonster all along, but yeah.

[Chicago Redshirt]

48 minutes ago, Spartan Girl said:

Well, technically Danny from the last one was the first unjustly convicted one, seeing as how he was right about the nurse/stepmonster all along, but yeah.

Danny wasn't unjustly convicted. He did stab Evil Nurse, with no dispute over the facts.  His being right about her being evil doesn't IMO justify his actions to the point where he should not have been convicted.

This is the first of our cases thus far where the facts of what happened are in dispute at the court level.

Lamar and David  seemingly have told a story that completely absolves themselves of any responsibility for Molester's actual beating (other than presumably admitting that they told Kendall that they found Molester and helped search for him, and lied about their activities after the fact.

In the true story, Kendall kept saying we should call the police, had a momentary lapse of weakness and kicked the pedo once so softly that Lamar criticized him, stopped the beating early enough that Molester was fine, and then Lamar decided on his own to continue the beating.  

If the facts of what actually happened were on display in this case and not obscured by Lamar and David's lies, I don't think a reasonable jury finds Kendall guilty of any degree of murder. I suppose he could technically be due to felony-murder (which in short is a doctrine that if you are participating in an inherently dangerous felony and a death occurs as a result, you can be found guilty of murder regardless of who actually caused the death or how it occurred.) I think it is more likely that a prosecutor would go after him for involuntary manslaughter. And the defense of "this guy molested my child" would almost certainly win the day, let alone him actively stopping the beating and having not done more than the one kick. 

Minus the unbelievable "I'll kill you!" outburst, I don't see how a reasonable jury would buy the Lamar and David story over a non-hack lawyer's crossing them on it and the alternative theory that it was Lamar and David who did the beating and Kendall tried to stop it -- even if the lawyer went all the way to not put Kendall on the stand and floated the theory that Lamar and David were the only ones who beat Molester. I don't see how you convict beyond a reasonable doubt on the word of a convicted felon who has every incentive to lie and a visibly nervous witness, whose stories don't make much objective sense.

[possibilities]

The bones of this story were really good (someone who is distrusting of the police for legitimate reasons takes matters into their own hands), but the execution was full of obvious problems, as noted already.

It seems like they wanted to expose too many problems at once: the prisoner's dilemma (who makes a deal first), the racism in policing, the frustration of someone who doesn't think justice will be served through legal channels, the laziness or ineffectualness or under-resourced nature of an investigation (we don't know which of those was why they didn't contact the media about who they were looking for, or why the civilians found the suspect first).

We also don't know why Kendall didn't call a lawyer right away, or at least before he decided to confess. 

[Glade]

The stranger danger framing, especially in the catholic context, was really problematic, and so was the complete de-centering of the nine year old victim, who had so few lines you'd think they were actually much, much younger.  The whole 'parent of child abused by someone else completely ignores the child to focus on venting their own anger and aggression instead' is also extremely cliche, maybe it's time to start writing examples of people doing better. This episode was just poorly done all around. 

[Chicago Redshirt]

1 hour ago, possibilities said:

We also don't know why Kendall didn't call a lawyer right away, or at least before he decided to confess. 

I mean, no matter how much TV and movies have publicized Miranda rights, some people are just unaware of the general principle that it's always smarter to talk to a lawyer before the cops if you're going to talk to the cops at all. Like literally, the second that Detective came to the house, he should have been: "LAWYER." And the second Detective left, he should have been, "I'mma talk to a lawyer. I got a house and a family to protect, and there's no way that I can depend on Lamar and David to a) keep their stories straight in the face of pressure/promises/threats and b) not turn on me if they think it is advantageous to do so." Of course, given the fact that the defense attorneys in this show have been non-entities except for the deaf one, if he had lawyered up early, it probably wouldn't have done him any good.

What was interesting was that he did go out of his way to call his priest, with the expectation that the priest was going to be at the police station meeting with Detective if there wasn't the unfortunate need to administer last rites to someone. Like what was Priest supposed to be doing there? 

[Starchild]

Technically, this show is fulfilling it's brief. A closer look at the accused in a trial.

But for some reason I can't put my finger on, it just isn't doing it for me. There's something off. I feel like the pilot had more scenes in the courtroom, but since that episode it's been 95% flashback. Obviously there has to be some flashing back, but I don't think I expected it to be this much, where the courtroom is just a couple of minutes of wrapping up.

And this one didn't even wrap up. Between this and the kid in the asylum, these episodes are not ending in a very emotionally satisfying way.

And by that I don't mean it has to necessarily end happy, but it would be nice if it would end at all. These two stories have been left unfinished in the traditionally dramatic fashion, and that is what I mean by unsatisfying.

[buckboard]

Excellent recap by Chicago Redshirt.  This is an excellent concept for a show, but the writing is full of holes.

"In 2023, it seems like there would be infinite ways to break the story apart that the three were at the warehouse handling a "work emergency" prior to Lamar and David's "confession." For the first thing, what sort of work emergency was it? Why did it require the three of them? Were any of the other 20 people who report to Kendall aware of the nature of the work emergency, or involved in fixing it? Didn't anybody see Kendall and Lamar dip out in the middle of the work day? Wouldn't they have been caught on any number of cameras between the warehouse and the park? Wouldn't the GPS on their phones show that they weren't at the warehouse?"

I wondered why they didn't look into that, too.  Seems it wouldn't have been that hard to show that there wasn't a "work emergency."  Also, didn't a woman in a house near the park see the three men before she turned away?  Why bother to show her in the window if she did't see the men?  She didn't have to identify them; just state that she saw THREE men, not just the father.  If the premise of the show is that people often get convicted because of shoddy work by police and defense lawyers, the producers are doing a great job.

Edited February 17, 2023 by buckboard

[Simba122504]

Why didn't Malcolm Jamal Warner ever ask for a lawyer?  He's a hard working family man who owns a small business and a nice home. Wouldn't he know to contact an attorney after the Detective visits him?  Even his wife tells him to turn himself in,  not hire an attorney. But religion played a big role in the episode for a reason.  It blinds people. 

[Madding crowd]

I’m not sure why they included the religious angle since it didn’t make much difference in the long run. I also wondered why they bothered to show the woman looking out of the window since she wasn’t called as a witness. I found myself frustrated with both this and the previous episode because it had a bad ending and we don’t know what happens next. 

[Kiss my mutt]

I thought the religious angle (among others)was to show Kendall as a good upright man who despite his actions, was redeemable and and more sympathetic and his participation in the beating an aberration. I thought it was interesting the Bible verse Ingrid was learning was about falling from grace. I don’t know if it was intentional. 
I agree, Ingrid doesn’t seem like a 10 year old. I thought she was around 5. 
I also couldn’t believe he didn’t get legal representation or that no one suggested it. 

[Lady Calypso]

Yeah, this show has its definite issues, and now I'm noticing it's beyond just the very strict 42 minute time run. The show has some promising ideas but it's really faltering on the storytelling. 

Kendall had every chance to speak up and I guess they were going for the angle where he was afraid to, due to the racism involved in cases like this (and it didn't help that he kept listening to his friend who had anger issues) but it became more frustrating than sympathetic when he kept withholding information that would clearly benefit him. But I also think it became blatantly obvious that his friend was going to turn on him when he kept mentioning how he couldn't go back to jail and how he clearly didn't trust Kendall with how he followed him to the church.

But also, no way that detective wasn't going to get a warrant to check sign-in and sign-out times at that warehouse to collaborate Kendall, Lamar and David's story, so it was only a matter of time for them to get caught. It was clear they wouldn't get away with it.

They had so many opportunities to had a more subtle angle but this show doesn't seem to know how to do subtle very well. I get their intent was to showcase how Kendall felt torn about the molester and how he didn't stop Lamar from beating the guy to death that hard, but then the jury believed Lamar/David and convicted Kendall so there wasn't really any nuance. 

Also, as cute as Ingrid was, the actress smiling in all of her scenes took me out of the seriousness of it. I know they probably didn't want to go too dark but even the hospital scene, the kid was smiling as she was delivering her lines, so it was such a contrast to what the scene was about. I don't think that was a directing choice, either. 

Between this and the last episode (and probably all the episodes, to be fair), there IS something off. It's just been weird storytelling. 

[MicheleinPhilly]

16 hours ago, Simba122504 said:

Why didn't Malcolm Jamal Warner ever ask for a lawyer?  He's a hard working family man who owns a small business and a nice home. Wouldn't he know to contact an attorney after the Detective visits him?  Even his wife tells him to turn himself in,  not hire an attorney. But religion played a big role in the episode for a reason.  It blinds people. 

I think there is also sadly a belief for far too many people that they feel like "I'm telling the truth, I'm doing the right thing" that they don't need a lawyer. Many people assume that if they just tell the truth, everything will work out just fine and dandy for them. 

Hell no! If a cop knocked on my door and said they were taking me in for stealing a Snickers bar from the local store (I haven't done that, BTW), I'm calling a lawyer! 

[gesundheit]

Does anyone know how closely these episodes adhere to the original series? I'm wondering if some of the sloppiness is due to some of the legal procedures that stood as obstacles in the UK version not really functioning the same way in the US criminal justice system, with the showrunner staying too close to the originals. Or is it really just the series premise that's been adapted here? (I have to imagine the series premiere for the US version was a stateside-only story for sadly obvious cultural reasons, but I'm not sure about the others.)

On 2/15/2023 at 2:34 AM, Chicago Redshirt said:

I don't know what to make of the notion that the first person in this series to get unjustly convicted (it seems -- again, the show didn't really establish where we are in the process) is a Black man.

I'd imagine because it's the most realistic, given the preponderance of wrongful convictions for Black men. They did seem to at least be trying to have something to say on that.

On 2/17/2023 at 9:05 AM, Lady Calypso said:

Also, as cute as Ingrid was, the actress smiling in all of her scenes took me out of the seriousness of it. I know they probably didn't want to go too dark but even the hospital scene, the kid was smiling as she was delivering her lines, so it was such a contrast to what the scene was about. I don't think that was a directing choice, either. 

I always wonder in situations like that if the little girl hasn't even been told what the story is, which is preferable to me -- I don't want to watch a nine-year-old play that kind of trauma. But they could certainly direct her to look sad or confused!

Anyway, with some of these (like this one and the first one), I'd actually love a follow-up episode. With the second and third episodes I was grateful they're just one-episode arcs.

MJW gave a strong performance. As did Wendell Pierce, as always! (And with Clark Johnson directing, a little The Wire reunion! With Robert Wisdom in that other episode, seems to be some common denominator. I hope there are more to come.)

Edited February 19, 2023 by gesundheit

[Badger]

I found a site that has the UK version of the show.  Unfortunately, it isn't a "legal" streaming site so I don't know if I can link to it here.

Anyway, I watched the episode that this one was based on.  Here's a synopsis of the episode from Wikipedia.  I'll put it in a spoiler:

 

Spoiler

Kenny Armstrong (Marc Warren) is a loving family man, who works in a crematorium. When his young daughter Chloe is attacked in a local park, Kenny and his two friends, brothers Gordon (Joe Duttine) and Neil (Jack Deam), go out looking for the assailant. They apprehend a man who matches Chloe's vague description and Kenny punches him, breaking his own wrist in the process. The other two, primarily Gordon, continue beating the man. After the trio flee the man is found and taken to hospital, where he dies of his injuries. Kenny learns of the man's death, alerts Neil and Gordon and the three agree to stay quiet. The murder gradually begins to weigh on Kenny's conscience and he contemplates confessing, believing the court may sympathise with the fact he was seeking retribution for his daughter's assault, an idea which Neil and Gordon strongly refute due to their involvement. Kenny's guilt further intensifies when he has to cremate the dead man's body at work. When another young girl is attacked in very similar circumstances, the trio realise they killed an innocent man. Kenny's conscience finally breaks and he confesses everything to the local police, including Gordon and Neil's involvement. In court the jury finds Gordon and Neil not guilty, despite their greater culpability because the only evidence against them is Kenny's confession. The jury finds Kenny guilty of murder and he is sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 15 years.