S23.E07: Balance of Power

[Xeliou66]

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”.

[buttersister]

Well the L was better. Mostly because Nolan was channeling Jack. However, I know Sam Waterston and Hugh Dancy is no Sam Waterston.

otoh, I thought Baxter was right to avoid Nolan’s calls. As in, I’m not your Daddy, show me who you are.

Those videos were a bit much, though.

[txhorns79]

I thought introducing the new DA by having him randomly wander into a crime scene was kind of bizarre, and really awkward.   

[MerBearHou]

It was a very low-key way to introduce such a big character and the McCoy replacement.  We shall see…. I’ve always liked Tony Goldwyn so I hope he does a good job here.  

Maroun’s taking the new DA’s side on everything as she was semi-arguing with Nolan — I thought that was odd unless she’s either being a contrarian which she’s known to be, or she was worried Nolan was going to get himself fired.

Having to choose between 2 bad guys — the murderer or the rapist — reminded me of that episode not too long ago where they chose to go after the murderer, even though his was a crime of passion, vs the huge creep who, IIRC, repeatedly produced porn on the internet.  I agreed with Nolan’s move on this one — get that murderer and con artist — because the other claims of the famous guy being a rapist could be very hard to prove with the video evidence they had.  Couldn’t be verified and especially not in the short timeframe.  

Edited March 15 by MerBearHou

[Demian]

How many times has the franchise used the Wall Street victim's apartment as a shooting location?  I swear to God, I recognize it from at least five other episodes.  That place is almost as cursed as Hudson University.

[Raja]

They had to be trolling us with that foot chase.

[Xeliou66]

Good episode. I for one liked the intro to Baxter - they needed to clearly establish him as different from Jack McCoy, and they did - Baxter seemed kind of quirky and clearly has his own personality, and I liked how he showed up at the crime scene and introduced himself to the detectives, it was something different - we never saw Jack go to a crime scene as DA, it was unusual but unusual is what was needed here IMO. The scene where Baxter was reorganizing his office and rambling on was kind of funny - I like that they’ve given Baxter a personality completely different from McCoy but he has a good presence as well. I think he’s a promising addition to replace a legend, I liked how they referred to McCoy as an icon in this episode, it’s clear his presence is still very much felt. 

I thought Price was coming off as kind of paranoid that Baxter would fire him, he wasn’t giving Baxter much of a chance it seemed. But I thought Nolan was right to proceed to verdict, they had a strong case against the murderer, and now that they convicted her they could leverage her to give evidence against the rapist actor in exchange for a better sentence recommendation or something, I was surprised that wasn’t mentioned at the end. I think Baxter had trust in Price and let him call his own shot, and that’s why he dodged his calls, he didn’t want to tell him how to proceed, my issue with Price is that he comes off as timid much of the time, and he didn’t need Baxter to hold his hand throughout the process, he’s not a kid and Baxter’s not his daddy. I liked the ending scene where Nolan was all over dramatic while Baxter was very relaxed. 

Pretty good case, I enjoyed the detective work as always, Shaw/Riley are a good pairing and I liked their investigation. The main issue with the case is once again Price/Maroun seemed unprepared for trial, had they done a deep dive into the killer they would’ve found her previous blackmail victim sooner, but that would’ve taken some of the drama away, so that was annoying, I wish they would clean up those errors. And yeah that foot chase was comical.

The defense attorney was the same actor who played Ben Stone’s nemesis Swann in American Dream back in season 4, and he was the Baltimore prosecutor Danvers on Homicide - it was nice to see him, wish he had a bigger role.

This was a pretty good case, and it did a good job of establishing Nick Baxter as a different type of DA than McCoy but still an interesting character - I look forward to seeing how he does things going forward, I think he’ll add some intrigue into the show. I love the detective side, and the show is entertaining, I do wish they would clean up the errors/sloppy stuff on the legal side though. 

[preeya]

9 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

The defense attorney was the same actor who played Ben Stone’s nemesis Swann in American Dream back in season 4, and he was the Baltimore prosecutor Danvers on Homicide - it was nice to see him, wish he had a bigger role.

That was Željko Ivanek who has an acting resume that is a mile long. He's got 112 entries on IMDB that date back to 1981.

[dubbel zout]

10 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

The main issue with the case is once again Price/Maroun seemed unprepared for trial, had they done a deep dive into the killer they would’ve found her previous blackmail victim sooner, but that would’ve taken some of the drama away, so that was annoying, I wish they would clean up those errors.

That was so irritating. Halfway through the trial is when they decide to do a deep dive into the defendant? I can't with these kinds of beyond-idiotic "twists."

I like how Baxter is already getting under Nolan's skin. I was mostly neutral on Nolan, but the writing for him has made him look very stupid, and Hugh Dancy is kind of leaning in to the worst parts of that. When Baxter asked Nolan if he was handing in his resignation, part of me wished Nolan had said yes and flounced out. But of course he'd return the next day and say it was the heat of the moment. Sigh. The law side is so much weaker than the order side.

[baldryanr]

I get the feeling Nolan is going to be offering up his resignation again before the season is up.  It's clear he and Baxter are going to strongly disagree on some future case and it might not end up as nicely as it did here.  If I'm remembering correctly Jack pulled that himself when Branch was DA and probably should have been canned for a stunt or two during Schiff's tenure.  You're not a true EADA if you don't exasperate your boss.

[SoapDoc]

13 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

The main issue with the case is once again Price/Maroun seemed unprepared for trial, had they done a deep dive into the killer they would’ve found her previous blackmail victim sooner, but that would’ve taken some of the drama away, so that was annoying, I wish they would clean up those errors.

 

This annoyed me too. They were so worried about getting fired. I would have fired them for not investigating the perp more. When they both looked at each other in wonder like "we can investigate her finances". "Wow, who would have thought of that?" Duh!

They needed to be fired in that instant😂

[MerBearHou]

4 hours ago, preeya said:

hat was Željko Ivanek who has an acting resume that is a mile long. He's got 112 entries on IMDB that date back to 1981.

And on Madam Secretary, he was Chief of Staff to President Keith Carradine who's on L&O: OC right now.  Terrific to see both of these acting greats.

[paigow]

Sleazy boss is default Tony Goldwyn... He fires most of the staff, baits Price into quitting ... This is a guy who betrayed Patrick Swayze FFS!

[MerBearHou]

1 minute ago, paigow said:

This is a guy who betrayed Patrick Swayze FFS!

Will NEVER forgive him for that!!!  Ooooh, he was good at fooling us for awhile...

[blackwing]

So this episode establishes that Nick Baxter is much different than Jack McCoy.  Jack resigned because he knew that the mayor would make him lose the election.  Jack didn't like his opponent so he said he would rather resign and let the governor appoint someone good instead.  So I'm wondering if Baxter is going to have to face an election before the end of the season.

What I don't get is that Baxter apparently fired quite a number of staff.  Maroun (ugh) and Price emerge unscathed.  But then during the trial, Baxter doesn't provide any guidance at all.  I feel like he was setting Price up to fail.  If Price took the deal, then he's giving this murderer a pass and her evidence against the actor rapist might not even be real.  If he proceeds with the trial and loses, then he's to blame.  

I'm glad Price trusted his instincts and I'm glad he won.  Too often, Price is written as ill-prepared and unsure.  He's the executive ADA, his name is on that board we saw in the background.  He should have a lot more confidence than the way they are writing him.

I hope they do more with Tony Goldwyn other than having him just be a foil to Price.  It would be great to see him involved in a trial.  So far, they haven't established why he was named as D.A.

How many Executive ADAs are there?  Didn't we see that black 70s/80s style board with the white press in letters on some other episode and it told us where Cutter and Rubirosa are?  It was all blurry in this episode in the background but I was able to make out that the D.A. slot was blank and that Nolan was the Executive ADA.  The other names were a bit blurry but I don't think any were Cutter or Rubirosa.

1 hour ago, MerBearHou said:

Will NEVER forgive him for that!!!  Ooooh, he was good at fooling us for awhile...

When he purposely spilled the coffee on his shirt and was all "look at me Molly".  Ugh.

[shapeshifter]

18 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

The main issue with the case is once again Price/Maroun seemed unprepared for trial, had they done a deep dive into the killer they would’ve found her previous blackmail victim sooner

4 hours ago, SoapDoc said:

This annoyed me too. They were so worried about getting fired. I would have fired them for not investigating the perp more. When they both looked at each other in wonder like "we can investigate her finances". "Wow, who would have thought of that?" Duh!

They needed to be fired in that instant😂

Dear script writers on L&O, 
Please gives us at least a throwaway line for why the prosecutors are behind the eight ball. 
At this point even a lame excuse would be appreciated.
And yes, we need an explanation for each curveball the DAs are unprepared for. 
By Thursday nights, we are not capable of surmising: I guess they blew it again.

 

Meanwhile, thanks to all y’all here for the hilarious snark.

 

But speaking of being unprepared, as a spoiler avoider, I was very unprepared for Jack’s replacement to be so villainous.🦹🏼‍♂️

Edited March 15 by shapeshifter

[leocadia]

10 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

I like how Baxter is already getting under Nolan's skin. I was mostly neutral on Nolan, but the writing for him has made him look very stupid, and Hugh Dancy is kind of leaning in to the worst parts of that. When Baxter asked Nolan if he was handing in his resignation, part of me wished Nolan had said yes and flounced out.

So much this!  I don't know if it's the writing or the character choices, but Price always seems like such an Eeyore, and a particularly whiny one at that.   I just want to tell him to put on his big boy pants and stop bitching about how everyone/everything is against him.  I've never had a problem with Hugh Dancy before but this character is the worst.

On the Tony Goldwyn front, I can't not see him as Bobby Goren's junkie brother.  He really cleaned up good!

[buttersister]

5 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

I was very unprepared for Jack’s replacement to be so villainous.🦹🏼‍♂️

I hadn't seen him as villainous as much as testing Price. But now that you mention it, didn't they say he'd fired a bunch of the staff? So maybe he kept Price around to play with him, like a cat and mouse? Heh. Ugh. Maybe not.

[shapeshifter]

4 hours ago, buttersister said:

I hadn't seen him as villainous as much as testing Price. But now that you mention it, didn't they say he'd fired a bunch of the staff? So maybe he kept Price around to play with him, like a cat and mouse? Heh. Ugh. Maybe not.

I considered editing my post by replacing “villainous” with “adversarial.” 
But, yeah, showing the firing was chilling.
Not Jack 2.0.
For a brief moment I thought maybe the writing suggested that Baxter could be temporary and Price will become DA.
More likely Baxter will be revealed to be one of the good guys?
Regardless, it wasn’t a smooth transition — largely because Baxter’s initial interactions were all so adversarial — like with the detectives at the crime scene. Kudos to the writers if they can pull off a complex character.

But probably this line from Baxter to Price sums it up:

• “I need to know that I have a team I can trust, that we look at society through the same prism.”

[baldryanr]

13 hours ago, blackwing said:

So I'm wondering if Baxter is going to have to face an election before the end of the season.

The lead up will probably be in the background, just like it was back in the days when the governor was the corrupt official Jack had to deal with.  However, I don't think we actually saw the election day, just that Jack had obviously won.

[shapeshifter]

On 3/14/2024 at 11:17 AM, Xeliou66 said:

I figured I would start the episode thread for tonight, hope this is done properly.

Thank you for taking the time to start the episode thread and to format the title to be consistent with the other titles, maximizing its usefulness to users. 

Perhaps add the original air date near the top of the post?

[dubbel zout]

6 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

But, yeah, showing the firing was chilling.
Not Jack 2.0.

If Price and Maroun are any indication of the quality of the ADAs, the firings are warranted, IMO. The only reason those two weren't canned is they're the stars of the show, LOL. But the firings were also to show that Baxter is no-nonsense and maybe even a bit of a meanie (rme). Grow up, you two. Your jobs aren't guaranteed for life.

[Xeliou66]

A few more thoughts -

I hope there isn’t constant drama between Baxter/Price, while it’s common for there to be some conflict when a new character joins, I hope things go smoother in the future with Baxter, it will get old fast if Baxter/Price are constantly at odds. I’m very glad Baxter isn’t a McCoy copy, and that they are making him a distinct character with his own personality, I just hope they don’t go overboard with it and have nonstop drama surrounding him. Price was acting downright paranoid in this episode and that was grating on me, I have mixed feelings about Price anyway, and if the second half of the show just becomes Price vs Baxter conflict, that won’t be good. 

I would like to learn a few tidbits about Baxter in future episodes, nothing major, but right now he’s a total mystery - where did he come from before he was named DA?

And yeah it’s getting very old how the DAs are caught flat footed at trial frequently with some new info/new witness, I wish they would come up with a better way of creating legal drama than making the prosecutors look inept.

Right now I think Baxter has the potential to be a strong character and I like Goldwyn as an actor, but I don’t have a lot of faith in the writers to pull it off well, I hope there’s more to the second half than just Baxter causing people to be on edge all the time and disagreeing with Price. I appreciate that Baxter is very different from Jack though. So right now the jury is still out on Baxter - he definitely has potential but I wish the writing for the legal stuff would get a boost. 

 

[dubbel zout]

16 minutes ago, Xeliou66 said:

I wish the writing for the legal stuff would get a boost. 

If there's no contractual reason for things to be roughly 50/50, I'd rather see more of the investigation anyway. The reliance on video is a bit tedious (if likely accurate), but at least Shaw and Riley aren't constantly putting their feet into things the way Price and Maroun are.

[Xeliou66]

7 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

If there's no contractual reason for things to be roughly 50/50, I'd rather see more of the investigation anyway. The reliance on video is a bit tedious (if likely accurate), but at least Shaw and Riley aren't constantly putting their feet into things the way Price and Maroun are.

Agreed - I love Shaw/Riley, and the investigation side is much better than the legal side, it’s written better and has more suspense and the characters have strong chemistry and things flow very smoothly. The legal side is much shakier and I’m worried that without the stabilizing presence of Jack things will weaken more.

[paigow]

Nick Baxter is a bastard of Arthur Baratheon Branch

[mrsdalgliesh]

18 hours ago, leocadia said:

 I've never had a problem with Hugh Dancy before but this character is the worst.

Agreed.  The writing on the L side of the show is so much worse post  reincarnation and I don't know how a smart person like HD is coping with portraying a character who is both arrogant *and* clueless.

[blackwing]

9 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

But probably this line from Baxter to Price sums it up:

• “I need to know that I have a team I can trust, that we look at society through the same prism.”

I had the same take on him as you did.  I definitely view him as villainous/adversarial.  And that last line was very ominous.  Basically "your political views are going to be the same as mine.  You're going to do things as I want them done.  If you don't agree, you can show yourself the door right now."

He purposely refused to answer Price's calls to see what Price was going to do when he didn't have any instructions or guidance.  Price made his own decision.  Then Baxter tells Price that things are going to be done Baxter's way.  Well then, if he's going to dictate how everything is going to be done, then he could have just answered the phone.  Instead of immediately starting the relationship as confrontational.

[dubbel zout]

37 minutes ago, blackwing said:

And that last line was very ominous.  Basically "your political views are going to be the same as mine.  You're going to do things as I want them done.  If you don't agree, you can show yourself the door right now."

I don't think it's ominous for the DA to expect the ADAs to be on the same page as they are. I think there should be wiggle room depending on the specific case, but if a DA wants to be the type to go for a maximum sentence every time, for example, that's their prerogative. IMO Baxter is right that if his team doesn't basically agree with his goals for the office, they should leave. It does no one any favors to be working at cross purposes.

And as for him not getting back to Price with a decision about that case, again, he was right that he's not Price's dad. It's important for Baxter to know how Price thinks, and that was a way to get some information about that. Maybe this will light a fire under Price (and by extension Maroun) to be more careful about cases and start due diligence earlier than halfway through a trial.

I think Price leaned on Jack a bit too much, and it's nice to watch him (Price) have to make his own decisions and stand by them for a change. 

Anyway, it's Tony Goldwyn's first episode. Given how the DA is historically not a giant part of the even the law side of things, I expect we'll learn more about Baxter as the season progresses. I thought they did a decent job of immediately establishing him as someone who isn't Jack or JackLite.

Edited March 16 by dubbel zout

[Xeliou66]

I don’t think Baxter is villainous by any means, I think they were just trying to make it clear that Baxter was different from McCoy and saw things a bit differently but I don’t think Baxter is meant to be a bad guy. I just hope that there isn’t constant disagreements between Price/Baxter, that will get old quickly. Price comes off as too timid much of the time, unlike others I don’t find Price arrogant at all, but he comes off as timid frequently and gun shy, like he’s afraid to take a strong stand. He was practically shitting his pants over Baxter the whole time in this episode and that was grating on my nerves, I think Baxter didn’t respond to him because he wanted Price to make his own decisions, Price didn’t need his hand held. 
I don’t think it’s unreasonable for Baxter to want people to be on the same page as him, and it’s clear that having a functional system where everyone works well together is important to Baxter, not just his own office working well, but he wants his office to work well with the police, the mayor’s office etc, I think he’s a bit more politically savvy than Jack was (Jack didn’t give a fuck about politics much of the time), Baxter reminds me more of Arthur and Adam than Jack, at least from the brief stuff we’ve seen from him, but I think Baxter is a good guy who will act with integrity. And after all we’ve just had 1 episode with Baxter, so the writers will get more of a feel for him as the show goes on, sometimes the first impression of a character doesn’t define them - I mean Lennie was surlier and more edgy in his first episode, Green was more hot headed, it’s not uncommon for a character to have a bit of a bumpy start and cause some friction. I felt like Price needed to take a chill pill in this episode regarding Baxter, and I think some of the fans need to take a chill pill regarding him as well. Just my take on everything.

[Theli11]

4 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

If Price and Maroun are any indication of the quality of the ADAs, the firings are warranted, IMO. The only reason those two weren't canned is they're the stars of the show, LOL. But the firings were also to show that Baxter is no-nonsense and maybe even a bit of a meanie (rme). Grow up, you two. Your jobs aren't guaranteed for life.

I think they're the luckiest duo to ever be on the show. There's no way in hell they should be winning this many cases. I didn't any pairing could be as dry, confusing or unlikable as Stone-Kincaid. But here they are.. ~2.5 seasons later... sigh. Seriously what kind of ADA can't get a 3 second accidental answering of a phone call be seen as an accident and not fruit from the poisonous tree? (what kind of fucking cell phone automatically opens the phone when it's answered? Like what? Does this mean that if I can find your phone number I can call your phone, unlock it and get whatever I want out of it. It's not the police's fault you have horrible security for your phone. If I had a phone that had no password and the police secured the scene, someone calls my phone and the officer picks my phone up and hangs up does that mean I can get the evidence thrown out because they didn't have a subpoena at the time? It's a horrible precedent to make at the very least. And since when does a sworn officer affidavit-- The fucking officer doesn't even know the case...) 

Other notes: 
I found the Law section pretty boring and stale considering the conflict in the second half. Lt. Dixon felt off in this episode (like she was lost or something). I was half-expecting Baxter to be in the first half of the episode after he was there before the credits.. Speaking of before the credits it felt like the writers was trolling us by having a chase scene before the credits. It got a laugh out of me i'll admit but.. eh? 

the Order is the stronger part of the episode despite how it plays out, I thought it was good drama for Baxter's first episode. I hope they do more with Samantha next episode though. Again I'm not sure if anybody knows how to write a court scene anymore, or like.. looked at case law... 

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, blackwing said:

I had the same take on him as you did.  I definitely view him as villainous/adversarial.  And that last line was very ominous.  Basically "your political views are going to be the same as mine.  You're going to do things as I want them done.  If you don't agree, you can show yourself the door right now."

But it wouldn’t surprise me if it turns out there’s a softer, sincere center beneath the hard exterior of new DA Baxter that was on display in this introductory episode. It’s a common enough writing trope, especially on a TV series when the new character is in a lead role. Historically the DAs of L&O have had almost minor roles, but that might not preclude a little character development for Baxter. 

At least if Baxter fires Price or Maroun we won’t have a line like: “Is this because I’m a lesbian?” (S15.E13: Ain't No Love).
😏

And, like @Xeliou66 just posted:

35 minutes ago, Xeliou66 said:

…after all we’ve just had 1 episode with Baxter, so the writers will get more of a feel for him as the show goes on, sometimes the first impression of a character doesn’t define them - I mean Lennie was surlier and more edgy in his first episode, Green was more hot headed, it’s not uncommon for a character to have a bit of a bumpy start and cause some friction. I felt like Price needed to take a chill pill in this episode regarding Baxter, and I think some of the fans need to take a chill pill regarding him as well.

But while we’re at it, did anyone get the impression the writing for DA Baxter was supposed to imply he might be a “quirky” character?
Like when he showed up at the crimes scene and claimed:

• …I was just walking uptown and I saw the swirling lights, and I got excited, thought I'd pop my head inside. Haven't been to a crime scene in over 30 years. Couldn't help myself.…

Edited March 16 by shapeshifter

[baldryanr]

 

14 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

But it wouldn’t surprise me if it turns out there’s a softer, sincere center beneath the hard exterior of new DA Baxter that was on display in this introductory episode. It’s a common enough writing trope, especially on a TV series when the new character is in a lead role. Historically the DAs of L&O have had almost minor roles, but that might not preclude a little character development for Baxter. 

Especially since they often feel the need to make a strong contrast with their predecessor.  Briscoe and Curtis were basically family, so naturally there was an early Green episode where he and Lennie were ready to attack each other.  Jack usually had Price's back, so naturally the new guy is going to be a bit harsher.

[Raja]

15 minutes ago, baldryanr said:

 

Especially since they often feel the need to make a strong contrast with their predecessor.  Briscoe and Curtis were basically family, so naturally there was an early Green episode where he and Lennie were ready to attack each other.  Jack usually had Price's back, so naturally the new guy is going to be a bit harsher.

Or specifically to the DA's Mr. Branch's differences when replacing Mr. Schiff and the interim Ms. Lewin.

Edited March 17 by Raja

[ML89]

On 3/15/2024 at 12:01 AM, Xeliou66 said:

Pretty good case, I enjoyed the detective work as always, Shaw/Riley are a good pairing and I liked their investigation. The main issue with the case is once again Price/Maroun seemed unprepared for trial, had they done a deep dive into the killer they would’ve found her previous blackmail victim sooner, but that would’ve taken some of the drama away, so that was annoying, I wish they would clean up those errors. And yeah that foot chase was comical.

"We should see if she has done this before" Really? What was your first clue? Did you sit down and watch an old ep over lunch?

The guy walking out with the box and Price's "let us know where you land" was terrific because he looked like he was going to hit Price over the head with the box.

Maroun was worried for her job, caught between new boss and her old boss who is floundering all over the place.

I am a Mike Post fan - I've bought his albums, watched his interview with the TV Archives (which I highly recommend if you're a TV history fan), I wrote a paper on Mike Post. Someone needs to tell him to tone it down or whoever is telling him to make the music that overbearing needs to be told to tone it down. If it's the sound mix doing that, it needs to stop yesterday.

They should have had Thom Felicia cameo as Baxter's decorator, just for the NBC family crossover and for Thom to say that all that wood paneling was "horrible." So I'm guessing Baxter will have a modern light oak office and a standing desk with some Grovemade accessories? Espresso machine?

19 hours ago, Theli11 said:

think they're the luckiest duo to ever be on the show. There's no way in hell they should be winning this many cases. I didn't any pairing could be as dry, confusing or unlikable as Stone-Kincaid. But here they are.. ~2.5 seasons later... sigh. Seriously what kind of ADA can't get a 3 second accidental answering of a phone call be seen as an accident and not fruit from the poisonous tree? (what kind of fucking cell phone automatically opens the phone when it's answered? Like what? Does this mean that if I can find your phone number I can call your phone, unlock it and get whatever I want out of it. It's not the police's fault you have horrible security for your phone. If I had a phone that had no password and the police secured the scene, someone calls my phone and the officer picks my phone up and hangs up does that mean I can get the evidence thrown out because they didn't have a subpoena at the time? It's a horrible precedent to make at the very least. And since when does a sworn officer affidavit-- The fucking officer doesn't even know the case...) 

 

I knew that cop was going to play into it somehow - why did he have to turn off the phone again? I'd let it ring. I so agree Price and Maroun are the luckiest law duo ever.

19 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

I don’t think Baxter is villainous by any means, I think they were just trying to make it clear that Baxter was different from McCoy and saw things a bit differently but I don’t think Baxter is meant to be a bad guy. I just hope that there isn’t constant disagreements between Price/Baxter, that will get old quickly. Price comes off as too timid much of the time, unlike others I don’t find Price arrogant at all, but he comes off as timid frequently and gun shy, like he’s afraid to take a strong stand. He was practically shitting his pants over Baxter the whole time in this episode and that was grating on my nerves, I think Baxter didn’t respond to him because he wanted Price to make his own decisions, Price didn’t need his hand held. 

I can go either way. I think it might be fun to get a whole season of "is the DA really the bad guy" because it's pretty clear that the writers are having a terrible time trying to figure out how to write a classic L&O case, maybe they'll have a better time with the soapy bits. Might be fun to have a DA who is not a good guy. But he's too much of a goof at this moment. "I saw the swirling lights"?

I am baffled by famous actor "confesses" to dominatrix as admissible - and there is a ton of smoke around the guy already - and that's supposed to get her a get of jail free card? I'm surprised they didn't say "hey, thanks, we'll be following up on that and in the meantime, enjoy prison."

I'm also baffled by Detective Yee, who was winking about going to sex clubs two episodes ago and was suddenly squeamish about showing them the BDSM stuff.

19 hours ago, Theli11 said:

found the Law section pretty boring and stale considering the conflict in the second half. Lt. Dixon felt off in this episode (like she was lost or something). I was half-expecting Baxter to be in the first half of the episode after he was there before the credits.. Speaking of before the credits it felt like the writers was trolling us by having a chase scene before the credits. It got a laugh out of me i'll admit but.. eh? 

 

I don't know what it is, but it seems like the rhythm is all off - everyone seems to be declaiming their lines instead of having conversations, if that makes sense. There's no snap to the dialogue. However Price's convo with Baxter at the end was one of the few moments I've actually bought HD as the character.

At the moment, I like Riley and Shaw, Dixon's pretty good and the Order half is the same mess it's been since they restarted. Having Baxter playing as maybe a good guy, maybe a villain could be interesting.

On 3/15/2024 at 12:01 AM, Xeliou66 said:

The defense attorney was the same actor who played Ben Stone’s nemesis Swann in American Dream back in season 4, and he was the Baltimore prosecutor Danvers on Homicide - it was nice to see him, wish he had a bigger role.

If he had been Swann, out of jail and out for blood with the DA's office, it would have been fun...but it was great to see him again.

Edited March 17 by ML89
removing white space

[baldryanr]

One other thing - if they make the DA a villain then that also means Jack's final move is a failure.  He was counting on the governor to appoint someone with integrity rather than losing to the mayor's stooge.  What was the point if Baxter is just as bad?

[wknt3]

16 minutes ago, ML89 said:

I am a Mike Post fan - I've bought his albums, watched his interview with the TV Archives (which I highly recommend if you're a TV history fan), I wrote a paper on Mike Post. Someone needs to tell him to tone it down or whoever is telling him to make the music that overbearing needs to be told to tone it down. If it's the sound mix doing that, it needs to stop yesterday.

While I agree with you it is unfortunately not going to change as it is one of those elements that is almost certainly being imposed from above to "modernize" the show (like showing the crime more often than not and all those foot chases) and make it more like present day SVU which also does the same thing with the background music in the sound mix as do a number of other current procedurals. I would also bet that they do it because beating the viewer over the head with the musical cues lets you cut corners in a lot of other areas. Why use time and money you don't have any more for transitions and another edit when you can just turn up the volume on the music?

[Xeliou66]

1 hour ago, baldryanr said:

One other thing - if they make the DA a villain then that also means Jack's final move is a failure.  He was counting on the governor to appoint someone with integrity rather than losing to the mayor's stooge.  What was the point if Baxter is just as bad?

That’s one reason why there’s no way they are making Baxter a villainous character. It just wouldn’t fit with the show to make a main character a bad guy. I think people need to chill out regarding Baxter - it’s not uncommon at all for their to be conflict with a new character in their first episode, and sometimes new characters get off to shaky starts. I thought Baxter was okay overall and I’m glad they didn’t try to go with Jack 2.0 as the new DA. I just don’t want every episode to be Baxter vs Price with Baxter putting Price/Maroun on edge, that would get tiresome fast. Hopefully things will go smoother going forward, but having conflict in a new guy’s first episode isn’t a reason to panic. The bigger concern is that Price/Maroun seem to get caught off guard so often, and there’s frequently some flaw in the legal writing that throws things off. That’s what needs to get straightened out. 

[Raja]

37 minutes ago, Xeliou66 said:

That’s one reason why there’s no way they are making Baxter a villainous character. It just wouldn’t fit with the show to make a main character a bad guy. I think people need to chill out regarding Baxter - it’s not uncommon at all for their to be conflict with a new character in their first episode, and sometimes new characters get off to shaky starts. I thought Baxter was okay overall and I’m glad they didn’t try to go with Jack 2.0 as the new DA. I just don’t want every episode to be Baxter vs Price with Baxter putting Price/Maroun on edge, that would get tiresome fast. Hopefully things will go smoother going forward, but having conflict in a new guy’s first episode isn’t a reason to panic. The bigger concern is that Price/Maroun seem to get caught off guard so often, and there’s frequently some flaw in the legal writing that throws things off. That’s what needs to get straightened out. 

We hope that lessons were learned from the reaction to the antagonistic DA on Los Angeles. Maybe Mr. Price might also resign and join the police.

[Notwisconsin]

It seems that Baxter is going to be a bit of a villain or at least an asshole who is at war with his ADAs. It should be interesting.