stunt_muppet

I have reached a point where updating my LJ has become more important than my actual life. Psychoanalyze as desired.

I've got about 45 minutes to kill ere my next class starts, and I'm feeling far too bleh to do anything productive with that time. So I'll try to do my episode commentary on Monday's Miami now.

I did end up missing last night's SVU, thanks to an ill-timed study session. Boo. Anyone feel like telling me what happens?

I need to find an episode schedule or something for my shows. The only reason I even knew that there was new Miami coming was because of the promos during the Super Bowl...

Not summarizing my life yet. That takes a bit longer.



Let's take this point by point, shall we?


1. Alexx finally gets to do something yaaaaaaay! *leaps up and down* Granted, she mostly gets to just "be in danger", and she still had the least screentime of anyone except Natalia in this episode. But I'll take what I can get in that regard.

Honestly, though, I didn't see that coming. I figured that Alexx was going to be in danger this week (because of what I saw in the promos), but so much had been made of Eric getting shot that the mysterious "other CSI" who'd be hurt kind of got pushed out of the way. To be honest, I hadn't thought about it either. And then I saw that rocket hit the courthouse, and I heard the sad music as Horatio went running into the wreckage, and a thought crossed my mind - omg. Is she dead?! See, I knew Eric wasn't going to die, but nobody said anything about Alexx. And she has been getting steadily less screentime. So when they cut the sound on that scene...I was scared for her. I really was. That's my first bit of kudos.

On another note, I loved how they omitted the audio on that scene, how you couldn't here Horatio or anyone else speaking. It's such a powerful effect and people should use it more often (Although I think that's more about my inner sense of drama than anything else).



2. The B-story was actually really good this week. I was worried that the B-story would either be terribly flimsy or would try to outdo the main thread, and trying to outdo a dispo truck hijacking probably isn't a good idea. But it was amazing. It was small and sad and helped keep the episode balanced.

Actually, what I liked best about it was that the boy's shooting turned out to be just a tragic accident - a bad case of wrong place, wrong time. Again, it was a nice balance to snarling, surly, screen-filling Cruz.

And RYAN. I spent the entire episode wanting to hug Ryan. I've heard it said before on Talk CSI and I think it's true: Of all of the CSIs, Horatio and Ryan are the ones most personally affected by their cases. We haven't seen as much of that Ryan recently, the one who actually looks shocked and sad when he sees the little boy's body. I'm glad he's back. His last scene with the little boy's brother, where he's trying to convince him that shooting his brother was an accident, was so moving. He wants to make him feel better, but he also knows that boy's going to have to live with the fact that he killed his brother for the rest of his life. Awesome, awesome scene.

I adored Calleigh in this scene, too. Normally, of Calleigh and Ryan, Calleigh's the more professional of the two, and you could see that when she was first talking to the family. But when she's interrogating the older sister, and her voice falters when she asks "Did you shoot your little brother?" - she really sounds affected. And I loved it. Also, her one-liner at the dad who left his dead son behind - "Be a human being, for starters"? EXCELLENT. W00t for Calleigh being very pissed.


3. Camera stupidity was at a minimum this week! There was still some of the split-screen crap that I despise, but there wasn't too much of that. That, and they used a camera effect that (in my opinion) actually kind of works. You know when the screen pauses and goes gray for a moment when it's looking at someone's face? I don't mind that as much. It reminds me of Kill Bill, when the screen literally paused and zoomed in whenever someone on the Hit List first showed up. The gray thing wasn't nearly as awesome, but it wasn't as offensive as some of the other camera tricks they've tried.


4. And now for the A plot, which is so fantastic that I have to go through it point-by-point.

a. omg CLAVO CRUZ. Now here we have a villain that I can really, genuinely loathe, instead of just waiting for him to screw up or die. That sounds like a bad thing, but it isn't. I'm of the opinion that entirely too much is made of the 'sympathetic villain', the villain that you're supposed to root for even as you wait for the hero to catch him. While some sympathetic villains have worked really well, they've become overdone recently - every TV or movie villain has some tragic past that's supposed to make us feel sorry for him.

People tend to forget that it takes just as much of an actor to make a villain you can truly hate, and hate with passion, rather than just be annoyed at. And I don't know who the actor is who plays Clavo, but he's really, really good at it. Clavo Cruz is not a sympathetic character. He's a smug, unrepentant, vile piece of work and I love and hate him for it. It's a complicated feeling. :)

The best part about him, though? The part that makes him one of the better returning villains in Miami? It's how he completely doesn't respect or fear Horatio. Clavo isn't going to be intimidated or threatened, and he knows that, from where he's sitting, Horatio really can't do anything to him. And he's playing that for all it's worth and loving it, and you KNOW he's loving it.

b. Horatio. Frankly, I just love the fact that they made him pretty much powerless against Cruz this episode. It was a refreshing change from his usual ability to magically Make Everything Better (not that I object to that ability, but still). Also, you can tell he was hating every minute of this - hating every minute that Cruz had the upper hand on him, hating the fact that he couldn't take out what I'm sure is quite a lot of pent-up rage on that orange jumpsuit, hating the fact that Cruz wasn't afraid of him.

Like when he was at the bank - he's heading in there and fetching Cruz' hostage money out of his own account, and then just handing it to him. That has got to be humiliating. And I think David lets us see that. He's mad, yes, and he's trying to keep everything calm, but I also got the sense that he was just a little ashamed of not being able to do anything.

I have to know, though - is that actual police procedure? You know where he puts his badge on the counter at the bank to inform the teller that they have a hostage situation? Do they actually do that, or did the writers make that up? I try to at least acknowledge reality the few times it intrudes into my TV life.

c. THAT ENDING SCENE, which also deserves capslock. HOMG. Yes, I saw it coming. Yes, I've seen the previews like everyone else. But damn if that wasn't a cracker of a scene right there. The gunfight was frenetic and confusing and half the time I could barely tell where the shots were coming from, which, I imagine, is the way an actual gunfight would happen on the off-chance that one ever happened in real life (they so rarely do). Very nice gunfight.

And Adam does 'injured' very nicely, I should say that. XD I love how he said "I'm all right" right before he got shot again, even though he very clearly wasn't and probably knew he wasn't. And then -

I have to say, even though I knew what was about to happen, that second gunshot still made me gasp. It comes so suddenly and so out of nowhere. Neither we nor Eric have any idea that it's about to happen, it just DOES. We don't even get a shot of the person firing before the bullet hits.

AND THAT LAST SHOT OF THE EPISODE yes it's in capslock again. The one where Horatio says "Eric?". Love it love it love it. I love how frightened Horatio looks, I love the tremor in his voice, I love how paralyzed with shock he is in that scene. Actually, the slight falter when he says Eric's name was the best bit for me. Right then, I was convinced he thought Eric was dead. I was a little worried that this scene was going to be really overdone, but this hit the exact right note for me.

SO. Who's excited for Man Down? Who's going to be downloading this episode the second it hits iTunes? That's right!

Gratuitous capslock and italics are over now. Go back to your lives, citizens.