S03.E09: Bad Santas

[gibasi]

Quote

While Cole gets into the holiday spirit for his first Christmas with Maya, Murtaugh hopes he can convince RJ to come back home from Costa Rica for the holidays; Cole and Murtaugh are saddled with a complicated burglary and home invasion case.

Some of the best things from the episode were Avery. Just because it is always nice to have him in the episode.  And believe it or not I liked the Gute and Scorsese together. I thought they were cute and very natural with each other. I didn't like that the Gute was pushing Bailey towards him. Why do they do this? Why couldn't the Gute be honestly interested in  him?

The party at the Murtaugh's was strange. Why did they even pretend it was for RJ? There was no one there but adults until Maya showed up. We didn't even have Rianna there! 

I like Cole with Maya and that he is so intent on making things up with her. The glimpses of his past with his journalist mother were interesting. But she is British? Who is his father? Why no accent for him, even as a kid? That was just kind of weird for me because I never pictured that kind of childhood for him-a vagabond life traipsing from country to country with his mother.

The burglary and home invasion stuff were okay but were really kind of secondary.

[Princess Lucky]

I agree, Avery was hysterical. I love Kevin Rahm, and he is such a gifted comedic actor. When he gets the spotlight a bit, everybody wins.

I also agree that the Gute and Scorsese were a lot of fun together, though I must admit that I liked the way the episode turned out/the "twist". I think there's a certain hilarity in the fact the Gute might actually think Scorsese is a little too weird for her taste, while Bailey kinda maybe is into him, heh. Also, the actress who plays the Gute is so exuberant and I love it.

The RJ stuff bores me, not gonna lie. I do think it's amusingly realistic, but it bores me.

The Cole/Maya stuff, on the other hand? I love it. It all feels genuinely emotional, as opposed to exploitative. The young actress who plays Maya is wonderful, and that really helps, though the writing itself is also shockingly good, for that entire storyline. I love that the Natalie thing hasn't at all dimmed Cole's excitement to be more of a father to Maya, and I love that she chose to spend Christmas with him. I loved the sadness of Natalie telling Maya to lower her expectations because she's realistic, and she wants to protect her daughter from heartbreak, but I also love the unspoken/unseen part of that storyline, which has Natalie "allowing" it anyway, presumably because she sees the effort Cole is putting in, and she wants her daughter to have that experience with her dad, even if it won't be perfect.

Lastly, Seann William Scott! SO GOOD. The action, the comedy (by the way, more Avery/Cole scenes, please!), everything. Two moments especially killed me. The pain in his face when Maya momentarily lashed out about him letting her down, and the... I don't even know what to call it, the emotion in his face when Trish basically said he and Maya have a home in the Murtaugh house. Gratitude in the face of generosity and maybe even love? Sadness, because he can't provide that kind of home for his own daughter? Both? Ugh he is so good I can't believe it.

Lastly, kudos to the kid actor who played Amaya's friend, and also to the motel employee who was hilarious.

I'm looking forward to the new episodes in 2019.

[catrice2]

I wish they would let Cole move out of the motel.  If he really wants to show he is putting down roots and building a relationship with his daughter that would include having a real place for her. 

It was a good episode, only spoiled by the previews. I was hoping they did not go that route. 

[gibasi]

11 hours ago, catrice2 said:

I wish they would let Cole move out of the motel.  If he really wants to show he is putting down roots and building a relationship with his daughter that would include having a real place for her. 

I agree that he should move out.  Especially if she is spending the night.  She will need her own space.

11 hours ago, catrice2 said:

It was a good episode, only spoiled by the previews. I was hoping they did not go that route.

And uh oh.  I did not see the previews.

[BaskingsharkGTX]

8 hours ago, gibasi said:

I agree that he should move out.  Especially if she is spending the night.  She will need her own space.

And uh oh.  I did not see the previews.

 

I think that part of the previews may be a dream sequence. 

 

On 12/7/2018 at 9:42 PM, Princess Lucky said:

Lastly, Seann William Scott! SO GOOD. The action, the comedy (by the way, more Avery/Cole scenes, please!), everything.

 

Assuming that Wayans really is the holy terror everyone keeps claiming he is and he truly did strongarm/manipulate/whatever TPTB into firing CC, it is rather ironic because having done so, he and Murtaugh are now both fully eclipsed by CC's replacement. As far as I'm concerned, this is now officially The SWS Show/The Wesley Cole Adventure Hour.

I stopped watching LW at the end of the first season but recently caught a couple of CC episodes I hadn't seen from S2 and the show felt totally different to how it does now, like a genuine two-hander that balanced the viewer interest between Riggs and Murtaugh. NOW it feels like all the Murtaugh stories are dull and repetitive and/or could be storylines rejected by the Brady Bunch writers in 1971 for being too stupid. Meanwhile, even when it gets a little cheesy, Cole's stuff - especially as played by SWS - is so infinitely more interesting that I find myself wanting to fast-forward through the Murtaugh scenes to get to the next part of Cole. 

If this show gets canned, they NEED to give Cole his own spinoff. I enjoy him so much more than ANY of the current or recent crop of action heroes. Having slogged through Amazon's over-blown, over-rated, dull, preachy, mopey, generic Jack Ryan as dully played by John Krasinski (who I like in other roles) and being unable to sit through more than the pilot of the humor/excitement/interest-free Condor with whiny Max Irons, I would far, far, FAR rather have more of SWS in The Cole Show than another season of either of those.

It sounds really trite to say this, but in a world of cookie-cutter, dark, brooding, tortured Batmanish action heroes, he stands out because he's just so freaking nice and happy and tries really hard and even when he gets it wrong or it all goes wrong and blows up in his face, he doesn't give up and tries to fix it and is simply so darned likable. As well as being a badass with a past.

It will be interesting to see if they do move him out of the hotel (assuming the show lasts that long) because it's really hard for someone like that who's lived out of a suitcase and spent his whole life running all over the world to actually settle and put down roots in one place. It's daunting and incredibly hard to adjust to the idea that you aren't going to up and move on again. I could easily see him buying a house* in an attempt to give Maya security and then living in it with no furniture. 

*assuming a single cop on a cop's salary can afford to buy a house in LA in 2018!

I said this before on here, but the Magnum producers really, really missed a casting trick. Everything Jay Hernandez tries to do as Thomas Magnum and fails at, SWS does effortlessly - and then some.

Also; shut up, Trish. I still love your actress but seriously, your son is a screwup and even if he was being neurotic and stupid about the party, Roger had a perfect right to be angry with him about the flight and the timeshare stuff. Especially after he dropped out of college, then wanted to go into the coffee business then dropped that for a get-rich-quick scheme. And he messed up his passport. And IIRC he got caught in a stolen car or something at one point in an earlier season? At 18 I booked international flights, got myself to the airport on the right time/day without messing up and I knew not to buy into a Ponzi scheme with my life savings. And I hadn't even grown up in a streetwise town like LA with a cop for a father! RJ needs to get his ass straightened out or the writers need to stop writing him so dumb. If Rianna is Marsha, He's Jan!

Note to anyone who is interested in old British TV, Louise Lombard who played Cole's mom was one of the stars of the 1991-4 BBC Series The House of Eliott about two sisters running a fashion house in London in the 1920's. It was a big success at the time and was the last major BBC drama series to be shot on videotape using a multi-camera setup before they moved to single-camera and film. 

Edited December 9, 2018 by BaskingsharkGTX

[Happy Harpy]

I had lots of fun watching this episode, laughed out loud several times. ITA with @Princess Lucky's post. I really can't believe I love Cole as a father so much. I was so certain I was going to hate it.

It was in the previews, but LW will change timeslots again for its winter run, starting January 1st. It's back to its previous 8PM slot (switching with The Gifted).

[gibasi]

On 12/9/2018 at 5:59 PM, BaskingsharkGTX said:

It sounds really trite to say this, but in a world of cookie-cutter, dark, brooding, tortured Batmanish action heroes, he stands out because he's just so freaking nice and happy and tries really hard and even when he gets it wrong or it all goes wrong and blows up in his face, he doesn't give up and tries to fix it and is simply so darned likable. As well as being a badass with a past.

Yes! And it totally re-invigorated the show. It is fun to watch and that cannot be overestimated.

[catrice2]

Loved the House of Elliott

[Anela]

On 12/16/2018 at 9:54 PM, catrice2 said:

Loved the House of Elliott

I haven't watched this since the first episode, but I'm glad that I dropped in tonight, because I'd been trying to remember the name of this show! I was thinking about it last weekend. 

Wait, she played his mum?? But she was only born in 1970. Was it a flashback?

[BaskingsharkGTX]

On 12/21/2018 at 2:48 AM, Anela said:

Wait, she played his mum?? But she was only born in 1970. Was it a flashback?

It was a flashback :) Cole is 11 in the scenes with her. Louise is only about 6 years older than SWS.

Very vaguely related trivia; Jennifer Coolidge who played SWS's mother in the American Pie films is only 15 years older than him.