lisadoris

A mixed bag of Homicide episodes today.

4.1 “Fire Pt 1” Bolander and Felton are suspended 22 wks w/o pay due to crappy off-screen behavior at a conference. Both characters were written off the show, so we will not see either of them again for the duration of the series. We are introduced to a new friend, Mike Kellerman from arson. Pembleton freezes while pursuing an unnamed suspect and we learn that Mary is pregnant. Pembleton and Bayliss clash but it turns out they were both barking up the wrong tree with the investigation. A second warehouse burns down with a second body in it so it’s turning into a red ball and the brass is getting nervous.

4.2 “Fire Pt 2” Still working on the arson homicides and they finally get the killer: some teacher who was covering his tracks but he doesn’t tell us why he killed the girl. The first fire was a detraction from the second one. Kellerman gets a confession by tripping the guy up at the end of the interview. The B-story that started in the last episode about Howard and Munch taking the Sgt exam. Howard shows up, but Munch doesn’t. Pembleton confides that he is scared about fatherhood because he can’t protect his child. Kellerman initially turns G’s offer down but comes back to join the unit.

4.3 “Auto Focus” Building is evacuated due to a gas leak and the squad relocates to more cramped quarters. We meet Brodie, a news cameraman who is the first on the scene of Lewis’ case. He has evidence of the killer, but the news director doesn’t want to share it until after it airs. Brodie does the right thing and not only gets the thrown out of homicide but gets fired too. Howard receives her Sgt badge and tries a bit too hard to carve a niche for herself and Lewis is being a disrespectful ass. Brodie’s tape leads to an arrest.

4.6 “A Doll’s Eyes” Marcia Gay Harden and Gary Basaraba guest as parent’s whose ten-year-old son is shot in the mall. Who the hell runs through a mall shooting randomly and I don’t mean folks who are trying to inflict maximum damage. The child is brain dead and the parents come to terms with what happened and agonize over removing him from life support. Hardens performance was great as a parent who is completely dazed by what’s happening but still absorbing the info being thrown at her. Not all couples survive the death of a child and it’s pretty clear that this relationship will not survive. There’s a super quick cameo by Mandy Patinkin that establishing that Homicide takes place in the same universe as Chicago Hope.

4.7 “Heartbeat” The squad is back in their regular building and this episode was directed by Bruno Kirby. I guess they liked his guest appearance from last season. Lewis and Kellerman stumble upon a cold case with strains of Edgar Allen Poe’s “Tell-Tale Heart.” Buried alive behind a brick wall is not my first choice method for leaving this mortal coil. Bayliss blabs about Mary’s pregnancy and Pembleton is rightfully pissed when the news spreads about the squad like wildfire.

4.5 “Hate Crimes” G and Russert offer Brodie a job videotaping crime scenes. Terry O’Quinn guest stars as the father of a hate crime victim. When Pembleton tells dear old dad that his late son may have been gay, he does not take the news well at all and launches into a homophobic rant. Pembleton shuts that crap down and they are promptly thrown out of the residence. They find the skinheads responsible and it turns out that the victim wasn’t gay. They talk to his finace and when Pembleton tells the dad his son wasn’t gay, he can finally mourn. Ugh. Lewis and Howard get into a screaming match when the daughter of a victim comes in with new info. Lewis doesn’t include Howard or any rep from juvenile in the interview despite the fact that she’s the primary and the daughter is like 10 yrs old. He doesn’t call Howard when they bring the suspect and get the confession. Robocop Peter Weller directed this episode.

4.3 “Thrill of the Kill” Jeffrey Donovan stars as a thrill killer moving his way up I-95. We get voice over narration when he commits his robbery-homicides and while he driving north so the audience knows just how dangerously unstable he is. This episode is the reason why I always check the backseat of my car before I get in. The squad jack-knives a truck to catch him and it doesn’t quite work. They finally catch up to the guy but turns out, he has a brother who’s really responsible for the killing. The brother kills one more person for good measure and turns himself in so his brother won’t take the rap. Donovan plays both brothers. We finally meet one of G’s daughter whose getting married and moving to San Francisco. Let’s just say that G doesn’t take the news well.

4.8 “Sniper Pt 1” Jay Leno has a quick cameo as himself stopping at the bar to have a quick drink. He talks up a storm but Bayliss and Munch ignore him thinking that’s how celebrities want to be treated. I mean seriously, Leno is actually engaging in conversation and they completely ignore him to the point of rudeness. Interesting cold open there. The case itself involves a sniper who leaves a hangman game at each crime scene. Talk about a red ball. They find the guy and he kills himself while a house full of cops are right outside the door. Barnfather throws Russett under the bus during a press conference and then demotes her back to detective when she calls him on his bs. All would be right with the world except there’s another shooting after the sniper is dead.

4.9 “Sniper Pt 2” This one was directed by the wonderful Darnell Martin. Our copycat didn’t know about the hangman games so they’re not available. Turns out an overly helpful witness is our shooter and a newly double demoted Russert gets the guy to confess. She plays him like a cheap fiddle.

4.17 “Full Moon” Lewis and Kellerman investigate a shooting at a motel that is full of colorful characters. It’s a quirky episode that focuses on the guest stars, but it feels like filler. Lewis is wearing a weeding band in this episode which is curious.

BobO'Link

I finished S1 of Hart to Hart. While I enjoyed the season I've also decided this is one that doesn't lend itself well to binging as the episodes all have a kind of sameness to them. I'll likely be watching more but will spread them out a bit.

I've also thrown in some Charlie Chan movies. I'd not yet opened the "Volume 4" set, the years when Sidney Toler had taken over after the death of Warner Oland, so cured that oversight. I've seen these movies dozens of times over the years and still enjoy them. I have the Mr. Moto "Volume 2" set in the wings. Those I've never seen before so I'm really looking forward to them.

Right now I've continued with S3 of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. which is proving to be a bit of a slog due to the camp and humor that was injected into that season. Overall it's "OK" but *just* "OK" due to the rather significant changes in the series this season.

lisadoris

More Homicide

4.12 “For God and Country” Part two of the first full Law & Order crossover. NY experiences a gas attack in the subway that kills 20 people. The attack is similar to one Pembleton investigated 5 years prior that killed 6 people in a church. The bomber targets black folks. There was way too much bickering between Van Buren/Biscoe/Curtis and Pembleton/Bayliss. The difference in how the two detective teams interrogated the suspect was illuminating. He’s convicted and is going to get a needle in his arm. The white supremacist tells as that this is just the beginning and boy, was he correct. In this episode, the white supremacist’s wife is killed and his son is on the run because the bomber clearly didn’t work alone. Turns out Briscoe slept with one of Munch’s ex-wives, G is far friendly toward outsiders than Van Buren is, The son snitches on the head white supremacists and it presents a bit of a crossover conundrum. Alexander Rausch is played by JK Simmons who played a very different role on Law & Order later. Just like Carolyn McCormick played the wife of the Sniper on Homicide but played a very different role on Law & Order. No crossover is perfect. Pembleton believes that if he parades the white supremacist around, people will view him as an anarchism and a disgrace. What we have learned, twenty years later, is that if you put white supremacists in front of camera and give them a microphone, it will just encourage other white supremacists (see Charlottsville, Tree of Life, Christchurch).

4.10 “The Hat” the always lovely Lily Tomlin guest stars as an extremely talkative murder suspect who gets away from Lewis and Kellerman and manages to kill another person. Oops. Tomblin was nominated for an Emmy for her performance. With Russert double demoted, the brass choose Gaffney as her replacement. The brass want a yes man so bad that they promote an incompetent racist to Captain. That announcement goes about as well as you expect.

4.11 “I’ve Got a Secret” Pembleton and Bayliss find a guy behind the wheel of a car without any obvious cause of death. There were a bunch of random twists and turns including the fact that he had been shot earlier in the day. Turns out a doctor didn’t do the best work on the gun shot which led to him bleeding out. She is bitter because her husband was assaulted, and she has seen the worst of humanity working in the trauma unit. It’s clear that this is at least negligent homicide and possibly murder but Bayliss talks Pembleton out of arresting her on the spot. That’s white privilege for you. Bayliss asks the question: does one act wipe out a lifetime of good. That’s a question that will come up again.

4.13 “Justice Pt 1” Bruce Campbell is our special guest playing a cop whose father, a retired cop, is murdered. The son went to the academy with Lewis and can’t help but stick his nose into the investigation. He beats up folks he thinks committed the crime when they have rock solid alibis. Danvers wants to make a deal and dear old son rejects it – of course the suspect is found not guilty. There was a good amount of physical evidence, but there was one juror who was determined not to convict so everyone else went along so they could go home for the weekend. Episode ends with sonny boy confronting the suspect. Yeah, that’s going to go well. I sincerely hope that this is the first and last time they partner Munch and Russert because they got on each other nerves.

4.14 “Justice Pt 2” Picks up roughly where the last episode left off. Bruce Campbell is back as Jake. Kellerman has returned from his cousin’s wedding and he gets to be primary on the death of the suspect. Shot once in the back of the head. I wonder who could be responsible for this murder? It’s clear he did it; it’s just a matter of whether they would nail him for it. There was resistance, but he went down and the jury convicted. G has certainly changed his tune about officer-involved shootings since the events of “Black and Blue” and that’s a good thing.

4.15 “Stakeout” Oh a second actor from The Wire is here: Jim True-Frost here as is Kate Walsh from Grey’s Anatomy/Private Practice. The squad has 48-hour surveillance in the guest star’s home. They’re marriage has hit a rough patch so of course they are surrounded by the least functional people on the planet. It’s a bottle show with a ton of character development. Bayliss is still haunted by Adena Watson and the suspect’s natural death makes him contemplate quitting. Lewis wonders why Crosetti didn’t confide in him. Munch is mad because Bolander won’t take his phone calls. G doesn’t want to go to his daughter’s wedding because she doesn’t consult him about anything. He decides to go but the flight is delayed due to fog.

4.19 “Map of the Heart” Clark Johnson’s Homicide directoral debut. A man comes to Pembleton and Bayliss with information about a body they just discovered. Dude is super cryptic. A woman shows up claiming to be NSA and Gaffney wants the squad to cooperate. Everything gets very cloak and dagger. A guy who clearly didn’t commit the crime confesses on behalf of whatever government agency the cloak and dagger folks work for. The guys don’t buy it but they don’t have any choices.

4.16 “Requiem for Adena” A murdered girl sends Bayliss on a PTSD spiral. Pembleton wants to work the case alone, no red ball, no nothing. Bayliss is convinced that the case is related to Adena Watson. He gets drunk and gives information to a reporter and Pembleton goes ballistic. Chris Rock plays one of the dumbest suspects I’ve seen on the show. Every piece of evidence points to him and he has no answers but the interrogation goes sideways when Bayliss goes off track to the Watson case.

lisadoris

One of my favorite recurring characters shows up on Homicide

4.20 “The Damage Done” Kellerman is primary on a string of drug murders and they are introduced to Luther Mahoney. A regular Teflon don, Mahoney is going to become so important. Kellerman gets his butt kicked by a rival drug dealer, Drak who they think is responsible, but he proves he is a dealer but not a killer. The shooter falls in their lap but it’s clear he was set up by Mahoney. Episode ends with a silent vigil outside the station and Drak getting killed while Mahoney looks on.

4.21 “The Wedding” Radio shock jock is killed and G goes on the call because Lewis announces that he’s getting married. The squad organizes and pays for the whole affair. Everyone thinks it’s a joke but Lewis shows up with a bride-to-be, his mom, grand mom, and a minister and does get married. Melissa Leo does double-duty playing Howard’s sister from Italy. Episode ends with Mary going into labor.

4.18 “Scene of the Crime” There’s a murder in a housing project being policed by the Fruit of Islam. Lewis and Kellerman have a loud discussion about race in law enforcement and some of Kellerman’s preconceived notions come rolling out. The brass doesn’t want to upset the applecart because elections are upcoming and pissing off the black community is a no-no. There’s another case where an officer hears shots in a housing project but doesn’t go in. A young man bleeds to death due to the officer’s inaction. Said officer is Gharty who will become a regular next season. A dude slow-walks assisting a shooting (and doesn’t even call for backup either) that leads to death of one person and he is promoted one year later? Russert, Howard, and G are the only folks who stand up for the victims; everyone else thinks the young men were nothing but drug dealers who weren’t worth saving. Kathy Bates directed this meditation on race and policing.

4.22 “Work Related” Andre Braugher was going to leave after this season but the writers came up with the stroke storyline to keep him around. Someone throws a bowling ball off an overpass and kills someone. We get the TMI that Lewis and his wife haven’t consummated their marriage. Bayliss dotes on baby Olivia and refuses to leave the hospital while Pembleton is in surgery.
5.1 “Hostages Pt 1” The episode begins with the info that Russert eloped to France with some diplomat. Bayliss and Munch investigate a murder where the only witness is a pig. In a storyline that feels way too real: there’s a shooting at a middle school and the shooter has barricaded himself in with hostages. The brass want Pembleton in evidence control but G cashed in all his IOUs to get him back into homicide. Bayliss overly controlling, Munch is a dick because Pembleton never returned his calls. Pembleton desperately wants to get back to work but has to requalify on his firearm.

5.2 “Hostages Pt 2” Pembleton is short with Mary who is trying her best to take care of him. The gunman releases a hostage because he wants his pig – case one is related to case two. Gunman goes even more nuts when the cops don’t get his pig back in time so he starts shooting again and sets himself on fire. Turns out he wanted to kill himself so he shot his mom to protect her. Oh good grief. You can tell that Bayliss wants to smother this guy in his hospital bed. Pembleton flushes his meds down the toilet. The only good news in this episode is that Danvers is engaged. Anne Meara earned an Emmy nomination for her performance as the teacher.

5.3 “Prison Riot” Charles S. Dutton is our guest star as an inmate to witnesses a prison murder. The episode features a who’s who of former guests who are locked up which was a nice touch. Dutton’s character, Sanborn, was a solid citizen whose wife was murdered. The cops didn’t do anything, so he found the killer and took him out. Bayliss thinks Sanborn wants to tell the story so he makes a deal: Sanborn’s son gets a light sentence for an armed robbery if dad spills the beans. Sanborn confesses to the murder but the real killer confesses. TV Guide voted this in the top 100 TV episodes of all time. It’s quite brilliant but it’s not even the best Homicide episode I’ve watched so far (I have it at #3).

5.4 Bad Medicine Looks like there’s a bad package running around B-More as addicts are dropping like flies. Kellerman is under investigation by the feds for corruption from his time in arson. He’s on desk duty until the matter is resolved. We meet Det. Stivers from narcotics; she’ll become a regular soon. Her informant has the 411 on the ODs and of course, our old friend Luther Mahoney is involved. He is as suave and slippery as ever but slips up a bit with a detail only someone at the crime scene would know. Danvers won’t prosecute. Pembleton is four short of passing his firearms test.

shadokitty

While browsing the Starz channel on Roku, I came across Fleet Of Doom. That was the tv movie that aired in between Season 1 of Lion Force Voltron, and Vehicle Voltron. It had both Voltrons working together to defeat the combined forces of Zarkon and the Drule Empire. That got me in the mood to start working my way through Lion Force Voltron again. I'm almost up to the point where Lotor replaces Yurak.

LorenzoL

I finished off S6 of Monk and here was my review in another thread.
I forgot to mention that they are making Randy Disher dumber as the seasons go on. It's like the Homer Simpson syndrome.

I spent the last couple of days watching random movies that are applicable to this challenge. First of all, Ultraviolet has to be one of the more awful movies that I ever watched. I chose this movie as I was into a Milla Jovovich kick having watched the first 3 RE films which are bad but entertaining. You cannot say that about Ultraviolet.

Another bad one is Priest. There wasn't enough Maggie Q in that movie to make it better.

To make it a perfect trifecta, I followed it up with The Hurricane Heist on Netflix. So this is what Rob Cohen has been doing lately. Don't waste your time and Maggie Grace acting has not gotten any better.

Made it better with some early Stephen Chow with Look Out, Officer! which was okay but not as good as some of his latter classics. I was disappointed with Super Fuzz. I never seen it but I have watched the Hill and Spencer movies so I was expecting something along those lines but I was bored by it. It still has some silly gags and comedy along with the slapstick fighting.

I rewatched the Shaolin Mantis which is not one of the David Chiang better efforts and with my wife, we rewatched The Hitman's Bodyguard which I'm glad that a sequel is being made. I liked the chemistry between Reynolds and Jackson and Salma was hilarious as SLJ wife.

I have to admit that I have never watched The Incredible Hulk until yesterday. This was the only MCU movie that I had yet to see. I didn't mind Norton too much but I think it was a right move to replace him with Ruffalo as Bruce Banner.

Trevor

Speaking of Starz, caught the first episode of American Gods and loved it.

Greg MacGuffin

Watched some stuff.

Captain Marvel - it was OK? Felt like the screenplay needed a few more passes.

Dr. No. My mom was a huge James Bond fan so I grew up watching all of these movies. Would like to work my way through all of them at some point and this seemed like a good starting point. Pretty solid and holds up really well although it definitely feels embryonic in the sense that they are trying to figure out how to make everything work. Like a lot of the Bond flicks they're are some great bits and some slow bits as well.

Re-watched Train to Busan last night. Such a blast. It's so stressful but also a lot of fun. The key to the whole thing is the characters. I've always felt that in action and/or horror movies, a little bit of character development can go a long way and this is a great example of that.

Also working my way through the most recent season of The Punisher on Netflix, and boy does it feel like work. Kinda glad these Marvel series are winding down. I feel like the novelty factor wore off a long time ago and now they all just seem like such a slog. I'm up to (I think) the fourth episode and it was just an hour of scenes featuring two people in a room talking. Which, like, I get that they're trying to do something different but this show is still called The Punisher, right? I'm also over the whole "thirteen-hour movie" approach to television. Watching this show makes me long for series that could do good self-contained episodes. Probably going to cancel my Netflix once I'm done and not even bother with Jessica Jones later this year.

lisadoris

Halfway through season 5 of Homicide

5.5 “M.E., Myself, and I” the new medical examiner is here and Cox isn’t playing around. She checks Bayliss for moving a body before she can check it out, she fires one of her staff members for falsifying a cause of death, and unfortunately, her father dies. The feds show up to question the squad about Kellerman and the late Edward Herrmann had a great scene with Yaphet Kotto about the situation: “Can I call you G?” “No you may not.” Pembleton asks his doctor if he can go off his meds so he can have sex with his wife for their anniversary. The idea of adding the medical examiner to the main cast is a good one; I just don’t care for where the writers took her storyline.

5.6 “White Lies” Peter Weller is directing again, and Kellerman’s corruption probe hits the front page of the newspaper. That goes about as well as you’d expect complete with yelling at everybody, confronting the buy he’s accused of taking bribes from, and generally behaving like a guilty man. Pembleton helps find a suspect in Bayliss’ only open case but Bayliss blows the interrogation. Kellerman agrees to take a polygraph but walks out when the questions go toward whether other cops took bribes. Turns out the other guys took the money and Kellerman knew.

5.7 “The Heart of a Saturday Night” The episode follows a support group of family members of murder victims. One woman is killed in a car-jacking, a husband dies in a bar fight (at The Water Front no less), a daughter is strangled in an ally. It was interesting again to see everything from the family’s POV and it wasn’t overly sentimental. Cox shows up toward the end of the episode and it turns out that her father was killed in a hit-and-run. Rosanna Arquette is the bar fight widow who decided to leave her husband before he ended up with a bottle in his neck.

5.8 “The True Test” Elijah Wood plays an over-privileged sociopath. The irony: a poor black family sends their son to this blue-blood school to keep him safe and he turns up dead. The privileged can be just as nasty and violent as the rest of us. Wood’s character, Cheeks, is the alpha male whose mommy is a judge, so he is untouchable. Like Luther Mahoney in a previous episode, Cheeks gets someone else to take the fall. Even when mommy literally hears him confess to the crime and say that he tried to have her killed, she defends him. Guess black lives don’t matter. The computer tech in this episode feels so old and makes me feel old in the process since I remember that tech. Pembleton re-takes the firearm exam and while he was on the potty, G tells him that he passed.

5.9 “Control” Bayliss is the primary but Pembleton is back on the street investigating a triple murder of mother and her two kids. Pembleton is back in the box and all is right with the world though he and Bayliss are not on the same page. Lewis gets a drug murder of a dealer slinging for Junior Bunk who in turn works for our friend Luther Mahoney. Mekhi Phifer plays Junior Bunk and he is a special little snowflake who literally starts crying when Stivers puts cuffs on him. He spills all the tea on his uncle’s operation after the detectives agree to keep him monogamous (no that’s not a typo). Mahoney is able to get a message to his nephew, so the statement gets recanted. Kellerman gets his grand jury summons and he has sex with Cox. This is where her storyline goes sideways. It is possible to have female characters not be romantically involved with their colleagues. Why didn’t they learn that lesson with Russert and Felton?

5.10 “Blood Wedding” Pembleton’s first case back as primary and it’s the murder of Danver’s fiancée in a bridal shop. Of course, Danvers tries to get Pembleton removed from the case, he influences witnesses, and interjects himself into the investigation. Every instinct Pembleton has about the case pans out and they grab a suspect but there’s no confession. Danvers confronts and threatens the suspect so said suspect commits suicide while in lockup. I know the NBC brass wanted the stroke storyline to end quickly and this episode was basically the end. G beats the bushes to figure out if Kellerman is going to be charged. Turns out one of them is going to snitch to get his sentence reduced. Al Freeman Jr. comes back and refuses to help. He even tells G that promoting the racist Gaffney is payback for not helping with the senator’s “kidnapping” case in “Cradle to Grave.”

5.11 “The Documentary” It’s New Year’s Eve and all is quiet. While they wait for midnight and for the phones to start ringing, they watch Brodie’s documentary about the squad. Melvin Van Peebles is our double murderer who confesses before Pembleton and Bayliss arrive on the scene. There are lovely monologues of the characters talking directly to the camera with advice to would-be suspects. It’s kinda a clip show but kinda not since it deals with at least one case we haven’t seen before. We also see a bunch of clips where Brodie and his camera were not present. The documentary airs all sorts of dirty laundry on everyone. There’s a great scene where Lewis, Kellerman, and Brodie photobomb Barry Levinson filming. It’s a creative episode and we learn that Gaffney is the lunch bandit. What’s interesting is that Brodie sold it to PBS but he didn’t get permission from the squad so they’d have legal recourse for an injunction.

BobO'Link

I made it through S3 of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. - whew! - and started S4. S4 brings a return to form with more serious spy episodes. It's quite welcome after the humor/camp of S3. Had S3 been a different show it'd have worked but not as a season of U.N.C.L.E. It was telling that almost every episode of S3 had a comic or actor known for comedy among the guest stars.

I also watched S1 of Amazon's take on The Tick. It's surprisingly good, although I could do without the seemingly regular scenes where "The Terror" calls on "Alexa" for some music. Pure case of product placement that did little, if anything, for the overall plot. It also follows the current trend of series being fully continuous, like a soap opera, so the entire season really plays like a long TV movie or miniseries. While it mostly worked for S1 of The Tick, I'm not generally a fan of that process for many shows.

coyoteblue

Prime will start streaming all four seasons of Farscape and a remastered The Peacekeeper Wars (2004) tomorrow in celebration of its 20th anniversary. It's a great show and very bingeable.

lisadoris

More Homicide for me:

5.12 “Betrayal” Bayliss it the primary on another dead child and proves that he should never work on any more cases involving children. He admits to Pembleton that he was abused as a child and that his father neither protected him nor believed him. He also doesn’t want to partner with Pembleton anymore. LaTanya Richardson is our guest star who helped her fiancé coverup the murder of her own daughter. Ugh. Kellerman finally gets his day in front of the grand jury and after realizing that one of his fellow officers put him in the jackpot, he offers to come clean about everything giving some heartfelt song and dance about how much being a cop meant to him and that he’d have to turn in his badge after this. The attorney doesn’t ask him the questions and lets him go. THIS IS THE FREAKING PROBLEM WITH THE SYSTEM. “Good cops” won’t snitch on bad cops so there is no incentive for people to act right. The attorney should have jammed him up for protected the other cops and if she had, some of the crap that reigns down later, might not have happened.

5.13 “Have a Conscience” Kellerman is back and he’s primary on the shooting death of a Korean store owner. He was chasing off dealers from his street and got shot in the back. The victim’s family says the magic words: Luther Mahoney and both detectives get their fur in a bunch. They confront him and Kellerman loses his cool and lays hands on Mahoney. Later that night, Lewis confront Kellerman on his boat and our fragile friend looks like he’s ready to eat his gun. Kellerman calls Lewis on the fact that he ghosted him during the grand jury issues and that Lewis ghosted Crosetti before his death. Kellerman is going on and on about how he’s clean and nobody believes it. Dude, you aren’t clean. You knew your boys were doing dirt and you didn’t say or do shit about it. Lewis gets Kellerman’s gun away from him and agrees not to tell anyone what happened because “cops don’t rat out other cops.” It’s that thinking that got Kellerman into this mess.

5.14 “Diener” Kyle Secor directed this episode. Pembleton and Lewis team up on the murder of a socialite. Everything hinges on the location of a diamond ring. Turns out, one of Cox’s staff members has been swiping belonging off bodies for quite some time, Ugh. Mary suggests marriage counseling and Pembleton basically ignores her. Mary goes the extra mile and asks Bayliss to partner with Pembleton again. He extends the olive branch and Pembleton swats it away.

5.15 “Wu’s on First?” Kellerman’s felonious brothers, played by Eric Stoltz and Tate Donovan, come for a visit. All three end up in jail before the night is finished. I don’t think getting charged with B&E will help Kellerman get is reputation back. A new reporter for the Sun tries, and fails, repeatedly, to get the story of a cop’s death correct. G likes her because she’s got guts and Barnfarther damn near gets her fired. I can’t remember if we see Wu again but I hope we do, I like her character.

coyoteblue

I'm trying to watch Farscape on Prime Video and all I'm seeing is 'This video is currently unavailable'. Way to go Amazon. You only had one job...

lisadoris

One of the defining moments of Homicide has arrived:

5.16 “Valentine’s Day” Pembleton and Mary go to counseling and Pembleton is a giant anger ball. She is upset that he’s lost his faith and she wants Olivia to be baptized. She sets everything up, Pembleton doesn’t show up so she leaves him. Munch investigates a “suicide” but Brodie knows one of the people involved and he doesn’t think it’s a suicide. Neil Patrick Harris is the person Brodie thinks is responsible and he’s a slimy jerk who was playing Russian Roulette with selling cocaine to the victim. Bayliss and Kellerman investigate two bombings. Kellerman brushes off the possibility of terrorism because there were no Muslims involved and Bayliss rightfully points to white domestic terrorism as a possibility. Turns out it’s more personal than that, it’s the son from “Have a Conscience” going after the folks he thinks is responsible for letting the shooter off the hook: the defense attorney and the jury foreman were the victims and the judge and Danvers were next on the list.

5.17 “Kaddish” Munch and Kellerman investigate the murder of Munch’s teenage crush. We get a bunch of flashbacks of Munch in high school, interacting with his brother, before he turned into a complete cynic. It was an interesting way to go and odd to watch Munch have to explain Judaism to Kellerman. Seriously, how do you not know what sitting Shiva is? Pembleton invites Bayliss over to dinner and they seem to kiss and make up. They go to investigate a murder which isn’t a murder: the elderly victim died in her bed, in her sleep, listening to religious music, with a rosary by her bed. This feels like Pembleton’s come back to Jesus moment.

5.18 “Double Blind” Officer Thormann and his wife are back because the person who shot him is up for parole. It’s been four years and Lewis is pissed but it turned out that the shooter actually saved two guards during a prison riot (not the one we saw earlier this season). Thormann makes a statement that puts the kibosh on parole. Baylis and Pembleton look into an abusive husband who is killed by his daughter. The mom is still defending her husband and offering to testify against her daughter. Oh good grief. She eventually changes her story though. Pembleton is mad that abuse victims don’t leave and Bayliss clearly got the Me Too memo two decades early. The irony is, Pembleton tries everything to get the case seen as justifiable homicide and Bayliss wants to throw the book at the daughter. This case gives Bayliss the courage to confront the uncle who abused him.

5.19 “Deception” Lewis Black plays a recently released prisoner who was arrested by Bolander. He tells Munch that there’s a body buried in a parking lot. They dig, and there’s nothing. Turns out, Lewis Black wants Munch to find the alleged victim, so he can kill him and put him in the parking lot they just repaved. Oops. Bayliss is now taking care of his pedophile uncle who clearly has one foot in the grave and no money. Mahoney’s drug mule ODs so the squad and narcotics put together a sting: they replace Mahoney’s package with baking powder. The feds have had Mahoney’s phone tapped for months so they wait for the fireworks. And things really go boom. Mahoney meets with his lieutenant and his supplier in a public park to find out what the hell happened with the package. While the cops look on, Mahoney fires at his lieutenant, killing him, but a stray bullet hits a child. Mahoney flees, and Lewis literally kicks in a car window to follow. Mahoney is unarmed and Lewis has him but instead of just arresting Mahoney, he decides he wants to issue a beatdown (Mistake #1). Mahoney gets Lewis’ gun after the beatdown. Kellerman and Stivers arrive and Mahoney lowers the weapon. Kellerman shoots and kills Mahoney. Lewis and Stivers co-sign Kellerman’s shoot (Mistake #2). Lewis and Kellerman lie to G about what happened (Mistake #3). As I said a few episodes ago, this is the problem when “good cops” co-sign bad behavior. Many people simplify Black Lives Matter into white cops making racist decisions toward black communities but that’s never been the whole story: the entire system is corrupt and even folks who have the best of intentions can get sucked in. What I appreciate about this show is that unlike more recent cop shows where we’re supposed to sympathize with the dirty cop (see The Shield or 24), everything about the way the scene was done shows that these characters fucked up.

coyoteblue

Managed to watch the first episode of Farscape, "Premiere", on Prime. There's two sets of Farscapes, an old unavailable version, and a new (available) remastered version. When I searched, the older version was the one coming up in the search results. I figured it out.

"Premiere" is still a great hour of television. Farscape pretty much hit the ground running and even though the first half of season one is still a tad rough, it sucks you in real quick. I don't know if the picture is "hi def", but it looked as good or better than my dvds.

lisadoris

The hits keep on coming for Homicide

5.20 “Narcissus” Yaphet Kotto wrote this episode and it seems as though he drew on the Nation of Islam plus Jonestown. A former cop turned Afrocentric activism is caught up in a murder. He orders the murder of a former member who found out that the leader had fathered multiple children with multiple women. Things get complicated when Barnfather shows up at the crime scene before Homicide gets there and when they have a suspect in the box, Gaffney shows up and shuts everything down. Decades ago, our activist took the fall for some dirt the current Deputy Commissioner did which is why the brass is screwing with the investigation (said dirty cop stole drugs from evidence and sold it back to the dealer). When the Commissioner has had enough, he orders SWAT to take everybody out but they beat him to the punch by committing mass suicide. G gets the full story before the bodies drop and negotiates the release of the children. Bayliss is AWOL for the majority of the case. At the beginning of the episode, Stivers goes to Kellerman and Lewis and expresses discomfort over the Mahoney shooting.

5.21 “Partners and Other Strangers” G wrote up what happened in the previous episode and the mayor’s office got involved. Pembleton arrives at the scene of an apparent suicide. Because the body is missing a face, thanks to a shot gun, he looks at the ID and it says Beau Felton. Apparently, Felton left the dept after his suspension to reconcile with his wife and spend time with their kids. Beth hadn’t heard from him in six months. We meet Detective Falsone from Auto who has info about Felton. Falsone was working an international smuggling ring but got taken off the case because there was a snitch in the department. Felton was in business with the target so Falsone thinks Felton was the rat. Cox puts Felton’s skull back together and the case goes from a suicide to a murder. G finds out that Felton was working undercover with our friend Gharty, the cop who let a kid bleed to death because he was scared to go into a housing project. Gharty is in Internal Affairs now so it’s a joint operation to find Felton’s killer. Russert returns to the squad to find Felton’s killer.

5.22 “Strangers and Other Partners`” Things turn into a full-blown red ball and everyone is moving in a different direction. Pembleton tries to control the situation and Howard takes the case but G overrules her. Beth doesn’t want anything to do with Felton so G asks Russert and Howard to plan the funeral. Pembleton has to work with Gharty and he confronts him about his past. Gharty says when he joined IAD, he had to confront dealers and got his butt whooped. He realized the beating was nothing compared to the fear of the beating. Turns out Falsone and Gharty had the same snitch and said snitch sold Felton out. Pembleton hands the collar over the Howard and Russert but the suspect is gone. The episode snagged the mayor of Baltimore and the Governor of Maryland for cameos retiring Felton’s shield. The good news of the episode is that Mary is six months pregnant and she reconciles with Pembleton. The episode ends with a new policy: rotation, every three months, detectives rotate from one unit to another. That’s code for cast change.

6.1 “Blood Ties Pt 1” Pembleton and Bayliss are back after a three-month rotation and there’s a few flavors of the month. Ballard and Gharty solved some super crime that got the entire unit commendations. Falsone joined the squad too but Howard and Russert are gone. Brodie’s documentary won an Emmy and he moved to Los Angeles. Lewis returns and doesn’t want to partner with Kellerman anymore. While Lewis and Falsone are returning from dinner, someone on a motorcycle shoots into their car. They’ll called to a scene where a bullet missed Stivers. It will take a minute before folks realize the shootings are connected. Next day, someone shoots at Munch and Kellerman and the latter takes one in the arm. To his credit Falsone immediately knows that something is wrong with the Mahoney shooting. It also turns out that Junior Bunk is the one who’s been using cops for target practice at the behest of his mom. Georgia Ray is picked up at the airport and gives Kellerman a deserved knee to the groin. Proposition Joe (our third actor from The Wire) gave up Junior Bunk. G is at a dinner honoring a philanthropist Felix Wilson played by the wonderful James Earl Jones. Imagine G’s surprise when Pembleton interrupts the dinner because there’s a dead woman in the men’s room. There were more surprises when it turns out that the dead woman works for Wilson. His wife, Regina, is played by the lovely Lynne Thigpen and their son, Hal, is played by Jeffrey Wright.

6.2 “Blood Ties Pt 2” Pembleton and G continue to treat the Wilson family with kid gloves due to their money and status within the black community. Ballard wants to question them but she’s not the primary so she gets nowhere. Ballard and Gharty bemoan the racial politics involved in the case which I think is both true and humorous. Does anyone think that Gharty lets a white kid in the suburbs bleed to death 1 ½ ago? Please. Pembleton discusses the issue with Bayliss and he says it isn’t about race. To an extent he’s correct: it’s about money and politics. Somebody leaks details of the case to the press and Pembleton goes ape shit. Felix Wilson admits he had consensual sex and he sends in a whole team of lawyers to basically tell the squad f**k you. Munch and Kellerman investigate the murder of a Yankee fan at Camden Yards.

6.3 “Blood Ties Pt 3” Prop Joe and his wife get bullets in the head because he snitched about Junior Bunk and Georgia Ray Mahoney. The twist is that it was a dirty cop on the Mahoney payroll that pulled the trigger. Lewis has the nerve to be mad about a cop killing somebody. In storyline A, it turns out that Hal was jonesing for the victim and got pissed that she chose his father. Felix makes Hal tell Pembleton what happened but the statement is inadmissible. The whole family packs up and moves to San Diego.

6.7 “The Subway” A truly brilliant, depressing, and terrifying episode. A man is pushed in front of a subway train and he lives but only as long as he remains pinned by the train. Pembleton and Bayliss are called to the scene to get as much info as they can before the victim expires. Vincent D’Onofrio is our doomed victim John Lange and he’s pissed and surly and lashing out at everyone and that’s before it sinks in that he’s going to die. D’Onofrio was nominated for an Emmy for his performance. Even though they filmed it in an MTA station, it’s basically a bottle show since the action primarily takes place in the station. It’s all about the interaction between Pembleton and Lange and the two share information with each other that they would never share with someone they actually knew. I love that they didn’t make Lange this sad-sack, likable character and they kept Pembleton the same curmudgeon that he always is. It could have been a cliché, sentimental episode but it wasn’t and that made it excellent.

BobO'Link

I watched a few animated movies with my 8 year old granddaughter yesterday (it's Spring Break week, she had her tonsils out last Friday, and I took off to hang around the house to play games and watch movies with her).

We watched Despicable Me 3, another fun movie in the franchise. While they suffer from a certain sameness they're still quite fun and I frequently get a laugh.

We then watched The Croods, one I didn't much care for the first time out. It was a bit better on this repeat viewing but still nothing special and not one I'd select.

We ended with Free Birds, one I'd seen in the theater with her brother the year it came out as part of his birthday presents. I liked it better now than then but, like The Croods, it's nothing really special although I did get a few laughs out of it this time.

I finished the day with a few "adult" titles: Live and Let Die, the first Roger Moore Bond movie. I originally saw this one in the theater when it was released. It has a bit more humor than I generally like in a Bond movie but the action sequences more than make up for that.

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me - not as good as the first but not too bad. The introduction of "Fat Bastard," a thoroughly disgusting figure, reduces my enjoyment of this movie immensely. At least the involvement of that character is much less than in the 3rd movie. It is part of a 3 movie BR set (upgrade from the DVD). Repeat viewings of this one are pretty rare with this one due to the new BR set.

Finally, the absolutely worst movie in the Austin Powers franchise, Austin Powers in Goldmember. I disliked "Fat Bastard" in the prior movie. I had zero use for him in this one. I watched it only because it was part of that 3-pack. I don't like it any better now than when I first saw it.

lisadoris

More fun and excitement with the Homicide unit:

6.5 “Baby It’s You Pt 2” The second full Law & Order crossover. A fourteen-year-old model dies of toxic shock after being sexually assaulted in Baltimore. As with the previous crossover, there’s a huge fight for jurisdiction when daddy is arrested for the crime. The judge splits the case down the middle: B-More keeps the case but Jack McCoy is co-counsel. Seems like a reasonable compromise. Daddy takes the stand and produces an alibi and it turns out mommy dearest did the deed. Ugh. We learn that Falsone has a 3-year-old son but his ex-wife has sole custody. She calls during the investigation and he doesn’t return the call until the next day: the kid had a fever, so she took him to the hospital. She was rightfully pissed that he wanted so long to return the call. Near the end up the episode Falsone asks McCoy about seeking joint custody.

6.4 “Birthday” Women was sexually assaulted and left for dead at the scene. The paramedics weren’t sure the victim would life so he called homicide and sex crimes. She lives but doesn’t remember anything about what happened. Stivers is now in sex crimes so she gets to work the case with Falsone and Lewis. They get a suspect and the victim dies. Georgia Rae makes bail and calls Kellerman to tell him that Luther has surveillance cameras in his house. The pushes Kellerman off the wagon as he’s pondering what Georgia Rae will do with the tapes. Mary is super-overdue and then is rushed to the hospital for an emergency c-section. They have Frank Jr.

6.6 “Saigon Rose” A Vietnamese family of four are killed in their restaurant along with an off-duty cop. Two teenage children heard the whole thing and dropped a dime on the cop’s partner, Perry. There was bad blood between the family and Perry. Turns out Perry was a bad cop who shouldn’t have been on the force in the first place; she pulled some political strings. Nothing about her story checks out so they trip her up repeatedly and easily. Her accomplice gives her up for the restaurant and the murder of her own father (who is buried in his own basement). We meet the new bartender, Billie Lou. Falsone tells Bayliss that the Mahoney shooting didn’t go down as reported and that the whole thing is about to bite everyone in the ass. Truer words.

6.8 “All is Bright” Dude gets clocked by liquid detergent in a laundry mat and gets bleach poured down his throat for good measure. This episode is so freaking dated. Gharty doesn’t know that being HIV+ isn’t the same as having AIDS. When the detectives tell her about her son’s HIV+ status, the first thing she says in that her son wasn’t a homosexual. Kathryn Erbe plays the girlfriend the victim infected which gives her a really decent motive to kill him. We had two future stars of L&O: Criminal Intent. Falsone freaks out because Gharty is going in the same room as someone who has AIDS. Lewis turns out to be the voice of reason, who knew. Munch’s ex-wife Gwen turns up because her mother died. Gwen, played by Carol Kane, wants help planning the funeral. Munch gets his brother to offer the family discount, but he also throws Lenny Briscoe in her face and she is pissed. Though mom was a famous literary critic, the only person that shows up is Peter Maas, who plays himself. Kellerman tells Lewis about Georgia Rae’s video. Cox and Bayliss share a holiday kiss much to Lewis’ surprise. I always thought Forbes had better chemistry with Secor than Diamond but given where Kellerman’s story was going, we needed that window into his psyche.

BobO'Link

I watched an episode of a failed 1977 winter replacement SF series I recently heard of and found on youtube: The Fantastic Journey. Based solely on that single episode (#6 - "An Act of Love") I understand why it failed. It was horribly produced, poorly directed, awfully written, cheap looking sets, with acting by most participants that just barely made the grade. The principals in the show did a fairly good job with the hack of a script but the extras needed for the episode were mostly lacking. Of course they weren't helped by the script, one of those types that gives SF/Fantasy TV series a bad name.

I looked up the story writer to find he'd done only one other SF script, also from a failed series that same season (in fact the one that allowed this turkey on the air). As he has lots of other credits I have to assume he just had no idea what to do for a SF series - it shows. His story for that other SF series, Gemini Man sounds like a rather generic boxing script. Understandable as, based on the premise, that other series just barely qualifies as SF.

lisadoris

Yesterday's Homicide viewings:

6.9 “Closet Cases” Bayliss and Cox have been spending a ton of time together and it’s clear that they can’t sustain a relationship. Peter Gallagher is a restaurant owner who discovers a body in his dumpster. He is clearly flirting with Bayliss and when Pembleton brings it up to congratulate him on his growth as a human being, Bayliss missed the flirting and doesn’t remember that he was a bit of a homophobe early in the series. The LGBTQ community is protesting outside the squad as this is the second murder in as many months thought they’re not connected. Turns out the killer had a warrant out on him in CA but because they wouldn’t pay to extradite, he had time to kill our victim. What a mess. The suspect turns the table and suggests that Bayliss is attracted to him. Bayliss accepts a dinner invite from the restaurant owner. The episode doesn’t have the language to have Bayliss say he is bisexual. Kellerman promises to tell Stivers about the tape, but he doesn’t, so Lewis drops a dime. Stivers wants to go to G but Kellerman vetoes that in favor of talking to Georgia Rae. She sends him a message saying there is no tape but because of his reaction, she knows the shooting was dirty. She vows to avenge her brother’s death: truer words.

6.10 “Sins of the Father” Now it’s Pembleton who is shook about Bayliss’ love life. After going out with the restaurant owner, he’s flirting with Ballard over breakfast. Bayliss reminds Pembleton of the lecture he gave him in “A Many Splendored Thing” about embracing all aspects of himself. Bayliss says he’s just trying to figure himself out. Lewis and Falsone investigate a white dude who was tied up and hung, suicide style. The victim’s house looks like a Confederate museum complete with flags, pictures, and memorabilia. Falsone is mad that Lewis is shook by that which seems like the dumbest thing I’ve heard Falsone say so far. Cox shows us that the victim was also whipped – we have many of the elements of a lynching. Turns out, the victim’s great grandmother was a bounty hunter who sold free blacks into slavery. The suspect’s great grandfather was one of her victims. Vendetta.

6.11 “Shaggy Dog, City Goat” We learn that Gharty has all sorts of colorful terms for white folks from Appalachia. Glad to know his distain isn’t solely reserved for poor black folks in the city. Cox retells a real-world urban legend about a guy who jumps off the roof of a building only to be shot on his way down to the pavement. Is it suicide or murder? While Stivers is helping Ballard ID their victim, she is served: Georgia Rae is suing her for a crapload of money. When Lewis gets is summons, he overreacts, goes to see Georgia Rae, and fisticuffs ensue. He gets suspended for his clear lack of judgement. Kyle Secor directed this rather lackluster episode.

6.12 “Something Sacred Pt 1” A priest is murdered in a rectory and Gharty refuses to believe that there could be any abuse involved. In hindsight, his unwillingness to believe it smacks of completely stupidity. There were two refugees living in the rectory, so everyone is looking for them. Michael Pena plays one of the suspects. Stivers rotates into homicide and Kellerman makes her feel unwelcome. The Catholic Church goes all out to get the boys released and of course, they jump bail and a second priest is murdered.

6.13 “Something Sacred Pt 2” The red ball is still rolling and Lewis resurfaces to ask Falsone to run background checks on some random folks. The refugees resurface but maintain their innocence. They find someone who has information but won’t snitch. They lock him in the morgue, they try everything to get him to talk and finally they let him see the Bay and he is reformed. The refugees are deported because they jumped bail. Kellerman continues his self-destruction by getting super wasted, throwing his car keys in the water when Bayliss and Cox try to keep him from driving, and then pulling his gun on a random black man who was minding his own business, handcuffing him, and beating his ass. Kellerman hallucinates that the random dude is Luther Mahoney.

6.14 “Lies and Other Truths” This episode begins the bad idea of a relationship between Ballard and Falsone. A road rage incident ends with two dead bodies and one paralyzed woman. Widow sues and the city wants Cox to say that her husband was drunk. His level was below the legal limit and Cox won’t lie. She leaks the story to the press and is fired. That was a sudden and rather unceremonious exit. A wanna be spy is buried alive as some sort of initiation. One of the suspects enters the squad room with an explosive vest. He claims his mind has been trained to withstand all interrogation techniques but he cracks like an egg in two seconds.

Greg MacGuffin

Watched Miracle Mile which I hadn't seen in a few years and it holds up beautifully. I was reading that it was initially supposed to be a stand-alone Twilight Zone movie but was abandoned when they decided to go with the anthology format. Despite its apocalyptic overtones it manages to be a very "fun" movie with a great Tangerine Dream score (which I ended up ordering from Amazon after I finished the movie).

Also went to see Triple Threat which was fine. Kind of an all-star cast of international action heroes. Some cool fight scenes but nothing really made it stand out to me as anything more than an average action flick.

House of Bamboo - pretty cool noir from 1955 directed by Samuel Fuller. I had seen it years ago but the Twilight Time Blu-Ray looks great compared to the old DVD.


Watched Ip Man 3 last night which I ended up enjoying quite a bit despite the lukewarm reviews it received.

Also watched Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, which again, don't think I had seen since the DVD came out, so like 15 years? Not as good as I remember, although Sam Rockwell is great in it. It's kind of messy and all over the place but still enjoyable.

lisadoris

The crap hits the fan on Homicide

6.15 “Pit Bull Sessions” Paul Giamatti plays a man whose pit bulls mauled his grandfather to death. Pembleton believes it was an accident and Falsone believes it was murder. They split the difference and ended up with depraved indifference for him leaving the dogs unsupervised. Over at The Waterfront, several detectives reminisce over their dumbest suspects. Georgia Rae’s case is held over for a jury trial and Kellerman, who can’t stop digging the hole he’s in, tries to see the judge. The assistant stops him in his tracks.

6.16 “Mercy” I love this episode. The A-story involves a doctor Pembleton suspects of euthanizing her patients. The doctor in question is played by the wonderful Alfre Woodward who was nominated for an Emmy for her performance. The scene with Pembleton and Dr. Turner in the box going at each other was brilliant. Usually, when Pembleton goes into the box, the audience is rooting for him; but in this case, there is no easy answer IMHO. Bayliss doesn’t even go in with him because he doesn’t think the doctor has done anything wrong. Kellerman confronts the judge and insinuates that he is correct. I think it’s laughable that NOW Kellerman is concerned about corruption. Stivers and Falsone investigate the death of a child and G gives them a long talk about how child murders will haunt them forever regardless of if the case is ever closed. They dismiss his warnings at first but even after they close the case, they both admit that the case will
stay with them.

6.17 “Abduction” Child is abducted from a merry-go-round – red ball. Falsone is projecting about the safety of his own children. They put the parents on TV and it’s heartbreaking but only succeeds in attracting idiots who want to be famous. A TV host in the vein of America’s Most Wanted offers to help and recommends a hypnotist when a young witness can’t remember details. Falsone puts his foot in his mouth before realizing that the host’s daughter was abducted ten years ago and just wants to help. They find the kid alive and in the hands with a mentally ill woman who wanted a child.

6.18 “Full Court Press” Munch and Gharty work the murder of a high school basketball phenom who was a bully. The entire school protected him so the person he picked on found another way to make it stop. Meanwhile Kellerman continues to be an ass while investigating a dude who got capped on his birthday. Seriously, he has someone take a picture of him with the body. Mad disrespectful. Kellerman still doesn’t care about the case even when Ballard mentions that the victim works for Georgia Rae and that it’s the fifth high-level member of her crew to go down in a short period of time (the number jumps to 10 by the end of the episode). In a nice bit of editing by Clark Johnson, we move from that conversation to a still suspended Lewis in his car scoping out a drug corner. Could he be our shooter? G makes it clear to Kellerman that he has to work the cases diligently. Falsone has been feeding Lewis info and now has questions about how Lewis is using that info. A suspect that Pembleton and Bayliss are looking for turns into our fifth actor from The Wire to grace our presence. The lovely, late Reg. E. Kelly plays the suspect who gets a James brown soundtrack whenever he’s on screen. Turns out he’s not the suspect they’re looking for, but he does have a crap ton of drugs in the trunk of his car. Barnfather spins it as an exhaustive investigation resulting in the largest drug seizure in B-More history – there are commendations, but G is still pissed about the red under their names. That man has a hilarious, one-track mind.

6.19 “Strangled, Not Stirred” Stivers, Falsone, and Kellerman get anonymous tips on their Mahoney murders. It’s full of info and that feels more Lewis’ style – he admits as much. G tells him that his days of moonlighting as Batman are over if he ever wants back into homicide. Ballard and Gharty investigate a strangulation. We get to see the perpetrators in action and it’s a case of the couple that kills together, stays together. They pick up a woman in a bar, hit her with a taser, and strangle her. Ballard ends up with two “Saturday Night Hons” on the board. Wife turns in the hubby with the murder weapon. Hubby says they did it together and that there are two more bodies in other states. Ballard originally believes the wife’s white woman tears but they trip her up and she owns up to it all.

6.20 “Secrets” This one was written by Mr. Kotto, his second writing credit. Disciplinary Board rules on Lewis and basically give him a slap on the wrist. Two prominent business folks commit suicide and they were both being blackmailed. One of their fellow country club members set up the operation to clean up the club and he did it to eight other members. Shortly after Pembleton and Bayliss leave, the so-called blackmailer is murdered. Judge Gibbons dismisses Georgia Rae’s lawsuit now that the feds are onto him. Even though Kellerman was sworn to secrecy about the fed’s investigation, he literally yells it at the judge in the middle of the courthouse. Bayliss comes out as bi to Ballard.

6.21 “Finnegan’s Wake” Steve Buscemi directed this episode; I guess they enjoyed his visit from a few seasons ago. Bayliss is having nightmares about the Adena Watson case and when an elderly gentleman comes in saying his father killed someone in 1932, he dismisses it. Turns out the Clara Slone case is the oldest unsolved murder in the dept – young girl raped and murdered so definitely not a case Bayliss should be anywhere near. Turns out everyone else had heard about the case but because of Adena Watson, nobody had the heart to tell him about it. G hand it over to Falsone. A retired detective Finnegan, played by Charles Durning, absconded with the case file years ago so Falsone has to pay him a visit. Finnegan insists on inserting himself into the investigation. He transfixes most of the squad but his racism and misogyny doesn’t impress some of the other squad members. He tells tales of planting evidence, shooting unarmed people, dumb spooks, etc. The man of his times argument doesn’t hold water. They close the case.

6.22 “Fallen Heroes Pt 1” Pembletin and Bayliss contemplate whether they would allow a writer to follow them around and write a book about them: Bayliss is reading “The Corner” by David Simon and Ed Burns. Judge Gibbons is stabbed to death outside the courthouse in broad daylight – Red Ball. Hmm, I wonder if Kellerman yelling at him to turn in Georgia Rae had anything to do with his murder. One of the feds tells Bayliss about Kellerman’s run-in with the judge and when Bayliss confronts him, of course, Kellerman blames everyone but himself. He even lies about confronting the judge. Turns out our friend Junior Bunk is the suspect. He’s supposed to be in jail for the crimes he committed at the beginning of the season. Our recently departed judge granted Junior early parole a decision Lewis bets the judge would like to take back. The last time we saw Junior he was a trifling cry-baby but six months in jail presents us with the new and improved hard-core Junior Bunk. Mekhi Phifer plays Bunk as an entirely different character. And it all comes to a head: while sitting in the squad room waiting to be booked, he grabs a gun and shoots up the place. He kills three officers and hits Gharty (chest) and Ballard (ankle) before getting lit up by G, Bayliss, Lewis, and Kellerman. Munch is at The Waterfront flirting with Billie Lou when the lights and sirens grab his attention. G rallies the troops for war with the Mahoney organization. Holy shit!

6.23 “Fallen Heroes Pt 2” Kathryn Bigelow directed both parts of this story. We pick up where we left off with everybody getting arrested. Bayliss beats on a suspect and Stivers finally goes to G about Luther Mahoney’s shooting. They find Georgia Rae having been capped by her own crew. The two suspects try to flee, Pembleton and Bayliss give chase, Pembleton freezes and Bayliss steps in front of him to take the bullet in the back. When they wheel Bayliss into surgery, G tells Pembleton to go find answers about Luther Mahoney. They start with Lewis who originally lawyers up but he quickly decides to get right but he does so without giving Kellerman up. Kellerman sticks to his story for about ten minutes before he accidently lets it drop that the gun wasn’t aiming a weapon at anyone. Pembleton asks for his badge but won’t even look at him and Kellerman falls on his sword. Kellerman asks Lewis to give him his gun but Lewis walks away. Pembleton wants to nail Kellerman for manslaughter and Lewis and Stivers for filing a false report. G wants Kellerman gone so he offers to quit but G doesn’t want to charge Lewis or Stivers. Pembleton won’t be part of the cover-up and he’s mad at himself over Bayliss so he turns in his badge.

lisadoris

Welcome to Homicide Giancarlo Esposito! You are awesome but the show just isn't the same without Andre Braugher

7.1 “La Familia” G’s cousin and two other men are murdered and dismembered in their homes. G’s son Mike, played by the wonderful Giancarlo Esposito, comes home for the funeral. He helps crack the case involving a long-standing family feud, and despite the icy relationship he has with G, he might ask the Bureau for a transfer back home. Rene Sheppard joins the cast as Lewis’ partner and everyone is falling all over themselves to ask her out because she’s a former beauty queen. Bayliss is getting in touch with his spiritual side. Plus, we have another actor from The Wire: Delany Williams. We get some nice background info on G.

7.2 “Brotherly Love” Lewis and Sheppard investigate the murder of an identical twin and it looks like the brother did it. There was way too much jealousy going on in that relationship. Ballard and Gharty investigate a murder that actually happened in DC and the witness is several fries short of a happy meal. Gharty wants to by a motorcycle and he left his wife. Mike’s transfer is approved, and he is the new liason between the FBI and B-More PD.

7.3 “Just an Old-Fashioned Love Song” Ballard and Mike investigate the shooting of a famous sports doctor. He claims he shot and killed an intruder who shot him, but it turns out that the dead woman was his sister-in-law. Nothing about this case makes sense until the end -the wife and the sister-in-law conspired to kill hubby. The twist and turns give the audience a chance to get to know Mike. Munch is getting his wages garnished by the IRS: he owes $30K in back taxes, yikes!

7.4 “The Twenty Percent Solution” A famous writer is reported murdered by his wife but there is no body and no evidence of foul play. Ballard and Gharty believe they man just ran off with his mistress. When the mistress shows up and reporters the same man missing, we back into a red ball. They finally find a crime scene and more than a few people who had motive to kill the author. The writer apparently stole some of his story points from a former CIA paper pusher who was a wee bit pissed and conspired with the writer’s agent. Danvers has his work cut out for him without a body or a murder weapon. The defense doesn’t put on a case and argues that there has been no murder. Jury convicts in twelve minutes based on the fact that when the defense attorney said the writer was going to walk through the door except the defendants. Leave it to the little old lady to get it right. Clark Johnson directed this who done-it.

7.5 “Red, Red Wine” The new ME has three flu deaths with hair loss and he suspects poisoning. Turns out he was right, and there were at least three other bodies on the deck. It’s being flagged as domestic terrorism, so Mike is in charge. He doesn’t want any press, removes Bayliss as primary, and saddles each detective team with a FBI babysitter. Way to win friends and influence people. G wants to warn the public but Mike and the FBI don’t want to cause a panic. G goes behind Mike’s back and talks to a reporter. That leads to a lovely confrontation and though Mike didn’t want to admit it, the news story helped find five poisoned bottles of wine which saved lives. Bayliss’ righteous indignation rant in the box makes him realize that meditation and Buddhism has not changed him a lick.

7.6 “Wanted Dead or Alive Pt 1” Three bounty hunters take a house and accidently kill the wrong guy. In another unforeseen Law & Order universe oops, Chris Meloni plays one of the bounty hunters. His character makes the big mistake of testing G. They charge the shooter and in an irony of ironies, the bounty hunter jumps bail. The original fugitive leads everyone on a high-speed chase that end in a series car accident involving an elderly couple. They had lights and sirens, so the pedestrian Mike served to miss shouldn’t have been in the street and the elderly couple should have pulled over. Gharty and Munch get into a war of words over Vietnam when the former gets drunk and talks about his service. Gaffney asks Mike to spy on his dad which is a total bitch move.

7.7 “Wanted Dead or Alive Pt 2” We pick up right where we left off: Lewis went through the windshield and is being carted off to the hospital. The Fire Department has to use the jaws of life to get to the passenger. Mike, Bayliss and Meloni’s character head to Miami to find the fugitive. They catch the fugitive and charge him with manslaughter for the car crash. Meloni collects his bounty and gives Mike a cut which he gives to the hubby who is suing the holy hell out of the dept and the Bureau.

BobO'Link

I watched another episode of that failed 1977 winter replacement SF series: The Fantastic Journey. This time the "pilot" episode. It was much better than that prior episode I watched. That makes me wonder just what happened with episode 5 - so I'll be watching a few more to see if that horrible one was a "one-off" or if it truly fell that quickly into tedium.

lisadoris

Oh joy, Kellerman is back on Homicide

7.8 “Kellerman, P.I. Pt 1” Jena Malone is our guest star as a teenage girl who gives birth in secret and her baby ends up dead. Falsone and Stivers go back and forth trying to figure out if the mom or the dead is responsible for the baby’s death. To make life more interesting, our old friend Kellerman is back as a P.I. working the case. To say that the squad has some acrimonious feelings toward Kellerman is putting it mildly. When Danvers indicts both of them, Malone’s character drops the dime on her boyfriend to get a better deal.

7.9 “Kellerman P.I. Pt 2” Falsone figures out that the mom is lying in the case but can’t prove it. Sheppard and Mike want to know what went down with Kellerman and nobody will say nothing. The boyfriend kills himself and Kellerman figures out that Falsone was right about the father. Even though Kellerman provides evidence that the mom played him, there’s nothing Danvers can charge her with since they can’t prove she lied. This whole episode is evidence of how the system works for people with money and resources and screws poor folks.

7.10 “Shades of Gray” A white bus driver runs over a pregnant black woman while yelling at an actor from The Wire (Corey Robinson). An uprising ensues, and two bodies hit the deck. The bus driver who ended up dead had a history of ill will with the community. Lewis and Sheppard find a button that’s standard police issue near one of the bodies. Turns out it’s our friend Hellrigel from “Black and Blue” and G certainly remembers him. I’ve seen this episode a bunch of times and never made the connection before now. Score one for binge watching and note taking. The victim had an open complaint against Hellrigel. While looking for a witness, Sheppard gets a beatdown and gets her gun snatched. To her credit, she got the beatdown because she was literally holding on to the suspect’s leg and wouldn’t let go. The episode deals with a lot of interracial and intraracial issues. Seriously, Gharty and his racial attitudes have got to go. Mike called him on his crap which was a welcome lecture. Lewis’ sexism was just as bad as he blamed Sheppard for what happened (he’s also mad that his lid got shot with her gun).

7.11 “Bones of Contention” Munch and Lewis work a case involving some buried bones. Turns out our bag o bones was part of a crew that robbed a bank robbery in the 1980s. Ballard and Falsone are given an ultimatum by G: break up or someone changes shifts. They break it off kinda, sorta. Sheppard is back and G puts her on desk duty so he can make sure her head is on straight. Though this will be relevant for a later episode, she sends Stivers on a domestic call and Ballard goes with her. When Lewis gets back, he gives his shot-up lid to Sheppard as a warning. That was a jerk move.