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Season Six: Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes...


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So I turn back over to the marathon - and land on "Bombshell". UGH. Figures. And maybe I'm totally projecting my dislike of this one, but even Noth and Nicholson, to me, look like they are asking themselves why they got stuck with this stinker.

 

At least the baby and dog were cute.

Something that struck me is one of the "criminal" scenes in this episode.  I mean, you see it all the time on this show, but never have I seen the mask slip so much or so drastically as I did near the end when, after Swanson's character dies and her sister is holding the baby, she makes that remark to and about the dog and even makes a not-very-comforting expression, and you immediately get the sense that something isn't right with her, either.  And indeed, when Logan and Wheeler visit her later, we find out she had the poor dog put down rather than give her away.

 

Lots of seemingly-nice one-shot characters start to show their true colors eventually on this show, but I'd never seen such a sudden 180 as I did with her.

 

I kind of feel sorry for the father in "Blasters", to lose both his father and his own son to crime. At least he stood firm.

Yeah, well, finding out your son really might be just as evil as your father has a way of steeling your resolve.  One of the few parents to actually want his kid to pay the price.

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Lots of seemingly-nice one-shot characters start to show their true colors eventually on this show, but I'd never seen such a sudden 180 as I did with her.

 

Yeah, but there was so much crap in this one, the time for careful character evolution took a backseat.

 

And on another note, I said this, but yeah...S6 really ended for everyone in the crapper. With S7 starting on an awful note. But I do like "Amends". Nice to see a focus on Eames and Bobby wanting to help her, even as she resisted. And the widow of Joe's partner...I know her as a soap actress and she was often OTT, so it was nice to see that Florencia Lozano can do subtle when the situation calls for it.

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Well, maybe the family was shown, but it just seemed like it was the Anna Nicole wannabe either wailing, drugging herself, or the slimy Howard Stern (not the radio Stern, but the initial alleged father of the real Smith's daughter) wannabe blah-blahing about her issues or her dead son, and I stopped paying attention.

But I freely admit that I hate that episode, so maybe I missed a lot of the details.

I credit JN and CN for acting with straight faces. They earned their paychecks there!

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Well, yeah. But she was in Europe. And it could be argued it was crappy, since she met the fiancé who'd turn out to be a criminal...but she did get her baby out of it, so I guess that's a mixed bag.

 

But the other three - and Falacci? Stuck in a lot of misery.

I was going by the end of season six, though.  Wheeler ended that season in more than a good place.

 

I kind of feel sorry for the father in "Blasters", to lose both his father and his own son to crime. At least he stood firm. And now "Silencer" with the inexplicable interpreter with Goren knowing sign language. At least he seemed to like Eames - even if she didn't seem as eager.

I think you mean "Players".  I like Bombshell, for seeing Logan and those old women alone.

I think you mean "Players".  I like Bombshell, for seeing Logan and those old women alone.

 

Yes, yes I did mean "Players". My bad. And the law of averages does say someone will like episodes others don't, so you're more than welcome to "Bombshell", @Maherjunkie!

 

That "ripped from the headlines" episode wasn't even subtle. Sort of surprised no one really involved had anything to say about this one. (Except for, obviously, ANS and her son, since they are dead.)

Watched "Blasters" again and am still scratching my head as to why, after firing her incompetent subordinate, Rodgers is warned by Logan that that might come back to haunt her. Especially when nothing ends up coming of it in that episode or any one going forward.

I'm guessing Rodgers fell prey to a dropped story that may have been planned (maybe as a B or C plot) much like Wheeler's father was in spite of that oft-mentioned TV Guide synopsis about him. Seems like unless the leads (minus Wheeler) were being emotionally or physically put through the wringer, Leight and Company had little time for anything else.

Otherwise? I also have no clue. It was an ominous line to be just a throwaway.

I always wondered if the stuff with Wheeler's dad was supposed to be an ongoing arc but was scrapped completely once JN got pregnant and left the canvas for a while during her maternity leave.

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I felt sorry for the mother of the murdered girl's boyfriend in "World's Fair." She may have been a bigot, but after the girl's brother framed her son and tricked his father into killing him, her prejudice was kind of validated. I mean, she had every right to hate them after that.

I wish their had been an extended ending to that episode where the girl's mother confronted her son over what he did. And when he'd give her the "I did it for our honor" bull, she'd say: "You killed your sister! Your father killed an innocent boy! You DESTROYED our honor!" That would have been awesome.

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I felt sorry for the mother of the murdered girl's boyfriend in "World's Fair." She may have been a bigot, but after the girl's brother framed her son and tricked his father into killing him, her prejudice was kind of validated. I mean, she had every right to hate them after that.

I never felt sorry for Rudy's mother because she was a bigot.  Even Rudy was disgusted by her bigotry.  That said, the only one she had any right to hate was the brother.

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I felt sorry for the mother of the murdered girl's boyfriend in "World's Fair." She may have been a bigot, but after the girl's brother framed her son and tricked his father into killing him, her prejudice was kind of validated. I mean, she had every right to hate them after that.

I wish their had been an extended ending to that episode where the girl's mother confronted her son over what he did. And when he'd give her the "I did it for our honor" bull, she'd say: "You killed your sister! Your father killed an innocent boy! You DESTROYED our honor!" That would have been awesome.

That was a great episode for all the reasons you listed. There were/are Emmy nomination DVDs on eBay every once in a while and for Season 6, this episode and Blind Spot were the two submitted. (I have such DVDs for S1 (which was for Phantom and Homo Homini Lupus), S6 as above, and S8 (Playing Dead and In Treatment).)

So in later seasons, I guess it was one episode per team. But I can understand why World's Fair was among those vying for a nomination. With that said, I've no idea if the show was ever nominated for anything, be it for episodes or behind the scenes stuff throughout its run.

 

Specifically back to World's Fair for a sec, though. I noticed when the brother/murderer was reenacting what he did and I'll say Wheeler looked like she was on the edge of freaking out as she played the role of the victim at one point. With the ease he smashed his own pregnant sister's head in, I'm not too surprised. But that girl's family and their honor killing customs were ten shades of messed up, anyway. Just sad all around. I wondered - even with customs and women being subservient - how the wife/mother of the victim and killer could stand to support the males in her family once all was said and done. She truly seemed to grieve for her daughter.

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I never felt sorry for Rudy's mother because she was a bigot.  Even Rudy was disgusted by her bigotry.  That said, the only one she had any right to hate was the brother.

True, but I wouldn't blame her for hating the dad since he pulled the trigger. Plus he was so quick to take the wrap for killing his daughter when he figured out the truth. Yes, I know parents tend to cover for their children but still not a very smart move.

Yeah, I too wonder how the wife/mother could stand to support either one of them when all was said and done.

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I never felt sorry for Rudy's mother because she was a bigot.  Even Rudy was disgusted by her bigotry.  That said, the only one she had any right to hate was the brother.

 

Well, the father was the one who ultimately shot her son, so I could see a lot of hate being directed his way, justifiably. Even if the son set it all up to happen in the first place.

 

But the whole episode just showed that hate just led to more hate and, ultimately, violence.

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Specifically back to World's Fair for a sec, though. I noticed when the brother/murderer was reenacting what he did and I'll say Wheeler looked like she was on the edge of freaking out as she played the role of the victim at one point. With the ease he smashed his own pregnant sister's head in, I'm not too surprised.

One thing to note is that right when the brother was getting arrested and tried to "apologize" to his sister through Wheeler, she immediately tried to bat him off her.  She was visibly trying not to let her skin crawl, a reaction I thought Julianne played very well.  You could tell she just wanted him to get the hell away from her.

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Too bad nobody got to bash HIS head into the pavement...

 

That's what Rikers is for!

 

I really do wish - and not just specific to S6 - we got some of the aftermath of some cases like the Mothership did every now and then (with "Indifference" [s1] and "Fixed" [s15] as one example! Even if time blurred/got a few of the details dead wrong.).

 

I would have loved to have seen, for instance, how Maggie Coulter from S1's "Homo Homini Lupus" fared as an adult after her cowardly father let his family be kidnapped/daughter be raped, more or less, since he was trying to hide his embezzlement from his company.

 

As I said, though, that is just one example, and there are others. If just to find out if the most vile of those criminals ever got what they deserved, like the creepy brother above.

 

The only such episodes with follow up I recall on CI were for Deakins, which led to his leaving/retiring, with "My Good Name" in S4 with his old buddy, Frank Adair, being dirty and a killer, and the fallout in S5 with "On Fire", when Adair had his loyalists on the outside alter e-mails which made Deakins look corrupt.

 

But nothing focusing on cases with the perps, per se, like the Mothership did. Maaaaybe except for "Endgame" and "Frame", but it was less about Mark Ford Brady [well, we knew he was dead] and more about Bobby and his association with him.

 

Oh, wait, Mark Linn Baker's strange little numbers guy/killer, Wally Stevens, from S2 was in "Endgame" in S6, showing him in prison as Ford's errand boy, so I guess this did sorta, kinda happen.

USA showed Siren Call and Maltese Cross very early this morning. (USA skipped Blind Spot, no clue as to why.) Siren Call is a bleak one [by the end], but I can see why Brooke Shields has seemed to do a fade from high-profile acting. I still think her Kelly Sloane-Raines was awful. But then again, I guess she existed to just be the trophy wife, so...

 

And why did Bobby's hand, even wrapped to break a window, have absolutely no blood on it?

 

Now, Maltese Cross: How did I never realize before now that the perp in this one, Brendan Kiehl, was played by the same actor who was Dale Van Acker in "Smothered" in S1? The junkie son of a socialite whose pregnant girlfriend was offed. He looked so familiar and that's when it hit me. His hair was grayer and he seemed to have had a tad bit more weight on him (not fat at all, just not super thin as he seemed to be in S1, maybe for the role?). But he did a good job as the scorned firefighter that killed his lover.

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I just watched "Players" once more (still one of my favorites from this season), and if Kathryn deserved props for making Eames look like she was trying not to let her skin crawl from being hit on by the evil, mistress-drowning lawyer in "Jones," then Julianne should get plenty of them for doing an excellent job of showing Wheeler trying not to let hers crawl when Tom Grady, Sr., touches her when she and Logan question him at the prison.  That was clearly suppressed revulsion I saw on her face.

 

Coincidentally, the perp in "Jones" ended up reappearing as the sleazy club owner in "Players," so . . . yay for the recycling of actors, I guess.:)

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Coincidentally, the perp in "Jones" ended up reappearing as the sleazy club owner in "Players," so . . . yay for the recycling of actors, I guess.:)

 

Yeah, Griffin Dunne, who was also the son of the late crime writer/advocate, Dominick Dunne (who had a TV series on the former Court TV called Power, Privilege, and Justice 'til his death in 2009). Sadly and somewhat ironically (since Griffin Dunne seems to play true sleazebags/killers), his sister Dominique Dunne, the oldest daughter in the original Poltergeist, was strangled to death by an ex-boyfriend in 1982.

 

And her murderer was out in less than five years. I believe he is a chef and changed his name and moved out of California.

 

(I think I mentioned GD's roots before. But I still find it ironic that he played a criminal whose M.O. in "Jones" was close to the way his sister was killed. Glad he can separate that, but it still seemed kind of eerie, to me.)

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I used the Almighty Google, and read from an article that John Sweeney (given name before the name change) was out in less than three years. Damn. I guess strangling your ex doesn't amount to much in CA...at least in the early '80s!

 

Topic? I know the Mothership tackled such a scenario, but maybe the offshoots could have dealt with a story of criminals out long before they deserved, and the fallout, especially if they ended up as a repeat offender. (Hell, maybe SVU did, but there have been so many seasons of it that I can't recall.)

And her murderer was out in less than five years. I believe he is a chef and changed his name and moved out of California.

 

Oh man.... I'd love to know who he is, as I watch tons of competitive cooking shows. He might be someone we're all rooting for! EEKKK!

Meh.  Sounds like he's doing something productive with his life now, so as long as he's been behaving since being in there and actually contributing to society, I'm not gonna get worked up over him being out since at least he served time at all.

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Turned on WE today and "Tru Love" was on. I'd never seen it, so I started it (in progress). Kept thinking Danielle was Chloe from 24, but she was Anne Dudek (or Cutthroat Bitch from House, as I know her. House's name, not mine.)

 

I understood towards the end when Logan and Wheeler brought Danielle into the men's prison to make her see Keith as a child more than as a lover and a "man." But then when they started looking into her past for some trauma that brought on this perpetual teenager behavior, and they mentioned a death or divorce, I thought this might be an interesting character beat. Until they decided that her inappropriate relationship with a teenager could partially be explained by the fact that (gasp!)... she moved just before her senior year.

 

I mean...seriously?! This is the ~deep psychological motive that caused her to turn into a perpetual teenager. She moved when she was a senior in high school. When she was (gasp!) captain of the cheerleading squad! Well, with that deeply scarring trauma, it's a wonder she ever made it through the rest of her life. [/sarcasm heavily implied]

 

I love soap opera cases, but this did not need a "troubled past" angle to it, in my opinion. It was a great, twisty case on its own -- that only detracted from it.

 

Great ending, though.

Edited by Eolivet
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I think it was more why they moved that screwed her up. Her father leaving them... God only knows how her mother reacted to that, and what she inflicted on her daughter. I don't buy that it was the only reason, either, something else had to have happened to her.

I can still hear that kid yelling "Danielle!!! Danielle!!! You're having my baby!!!" Talk about a screwed up childhood.

I love "Masquerade" for several reasons... Goren drinking champagne and telling the flight attendant to keep it on ice. Bobby, I'd fly with you anywhere. :)

And when Liza Minelli is fixing dinner for him, she's wearing a bra with the plastic clear straps. I sold that on eBay several years ago, along with the shoes she wore in that scene.

Nate Royce.... the slimiest of neighbors.

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Definitely JonBenet, right down to the "sexual predator gives a false confession" angle. The show was not subtle there. I googled the case and there was even a young woman detective who arrived first on the scene, just like in the show.

 

I always choke up at the beginning of the final scene when Jamie confesses to Beth. I thought that actor really held his own with Liza Minnelli -- that can't be easy.

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What was especially creepy to me was that the perp went on to be Olivia's equally creepy therapist on SVU.  Yes, he turned out not to be bad on that show, but he still felt like it.

 

And to think, if the perp had just let the poor little girl come to and taken his lumps and let his son take his own lumps . . .

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Remember Neville Brand? Great actor who played psychos and pervs, and rode it all the way to the bank. Too bad he wasn't around to be on this show and go up against Goren. That would have been TV crime show gold. Watch the old movie "D.O.A."... not the remake, the original. It might be the role Brand played that D'Onofrio based his some of his characters upon.

Remember Neville Brand? Great actor who played psychos and pervs, and rode it all the way to the bank. Too bad he wasn't around to be on this show and go up against Goren. That would have been TV crime show gold. Watch the old movie "D.O.A."... not the remake, the original. It might be the role Brand played that D'Onofrio based his some of his characters upon.

 

 

I loved Goren (obviously), but I was always fascinated with the rare times some put chinks in his armor, Nicole aside. Like the magician perp at the end of "Vanishing Act", who seemed to "read" G/E and their current dynamic, etc. Made Goren more human.

 

Which is to say I think it would have been great to see Brand opposite D'Onofrio.

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