S02.E03: Dr. James Covington

[RealityGal]

I'm not unhappy with that interpretation.  If it means perhaps that her character will be killed off and replaced, I'll be even happier.

Well, you read what Megan said, James Spader really respects her work, and seeks her out.  He is probably fighting for her to get more camera time.

[Danielg342]

I think Lizzie is always exactly as ethical or unethical as the plot requires (like her martial arts skills and her IQ), so I'm not sure what her behavior would be inconsistent with.

Ressler was speaking in generalities, as if Lizzie had been consistent. I do agree that she is inconsistent.

They just wanted to make the M.E. squirm and get what they wanted out of him, not use it as evidence.

Perhaps, but it was still illegally obtained. Pretty sure you can't just cut open dead bodies just because you feel like it, and that body was technically in the possession of the M.E.

I'm not sure it's all that kind, actually. "Our relationship is a function of the relationship of the characters in the show. So it works pretty well for both of us" reads to me as "I only talk to her when the script makes me, and I think it's best because otherwise I would have said to her things we'd both regret."  I hope it's not what he meant, it is pretty insulting and he didn't have to say it, he could have just gone with "it's all good, we make it work." Even if she is, in fact, that irritating, and Spader is now requesting less screen time with her to minimize even the "relationship of the characters in the show." Hey, wait a minute, maybe that's what the dog is doing now, too...

I think a more favourable interpretation would be, “Megan is still learning the ropes so I've agreed to help her out” just like what I believe the show is trying to evoke in the Red-Keen. Since the quote was made in late October of last year (when it was just starting) when Keen was still very much in “learn mode”, I don't think it's a stretch to assume the veteran Spader took it upon himself to teach Boone.

[Bort]

Perhaps, but it was still illegally obtained. Pretty sure you can't just cut open dead bodies just because you feel like it, and that body was technically in the possession of the M.E.

Well if they wished to charge the ME with his crimes then yes, they tainted the evidence and no longer can but I'm guessing they were willing to let that guy get away because Covington was the bigger fish they wanted to fry.

[Eolivet]

Well, you read what Megan said, James Spader really respects her work, and seeks her out.  He is probably fighting for her to get more camera time.

 

Which she is getting (in my opinion)...but away from him. They have fewer and fewer scenes together, compared to this time last year. The show sold itself as "Eccentric criminal mastermind teams up with ingenue gumshoe. Together, they fight crime!" But this year it's been "Ingenue gumshoe fights crime, while eccentric criminal mastermind does his own thing. Occasionally, they interact."

 

I just wonder if the change is intentional.

[Danielg342]

Well if they wished to charge the ME with his crimes then yes, they tainted the evidence and no longer can but I'm guessing they were willing to let that guy get away because Covington was the bigger fish they wanted to fry.

I still find it dodgy...I guess they might not need the ME's testimony to convict Covington (although he's the only one who can answer the question about where Covington truly got his organs), but it flies in the face of Ressler who questioned Lizzie's ethics at the end of the episode- he can't really complain about poor ethical choices when he was willing to break the law himself, even if said breakage of law wouldn't matter later.

[Julia]

it flies in the face of Ressler who questioned Lizzie's ethics at the end of the episode

But again, Ressler at the end of the episode was an armed FBI agent with a working cell phone standing in a room where a crime was taking place, and he did nothing to stop it because his idiot partner told him to. He's not in a position to talk about ethics.

Edited October 8, 2014 by Julia

[Happytobehere]

Lizzie remains the most delusionally entitled, arrogant person on TV. She makes Fitz from Scandal look like a self-sacrificing humanitarian. She did nothing to earn her spot on the FBI task force; every victory she has had has been handed to her by Red either directly or indirectly (see this week's need to use Mr. Kaplan to move her case along), yet she acts as if she is some highly seasoned, highly capable agent who has proved her worth, when all she has been is someone who was, is and as far as I can see, will continue to be easily duped because she's not that smart.

I knew the killing of the two men by Red was a setup because there is no way you get an acting and Broadway talent like Norm Lewis (edison aka Pudding Pop), and have him do a thirty-second walk on where he gets killed. I suspect, we will be seeing his character again.

When pill-popping, hissy-fit Ressler calls Lizzie on her bull twice in one episode (her hatred towards new agent and her willing to be duplicitous if she deems it worthy), speaks volumes for how out of control Lizzie's non-deserved attention and spot on the team has made her. She is soon to be the worst of the morally ambiguous people on the show, and that's saying something as we saw a Red commit his umpteenth murder on camera. She needs to be taken down a peg ASAP. If she does not turn out to be Red's daughter, there will be nothing to justify his selection of her as his special snowflake and what little respect I have for him (for he is the ultimate Blacklister IMO) will be gone because just no. There is no way a man that intelligent looks at the ultimate nothing and sees her as something unless he is genetically pre-disposed to do so.

[NorCalNut]

 

Okay, my big question is where was the dog?  When she went back to her hotel at the end of the day, the dog should have been front and center welcoming her back.  Perhaps Berlin has dognapped the dog and that's why she wants to find him....  Free the dog!

 

I totally agree about the dog!! People are still whining about Megan Boone's acting, which IMO, is just fine, thank you,  while the freaking writers dish out craptastic episodes that have the dog/don't have the dog/have a different breed of dog and can't get the continuity right if they were hit in the face with it.  Lizzie is a pick-pocket, bad ass, vulnerable, newbie agent who is divorced, paranoid, confident, competitive, passive and is almost killed in just about every episode and is written all over the place, yet Megan grows and gets better and better.  Ressler is written as a hard-ass, dedicated guy who works his way up the food chain and then starts popping pills?  He's had not one, not two, but three people bleed all over his Armani suits, of which two died! and the writers keep it coming and step-up their game with the tampon in the gut to stop the bleeding scene..not stellar writing yet Klattenhoff manages to sell that shit and sell it right and proper.    All actors, including "tilt-my-head-and-deliver-some-smarmy-line-in-the-same-exact-manner-every-episode-ad-nauseum"  Spader (whom I do love even if he's getting pudgy, bald, and predictable,) have to get their experience in some manner.  Why is it such a crime that Megan is a new actress and is gaining experience on this show?

 

I don't understand why there isn't more of an uproar and attention placed on the hideous writing and phone-it-in scenes from Spader that are getting boring.  I get that he's the lead, but he is starting to get so predictable...sigh.......this all sounds so negative.  I'm just going to enjoy the show and accept that nobody is perfect and this is better than most crap that's on TV.

[Danielg342]

I totally agree about the dog!! People are still whining about Megan Boone's acting, which IMO, is just fine, thank you,  while the freaking writers dish out craptastic episodes that have the dog/don't have the dog/have a different breed of dog and can't get the continuity right if they were hit in the face with it.  Lizzie is a pick-pocket, bad ass, vulnerable, newbie agent who is divorced, paranoid, confident, competitive, passive and is almost killed in just about every episode and is written all over the place, yet Megan grows and gets better and better.  Ressler is written as a hard-ass, dedicated guy who works his way up the food chain and then starts popping pills?  He's had not one, not two, but three people bleed all over his Armani suits, of which two died! and the writers keep it coming and step-up their game with the tampon in the gut to stop the bleeding scene..not stellar writing yet Klattenhoff manages to sell that shit and sell it right and proper.    All actors, including "tilt-my-head-and-deliver-some-smarmy-line-in-the-same-exact-manner-every-episode-ad-nauseum"  Spader (whom I do love even if he's getting pudgy, bald, and predictable,) have to get their experience in some manner.  Why is it such a crime that Megan is a new actress and is gaining experience on this show?

 

I don't understand why there isn't more of an uproar and attention placed on the hideous writing and phone-it-in scenes from Spader that are getting boring.  I get that he's the lead, but he is starting to get so predictable...sigh.......this all sounds so negative.  I'm just going to enjoy the show and accept that nobody is perfect and this is better than most crap that's on TV.

 

I agree with you that it's the writing- it's not Megan Boone's fault that Lizzie has a childish streak and needs to have clues handed to her, that Diego Klattenhoff has to portray the cliche of a pill popping Ressler (one that uses tampons in surgery to boot!), that all Harold Lennix portrays a Harold Cooper who does nothing but stand around and give orders that are ignored as the plot needs them to be and that all Amir Arison is given are snappy one-liners and Garcia-like hacking ability (referring to Criminal Minds' uber-hacker)- that's all on the writing. It's also not the actors' fault that the FBI on this show are so incompetent that you wonder why the U.S. even bothers funding the department- that's all on the writers too, and I have to say, in the second season, this is all wearing on me.

 

The one actor I will blame is James Spader, since he's an executive producer for the show. He constantly says that he knows little more than what the fans do and only asks the questions needed to do his job as an actor, but I've got a hard time believing that. He might not be involved in the creative process, but I'm betting my bottom dollar that he vets every story that's created and whatever tweaks that he wants he gets. This is likely why Red is consistently the smartest person on the show by a mile, and why Red seems to always be one step ahead of all the other characters, including enemies who (presumably) are his equals in competence, because I can't imagine a writing team that would allow a character to that unassaible, especially given that the other major characters have already gone through severely rough patches. I'd like to give Spader the benefit of the doubt and believe it's more a matter of him worrying about appearances than about massaging an ego, but I've got no doubt that Red's storyline- and his almost "Villain Sue"-like characterization- are the products of Spader's meddling.

[Danielg342]

I just watched this tonight, and not with much attention -- I was in the kitchen and thought I heard Lizzie say she needed Mr. Kaplan's services -- when did she learn of Mr. Kaplan? I may have missed something somewhere, but I always figured Red would want to keep Mr. Kaplan hidden from the Feds. I mean, why else give her a man's moniker? Except for the tip of the hat to NXNW.

 

Speaking of hats, I wondered aloud whether Red's hat was smaller, or if maybe he'd gained weight. Mom said it was the latter. *grin*

 

I believe it was in "Anslo Garrick, Part 2" when Keen was investigating the mole that she met Mr. Kaplan. I remember Kaplan showing Keen the cameras in her house and the two of them working together to try to figure out where Red was kidnapped. In any case, the two of them have met.

[RealityGal]

Lizzie remains the most delusionally entitled, arrogant person on TV. She makes Fitz from Scandal look like a self-sacrificing humanitarian. She did nothing to earn her spot on the FBI task force; every victory she has had has been handed to her by Red either directly or indirectly (see this week's need to use Mr. Kaplan to move her case along), yet she acts as if she is some highly seasoned, highly capable agent who has proved her worth, when all she has been is someone who was, is and as far as I can see, will continue to be easily duped because she's not that smart.

 

This.  Its not so much that she is clueless, its her pompous arrogant behavior in light of the fact that she is clueless, she has done nothing to deserve her spot on the team, and even though Red is the only reason she is there, she can never quite seem to scrape up any gratitude when he...for a 10 millionth time....saves her ass, or somehow ends up putting pieces in place to solve her case.  She continues to act like a pompous ass.  The one time I genuinely smiled in this episode was when Lizzie was called in by Cooper and you could tell she was burning to drop a dime on Ressler, and Cooper said the psychologist thought she had the problem.  One of the more enjoyable "whomp, whomp" moments.

 

And strangely I think its that same attitude she may have in real life if she is saying that James Spader "respects her work, and seeks her out."  Her "career" includes having a supporting role in "Step Up: Revolution", "Sex and the City 2" and a DA in 7 episodes "Law and Order: LA."  Considering how meager her body of work is compared to Spader's, its arrogant to even suggest that he seeks her out because he has such a wild level of respect for her work.  It would make sense that he seeks out someone who has a greater body of work, or even a more illustrious body of work than he does.  If he was on a show with Forest Whitaker, Terrance Howard, Viola Davis, Morgan Freeman, or Whoopi Goldberg, the statement would make some sense.  Although, I think even those people have the humility to not sit around suggesting that someone seeks them out because their body of work is deserving of such respect.  Her "work" is not the reason people are tuning in to see the show, its Spader.  This is why she is not featured in most of the advertisements I've seen for the show, because she just isn't that interesting.

Edited October 9, 2014 by RealityGal

[desertflower]

I agree Lizzie is written all over the place, and has been for quite a while. I think it would've made more sense to introduce her as a profiler who mostly worked in an office who is then chosen for this task force at Red's request, who then struggles because she's in over her head, AND ADMITS IT. Like, actually have her say how hard it is and she never planned to be in such dangerous work out in the field, etc etc. Show us her profiling skills. Then, with time, they could slowly reveal a badass streak as she settled into things and is influenced by Red. Instead they introduced her as a jumble of all those things right off the bat.

[betsyboo]

Pee Wee Herman looks good in dickies. Snicker.

I snorted when Red said "Is that really his own hair????!"

[Ottis]

People are still whining about Megan Boone's acting, which IMO, is just fine, thank you,

 

 

Can't agree there. She makes odd acting choices. In this last ep, when a piece of new info is delivered that no one in the room knew, the close up of Lizzy's face before commercial isn't surprise or any reaction that makes sense. It's more like, "A-ha, I knew it!" I'd have to go back to my old posts to see more detailed examples I posted last season, but they were clearly the actor's choices, shaped by either a misinterpretation of the moment, an inability tp express a more likely emotion or the actor's overconfidence in her ability. I do think she is doing better this season so far, or at least her choices are not as frequently jarring.

[RealityGal]

I snorted when Red said "Is that really his own hair????!"

well, if he bought it, its really his hair....

[Julia]

Can't agree there. She makes odd acting choices. In this last ep, when a piece of new info is delivered that no one in the room knew, the close up of Lizzy's face before commercial isn't surprise or any reaction that makes sense. It's more like, "A-ha, I knew it!" I'd have to go back to my old posts to see more detailed examples I posted last season, but they were clearly the actor's choices, shaped by either a misinterpretation of the moment, an inability tp express a more likely emotion or the actor's overconfidence in her ability.

Yeah, this. After all the buildup, I didn't feel like she and Mary-Louise Parker were in the same scene. Naomi was radiating urgency, and Lizzie was staring at the ground with the same scrunchy face of uncomfortableness she uses to react to absolutely everything she's supposed to have an emotional response to.

That said, I feel a little bad for her. This show is definitely shaped around the cerebral acting style of James Spader, and the only time the actress shows a spark of life is when she's being perky!girl. It's just absolutely the wrong part for her. She might be good as the annoying neighbor on a sitcom.

 

I do think she is doing better this season so far, or at least her choices are not as frequently jarring.

 

Also agreed. I think they've figured out that she's less bad at action than she is at emoting, and they're not asking her to carry as much screen time, which is all to the good.

Edited October 15, 2014 by Julia

[Guest]

I don't mind Boone's acting so much but she really is written poorly.  When she smiled big at the unknown gunman there at the end she was actually likable for a moment.  She never smiles big.  

 

Spader kind of chews the scenery and I think that is the show's theme.  Let's write lines that will be fun for Spader to say, as Red.  He's very fun to watch but it's getting just a little cliche.