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It's a wonder what happens when it's not All About Mac or the rank, unkempt Drama Llama that keeps leaving steaming piles of Do Not Want everywhere it goes. While Mac was certainly a part of the major narrative arcs set up by this episode, the focus was clearly more on the lab as a unit, and that is as it should be. Mac might be the designated Big Damn Hero of the show, but that doesn't mean I want to be jabbed in the ass with his throbbingmoral penis compass every week. I'm sure it will become the Mac and Dindsay show by December sweeps, but right now, less Mac is a good thing.
It was wonderful to see the return of Brigham Sinclair. Mykelti Williamson is a wonderful actor who has the unenviable task of being the bureaucratic speed bump to Mac's chariot of justice, and he tackles the role with grace and nuance. Logic--and TV storytelling--tells us that Mac is right about the boneheaded decision to contract civilians to work security at a crime lab, but Williamson also reminds us of the unpleasant realities of budget shortfalls without behaving like a conscienceless twatmuffin. Like it or not, the city is facing a four billion-dollar shortfall, and everyone, even the infallible Mac Taylor, is going to feel the crunch.
Since I recently railed about the show's lack of continuity, I would be remiss if I didn't applaud them for getting it right. We finally find out what happened to that leaked memo and the sexual harassment lawsuit Sinclair was facing. Anne Steele made it go away. How she did this is never fully disclosed, but one can assume that part of the $25,000 Sinclair paid her was used as hush money. Either that, or Ms. Steele dug up sufficient dirt on Sinclair's accuser to make any legal proceedings far too risky.
What's most interesting about this case is the fate of Anne Steele's flash drive. When last we saw it, it was being removed from its evidence box and passed to an unseen hand. Whose could it be? A nosy tabloid reporter? A mobster? Perhaps Sinclair paid to have it removed in order to destroy evidence of acts far more sinister than possibly playing grabass with an unwilling secretary. Sinclair was awfully keen to get his hands on that drive, and his warning to Mac that its contents would create problems even he couldn't handle hint at darker deeds by far. Whoever stole it, it doesn't bode well for the future of Team Taylor.
The cracky portion of my brain wants to believe it's Gavin Moran, bitter at the destruction of his life and hellbent on proving that the NYPD that discarded him is far more corrupt than he was, but I know better. No doubt it's Baddie Number 563 on the endless list of people Mac Taylor has pissed off.
And huzzah for Sheldon Hawkes. After years of playing fifth fiddle to Mac, Stella, and the DL Trouser Trumpet Twosome, Sheldon gets a star turn, and he runs with it. I was afraid that the race card was going to come into play, but instead, we were treated to an old-fashioned case of entitlement versus hard-working integrity. I whooped and applauded when an angry Hawkes shoved that check for $22,000 into Greg's hand and told him to give it to his father before he was hauled off to jail. The dialogue in that scene was pitch-perfect, with just the right touch of anger and disgust. It's hard to believe that the same staff responsible for the overwrought, unnatural hokum that spews from Mac's and Lindsay's mouth upon occasion can also write such gripping dialogue.
And such humor. Because let's face it, Flack was funny. From his banter with Danny when they return for the "mystery girl", to his hilariously awful flirting at the doll factory, he was spot on. He even saved the scene where he and Lindsay were confiscating the doll from Anna Belknap's earnestly shrill attempts to prove she doesn't owe her continued employment to compromising photos of Les Moonves and an elk in a tutu.
This was a solid episode, but it wasn't without flaws. As much as I love Adam, his sudden infatuation with Stella doesn't ring true. He's worked around Stella for years, and now she makes his winky twitch? Is he so eager to join the lab ficky-ficky pool that he'll jump on the first eligible pair of hooters? Granted, Stella's gorgeous and smart and certainly a great catch, but if he were so smitten, wouldn't he have given signs before now? It's not as though being around Stella is a new phenomenon. And really, trying to touch her eye under the pretense of seeing a loose eyelash? Adam's awkward, but he's not dumb, and even the noobiest noob knows that any unwanted touching of a co-worker, especially a co-worker of the opposite sex, is a Bad Touch that could get you fired or sent to the urban Siberia of Sexual Harassment seminars. Unless the presence of the love doll gave poor Adam a perma-boner, there was no reason for him to behave so oddly. It reeks of retro-writing to underpin yet another hastily-contrived plotline.
Still, it was a very good episode, and I'm interested in the fallout from the stolen flash drive.
A-
It was wonderful to see the return of Brigham Sinclair. Mykelti Williamson is a wonderful actor who has the unenviable task of being the bureaucratic speed bump to Mac's chariot of justice, and he tackles the role with grace and nuance. Logic--and TV storytelling--tells us that Mac is right about the boneheaded decision to contract civilians to work security at a crime lab, but Williamson also reminds us of the unpleasant realities of budget shortfalls without behaving like a conscienceless twatmuffin. Like it or not, the city is facing a four billion-dollar shortfall, and everyone, even the infallible Mac Taylor, is going to feel the crunch.
Since I recently railed about the show's lack of continuity, I would be remiss if I didn't applaud them for getting it right. We finally find out what happened to that leaked memo and the sexual harassment lawsuit Sinclair was facing. Anne Steele made it go away. How she did this is never fully disclosed, but one can assume that part of the $25,000 Sinclair paid her was used as hush money. Either that, or Ms. Steele dug up sufficient dirt on Sinclair's accuser to make any legal proceedings far too risky.
What's most interesting about this case is the fate of Anne Steele's flash drive. When last we saw it, it was being removed from its evidence box and passed to an unseen hand. Whose could it be? A nosy tabloid reporter? A mobster? Perhaps Sinclair paid to have it removed in order to destroy evidence of acts far more sinister than possibly playing grabass with an unwilling secretary. Sinclair was awfully keen to get his hands on that drive, and his warning to Mac that its contents would create problems even he couldn't handle hint at darker deeds by far. Whoever stole it, it doesn't bode well for the future of Team Taylor.
The cracky portion of my brain wants to believe it's Gavin Moran, bitter at the destruction of his life and hellbent on proving that the NYPD that discarded him is far more corrupt than he was, but I know better. No doubt it's Baddie Number 563 on the endless list of people Mac Taylor has pissed off.
And huzzah for Sheldon Hawkes. After years of playing fifth fiddle to Mac, Stella, and the DL Trouser Trumpet Twosome, Sheldon gets a star turn, and he runs with it. I was afraid that the race card was going to come into play, but instead, we were treated to an old-fashioned case of entitlement versus hard-working integrity. I whooped and applauded when an angry Hawkes shoved that check for $22,000 into Greg's hand and told him to give it to his father before he was hauled off to jail. The dialogue in that scene was pitch-perfect, with just the right touch of anger and disgust. It's hard to believe that the same staff responsible for the overwrought, unnatural hokum that spews from Mac's and Lindsay's mouth upon occasion can also write such gripping dialogue.
And such humor. Because let's face it, Flack was funny. From his banter with Danny when they return for the "mystery girl", to his hilariously awful flirting at the doll factory, he was spot on. He even saved the scene where he and Lindsay were confiscating the doll from Anna Belknap's earnestly shrill attempts to prove she doesn't owe her continued employment to compromising photos of Les Moonves and an elk in a tutu.
This was a solid episode, but it wasn't without flaws. As much as I love Adam, his sudden infatuation with Stella doesn't ring true. He's worked around Stella for years, and now she makes his winky twitch? Is he so eager to join the lab ficky-ficky pool that he'll jump on the first eligible pair of hooters? Granted, Stella's gorgeous and smart and certainly a great catch, but if he were so smitten, wouldn't he have given signs before now? It's not as though being around Stella is a new phenomenon. And really, trying to touch her eye under the pretense of seeing a loose eyelash? Adam's awkward, but he's not dumb, and even the noobiest noob knows that any unwanted touching of a co-worker, especially a co-worker of the opposite sex, is a Bad Touch that could get you fired or sent to the urban Siberia of Sexual Harassment seminars. Unless the presence of the love doll gave poor Adam a perma-boner, there was no reason for him to behave so oddly. It reeks of retro-writing to underpin yet another hastily-contrived plotline.
Still, it was a very good episode, and I'm interested in the fallout from the stolen flash drive.
A-