stunt_muppet

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Which is weird, you know, because normally it’s everyone else that falls in love with an episode while I sit in the back playing Johnny Raincloud. But whatever.

 

I’m not taking this review in any sort of order, just so you know.

 

So far as I’m concerned, the premiere’s primary case was a huge improvement over Season 5 cases, which is a good sign. We’re back to good, old-fashioned, believable motives – drugs, money, prison – and I really hope we’ll stay there for a while rather than drifting back to the idiot rich killing each other over boyfriends. Despite the son subplot, this case felt refreshingly un-melodramatic.

 

Fine, fine, yes, there was a tiny element of Boyfriend Subplot in there. But it didn’t take over the case. And the people involved in the case weren’t morons. And the entire case went by and no one snapped their gum or uttered an internet acronym. That’s good enough for me.

 

Speaking of subplots…*ahem* Let’s address Kyle Harmon, shall we? Grab a drink; we’ll be here a while.

 

My epic hissyfits over the existence of Horatio’s son are already recorded for posterity here on LJ, so let’s just say that I was less than happy with this plot development when I heard that it was going to happen. It seemed wildly out of character for Horatio, hung up as he is on family, to have completely missed a relative somewhere in there. Not to mention that having a kid he didn’t know about meant one of two things (at least, that was my reasoning at the time): a) acrimonious divorce complete with hate!sex, or b) one night stand. Both of those possibilities also seemed wildly out of character, though with much squinting and looking at his character sideways I managed to come up with justifications for either scenario. But it still felt wrong.

 

As for the scenario they eventually came up with…well, it’s more in-character than hate!sex or a one night stand, I’ll give them that. And, with a little hammering, you can even make it work with the S4 version of Horatio’s backstory, so it’s not like the Pensacola case opened up another massive plot hole. I don’t know about real cops, but TV cops leave their jurisdictions (and sometimes even their states) to pursue suspects or persons of interest all the time. I suppose if he was pursuing someone who had already evaded NYPD, or who was possibly working within an organization, Horatio would have had to adopt an undercover identity. It can work. Really. I swear it can. (Although I’d like to add that the viewers really shouldn’t have to work this hard to make a character’s backstory consistent, TWTB. You need to make sure we know what’s going on so we don’t have to do all this guesswork and hammering. That be your job.)

 

Good news is, I could probably work this into Little Brothers-verse timeline without changing too much. I’m not sure if I’ll do that, because I’m terribly lazy, but I could if I wanted to and that’s a comforting thought.

 

“Was it serious?” “It was for me.” *eyeroll* Of course it was, Horatio; everything is serious for you. Rachel Turner was serious for you and you knew her for like a week. Rebecca Nevins was serious for you (serious enough for you to confess some rather personal fears, at least), and you freaking broke up with her. You’ve got to stop letting this get to you, dude. It’s why you’ve never had a good relationship in your life.

 

Although I have to admit, there’s a dark and secret part of me that finds his attachment to his love interests charming (in a sad sort of way). Considering how often TV men are played as commitment-phobic, I find it entertaining that Horatio’s saddled with the complete opposite problem – he’s practically commitment-philic. That, and it’s just funny to see a male character with the typically female “so when are we getting married?” stereotype.

 

But…you know, despite my initial rage over the prospect of a divorce or a one-night-stand, I honestly think I might have liked those possibilities better in practice. Wait – wait – don’t shoot me yet. Thing is, Horatio’s relationship with Julia Everly is almost too in-character. It’s the easy way to tack on a ‘missing son’ subplot without actually doing anything new with Horatio’s character. It’s too safe. If Kyle was the result of a bitter divorce, or sex with a woman he didn’t know, that would have been at least surprising. More to the point, it would give us a facet of Horatio’s character that we haven’t seen already. It would do something new with him. And then the real challenge would come up – how would we reconcile this new facet of him with the personality we’re already familiar with? What could have happened between him and a theoretical ex-wife that caused them to part on such bad terms? What could have motivated him to sleep with a stranger? It would have been interesting and surprising, and if I thought the writers could pull it off with maturity I would have been happy to see it. In fact, I may be off in a corner writing AU fic about that quite soon.

 

(I swear I’m going to get to the actual kid at some point.)

 

Also of note – he’s presumably telling Yelina the truth this time. (Insert five-minute squee of “Yelina’s back! Does that mean she’s back for good? Please oh please oh PLEASE say yes!” here.) In the wake of Madison Keaton I find that somehow significant. (Insert five-minute “Where the hell is Madison?” rant here.)

 

And a final side note: What an awkward family reunion this is going to be once Kyle is finally invited into the fold. “Kyle, meet Ray Junior, the other juvenile delinquent. You two should get along great.”

 

As for Kyle himself, he was okay. Not nearly as obnoxious and bratty as he could have been. I’ll have to do just a bit more observation before I reach a verdict on him, but his mere presence onscreen does not make me want to set fire to things, which is yet another good sign. He’s hostile and cranky, yeah, and that’s a touch annoying, but why shouldn’t he be? (Cranky, that is. Not annoying.) Although it did puzzle me that he managed to take a woman hostage when he looks to be about ninety-five pounds on a good day. 

 

Ahem. Let’s move on.

 

Well, they’ve managed to tone down Jake’s smugness, which makes me dislike him significantly less. Not that it’s completely gone, of course – he’s got enough left to mouth off to Frank (that’s Sergeant Tripp to you, son) – but it would be weirdly out of character if he all of a sudden became an obedient nice guy. Didn’t hurt that he had on a very attractive vest ensemble and was actually being cute and friendly to Calleigh. I’m forced to admit that I no longer hate the idea of her dating him. Sigh.

 

(Also, why am I the only person in the fandom not to throw cries of “whore!” Calleigh’s way when it was revealed she went to Antigua with Jake? Seriously, people, stop whining just because she’s not sleeping with whoever you want her to sleep with. It’s not my favorite Calleigh ship either, but please.)

 

What I do hate, however, is the emerging love triangle amongst Calleigh, Eric, and Jake. It’s only been around for maybe two episodes and I’m already sick of it. Eric’s random jealousy seems to be coming out of nowhere; it feels tacked on for the sake of cheap drama that nobody needs. He wasn’t this possessive of Calleigh before, and while I can blame some of that on his head trauma and subsequent re-evaluation of his life or whatever, I refuse to accept that a shot to the head has the ability to magically turn a normal, functioning adult into a bitchy high schooler. Drop the envy, Eric. It doesn’t look good on you.

 

…And Ryan, Natalia, Alexx, and Frank were all in this episode for a grand total of five minutes. Not surprising; premieres are usually focused around Horatio, Calleigh, and Eric – seniority or some damn thing. Still, I hope this isn’t setting up a trend for the rest of the season. I’m glad we got an explanation of where Ryan’s been all this time, but his involvement in the case seemed really random, like he was only there so that the audience could figure out where he’d been. Better than making him an actual suspect, though, because goodness knows the man doesn’t need to be in any more trouble.

 

What was Natalia saying about not taking her firearms training at the lab? I missed a line there. It seems like yet another contrivance to re-introduce Ryan, but I have to admit that their line at the end was cute. “Don’t tell anybody how bad I am.” “Don’t tell anybody I work here.” “Deal.” “Deal.” Hee.

 

Although I’m having a hard time believing that there’s really that much misogyny alive and well at the MDPD Crime Lab. I don’t think Calleigh the firearms goddess would take too well to that.

 

With regards to next week’s promos: It would be really, really cool if we got the Horatio injury we were jilted out of in the S5 finale here, but I know that’s never going to happen now. However, the case has the potential to be interesting. Maybe. If everyone involved is moderately intelligent. I’m not sure if a decent premiere is enough to get my hopes up.

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I had forgotten just how much I missed this show over the summer. Seriously. I had forgotten how it makes me laugh and cry (almost) and completely forget my Calculus homework (not good). And maybe it was the absence of Duckling Drama (though I have to admit I do miss my ducklings…kind of), maybe it was the lack of heavy-handed House Soul-Searching, I don’t know, but House was on top form today. I very much enjoyed this episode.

 

Easily the best part of the episode? Wilson abducting House’s guitar, and then issuing ransom demands via a voice-masking phone call. And then House upping the ante by abducting one of Wilson’s patients. Mad genius, and proof that House and Wilson are still easily the best part of this show. Wilson’s obviously fake cluelessness, and his insistence that House not delete his TiVo’ed telenovelas, made my evening.

 

Lines that made me scream with laughter: “Have you ever tightened a guitar string by hand? Past the point where it can handle the strain? It makes this strange noise…almost like a scream. *makes squeaking noises*” Wilson, you’re so diabolical today! Where did this come from? Wherever it came from, don’t get rid of it, because I LOVE it.

 

Other Line that made me scream with laughter: “Could be lupus.” Snerk. Clearly, the janitor has been paying attention. Can we keep him, please? I like him better than any of the new duckling potentials thus far.

 

Cuddy is still her fabulous, work-inappropriate self. The dynamic between her and House hasn’t changed in between seasons, and I still love watching them play off each other. Best Cuddy moment of the episode? Yelling “Stop enabling him!” over the megaphone. I wonder if it actually lists “Dr. House’s Handler” in her job description.

 

Case? Good case. Surprising case. Sad case. Very sad case, actually. And although I didn’t realize it until Cuddy pointed it out, it did serve to illustrate that, brilliant though House is, he does need someone to counterbalance his wilder ideas. And the identity of the patient? Didn’t see that coming, and the fact that they could have prevented all of the patient’s suffering by checking her records again just made the whole thing more tragic. Call me sadistic, but I like that every so often a case ends very badly. Makes it all a little more real.

 

I am not thrilled about the potential ducklings thus far, since both of them look like Cameron version 2.0 and, while I could handle one Cameron in manageable doses, two is way more than I can take. But we’ve yet to see anyone else of interest, so I’m reserving judgment for now.

With regard to next week’s promos: See, see, I knew the Original Ducklings weren’t gone. And I really don’t think House is hallucinating them, seeing as it took actual ketamine for him to start having really bizarre hallucinations last time. Of course, the news that he may be developing an alcohol problem in addition to his Vicodin problem does not bode well for our dear doctor.

 

Patient next week looks interesting, but then there are very few House cases that I’ve actually disliked, so…yeah. Should go well, provided the Neo-ducklings aren’t too annoying.

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It’s time to play the “Which TOS episode does this SVU eerily resemble?” Game! You remember last season, how “Sin” was basically just an SVU take on TOS’ “Church”? Well, here we have TOS Season 13’s “Shangri-La”, tweaked and transported to an SVU-appropriate context. You’d think this would make me happy, since “Shangri-La” is my favorite TOS episode ever, but…there were a few too many things that bothered me about this episode.

 

Let’s start from the top, shall we?

 

 

- Gratuitous Stabler Semi-Nudity and Munch in his dress blues. Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em, ladies.

 

-Cragen isn’t permanently gone. This is good. I was worried when I heard the rumors he was getting reassigned. And frankly, if Munch was made the new department Sergeant, he would have had even less screentime per episode, and I’m not sure I could deal with that. 

 

-On that note, Munch and Fin had things to do in this episode! Well, Munch did, anyway. Fin was on screen and occasionally spoke, but he did little of any significance. Also, I have to take issue with Fin telling Lake about Munch getting shot this early in Lake’s tenure. That’s rather nasty of you, Fin.

 

Or maybe telling stories about embarrassing gunshot wounds is some weird male bonding ritual that I just don’t get. I dunno. I’m staying out of it.

 

-Well, lookee there. A shiny new credit sequence with shiny new photos. Diane’s hair looks tres pretty.

 

- Lake is mildly less annoying than he was when he first showed up. Mildly. But that might just be because he didn’t do much. And I still have my requisite hostility toward him, but not enough to bother putting it under “the bad”.

 

-Munch’s reluctant tenure as the Sergeant was good for quite a few laughs, especially the disaster of a press conference. Poor man looked so awkward.

 

-I am greatly relieved that Kathy had enough sense to trust her husband over the knife-wielding Dory. I was worried we’d manage to shoehorn some cheap disagreement in there.

 

 

 

-Considering how deeply disturbed the perp was, I have a hard time believing that Casey would refuse to accept a Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity defense. If she suspected that she was faking, I would have appreciated hearing about it. As it is, it seems odd that she’d go ahead with the charges against someone who was clearly and demonstrably unstable.

 

-Wasn’t as compelled by this case as I should have been. I knew already from the preview that the perp had Dissociative Identity Disorder, so really, there wasn’t that much suspense to it. We just got to sit back and watch everything unravel.

 

 

 

 

-Every time Tammy or Dory showed up I wanted to scream. Loud. Well, Tammy not so much; her voice was grating, but at least I could accept that an adult adopting an infantile persona might sound like that. But Dory? Ugh. Fantastic. One of her alters is a bratty teenager drooling over Elliot. FanfrickingTASTIC.

 

TPTB, I am in fact possessed of a pair of functioning eyes. I can observe for myself that Chris Meloni is a fine specimen of a man. I really don’t need you to remind me all the time.

 

-Shut up, Maureen. You wouldn’t have to do community service if you hadn’t been drinking and driving, now would you? And while I happen to agree with you over the impropriety of Kathy being pregnant, that doesn’t mean it’s any of your damn business. Please just accept the fact that you don’t have a say in your parents’ sex lives and child-rearing decisions.

 

Didn’t catch the trailers for next week, so no next-episode thoughts today.

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Especially when Mac started getting those late-night phone calls…yeah.

 

Anyway, my doubts heading into this episode are well-recorded, and I really didn’t expect much of “Can You Hear Me Now?” at first, especially once I learned that there was going to be a musical guest star. Now, I can’t STAND musical guest stars. Ever. At all. (Oddly enough, the exceptions to this rule are a handful of hip-hop stars, like Ludacris and Snoop Dogg, especially since Chris Bridges can actually act. But I digress.) So that didn’t bode well for the premiere.

 

Imagine my pleasant surprise to discover that this episode was not only enjoyable but actually quite good – indeed, with the exception of “Snow Day”, it was better than CSI: NY’s been in a long time. It had its flaws, of course, including some rather major ones, but a solid case that managed to be believable in spite of some extravagant set pieces and decent writing all around more than made up for it.

 

Of course, like the rest of the fandom, before I do anything else I must register my intense displeasure at the new, remixed credits music. Dear CBS: “Baba O’Reilly” is one of the most beloved and instantly recognizable rock tunes for a very good reason. Please to be not screwing with it.

 

What most impressed me about the premiere was how good the case was this week. The characters may be what I love about NY, but it’s still a procedural and procedurals live and die by their cases. Now, the blood on the Statue of Liberty seemed wildly implausible at first, but as the case progressed and it became clear that the killer wanted the police’s attention, that started to make more and more sense. The motives were believable, the deaths shocking, the perp convincing if a bit predictable (I picked him out fairly quickly). Not to mention this case featured some deeply creepy set pieces. That Viewfinder? Shiver.

 

As for the character moments, they varied. I thought Mac and Stella’s interactions were quite strong this week. Stella is still the most in tune with Mac out of anyone on the team – she’s the one who realizes that Mac’s frazzled demeanor is something more than jet lag. I love that it’s her who picks up on it, too; it highlights their closeness and just how well she can read him by now. Stella certainly kicks ass in her own right this week, too – she’s cool under pressure once she realizes that Landlord is responsible for the murders. I was worried for a moment there that we’d somehow manage to work an “All Access” moment in there, with Stella hesitating or missing the shot or something, but thankfully we avoided that.

 

Um. About that. Continuity, that is (because we can totally segue from “All Access” references to general continuity. Totally). Would it have killed you, writers, to have acknowledged that “Snow Day” happened? I mean, obviously, Mac stayed in London longer then the ten anticipated days, but even so, it would have taken a substantial amount of time for Danny’s hand and Adam’s burns to heal – not to mention for the lab to be rebuilt. And even if Danny’s hand’s healed up enough that he no longer needs bandages, I highly doubt that they’re going to give the job of rappelling down the Statue of Liberty to someone with a recent injury. And that’s such a simple problem to fix – ideally, Danny would be on desk duty, but even if you’re not going to go that far, you could at least have Hawkes gathering the evidence.

 

Speaking of Adam, his interactions with Kendall the New Girl have the potential to be sort of cute – if such scenes are used very, very sparingly, because even in this episode they bordered on annoying. The scene in the morning was okay, mostly because Adam dragging Kendall off the couch, saying “No! No more minutes! Get up! Must! Fight! Crime!” was adorable, and I have to admit I kind of enjoyed Adam kissing up to Stella, but the competition between the two of them felt…I don’t know. Over-cute, if that makes any sense.

 

Of course, I could just be irritated that we’ve got yet another new character in here, given that the NY crime lab is already vastly overpopulated. Guys, what about Angell and Maka and Pino and Evan Zao? I mean, I get that they’re not here anymore (except for Angell, supposedly), but can we at least get an explanation of where they went before we start cycling new characters in?

 

Lindsay has a cute new haircut this season, and apparently a better attitude to go with it. She feels more like the perky, slightly show-offy girl of early Season 2 again, which I think is a very good thing. Her calling Adam “from the unemployment office” in particular played very nicely, as did her sly smile as everyone gave her uncomfortable looks about the spray-on condom. I could have done without the scene of her shoving the spray in Danny’s pocket (especially because why on earth would you actually use a thing like that? I mean, what if you miss a spot? Or don’t spray evenly? Or the nozzle jams halfway through?), but at least it’s subtle and confined to the background.

 

A few more quick notes: Not a lot of Hawkes in this episode (like that’s a surprise), but plenty of Flack to make up for it. He got off a one-liner before the credits even rolled, and he even got to indulge in a Moment of Action while taking down a fleeing suspect, which I always enjoy watching. Due to circumstances beyond my control (parental phone calls and all that) I missed his interrogation of the man at the concert, but he got such a substantial role the whole way though the episode that I was satisfied.

 

The bullet-time blood struck me as a little weird, like it was more to show off the special-effects budget than anything else. I get the effect it was meant to produce, it just seemed strange to have Mac suddenly strolling through a cloud of freeze-frame blood. I don’t particularly object to it, it was just…weird.

 

Even the musical guest star turned out okay this week, since she was actually part of the story and not jackhammered in so they could say they had a guest star. Strictly speaking, she didn’t need to be there, but she didn’t stick out like a sore thumb either.

 

And…er…I swear I had something else to say, but now I can’t remember what it is. Oh, the 3:33 arc. I think it’s a little early in the story for me to comment on it, but this has the makings of an interesting story, and I’m curious to see where it goes from here. Granted, I’m also wondering how this is going to affect Mac’s lab work throughout the season – I’m thinking he might not be on top form if he’s getting woken up at 3 am every night.

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I’m really not sure what everyone was talking about with the lack of dramatic tension, because damn did this episode wear on my nerves. Of course, this is because I am extremely jumpy and expected Sara to die absolutely every time she was threatened with anything, so your mileage may vary.

 

Really, though. The flooding worried me, because I knew from promo shots that the car would be found in the daytime, so I figured that she’d drown in the night and they’d find her dead in the morning. When the coyotes came sniffing around, I expected them to gnaw on her arm. You get the idea.

 

I’ll grant you that the attempted escape from Natalie’s car did not exactly simmer with dramatic tension, because we all know she’s not getting out of there. But I liked the scene anyway, because it was an excuse to spend a little bit longer with Natalie Davis. I can’t help it – I like TV serial killers, and a serial killer who’s a softspoken, stringy-haired, tiny girl will always be my favorite. I loved Natalie, and I kind of wish we’d seen what had happened to her after her psychotic break. I mean, she obviously wasn’t competent to stand trial; did they just haul her off to a mental hospital? Where’d she go?

 

Ahem. Back to Sara. I liked the scene of her breaking out of the trunk better than I liked the scene of her beating up Natalie, mostly because while she was escaping I kept half-expecting Natalie to turn around, so there was still some tension there. But the attempted escape? Destined for failure.

 

No, what had me rocking back and forth on my bed were the last scenes in the desert, where Sara slowly stumbled and fell. Commence freaking out. I figured it would be just like the writers to have Sara escape from the upside-down car only to die wandering out in the desert alone. Anti-climatic, sad, and grossly unfair, but just like them. Those last few minutes ground my nerves to powder, because I really, honestly wasn’t sure if she was going to live or die.

 

I could have done without that suspiciously convenient map, though. There seemed to be no point to its existence, and really, if you find a random map in some godforsaken stretch of desert, the odds that it will be in any way helpful to you are close to nil.

 

I love how worried everyone in the lab looks when the rainstorms kick in; I couldn’t help but wonder if all those random staff who were staring at the weather reports knew about Sara and what would happen when the rain started. And the scene where Grissom heads to the miniature and pours water on it was perfect – I love the look that came over him once he realized what was going to happen. They didn’t go overboard with emotional!Grissom in this episode, thank goodness, but he was so much more nervous and tense than we’ve seen him in a long time. (And by a long time I mean “since Grave Danger”, but shut up.) That was slightly less awesome, however, than the Grissomface that ensued when they all found the body-that-wasn’t-Sara in the desert. Hell, his “Oh, no” had me convinced it was her. He looked, and sounded, right scared. It made me happy.

 

What also made me happy was Catherine accompanying him in this episode. Despite my fondness for GSR, I love the relationship between Catherine and Grissom. For some reason Catherine feels like the tether that pulls Grissom back into the real world when he’s in danger of becoming too disconnected. Not that she’s always successful, but still. And the scene between the two of them in the desert highlights that. Grissom is listing all the reasons Sara can’t possibly be alive, all the reasons she wouldn’t last in the desert; Catherine just responds “She’s a survivor, Grissom”. From her tone of voice I’m not sure even she believes it, but it was what Grissom needed to hear – it stopped the progression of hopelessness.

 

However, higher on the List of Glee was Nick. While I was half-hoping for some sort of “Grave Danger” reference – really, how could there not be? – the flashback to “Gum Drops” was an unexpected, lovely surprise. The fact that they flashed back to specifically that scene between Nick and Sara, however, completely made my night. The contrast between Sara’s pessimism and Nick’s hope in that scene, poignant enough in the original episode, became desperately sad in the context of “Dead Doll”. You have to wonder – is he still that hopeful that he’ll find Sara? Is he angry that it doesn’t seem fair – he was rescued but Sara wasn’t/won’t be? What about what Sara’s thinking? Does she think she’s going to die out there?

 

Gah. I so want to write fic about the implications of this scene, but I’m sure someone’s already doing it better. (Of course, if anyone finds fic like that, feel free to point me at it.)

 

I also love that it was Nick that found her, Nick that turned her over and tried to wake her up, Nick that stayed with her until everyone else got there. It has nothing to do with the fact that I could watch Nick stare at the ceiling for an entire episode and still find him riveting, shut up.  I miss the interactions between Nick and Sara, I really do. And that scene just made me hurt on the inside, especially since I didn’t think she’d wake up and Nicky’d be sitting there holding a dead body when Grissom arrived.

 

Which leads us to the end of the episode. Now, one of the things I’ve always liked about GSR was its subtlety; actual scenes that reference it have been few and far between, and none of them have shown so much as a kiss (I shall henceforth pretend the shaving scene never happened). So, I think the very muted way in which the conclusion was handled – he’s holding her hand in the chopper, he smiles at her when she wakes up – works nicely for the two of them, and I’m very glad that we didn’t decided to go for character-crashing histrionics. That said, the scene feels almost too muted, as though it wouldn’t have been all that different had GSR never existed. But, as before, better than the alternative, and it was a quite sweet resolution.

 

Of course, now that it’s got the Cloud of Doom and Contract Negotiations hanging over it, it’s hard to think of that scene in an objective manner…*sigh*   

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