Comments which don't warrant a thread

[Lord of The Curry 0]

Any year, any show, any episode, any length.

 

The Shield, Season 3, Episode 11- "Strays". Written by Glen Mazzara, Directed by David Mamet. Starring Michael Chiklis, Catherine Dent, Walton Goggins, Kenny Johnson, Jay Karnes, David Rees Snell, Benito Martinez, Michael Jace and CCH Pounder. Guest Starring Clark Gregg and Rebecca Pidgeon.

 

Alright, so I love this episode for a few reasons. One is that it's directed by David Mamet. I had to pick a playwright for a Grade 13 (OAC to you old-school canucks) drama class and I picked Mamet and loved everything of his that I read. He's the type of guy in Hollywood that has his own clique, like a PT Anderson kinda thing and it's demonstrated in this episode w/ the casting of Clark Gregg as The Rapist and Rebecca Pidgeon as his wife, both of whom he's worked with before.

 

The second reason is the character of Dutch Wagenbach, played by Jay Karnes. Now, Dutch has been my second favorite character on this show next to Vic for a while now but this episode is what made me put him up there as my tied-for-fave guy on the show. His character took a huge, unexpected turn in this episode which made my love for him grow immensely (in a sick way, as you'll soon see).

 

Throughout Season Two Dutch has been chasing a character known as "The Cuddler Rapist" whose MO has been raping elderly women. Over time he progressed to murder-rapes. Dutch is very heavy on the book knowledge and not so heavy on the street knowledge so he spends all his time trying to profile this guy and figure him out to the best definition he can find. They hit dead end after dead end until they end up catching the guy on a parking ticket technicallity, which leads to his arrest.

 

When Will finally agrees to talk, he chooses Dutch to be the guy he gives his confession to. He quickly confesses to the three murders and seven rapes and tells Dutch that he came here today to find out why he does what he does. He calls it his "passion" and talks about "the thing" that happens to him. What transpires over the course of this episode is probably some of the best work on television I've ever seen, period. The mental game of cat and mouse played between the two is brilliant. Dutch tries as hard as he can to understand Will's mentality but he can't because all he's got is definitions and medical terminology.

 

Then Will tells the story of how he found a puppy once walking home and how his father told him he couldn't keep it and gave him a bag and some rope and told him to go drown it. Will didn't want to kill it just because his father said so but he ended up choking the puppy to death anyways.

 

"There's a look in a things eyes, people too, right before they die. They're on the edge of this big black hole and they'll do anything not to get sucked in."

 

Dutch, fascinated and driven by his need to figure out who this guy is, guesses as to his motives, all of them incorrect. After Dutch is done Will calmly sits down and says "I'd like to go back to my cell now. You can't help me". Dutch is shattered by this and doesn't know what to do. On his way out of the station he sees Will's wife, who had no knowledge of what her husband was doing. She asks him what she should do with her life and he says "I can't help you." Later that night, Dutch is lying awake in bed when he hears a meowing outside his door. He goes outside and a cat comes over to him. Dutch picks that cat up and begins to pet it, until he starts to choke it to death. The cat hisses and scratches the shit out of Dutch but to no avil. The camerawork here is awesome, as all we see is Dutch's eyes until you finally understand that he's seen "the thing" that Will was talking about. The cat drops from his hands to the ground, dead.

 

I found this episode to be fascinating due to the balls-out work from Jay Karnes and Clark Gregg. To see Dutch's character go from know-it-all detective to being humbled by this monster when he realizes that he can't help him was amazing. To cap it all off, you have the icing on the cake, the brilliant ending where Dutch shows just how far he'll go to understand what Will was thinking. That's some good fucking television.

 

Now tell yours.

[gWIL 0]

That one episode of Futurama where Fry goes back to college.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

CSI, Season 3, Episode 2: The Accused Is Entitled

First aired: 10/3/2002

Writer: Ann Donahue, Elizabeth Devine

Director: Kenneth Fink

Guest star: Chad Michael Murray (Tom Haviland), Raymond J. Barry (Philip Gerard), Lindsay Frost (Marjorie Wescott)

 

I think this episode best illustrates both the procedural nature and character flaws of CSI. This episode basically is "CSI on Trial". An actor (Tom Haviland) is clearly guilty of killing 2 people in his hotel room. The evidence is against him. So rather than attacking the evidence, he hires a high-priced attorney (Marjorie Wescott) to attack those who collect the evidence.

 

Usually, attorneys try to take as-long-as possible to draw out the legal proceedings, however Wescott takes the opposite route and tries to speed up the process as to force CSI to make a mistake. A mistake means a mistrial, which means Haviland can go out on bail, flee the country, and not get punished for killing 2 women. To "review" CSI's practices, Wescott hires Philip Gerard, Gill Grissoms mentor.

 

Needless to say, since humans aren't perfect, there are flaws in the collection of evidence, as well as those collecting it. Gerard informs Wescott of all of this, and when each member of CSI (except Grissom, who has taken himself off the case) is on stand, Wescott grills them to the point of making CSI look inept. With Warrick, she brings up his gambling problems. With Nick, she makes note that he didn't properly file and take pictures of some key evidence. With Sara, she talks about her relationship with a medic who was at the scene and further-more, he relationship with Gil Grissom. With Catherine, Wescott talks about Willows contesting a CSI exam and her "judgement", since she was a stripper at one time. One by one, the CSI crew gets dismantled. They need Grissom.

 

Now, I love me some Grissom. He's one of my all time favourite characters. And for this whole time he's been standing out on the sidelines looking-in. The reason-being (and this is something they had been building up since the show began) is that he is losing his hearing. And if a CSI doesn't have full use of all his senses, then what good is he in collecting evidence? However, very few people would know about his hearing loss - his mother, him, his doctor... and his mentor. So Grissom knows he would be a liability to the team if he were to go on stand.

 

However, since the other 4 members of CSI have had their credibility shot, when some new evidence that would prove Haviland committed the murders, Grissom puts himself in the game. This leads up to my favourite scene. Grissom is on the stand, talking about their findings. Gerard whispers something to Wescott. Wescott, then, proceeds to talk very softly. Grissom can't hear her. Fuck. They're fucked. "Could you say that again?" he says. Oh no. "One more time". Grissoms ears weren't working but his eyes sure were, BOOM! THE CHAMP IS HERE! He reads her lips, answers her question, and its OVAH. All of that episode was building to that moment where Grissom takes the stand, and through the camera work, music, acting and storytelling, you feel this huge sense of relief after Grissom makes the save. One of my favourite CSI episodes, one of my favourite episodes period.

[The Amazing Rando 0]

I just saw that episode the other night....one of my favorites. Though "Chaos Theory" and "The Blood Drops" leads the way as far as CSI goes (I think it's "Blood Drops", the one with the four getting shot in the coffehouse)

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

I saw that episode, RRR, I wanted to strangle Wescott. What a cheap tactic.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Chaos Theory has one of the best quotes from CSI:

 

"Why would anyone want to sell their books?" - Grissom. He just didn't get it. The concept is so foreign to him.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

That's an awesome episode.

 

Gerard: You did a good job, Gil.

 

Grissom: I've got a good team.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

"You've become a bottom feeder, Phillip"