S05.E11: Be My Guest

[withanaich]

That's where I know her from! Obviously, they are two VERY different characters and performances, and I sort of vaguely recognized her in a niggling, I-know-I've-seen-her-around kind of way, but it's still a testament to her skills that I never would have realized it's the same person playing both parts.

[Clanstarling]

2 hours ago, mahree said:

And she was AMAZING in The Americans

I didn't recognize her, had to look her up, but yes, I agree. She was amazing in The Americans.

[basil]

Quote

Maybe she liked to watch.  Plenty of people are fans of football even though they don't actively play it.  Maybe the slaves' fear and desperation was a turn-on for her.  Maybe at the end she "got" to kill them.  Then maybe she eventually got tired or bored by the whole thing.  Tired and bored of him.  Maybe she got high enough in ICE that could satisfy her "needs" in subtler ways by abusing her position in dealing with frightened, vulnerable people.

Of course the family that slaves together kind of needs to stay together on some level.  She can't afford for him to get caught because she knows he'd rat her out for a lighter sentence.  So it's best to just lead the cops to the victim she knows hasn't seen her, kill her kidnapping ex and get rid of his other slave, one who may have seen her, or one who her ex-hubby might have told about her.

 

I really do not know what to make of a comparison of a woman enjoying watching a sexual assault without participating to people who watch football without playing it.  Women without a partner having these sorts of "needs" are so rare that I cannot find a single example of it anywhere. Women in such relationships are often mentally disabled or are submissive themselves and become engaged with their male partner's fantasies by way of a folie a deaux - but there was no longer an "a deaux" in this case. 

They were divorced, and guy's first slave that we know of was taken a year after their divorce. We have no reason to believe that there was one before her. Maybe the wife was telling the truth about her husband's sick fantasies, divorced him as a result, found out about his slave(s) later, and her hatred of him was so strong she was blind to the victimization of the slave(s). Perhaps she herself had been abused and she enjoyed the power she had over him that he once had over her.

Historically, couples that have been caught at this sort of thing come down much harder on the male. There are several cases where the female has either had a very light sentence or walked entirely, but again, I cannot find a single case that worked the other way around. The idea of him "rat[ting] her out for a lighter sentence", especially when he was the one in physical possession of the slaves just doesn't seem likely to me, nor did the storyline regarding the wife make sense (to me).

The writing just didn't seem realistic. I wonder if part of the story was left out for time purposes.

12 hours ago, Clanstarling said:

I didn't recognize [Ruthie Ann Miles], had to look her up, but yes, I agree. She was amazing in The Americans.

Now I have to go find The Americans. Before this, I have only seen her perform live in theater, and was always very impressed. I can't link here, but if you check out "The King and  I Tony Performance 2015", you'll see Ms Miles looking very different, and you'll hear her sing a bit of "Something Wonderful".

Edited January 13, 2017 by basil

[FormerMod-a1]

On 1/11/2017 at 10:32 PM, basil said:

That would have been Ruthie Ann Miles, who won a Tony for her portrayal of Lady Thiang in The King and I on Broadway last year (year before last?) Great actress, glorious voice.

 

18 hours ago, mahree said:

And she was AMAZING in The Americans

 

16 hours ago, withanaich said:

That's where I know her from! Obviously, they are two VERY different characters and performances, and I sort of vaguely recognized her in a niggling, I-know-I've-seen-her-around kind of way, but it's still a testament to her skills that I never would have realized it's the same person playing both parts.

 

15 hours ago, Clanstarling said:

I didn't recognize her, had to look her up, but yes, I agree. She was amazing in The Americans.

And if you don't want to look her up, but the mystery is driving you batty :-P , she played Young Hee Seong on The Americans.

[kay1864]

On 1/10/2017 at 0:33 AM, juliet73 said:

I have a feeling this is going to be the last season for this show... 

Zap2It has it as "likely to be canceled by May 2017" (but not "sure to be canceled"): http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/renewcancel/cancel-bear-vs-cbs-week-16-ncis-los-angeles-has-found-new-life-on-sundays/

[HawaiiTVGuy]

From what I could tell in the dialog, the working theory was that the kidnapping started before the marriage ended, there was a line about how they assumed that the girl from 5 years ago was the first, but that might have been an erroneous assumption on their part.  And that maybe she was in a position of initially helping the husband out of obligation (because he was so nice and charming at first) but by the time she realized that she needed to get out of it (and divorced) she was too "involved" to get out unscathed, thus the agreement to keep helping after the divorce.

My clued me in on the ex-wife was the nervous tapping of the fingers at her desk she did while talking with Joan.  Isn't that a tic that comes out when someone is trying to hide something and minimize physical tells?  Of course this was after the micro-expressions lecture she just gave Shinwell, I am surprised that Joan didn't pick up on it.

On 1/13/2017 at 3:31 AM, kay1864 said:

Zap2It has it as "likely to be canceled by May 2017" (but not "sure to be canceled"): http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/renewcancel/cancel-bear-vs-cbs-week-16-ncis-los-angeles-has-found-new-life-on-sundays/

I can only shake my head as to the ratings that a clearly inferior acted and scripted show like Scorpion (which I admit to watching) gets compared to Elementary.  Not to mention 2 Broke Girls (another show I watch/hate-watch).

[roseha]

2 hours ago, HawaiiTVGuy said:

I can only shake my head as to the ratings that a clearly inferior acted and scripted show like Scorpion (which I admit to watching) gets compared to Elementary.  Not to mention 2 Broke Girls (another show I watch/hate-watch).

The ironic thing, at least to me, is that Elementary really exists in its own world and not in the cookie-cutter CBS drama world like  NCIS (and I used to watch NCIS and NCIS NO until giving up due to their plot lines and cast changes).  The Guardian article I linked to in the Media thread actually made mention of this as well.    I hope we can get another year from CBS, the show does seem to do well in syndication.   I wonder though if these long extended plot lines work against the show in that regard.  It's generally easy to watch a typical old episode of Law and Order or Law and Order CI, for instance, since they usually stand on their own.

Edited January 18, 2017 by roseha

[HawaiiTVGuy]

1 hour ago, roseha said:

The ironic thing, at least to me, is that Elementary really exists in its own world and not in the cookie-cutter CBS drama world like  NCIS (and I used to watch NCIS and NCIS NO until giving up due to their plot lines and cast changes).  The Guardian article I linked to in the Media thread actually made mention of this as well.    I hope we can get another year from CBS, the show does seem to do well in syndication.   I wonder though if these long extended plot lines work against the show in that regard.  It's generally easy to watch a typical old episode of Law and Order or Law and Order CI, for instance, since they usually stand on their own.

I am also an admitted NCIS loyalist (NCIS: NO was just to OTT for me to stay with after the initial introductory cross-over episode).  You might be right, long extended plot lines are not very popular, especially since the hey-day of Lost, and I think Person of Interest suffered as a result.  It seems like a huge cross-section of the TV viewing public treat TV viewing as a time filler, not something that is must-see/appointment, thus the popularity of non-serial dramas.  My issue wasn't the type of shows that are drawing better than Elementary, just that the production quality of those shows is so sub-par in my opinion, it is just so sad.

[WendyCR72]

It is widely known that serialized stuff bombs in syndication, nine times out of ten. @roseha used two examples, Original Law & Order and Law & Order: Criminal Intent, which actually seem to do well (as they seem to play all over) because one can just plop down when bored, dive in, and not really miss anything. What's odd is, the L&O spinoffs (and even the Mothership by its end) began to have serialized elements with the characters, but it was framed so that loyalists could follow that and the casual viewers could still just watch for the cases. Kind of a high-wire act.

Look at ER. It was a huge hit in first run. But after TNT dropped it in syndication about a decade ago? <Crickets> I read it was because the serialized elements were as prevalent as the medical stuff and, again, be it because of laziness or whatever, people just don't want to invest if arcs are in the forefront. It's all about convenience and not having to commit.

Another popular show in first-run that failed in syndication seemed to be Sex And The City, but that one seems to be a special case as that was heavily edited to be syndicated to begin with.

I think time will tell (after WGN) how syndication holds up for Elementary...

[Ailianna]

I'm surprised so many people seem to think that lock-picking is inherently illegal.  It isn't.  And locksmiths are trained in how to do it for the purpose of being able to get into places where people have lost their keys without causing damage to the property that is so locked.  If any questions were ever raised about his possession of lock picks, then he could say he was hoping to become a locksmith and was training for it.  

I actually still really enjoy Shinwell, and I love the easy relationships between all the characters.  I do watch the reruns in syndication sometimes, and even when I know for sure the outcome, I enjoy the characters playing off each other, in their non-flamboyant way.

[John Potts]

On ‎12‎/‎01‎/‎2017 at 2:30 PM, Clanstarling said:

It seems to me I remember her saying something about her husband having something on her - mutually assured destruction. Though I don't recall what.

I wasn't sure, but it seemed like she got something out of the kidnappings too? Maybe she thought ICE (given how famous it is for being super cuddly towards immigrants!) was soft on the people it dealt with and she felt she was treating them appropriately? It seemed she WANTED to kidnap the women, too - maybe the husband snored really loudly and she just found actually living with the guy was intolerable, but she still wanted the abductions to continue. And yes, I did catch the "Mutually Assured Destruction" line, but it would be a "He said/she said" situation if he claimed she was involved and/or she could claim the husband had coerced her into co-operating if she hadn't helped out.

I would be such a good criminal (though I appreciate that the wife didn't confess and just called for a lawyer)!