S01.E08: Good Cop, Bad Cop

[thewhiteowl]

After Saperstein's death, Harlee realizes there are no lines Wozniak won't cross and decides to help Stahl's investigation. The crew retaliates against a pair of abusive cops after they harass Harlee's daughter Cristina and her boyfriend. Wozniak makes Loman feel like a part of the unit.

 

 

[HunterHunted]

Cristina really is entitled, oblivious, and obnoxious. First, she and her terrible boyfriend were drinking and smoking pot in a public park after it closed. In what universe does that not deserve being hassled (not beaten) or arrested by the cops? Second, I'm assuming their NYC resembles our own where cops are routinely not arrested, fired, or sanctioned for that behavior. Is she seriously that deluded? Did she think just because she's a cop's kid who had a video that those cops would get arrested? So dumb.

As Stahl continued to investigate and push about Miguel, I kept wondering if Harlee only had a proffer or had an immunity agreement that only covered crimes for a specific time frame or circumstance. If her agreement was for all past crimes, excluding murder, then she was covered. She could freely confess to framing Miguel.

Edited February 26, 2016 by HunterHunted

[saber5055]

A big YES to your post about Christina. She is not only entitled, oblivious and obnoxious, she totally controlled her mother in changing the subject from her smoking weed in a closed park after her curfew to ... everything else. That would mean GROUNDED in my world, but instead mom is all hunky dory with it, and just repeats the curfew time. Which, of course, Christina will continue to ignore because ... well, because she can do whatever she wants. 

 

I don't know how this show went from investigating Woz for corruption to investigating Miguel being put in prison for a crime he didn't commit. Like Miguel is the only one jailed who is innocent? And his case has come to Stahl's attention how? I really don't care.

 

I didn't see Harlee sleeping with the files guy (who turns out to be an attorney? Who knew!) so Harlee could keep Miguel in prison. Hard for me to wrap my head around that one.

 

Good on Woz for paying that "witness" all that hush money from his own bankroll. So far I don't see where Woz and his "crew" are so corrupt that they warrant FBI investigating. Yeah, it's spiraling out of control now, but that all happened (RIP Sap) because of the FBI, not in spite of it.

 

I wish Harlee would listen to Woz and tell him about Stahl. Woz said he would "handle it." I think that would be a more interesting turn of events than what we are getting.

 

I thought I couldn't dislike the Drea character any more than I did, but she is even farther down my DON'T LIKE list now.

Edited February 26, 2016 by saber5055

[helenamonster]

"The FBI would never think I was weak enough to approach in the first place." Ok, Adriana.

 

I still can't decide whether Tufo is oblivious about the connection between showing the immunity papers to Woz and Sap's death, or if he knew full and well what would happen when he did. Idk, I still think part of him had to know what Woz was going to do, but the lack of focus on him this episode (no shots of him giving Woz suspicious/knowing looks, etc.) says otherwise. If it ever does come out, he's gonna feel like shit.

 

A beatdown was obviously excessive and by no means correct protocol for what was going on, but Cristina's insistence that Manny was doing nothing wrong was clearly false. I think what the show was going for was that because the cops didn't arrest him (which they had ample reason to: trespassing, underage drinking, possession of marijuana) and seemed to take a lot of pleasure in having an excuse to beat him up instead, that was what was wrong. Which it was. Also I'm surprised Harlee didn't have more of a reaction to that gross comment that the one cop made to Cristina. You'd think she'd want to get a couple of punches in for that.

[saber5055]

I think what the show was going for was that because the cops didn't arrest him (which they had ample reason to: trespassing, underage drinking, possession of marijuana) and seemed to take a lot of pleasure in having an excuse to beat him up instead, that was what was wrong.

 

I took it as a rip off of "Black Lives Matter," the current rallying anti-cop cry, only it was a cop bias against Puerto Ricans instead of African Americans. The two cops were portrayed as total jerks, even to Woz's crew. They were portrayed as being out to beat up Puerto Ricans because they were cops and they could. I found that storyline uncomfortable, unbelievable and poorly written. The show had an opportunity to teach and maybe do a bit of healing in minority neighborhoods. Instead, they exacerbated everything, making ALL cops, those two street cops and Woz's entire crew, into cretans, people we should (rightly) hate.

 

Nice job, show. 

[helenamonster]

Oh, this show is definitely trying to make commentary on the current climate surrounding police brutality against minorities. Loman's storyline has already been part of that, throwing in the extra twist of it being a black cop shooting an unarmed black man as opposed to a white cop. And the storyline with Manny is obviously supposed to mirror similar situations that we hear about on the news (or, more often, see online). But it does appear as though they're trying to have their cake and eat it too. Yeah, Woz literally just straight-up murdered someone (twice!), but at least he's not a racist like these assholes.

 

On the other hand, I'm not so sure the crew would have gotten involved if Cristina wasn't associated with what happened. When she and Manny first went to Woz and Tess about the incident, Woz and Tess didn't believe them and Cristina had to show them the video. If Manny had had no relationship with Cristina they wouldn't have cared and definitely wouldn't have intervened. So maybe while we're supposed to hate the racist assholes, they're just looking out for one of their own, and it offered them a nice platform to be all moralizing.

[ribboninthesky1]

I agree that Christina was annoying, but at least she's a teenager.  Teenagers can be that way, especially with romantic relationships.  Still, there was plenty of obnoxious to go around from the adults in this episode, from Harlee to Wozniak to Tess to Loman to Stahl.  Even Nava. He never considered that his involvement with Harlee while working the Zapeta case might be inappropriate? Shut up, everybody. 

 

I've never been impressed with how the show handled the racial and ethnic angles of police brutality. This episode was par for the course, as far as I'm concerned. 

Edited February 28, 2016 by ribboninthesky1

[thuganomics85]

Yeah, I do have to admit I was cracking up over Tess getting that upset over Saperstein being a rat (well, not really), considering what ended up happening with Adriana on The Sopranos.

 

I'm kind of two minds about the Christina thing.  Yes, she was being obnoxious and yes, it did seem like what she and Manny were doing was illegal.  But it still didn't warrant that beatdown, and it's hard for me to get that worked up considering everyone on this show has done much, much worse.  I do think she was naive in thinking that they could simply arrest the officers in this day and age and that releasing the video online wouldn't blowback on her, because for every viewer that would rail against the police for what they did, it is sadly true that there would be another shaming her for smoking weed and she probably would lose out to some colleges.  Again though, she's a teen.  She ain't got shit on what Woz, Harlee, Tess, and now even Lomen have done.  Not to mention Stahl, who is suppose to be one of the good ones, but might be the creepiest guy here.

 

I'm not sure why they need to bring all this Miguel stuff back into the forefront.  I guess it is going to somehow lead into messing everything up for Harlee and Woz, but until then, it's just kind of boring, and frankly, considering how much power Woz seems to wield, I'm kind of surprised he doesn't have someone working for him in prison, who could set things up for Miguel to have an "accident" in the showers or something (oh, he tripped and fell on a random shiv.  Over and over again...)

 

At least Saperstein got an awesome send-off, by making Tess feel like complete shit.  Go Dead Saperstein!

 

Harlee has finally had enough and willing to wear a wire again.  Yay?

[saber5055]

I do think she was naive in thinking that they could simply arrest the officers in this day and age and that releasing the video online wouldn't blowback on her,

 

The part of the video that showed them smoking weed was at the beginning and easily could be removed before posting the beat down online. But the video didn't actually SHOW the kid being beaten up, at least not the part I remember the show sharing with us. Just the cops getting all bad-ass and saying mean things while doing "something" off camera. I say go ahead and post it. 

considering how much power Woz seems to wield, I'm kind of surprised he doesn't have someone working for him in prison, who could set things up for Miguel to have an "accident" in the showers or something (oh, he tripped and fell on a random shiv.  Over and over again...)

 

So much this. Writers need to step it up. 

[Texasmom1970]

Maybe I'm critical but this show doesn't seem to be making forward progress. Each episode is like everyone doing almost exactly what they did the episode before. Wash, rinse and repeat, getting bored.