S03.E10: The Director: Conclusion

[Tara Ariano]

In case you missed it, here's the Previously.TV post on the episode!

 

That's The Cabal Game!
It's the exciting conclusion of the fugitive Agent Keen storyline! Without the exciting part!

[ottoDbusdriver]

In case you missed it, here's the Previously.TV post on the episode!

 

That's The Cabal Game!

It's the exciting conclusion of the fugitive Agent Keen storyline! Without the exciting part!

 

One minor correction to the recap -- Red and the Director were flying to the International court in the Hague in the Netherlands to drop the Director off to be charged with war crimes and the Director was in the custody of the Venezuelan Foreign Minister.  And that's the reason the family was speaking Dutch when the Director "dropped in" -- he was ejected from the plane over the Netherlands.

[Tara Ariano]

One minor correction to the recap -- Red and the Director were flying to the International court in the Hague in the Netherlands to drop the Director off to be charged with war crimes and the Director was in the custody of the Venezuelan Foreign Minister.  And that's the reason the family was speaking Dutch when the Director "dropped in" -- he was ejected from the plane over the Netherlands.

 

 

Thanks for the correction; I updated the post.

[paigow]

I could have done without the old "bus pulls away to reveal X waiting by the car" bit, but with The Spader doing it, it looks like an homage to 80s rom-com, so I'll allow it. 

What if the Alternate Universe version of "Pretty In Pink" had swapped Spader & Andrew McCarthy casting decisions? 

[Happytobehere]

Lizzie continues to be the most dispensable character on the show. There are moments of greatness that are ruined by switching to a Lizzie scene or trying to convince the viewer that the character is more than she continually shows herself to be. Three years in and I have seen nothing that says Lizzie is worth taking the time to remove a splinter from, let alone sacrificing all to protect.

A show with Red, Dembe, Cooper, Tom, et al (possibly even Ressler, although he too is blandly stereotypical), Lizzie drag, them and the show down, but stuck with her we remain.

[norask]

A show with Red, Dembe, Cooper, Tom, et al (possibly even Ressler, although he too is blandly stereotypical), Lizzie drag, them and the show down, but stuck with her we remain.

 

Oh you're being far too generous. Every single character on this show is blandly stereotypical.

 

Red: The smug genius who is better than every other person on the show . Best examples of this type include Walter White (Breaking Bad), Sherlock(Sherlock) or House(House) and Nate Ford (Leverage). But at least on those shows, they are sometimes called out on their actions and can be wrong at times.

 

Cooper: He oversees whatever place the leads work at and almost always lets them get away with stuff. Sometimes the audience isn't sure where their loyalty lie.The classic example of course is AD Skinner from X-files and my favorite is Phillip Broyles from Fringe.

 

Dembe: I don't know what type he is since the poor guy gets about one line of dialogue per episode.

 

Tom: The bad boy who wants to harm the girl but falls for her instead. I liked him when he was played by James Marsters as Spike on Buffy.

 

Ressler: He's the by-the book agent who's all about the job. Hotch on Criminal Minds is my favorite and it helps that he is actually smart and very good at his job

 

Liz is actually the one who is not stereotypical because I can't think of any other show in recent history where the female lead was this helpless and incompetent.

Edited January 20, 2016 by norask

[Danielg342]

Dembe and Lizzie are more like “throwback” characters, out of place in a time like this but ones who would fit in more in the '70s and '80s.

Dembe is your prototypical “big guy”, kind of like Chewbacca or The Mongol from Blazing Saddles, in that he's big, strong and rarely ever talks. The only difference between Dembe and Chewy and The Mongol (aside from the obvious physical differences) is that Dembe actually can communicate and isn't actually dumb. However, we rarely see that, so effectively the only role he does play is the same as “the big guy”, i.e., to show up being the “big physical presence” that makes Red's enemies crap their pants and do whatever Red tells them to do.

Typically “big guy” roles are filled by minorities, in particular blacks, since Hollywood makes the base assumption that its audience is white and thus they might not see a big white guy as “scary” as a big guy from another race, who at least “looks different”. Perhaps the best TV example of a similarity to Dembe would be the A-Team's Mr. T, since Mr. T is also black, big, tough and essentially has a limited vocabulary.

Later examples have tended to add brains to the big guy roles, but this means that the characters now typically are white. In today's TV world, you're more likely to get guys like Gotham's Butch Gilzean and The Mentalist's Wayne Rigsby, but black examples do exist, like NCIS' Sam Hanna or Criminal Minds' Derek Morgan. However, despite the fact they have brains, make no mistake- their brains rarely will come into play, so the only role they'll ever fill is to be the “tough guy who makes others cower in fear”. Just like Dembe.

It's here where I would say that I think Ressler is more like Morgan than Hotch- other than skin colour, Ressler's pretty much a carbon copy of Morgan: he's “by the books”, tough, but very hotheaded. At least Hotch can be calm and calculated, much like Harold Cooper- whose role, like Hotch's, is to ostensibly reign in his tough guy from “going too far”.

As for Lizzie, her best corollaries are The Doctor's Companions or “adventure tag-alongs” like Peter Pan's Wendy or, more recently, Aladdin's Princess Jasmine. They're not there to do anything except ask exposition-type questions like “what does this do?” and “who are they?” since the audience is unable to understand the story without those questions. Typically they're pretty and innocent, and thus they're women, again out of Hollywood's idea that women are “precious” and “child-like”- since asking a man to do the job of being “wide-eyed and curious” is apparently “too sissy” for Hollywood to consider.

The official title for this trope is “The Watson”, after Sherlock Holmes' John Watson, whose only real role in the Holmes' story was to ask the great detective questions about the case in order to fill in the reader. The chief difference between Watson and, well, other Watsons is that Watson was only asking Holmes all these questions because Watson was writing down Holmes' adventures, so while he did join Holmes on his cases, most of Watson's questioning came “after the fact”, while today's “Watson” will be asking questions in real time.

Sure, there have been attempts to create a backstory and motivations for Lizzie, but they're not really explored- the best Lizzie does is be there to ask Red questions about the world he is painting. Which would be fine...if the writers didn't really bother with trying write stories about her that they're not committed to.

I think this is why Lizzie's character fails to ring true- the writers are just not committed to her in any fashion, except as “the pretty Watson”. In principle, I don't see anything wrong with her filling that role, since it can be an interesting character- but, for it to be interesting, Lizzie needs to be the one that holds Red accountable, and that would require Red to fail every now and then and for Lizzie to succeed in his place...and Red failing is something the writers loathe to do.

[Teena]

One minor correction to the recap -- Red and the Director were flying to the International court in the Hague in the Netherlands to drop the Director off to be charged with war crimes and the Director was in the custody of the Venezuelan Foreign Minister.  And that's the reason the family was speaking Dutch when the Director "dropped in" -- he was ejected from the plane over the Netherlands.

The "Dutch" family and the language they spoke was my only pet peeve in this episode.

 

First of all---where the hell have these people been living?  Under a rock?  My husband is a Dutch immigrant.  I've been to the Netherlands many, many times.  There are no backwoods, Pippi Longstocking-looking people like that in the Netherlands....anywhere!  

 

Secondly--Their Dutch was so bad, my husband said..."Wow...was that supposed to be Dutch"?

 

I may have given it a pass if it wasn't that one of the producers/directors appears to be of Dutch descent!

Edited January 22, 2016 by Teena

[RCharter]

 

 

Recreating the doctor's office was hilarious - "Everyone likes apples."

Slightly funny OT story about that.....I worked at a big chain hotel a while back, we gave out apples and our competitor gave out fresh baked cookies.  no one liked our apples.  At least once a week I got to hear how the other hotel was giving away free cookies and all we had were these apples?  And I understood since I hate red delicious apples and love cookies, but Red saying that totally reminded me of my time as a hotel employee.  I maybe had two customers take an apple in the years that I worked there, most would just look at the bowl of apples like they couldn't believe they weren't fresh baked cookies.  I always wondered if they just got wax apples after I left since no one was eating them anyways.

[RCharter]

Hmmm, RCharter, you seem to just be popping up with things for me to like. I guess your viewing is as random as mine. :)

 

I wanted to miss Aram this episode but didn't even realize he was not there. I did miss the woman he is pining for, the name is escaping me now. 

 

I also missed Soloman. I think he is my favorite bad guy so far. That actor is right up there with Spader, in my opinion. Can't wait to see what Dembe has in store but hope it takes until many seasons down the road to happen because I want him to stick around.

 

One thing I liked about the Director two parter: It was not gory and gruesome! It was getting a little, well a whole lot of peeking between the fingers for me.

Ha ha, I noticed that....nice to meet a person with the same eclectic taste that I have.  And a sense of humor...yay!

 

I believe the guy who played Solomon also had a small, but interesting part on House, MD as a Mormon medical resident.  Aram is one of those characters I don't particularly miss, but when he is a part of the story I'm always so pleased to see him.  And I think he is positively adorable.

 

Yeah, I'm with you on the gory thing, there were parts when Dembe was kidnapped where I just put the show on mute and closed my eyes.  I had sort of forgotten about this show, but I have to say I'm happy with how things are moving along!  I guess I'll see you next on Top Chef!

[Mrs OldManBalls]

I laughed at Dembe's stone faced stare when Aram's was all excited about the elevator trick. "Slight of hand! I love magic!" Never change Aram. You are totes adorbs.