Decision 2026 Tracking the Justice Democrats, Part 2:The Justice Democrats Gained Two Members In New York Last Night - And It Had Nothing to Do With The Squad

 

 

When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez managed to upset Dan Crowley in the 2018 primaries it appeared to be the symbol of the true power of the Justice Democrats.

What no one realized then or eight years later that Ocasio-Cortez is the success story of a movement that has, by any normal standard, been a complete failure. And the clearest way to illustrate this is to look at the movement's track record in New York State, particularly in the aftermath of yesterday's primaries.

In 2018 Ocasio Cortez was one of five Justice Democrats in the house and Cynthia Nixon  running for the governor's to try and primary incumbent Democrats. I've written about Nixon multiple times so let's deal with Congress.

Michael Devito ran in the 11^th district, Jeff Beals in the 18^th, Patrick Nelson in the 21^st and Ian Golden the 23^rd. Devito would get less then 20 percent of the vote, Beals and Golden each got around 13 percent and Nelson got little more then 9 percent. In the shadow of AOC's upset this was swept under the rug but in one of the bluest states in America it should have been a sign of how limited their appeal was.

The following year Jamaal Bowman managed to successfully defeat 16 term incumbent Eliot Engel in the New York 16^th District, mainly because he was endorsed by the Working Families Party. AOC endorsed him but its worth noting so did much of the progressive establishment as well as the New York Times. Bowman and Cori Bush were the only two new Justice Democrats to win election in the 2020 election; five other Justice Democrats would fail to advance in the House and Betsy Sweet lost her attempt to win the Maine Senate race.

On April 14th Rana Abdelhamid had announced she was going to tun for the New York 12^th district against incumbent Carol Maloney. During her campaign Abdelhamid criticized Maloney for wearing a burqa in a speech to illustrate the oppression of women in Afghanistan. According to Abdelhamid, oppression of Afghan women was 'an Islamophobic narrative meant to justify American wars."

However before the primary she withdrew after new boundary maps were drawn. In a statement she chose to argue that her district 'no longer includes my community' and were reminiscent of an ongoing legacy of non-inclusive gerrymandering. All of this strikes me as bluster for someone who had no interest of getting in a fight she knew she couldn't win, which is how the Justice Democrats picks its battles in the first place.

(On a side note in 2026 Abdelhamid attempted to run for Zohran Mamdani's former district after he became mayor. While she's a member of the DSA the organization chose to endorse the co-chair Diana Moreno. Abdehamid carried on running as a third party candidate. She got 17 percent of the vote to Moreno's 74 percent.)

Bowman was challenged in the 16^th after redistricting added Westchester county and the Bronx to his district. Bowman narrowly survived his challenge winning 54 percent to Vedat Gashi's 45 percent. This should have been a warning that the Justice Democrats had to be weary in New York. They ignored it.

Two years later as I spent much of 2024 writing Jamal Bowman became the first Justice Democrat to lose reelection when George Latimer overwhelmingly defeated him in his primary despite the efforts of Ocasio-Cortez and other Justice Democrats stumping for them. His defeat should have been the clearest sign of how little cache AOC and the Justice Democrats really had even among the faithful. While the Squad doesn't seem to have gotten the message Bowman did; he's not trying to win his old seat back this cycle.

AOC did endorse Mamdani for Mayor last year but I'm relatively sure it was symbolic. If the most prominent Democratic Socialist from New York City didn't endorse another Democratic Socialist from New York City it would be a public sign there wasn't much warmth in collectivism as they thought. More importantly it meant Mamdani's role in New York politics was going to be more important than AOC's – and going into the New York primaries they needed it.

Going into Tuesday's primary the Justice Democrats were attempting to run two new Democrats.  Claire Valdez, another Democratic Socialist who was elected to the 37^th district in 2025 would attempt to run for New York 7^th to succeed Nydia Velasquez. She would be challenging Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and Queens Councilwoman Julie Won. In the 13^th Darializa Avila Chevalier would be running to challenge Adriano Espaillat, who has represented the district since 2017 and is the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Valdez and her chief competitor Antonio Reynoso agreed on everything: abolishing ICE, taxing the rich, Medicare for All and the War in Gaza. And considering Reynoso had early on endorsed Mamdani for Mayone one would have thought he would pick his colleague. Instead he chose Valdez who was, like him a fellow Democratic socialist.

This led to them fighting over Trump. Reynoso attacked Mamdani for visiting the White House of a man they should, in his words, 'impeach for war crimes. Rather than deal with the attack Mamdani chose to make it about his efforts to free a Columbia Student. It became a war between Renyoso's Working Family Progressives and the Democratic Socialist wing. Reynoso's record was far better than Valdez: he was a Borough President who had pushed through the Right to Know act, worked for Unions and organized for labor. The only difference was Valdez had Mamdani's endorsement and turned out to be more than enough

Chevalier came under fire for deleted social media posts in which she bashed mainstream Democrats, questioned the view Israel had the right to exist and criticized Joe Biden leading up to the 2020 election.

Espaillat its worth noting is one of the most progressive members of Congress, who has introduced bills to abolish the Death Penalty. He is a strong advocated for affordable housing and economic development, immigrant rights and the dream act, voted against passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act. He has also supported the Israel Anti-Boycott Act and released a statement condemning Netanyahu's decision to deny Squad members Tlaib and Omar entry to Israel. The only thing he's done that's remotely pro-Israel was a vote to provide them with support following the October 7^th attacks.

Chevalier is one of the most prominent anti-Gaza protestors who has been one of Mamdani's lead organizers so it was clear that this race would be a test of his endorsement powers as well as the Justice Democrats reach. Espaillat thought that Mamdani had his word to back him. Instead Mamdani chose to elevate Chevalier who like him was as vehement a critic on Israel as him.

This infuriated Hakeem Jeffries and Latino leaders. Considering that Chevalier and Valdez refused to commit to back him for House leader he is justifiably afraid that their victories could be turned into cudgels by Republicans in swing districts.

"Every Democrat in a competitive race will have to answer for our most extreme voices," said Howard Wolfson. "And it will make the party as a whole seem extreme and out of touch.

The results do seem to have worked in the short term: Valdez won her primary overwhelmingly and Chevalier narrowly defeated Espaillat. But yet again it demonstrates the inability of far left candidates like Mamdani to take anything but the immediate view. Already there are signs this has done much to hurt Mamdani's reputation at a state level. Many of the people who supported him early such as Velasquez are infuriated by how Mamdani seems more interested in putting it early supporters who are unknown in politics that may hurt the party. One can't escape the fact that Mamdani seems determined to remake the Democratic Party in New York in his image – much as how the President did the same for Republicans who he felt were loyal to him. The result managed to get rid of many valuable legislators in Congress in favor of sycophants to him.

In Mamdani's case it seems the definition of pennywise gains in favor of pound foolish decisions state wide. While Chevalier and Valdez are certain to gain their seats there is an excellent chance leadership of the House may come down to four swing districts in New York; the 3^rd, 4^th, and 19^th held by Democrats Tom Suozzi, Laura Gillen and Josh Riley respectively and the New York 17^th which is held by Michael Lawler, a Republican. It's certain the RNC in New York will attempt to tie the three incumbent Democrats to Mamdani and his Democratic socialists all of whom won their districts by margins of anywhere from two to three percent. Gillen and Suozzi went out of their way not to endorse Mamdani in his mayoral campaign and his campaigning for them will only hurt them in purple Long Island.

Like everything else the democratic socialists have done during the last decade whatever minor gains they make in Congress seems more determined to move fast and break things rather then to govern. Mamdani may have sent 'a message' to the Democrats in Congress but it's not one that they wanted and it very well may end up helping the GOP in the immediate term and perhaps even more long-term. To be sure he will have allies in Congress going into the next session but that's meaningless unless the Democrats gain the majority next year and will likely do less for anybody until at least 2028 – by which point Mamdani will have to run for reelection on his record as Mayor. And electing two Justice Democrats to New York from Congress may help him in the short term but its going to make the national party – which still is inclined to keep him at arms' length knowing just how controversial he is anywhere that isn't New York City – even less inclined to like him for the next three years.

As for Velasquez and Dalia Chevalier while they may be new members of the Justice Democrats come to fall all this proves is that Mamdani is the kingmaker in New York rather than AOC. And since Mamdani is not a member of the Justice Democrats it will be seen far more as a victory for him rather then the Squad. And it lays bare yet again the weaknesses of the Justice Democrats at a national level: they can only win in the bluest districts in the bluest states and only with someone who has their vision in a city or a state level. It's far more likely when the next Congress is confirmed they will listen more to Mamdani's agenda then anything AOC says or does.

And this is clear because in addition to Justice Democrats Mamdani also endorsed Brad Lander. Lander has been a progressive activist who served as comptroller under the previous Mayor Eric Adams. He finished third in the Democratic primary and chose to cross endorse and campaign with Mamdani. While Lander has been active in the city council for more than a decade, particularly legislation involving worker's rights he actually left the Democratic Socialists after October 7^th, he was never at any time considered part of the Justice Democrats nor did he seek their endorsement during his campaign despite being aligned with them on a majority of issues. The fact that Lander won with Mamdani's endorsement but not the Justice Democrats shows that his endorsement means more than AOC's did in the state.

After the New York primary the Justice Democrats may have gained two new members but the press isn't going to see it that way.  It will be seen as a victory for Mamdani and the power he has as kingmaker in New York. But the Justice Democrats don't have anyone like him anywhere else in the country and are highly unlikely to have anyone to do the same for them in California or Michigan.

And while the media will have its attention here, the left will want to highlight it and the Republicans will want to label the victories in New York as symbolic of the new Democratic Party there were three other states that held primaries for Congress yesterday as well and the left, never mind the Justice Democrats, suffered resounding defeats.

Maryland, a state even more solidly Democratic then New York could ever hope to be, has proven so unfriendly to the Justice Democrats that they haven't fielded a candidate there since their initial run. In the race to replace Steny Hoyer, there were the same complaints of pro-Israel money that were considered anchors on New York Democrats. Chris Van Hollen, the major head of progressivism in the Senator chose not to endorsed and argued the seat was being bought. It did nothing to stop Adrian Boafo, Hoyer's preferred successor, from easily winning the primary in a crowded field. Furthermore the President of the Maryland Senate, who thwarted a redistricting attempt made by Governor Wes Moore was challenged for the first time in twelve years. He won easily as well.

In Utah after maps were redrawn to create a Democratic district Ben McAdams who managed to defeat Mia Love during the blue wave of 2018 but lost reelection the following cycle, easily won the Democratic nomination over a group of progressive challengers including Nate Blouin. As opposed to the centrist Democrat tact that McAdams took Blouin argued for a more progressive approach and had the endorsement of Justice Democrats Pramila Jayapal and Greg Casar. McAdams got nearly 60 percent of the vote, more than 40 percent more than Blouin.

And even in New York State Caitlin Conley managed to win the Democratic primary in the 17^th district against more progressive candidates such as Effie Philips-Staley whose campaign website said 'she dedicated her life to social justice and said this moment demands transformational change… not politics as usual that serves corporations and the ultra-rich. She finished a distant third with 15 percent of the vote, nearly 35 percent less than Conley did in what will be a highly competitive race against Mike Lawler for control of the House.

Looking back on Tuesday's results it could stand for the Justice Democrats in a microcosm. On what will likely be their biggest gains nationwide in 2026 the credit will nevertheless go to someone else and the blame will still land on them for whatever happens to the party nationwide.

 

 

 

My Predictions (And Hopes) For the 2026 Emmy Nominations, Week 2, Part 2: OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A DRAMA

 

 

It is all but a foregone conclusion who will be the winner in this category in 2026. Less so is who the other nominees will be. With Adam Scott, Pedro Pascal and Diego Luna all for various reasons ineligible for Best Actor there are at least two very clear vacancies among the five nominations allowed in this category.  Three are certain to be filled – deservedly – from the nominees from last year. Who will get the final two? Here are my picks.

 

Sterling K. Brown, Paradise

In Season 1 Xavier Collins was the one man in Paradise determined to get to the truth in what was thought to be the last safe place on Earth after 'The Day'. At the end of the season he flew out to see what was left to find his wife.

He spent most of Season 2 traveling the wreckage of America, first being rescued by one of the last survivors in Graceland (Shaleigh Woodley), then following her until she ended up dying in labor. Eventually he did find his wife and learned that things were not the same for her as they were for him. He ended up returning to the Bunker to rescue his family from a cataclysm within and invaders without. And by the season finale it became clear that he might be the salvation of mankind in a way that is not clear yet – but the fact its Xavier may be the clearly sign of hope.

Sterling K. Brown, along with Paradise showrunner Dan Fogler, created one of the most iconic characters of the last decade in Randall Pearson on This Is Us a role that won Brown his second Emmy. Now the two have created another iconic character on a show that seems destined to be another classic in television history. In the last decade Brown has become an Emmy regular across no less than five series in every category an actor can be nominated in and his presence is a sign of great television. Brown will win in this category for the final season but we all know he's going to be nominated for the second straight year and it has nothing to do with institutional laziness. He and this show are just that good.

 

Billy Magnussen, The Audacity

Despite the initially mixed reviews for The Audacity Billy Magnussen received near universal praise for his work as Duncan, the dysfunctional Silicon Valley mogul at the center of the action. I understand why almost from the moment I watched this episode.

So many of the best characters in TV dramas have had uncharted depths. Duncan is unique at being someone who is entirely surface, who isn't at smart as he believes, who time and again reads every single cue, no matter how subtly or heavily delivered completely wrong and who might not even have an original idea in his head. He spends the entire season using the tech of someone he doesn't even know, spying on everyone around him who he's certain is plotting against him (and only a few of them really are) is constantly outwitted by people who are far more clever then him and who have slightly more self-awareness and seems determined at every step of the way to do anything to be hated by his peers all to take the spotlight momentarily. By the end of the season his determination to be at the spotlight leads him to learn a horrible truth about his family and even then he's determined to keep moving forward, trying to outrun everything he is just to stay ahead.

Magnussen is hysterical portrayal every level of Duncan, someone who seems to love setting himself on fire if that means people are paying attention to him for a moment. At a certain level he knows everything he does will lead to destroy him down the road but all he cares about is momentary satisfaction and we know that's going to destroy him. He sets out to make Duncan unlikable at every level so its kind of shocking that by the season finale we feel some form of sympathy for him even as he continues to destroy everything around him.

Magnussen has received some pre-awards discussion most notably an Astra for Best Actor in a drama. With only four of the nominations in this category locked down for certain Magnussen could be the wild card in this race and I'm willing to gamble on him over some more likely contenders.

 

Gary Oldman, Slow Horses

Gary Oldman had nothing to prove when he took on the role of Jackson Lamb back in 2022. So he's spent five seasons playing one of the most beloved characters in TV history as well as one of the most iconic characters in literature. And he does both with the complete attitude of a man who absolutely gives no F's about anybody or anything, not his job at the worst place in Slough House or the agents who work under him. Not Diana Taverner who at the end of the season may be in the best position to take him down for good. Not the terrorists who are engaged in the biggest threat to London and the UK yet so far.  Not even about how much he stinks, his halitosis or how he breaks wind on a regular basis.

Jackson Lamb isn't an antihero or a hero or really anything the TV viewer like myself has gotten used to in thirty years. He's clearly smarter then he looks, clearly effective at his job, clearly an efficient agent and killer. But Oldman is superb because every line out of his mouth – his entire posture – is of a man who doesn't seem to care about anybody or anything. He seems to care about his own well-being but considering how every season he seems to sigh reluctantly and go: "I have to save these idiots"  - and by extension the country – you can't tell how much of this is an act. We know he's one of the legends at MI-5 and it may be a front but every time he says anything it seems designed to isolate everybody including himself. That's why we have so much fun watching Slow Horses in a way we really don't for so many other series.  Jackson Lamb's trench coat may be plot armor but he barely seems to care whether that gets messed up.

Someday I want Oldman to win for playing Jackson Lamb. Not just because he deserves it but because I want him to accept his as Jackson Lamb. Profanely, messily and like everything else with no reserve: "You tossers are lucky I was busy dying to receive this" would be a good start.

 

Mark Ruffalo, Task

Just as with Hannah Einbinder for Hacks Mark Ruffalo's work as an actor is where I continue to separate the artist from the art. I find him even more pedantic and self-aggrandizing as a proselytizer for various causes but he remains one of our greater actors and that is particularly true for his work as Tom Brandis.

I signaled out Ruffalo's work as Tom as a step forward for leads in HBO dramas. Unlike basically every single lead of a drama since Tony Soprano, Tom Brandis is broken but fundamentally a good man. He has undergone horrible losses before the show even begins: his wife is dead at the hands of his son, his family is shattered, he drinks himself to sleep every night. Worst of all, he's lost his faith in God which was central to who he was before he joined the FBI. He's the last man who should be leading a task force into a string of robberies in Philadelphia and he knows it – and that's before he realizes that his force has been compromised.

Every step of the way Ruffalo is extraordinary as Tom, someone who knows the words to the job he can do but barely can dance to it. He manages to keep moving forward trying to find out who is responsible for the abduction of a small child along with everything else. Eventually he finds himself at gunpoint with the man responsible and in a long scene in which he believes he is going to die he ends up sharing almost everything about himself. He survives but that leads to a confrontation on a bridge that leads to multiple deaths but nevertheless he keeps going. And through his persisted nature he manages to solve the crimes, find out who the leak – and perhaps most astonishingly find peace within himself. How many dramas have you watched where the protagonist is at a better place then he was emotionally then at the start of the season?

In another year Ruffalo would be the frontrunner in this category for his incredible work. But he's up against another complicated broken man trying to do go and he has little chance of prevailing. Still we will see him back in the ranks again and despite the complicated feelings I have to the performer, I'm overjoyed to see that he hasn't lost a step as an actor.

 

Noah Wyle, The Pitt

The first sign we know that Dr. Robby isn't in good shape is when he rides to his job on a motorcycle and isn't wearing a helmet. It's the day before he goes on sabbatical and he is not in a good mood.  It's ten months since we first met him and while everyone is clearly dealing with their own shit, Robby is clearly not dealing with it at all.

In each case he seems a little more short-tempered with every attending, nurse and even some of the people replacing him. He refuses to even talk with Dr. Langdon, back from his first day after ten months in rehab. He can't offer encouraging words to those who need it and as everyone starts to feel the baggage of the past several months catch up with them, he has nothing but increasing hostility towards all of them, demanding they suck it up. And all through the day there are more discouraging signs: we learn he's fired two of his previous therapists in six months. He seems about to break up with a woman he's been seeing for the last few months. He keeps calling his riding buddy to get himself checked out at the ER. And when he finally shows up it becomes clear the persistent cough he has is far worse than it looked.

Robby manages to function as the crises of each hour continue to build up and throughout the day he holds it together. It's only in the final hours that we learn the significance of his sabbatical and just what he may be planning. And in that final hour he engages in a conversation with the one man who knows what he's thinking of and who makes it very clear he doesn't want him to do it. I've never been more grateful to know that Wyle is coming back for a third season before the show concluded: by the time it ended, I think we were are all scared for him.

It's looking going in that Noah Wyle may become the first actor to win back-to-back Emmys since Bryan Cranston managed his three-peat between 2008-2010. As with Cranston I can think of no better actor to be honored considering there such a long period when it seemed Wyle couldn't buy an Emmy.  His work makes The Pitt one of the greatest shows on TV and I'm glad that Wyle is still doing the work that made viewers like me fall in love with him thirty years ago.

 

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

Ramon Rodriguez, Will Trent

Those of you who've read me know how strongly I feel about this show and the cast. It was just as good in Season 4 as its always been but at this point I've come to accept the cold reality of how the Emmys just seem unwilling to acknowledge it. That doesn't change the fact that for the fourth straight season Ramon Rodriguez was extraordinary in the title role – and then some.

At the start of the season he had to deal with the fact that not only was his biological father back in his life but that James Ulster was out of prison. When Ulster ended up dead Will spent the season struggling with his demons in a way he never had before. He began to wonder just how much of who he was had to do with Ulster in him and as the season progressed things only worsened: first when his Uncle was abducted by the psychotic daughter of Ulster, then as he spent the season trying to unravel the ring of who took her and then when it came to a head with the death of Amanda Wagner at her hands. By the end of the season Will was more broken then he'd ever been and Rodriguez showed that pain at every level. And then somehow, at the end of the season, Will found a way to come back for it when tragedy struck Angie. One doesn't know the future of Will and Angie's relationship or the series in general but we still feel better knowing Will is out there.

I know in my heart the Emmys isn't going to acknowledge the work Rodriguez does but it should and as long as the show's on the air I'm going to keep pushing for it and him.

 

Tomorrow I deal with Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama – and the Euphoria of it all.

My Predictions (And Hopes) For the 2026 Emmy Nominations, Week 1, Part 1: Outstanding Drama Series

 

A little precursor. I feel no guilt in excluding the final season of Euphoria because it was such a huge disappointment to critics that the odds of it being nominated for Best Drama are next to non-existent. Some thing it will contend for acting awards but I can leave it out with a clear conscience. Besides as you'll see it's not like I'm excluding HBO from this year.

For my eight nominees for Best Drama I look through streaming, cable, and network television. With two of the major contenders from last year (Severance and The White Lotus) ineligible a lot of room will be available in the supporting acting categories and some new faces will almost certainly be seen across the board as well as some familiar ones. Here are my picks

 

The Diplomat (Netflix)

How do you deal with the fact the Vice President might have committed treason? Well if you're the writers of The Diplomat, you kill the acting President off and then make her President before Kate Wyler can tell him. Then you make that fact at the center of the third season. And as you'd expect you then basically blow up the Wyler marriage.

Keri Russell has been the consummate professional as she has learned of an international conspiracy involving the UK prime minister and the Vice President across two seasons. Now in the third season under the new administration (headed by the incredible Alison Janney) the show decides to blow up the premise guiding the first two seasons. Kate was supposedly being groomed to become the new vice president; now its Hal (Rufus Sewell, as inscrutable as ever) who ends up getting the job without having to try. That Kate never wanted the job in the first place is something she only admits to herself, that she has no intention of following her husband back to the states sets up another, darker scenario.

With Kate still in London, even more nefarious schemes are afoot. It quickly becomes clear her husband is just as capable of espionage as anyone else and rather then trying to deal with the rot, he's more than willing to get his hands dirty on the inside. By the end of the third season its just as clear that Kate may not just have to turn against her country, but her husband – and one wonders which will be the harder blow.

For a series that deals with dark matters The Diplomat can be surprisingly entertaining. It has always put itself closer as an heir to The West Wing and it keeps doubling down on this with each new addition. (The First Gentleman is Bradley Whitford, for one.) And it moves at a flowing pace, led by its incomparable star. Russell was as surprised as anyone when she won the prize for Best Female Actor in a Drama. Like the character she's played she's long overdue recognition as is the show she's a  part of.

 

The Gilded Age (HBO)

I was understandably over the moon when the second season of The Gilded Age was nominated for eight Emmys back in 2024. And by the time we reached the third season last summer the rest of the critical community and America at large seems to have realized, yes, this is one of the best shows on television.

We spent most of the third season watching the marriage between Bertha and George completely unravel as not just her husband but the entire Russell family realized how ruthless and determined the matriarch was to earn her place in New York society. By the end of the third season Bertha had managed this but had more or less lost her entire family; her daughter overseas, her husband leaving her, her son unwilling to accept just how monstrous his mother was.

Across the street a minor power play went off as Ada became the mistress of the Van Rijn household while Agnes spent the season struggling to find a place for her in New York. By the end of the season Agnes had accepted her role in it and a new accord had been struck. And as Marian and Larry spent the third season slowly dancing around each other before finding there own happiness the two households will soon be together more frequently – and one wonders to see who will come out on top.

The Gilded Age is one of the best series on any service because of the extraordinary writing and the way it looks at the past to find evidence of a better future. Increasingly we saw contemporary issues involving women's suffrage, the place of divorced women in society, accord between the races, the struggles between class and the poor and the way that violence can interject now matter how wealthy one's family is. But it is also one of the most delightful shows with some of the best dialogue I've heard with nary a four letter word issued.

There are quite a few other HBO series who I will mention here and some that I've not who might overcome it. But The Gilded Age remains divine, a demonstration of how HBO is still the gold standard for TV

 

Matlock (CBS)

I advocated for this series for Best Drama last year and was disappointed that the Emmys chose to give it just a single nomination.  But in its second season it was just as worthy of nominations as any of the dramas on this list and more than represents what network television is capable of.

During the second season Madeline Kingston spent the first half battling with Olivia for leverage over the startling revelation that Julian was responsible for hiding the documents that she spent all of last season searching for. After half a season the two finally came to the accommodation that they needed each other and more importantly that their friendship could survive it. Then Julian learned the truth about Maddy 'Matlock' deception and spend much of that period first in resistance, then willing to fight to bring the truth to light.

While looking at Jacobson Moore as it went through a time of transition the writers showed slowly the rot in the firm was deeper then Senior (Beau Bridges) and eventually reached the point where the whole firm was so deeply embedded it that there seemed no way out – until at the last moment Julian was willing to prove his selflessness. This led to a reset that will shake up the series in a way that I haven't seen done so well since the days of The Good Wife.

Matlock is superb in every way that counts: as a legal procedural that  is a case of the week, as a subtle serialized drama, as an exploration of the ties of family, as a way of showing how addiction gets in deep and leaves trauma long after those are dead, showing that the bond between married people doesn't go away after half a century and most endearingly to me, showing that the obstacles that divide generations is not overcome. In this Matlock is to drama what Hacks and Only Murders is to comedy.

Kathy Bates is certain to get her second consecutive Best Actress in a Drama nomination but there should be nominees for the supporting cast as well as the extensive guest cast. I concede that there are better shows that I'm excluding but there are few that are more complete and more entertaining and I'm fine with that.

 

Paradise (Hulu)

Paradise was one of the sleeper critical hits of 2025, deservedly nominated for Best Drama and three other acting Emmys. Set in a bunker after a cataclysmic event nearly wipes out humanity Dan Fogler used a murder mystery to tell a deep and fascinating saga about humanity after the apocalypse.

In the second season he expands the world beyond the bunker by showing us what Xavier (the incomparable Sterling K. Brown) found after he left in search of his wife who he learned at the end of the first season is still alive. He spent much of the second season exploring the world afterwards, checking for survivors in Graceland and finding a new path forward to return and bring the family together.

Inside the bunker things got worse. Sinatra (Julianne Nicholson) made it clear to the voices in her head that her plans had never been out of the bunker. Those around her began to wonder if she'd lost her mind, as the power struggle between her inner circle became even more deadly. They were confronted when the outside world came knocking, forcing a greater and harder struggle that led to reunions and in the season finale a complete destruction of everything that had been build – and a set up for the third and final season.

In his follow-up series to This is Us Dan Fogler has created another mind-bending, chronology jumping yet nevertheless soulful series one that shows him as one of the greatest writers in the last decade. I don't know what's coming for Season 3 but  as always I'm glad to be along for the ride.

 

The Pitt (HBO MAX)

Last year going into Emmy night everyone was sure that Severance would be the big winner. Instead the world was delighted to see The Pitt, which had been a critical and ratings sensation, walk away with five Emmys including Best Drama.

In its second season, taking place ten months after the first, we follow Dr. Robby (the incomparable Noah Wyle) on July 3^rd right before he's supposed to go on sabbatical. It's clear from the moment he shows up that Robby is not the same man he was ten months ago and that he hasn't dealt with the trauma that led him to the meltdown that he had in the midst of the mass casualty last year. Following him in real time in the extraordinary fifteen hour break down we watch what is, for the most part, another awful, no good, very bad day Robby and the staff at the Pitt.  And slowly the problems begin to double down,  a cyber attack hits the hospital, there's a collapse at the water slide, old patients begin to die; some familiar faces show up.

And yet its clear the biggest crises are going on within everyone. Dr. Langdon (Patrick Ball) is on his first shift from rehab and almost no one, least of all Robby, can look him in the eye. Mel's dealing with a deposition and it has her nervous. Dana's back for her first shift in months and she's a lot punchier than before. The staffers are dealing with crises that they consider horrible. And worst of all as the day progresses its clear Robby has no patience for the hospital or the staffers and the crap they're dealing with. This reveals itself in the final hours when one of Robby's riding buddies for the sabbatical shows up, is suffering from something worse then shortness of breath – and we finally learn where Robby's going and why the fact he rode into work without a helmet is the least troubling thing about him.

The Pitt goes into the fall campaign the odds-on favorite to repeat for Best Drama as well as to be the biggest winner on Emmy night in a few months. The only question is how many nominations it will get and how many awards it will win. I myself couldn't be happier that a show like The Pitt not only exists but has become the critical and audience darling of the masses. In a world where so much is uncertain and America is a mess – and the show has more than a few storylines that are a reflection of it – there's something wonderful about a drama that is not about bad people doing bad things but a bunch of professionals doing their best against overwhelming odds, day in, day out.  Where the bad behavior of the characters is not something we associate with a White Male Antihero but a broken man who doesn't know how to heal himself and a bunch of professionals and first responders we can relate to more than any show on television in decades. That is something to celebrate as much as the incredible caliber of the acting and writing.

 

Pluribus (Apple TV)

I've been waiting for Vince Gilligan to get his hooks into an alien invasion show for a quarter of a century.  Now in his first new series since the end of Better Call Saul he reunites with that show's breakout star Rhea Seehorn to create a series that is unlike any other.

Plur1bus almost overnight became one of the most critically and audience adored hit on TV: one of the best new shows of 2025. It deals with an alien invasion of Earth unlike any we've ever seen in recorded history: the alien takeover of the world is seen not as some monstrous horror but a hive mind who only seem here to care and love people – the few that haven't been taken over.  One of the few people left completely unaffected is Carol Sturka (Seehorn) a romance writer who even before the invasion happened was arguably the most unpleasant person on the planet, who only her lesbian companion loved – and who even she seemed unable to deal with at times. Carol's rage was toxic before; now its so powerful it can actually kill millions of the hive mind. And what's worse is that of the precious few survivors she's maybe the only one left who thinks that what's happening is horrible.

In keeping with all things Gilligan Pluribus unfolds with all the touches we're used to from him. Of course it mostly takes place in New Mexico but its also incredibly visual and less dependent on dialogue than almost any series he's done – and he's always been great with long sequences of those. Few scenes have carried more terror as in the Pilot when we see how the aliens first invade and how they manage their takeover, then see the horror of the apocalypse play out – and of course, there's an in-joke that only Gilligan could provide.

He is met by Rhea Seehorn, who is for much of the series eight episodes often the only face of the cast. Seehorn delivers one of the greatest performances of 2025, if not of the decade so far, as Carol. Carol is literally the last person on Earth you'd think of as the savior of humanity, she didn't even like it that much when things were normal. And even now she's the outlier the only person left who wants to bring the world back to the way it was – even though as the story makes very clear, it's almost a paradise. (The idea that you'd have to wipe out humanity to bring about peace on earth has been in Gilligan's head since he made his directorial debut on The X-Files a quarter of a century ago.) What's astonishing about Seehorn's work is that even she admits that she has very few good qualities and that she seems to be doing something no one alive wants – and yet you're still rooting for her to succeed.

Seehorn has already won the Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award for Best Actress in a Drama and is the heavy favorite to win the Emmy this year. (Admittedly there are some pretty good candidate against her in the show's above.) Plur1bus is as close as any series is to having the possibility to upset The Pitt for Best Drama and while I doubt that I don't pretend that this is show is any less a masterpiece

 

Slow Horses (Apple TV)

For the last two seasons Slow Horses has, like the agents at Slough House itself, the most underestimated performers at the Emmys. In 2024 it upset Shogun's record setting pace to win Best Dramatic Teleplay. Last year it interjected between Severance and The Pitt to win Best Director in a Drama. Now in its most action packed season yet Slough House finds itself dealing with an assassin responsible for a mass shooting, an act of sabotage and the fact that Lady Di has her eye on becoming First Desk and will gladly step over them to get there. When she finally achieves her goal, we'd be unsettled if we didn't know them that well.

Gary Oldman has become one of the great joys to watch as Jackson Lamb, who every year noisily interrupts his busy schedule of getting drunk and breaking wind to reluctantly save London from the most horrible terror attacks possible. Every line out of his mouth is an absolute joy to hear as you know that London's safety is based on a man who cares if people live or die but really doesn't trust the people who work for him to save it. This includes River Cartwright (Jack Lowden0 who always acts before he thinks, Roddy who isn't nearly as clever as he believes and an entire staff who could be efficient at their jobs if they weren't just complete wankers at everything else.

Slow Horses is one of the quiet joys of TV and streaming, a slow grower that has become a fan favorite as well as one of the best shows on any service. It's not as flashy as its co-nominees on Apple TV but it gets the job done, even when its hanging by its fingernails.

 

Task (HBO)

After four seasons of hemming and hawing about doing another season of Mare of Easttown Brad Inglesby decided to do something better. He returned to world of Philadelphia's law enforcement and criminal enterprises but with a completely different story and two different protagonists. And in Task he created the kind of series HBO hasn't had in decades: a show about the working class, cops and criminals and the despair of a failing city.

The first season centered on two characters. The first was Tom Brandis, played with haunting precision by Mark Ruffalo. A former priest turned FBI agent he's spent the last year not dealing with a family trauma of how his foster son killed his wife. He drinks himself to sleep each night, he can barely talk with his own foster daughter or his real one, he's never visited his son in prison. And in the midst of this he's assigned to lead a task force to investigate a series of robberies of a motorcycle gang.

On the other side is Robby, played by Tom Pelphrey. Robby's brother ended up getting murdered by that gang for reasons I won't go into yet and he's spent the last several months robbing stash houses. When a robbery goes wrong and a five year old is left alive Robby chooses to take the child with him instead of doing the easy thing. This sets forth a chain of events that will lead to the deaths of many on both sides of the law and eventually Robby himself though his is far from the last.

This is by far a more ambitious series than Mare was, more invested in things such as nature and spirituality then Inglesby tried to deal with before. But it's also one of the most optimistic series to come out of HBO in the nearly thirty years its been dealing in prestige drama. To be sure there are lots of broken people, bad criminals and law enforcement officials who are on the take. But its also about finding a way to break the cycle of trauma and violence in a way that I'm not used to from HBO dramas or even TV during this century in general. Tom's journey is one of trying to find a way to heal himself after a trauma as much as catching the criminals and we're overjoyed that somehow he's found a way out. When's the last time you felt that way?

Task was renewed for a second season and it will probably air some time in 2027.  The show itself has already been nominated for multiple best drama awards along with acting nominations for Ruffalo and Pelphrey. I don't know what the future is for HBO but as long as their shows like Task as part of it, I feel better about it.

 

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

The Audacity (AMC)

I spent a lot of time reflecting on this choice. It was tempting to go with the fourth seasons of Dark Winds or Will Trent. But in the end I decided to go with one of the most promising newcomers so far in 2026.

The Audacity was maligned almost before it got off the ground. As one of the characters says: "Silicon Valley changed the world but so did the bubonic plague" and she could be speaking for the majority of people.  But despite that baggage this is one of the most engaging and original shows AMC has done in a years, a show about a group of emotionally stunted adults who are Masters of the Universe but can't socialize in a group setting and a psychiatrist who cares more about making money off them then she does helping them. It's surprising how entertaining this can be.

Billy Magnussen is a revelation as Duncan, a tech sensation who isn't nearly as smart as he thinks he is and everyone around him knows it, a man who knows he's hated by everybody but who seems determined to keep trying to prove it. Around him are a cast of characters, both grownup and teenagers and its both frightening and encouraging that the dysfunctional student body of a high school are for more self-aware of the world then their parents are. Every single one of the parents is more interested in appearances then actually doing things, they will all say good things but sell out their dreams for an IPO, who think that because they play as soldiers they know more than actual soldiers. It's a mess, but it’s a fun mess.

I could never get into HBO's Silicon Valley which looked at the same people and moguls with a satiric vibe. The Audacity takes itself just a bit more seriously and that's more than enough for me to recognize its quality. There have been signs that some awards show are taking it seriously – the Astras nominated it for Best Drama – so why shouldn't the Emmys show some audacity of their own?

 

Tomorrow I deal with Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama. Relatively speaking I'm confident in my choices even with the limitations.

Writings For The Coalition of the Sane: How A Conversation With An Activist on This Site Demonstrated A Critical Reason Why Left-Wing Movements Have Mostly Failed in the 21st Century

 

Earlier this week while reading an article from a relatively new writer I found myself in the comments sections. I won't reveal who this author is or what he was writing about exactly (I want to protect the privacy of all involved) but because I consider his writing close to that of this coalition most of his articles are greeted with vituperation in the foulest forms in the comments section. I usually post a comment in support of him.

While looking I ran across a quasi-familiar voice who for the purposes of this article I'll refer to as Ernest. He was making a loud and angry rant defending student protestors and how proud he was of them. As my readers know this is a common subject of mine in my articles and comments about how little it has ever done to help the cause of liberalism. I also know, on this site like many others, arguing that protesting is ineffective and in fact has often helped the cause of conservatism is not something that the left wants to be told and in fact gets very creative in the language they use when you impugn on that idea. But as always I wasn't doing it for the protestor but for the coalition.

I went off on my usual combination of angry rant/constructive criticism making all the points I've made before and which I'm pretty sure most of you are aware of. As always I knew one of two things would come from Ernest: he'd either ignore me or call me horrible names.

Ernest chose a third option, basically bringing up six different causes that I've no doubt were personal to him and that I'm sure he's protested for. The first he mentioned which is the most pertinent is marching against apartheid in South Africa.

This is a subject I'm familiar with and I am very aware that while the protest movement did play a role it would have been meaningless without multinational support from global and American politicians. When elected mayor of New York City David Dinkins, the first African-American to hold that office, chose to divest the city of its investments in South Africa. Another critical figure Ronald Dellums began an anti-apartheid campaign in 1972 and fourteen years later the House of Representatives passed the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986, calling for sanctions against South Africa. Reagan vetoed the bill but both Houses of Congress combined to override the veto for the first time in the 20^th century when it came to foreign policy. In other words many people may have protested apartheid for decades but Dellums actually spent his career trying to do something about it.

I didn't go into this detail with Ernest (I was being brusque and pointing out the flaws of his other issues) but considering he had the usual pineapple of politeness that most of those who answer me do I didn't think he deserved it, and anyway I wasn't writing for him.

Incredibly less than two hours after I concluded my criticism Ernest responded by referring to me as 'my silly friend' and said "There are undisputable facts here>"

1. College students protests, chanted and (as our silly friend sayid {sic} marched in a circle to fight for justice on each of these issues.

2. Progress was made on all these issues from ending apartheid in South Africa…

And then in the very next sentence he gives it away:

Admittedly I can't prove causation. I don't have a way to prove that college students had a significant effect on causing social change. But I can point to many examples where there was social change on the very issues the college students were protesting.

Remember that old phrase: "Correlation does not necessarily equal causation." 'Ernest' clearly never heard of it. He goes on:

 "I am proud to have protested South African Apartheid when I was a college student…I would like to think we had a part in causing change (italics mine for emphasis)"

In this response 'Ernest' has pretty much spelled out the full nature of the delusion of the progressive activist dating back since Vietnam. That he clearly is unable to see the reality of what he's essentially revealed makes all the more pertinent that we understand it because it's basically dogma with every activist in the 21^st century.

The modern activist is incapable of realizing that without political power, marching alone doesn't cut it. You need economic and political power somewhere down the line and people who are willing to listen to listen to you in that world. The protestors against the Vietnam War, with the exception of the Eugene McCarthy candidacy in 1968 and their failed attempts to unite the left behind McGovern, never had that.

And in my lifetime activist movements have been all about getting attention before the camera rather than working towards a political goal. For all the energy of the demands for AIDS funding, the lesbian and gay community made no real progress during the 1980s until the end of the 21^st century because they were built on rage and demanding to be heard rather then trying to convince politicians to help them. Much of what passed for civil rights in the 1980s and 1990s under figures like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton was always build on rage and anger rather than trying to build bridges. Certainly none of it ever compared to what the conservative movement was doing at every level of government and in the media. From the 1980s to the 21^st century, the right organized at a governmental level, the left shouted and protested for the cameras. We all know who won that battle.

In the 21^st century the left has spent much of its time following the gospel of Marx – Groucho far more than Karl. Whatever it is, they're against it. They've been against the War on Terror, the War in Iraq, the WTO, they've occupied Wall Street, they've been against police violence, police brutality and anything the Republican Party has been associated with – though to be clear, they've never been that wild for Democrats. They've made it clear how they feel about Donald Trump and have made it clear to anyone who will listen and even those who wouldn't for ten straight years. They're against the One Percent, capitalism, billionaires, trillionaires, ICE, Gaza, book banning, book publishing, white supremacy, the patriarchy, and of course moderates.

I don't blame the protestors for being angry and outrages about so much of what's happening in the world. I understand the frustration and the desire to do something about it. It's admirable and should be encouraged. Where I differ with the Ernests of the world is that I actually want to do something to fix things long term rather than take the quick, dopamine hit of protesting and chanting.

I've often wondered if people like Ernest actually look at their actions and believe they've created change or they delude themselves into thinking they have because it makes them feel important. Looking at Ernest's response I see it’s a mix of the two. He wants or needs to believe he played a role in the fall of apartheid because it makes him feel like he played the same kind of role as elected officials like Dinkins and Dellums did.  But it's not anywhere near the same thing at all.  Activists have done much in recent years to argue their roles are more important then those of the politician but you can't have real change without both.  Laws and treaties have a far more important effect then the rhetoric of the activist. Today's protestors have forgotten this fact, if they ever knew it and in the case of the Ernests in the world, I think that's debatable.

One of the recurring lines of the left-wing activist is 'We're on the right side of history'.  This works for many reasons. First like all progressive statements it pushes the goal lines for the outsider down the road to some indeterminate time in the future. Second it argues that the other – who the left has already decided must be disregarded as a bigot – can't make any judgments, only some future society will, who of course will argue as always the progressives were correct. And finally it forces any opposition into proving a negative because there's no way in the present one can prove that you will be regarded what will happen later.  All of which absolves the activist – in their own minds, which is all that matters -  for any responsibility for their actions in the present,

The irony is, of course, that the prudent historian can demonstrate with the benefit of hindsight which actions worked for one side and which failed for the other. The leftist themselves do this when they choose to look back and argue how previous generations have failed them. That decades, even centuries, after so many of the historic events that have passed by the left knows to a moral certainty what previous generations did incorrectly but still can't define what we should do now, is another example of their willful blindness.

'Ernest', to be clear, believes sincerely that he his actions were the correct ones and that they changed the world. That he admits that he can't prove this fact is no reason for him to dismiss his certainty that he did. Furthermore, he makes it clear he is proud that the next generation are doing the exact same thing he did in regard to world events. That all they are doing is perpetuating the same endless cycle I listed above is not something he is willing to concede and he certainly has no intention of telling his children otherwise.

And why would we? It's nearly impossible to admit to ourselves that our actions were not only meaningless in the grand scale of things but that they may have contributed to so much of the wreckage that this 21^st century America. In a world when even listening to the opposition is considered a betrayal of the cause – even if by doing so it might at last bring about the change the activist has spent their lives working for -  the burden always seems to be on the 'other' to come to them.  That throughout American history there are far more examples of those on the left preferring to stay on the outside throwing thunderbolts rather then work within the system to bring about change  - and those actions have almost always delayed the cause of reform far more than they have ever helped it -  is not something the activist wants to acknowledge either.

I should mention the only thing that I found shocking about Ernest's commentary is that he was so forthcoming about something I've only suspected for years. I merely bring this commentary up because going forward those who wish to bring about reform – the kind that Ernest believes he was vital to in his memory but in reality had nothing to do with -  we must make it clear that the activist is never going to solve the problem because they have no clear idea themselves how to solve it.  They have convinced themselves that there is only one way to do things, they will hear no other and they will pass that down from generation to generation like a family heirloom rather than something far closer to a genetic defect – an inability to hear any opinion but one's own.  This makes them part of the problem, not the solution. And if we want to bring about a better world we have to realize that they have no desire to bring it about themselves.

As for 'Ernest' I don't expect to hear from him again. I ended my discussion with him by putting forth a question that no leftist ever wants to answer because it undercuts everything they believe in. It's always easier to either ignore it or call the questioner part of the 'enemy.'  I always leave the door half open for reasonable dialogue even among those I disagree with. That's another difference between them and me, even though they'll never acknowledge it either.

 

Homicide Rewatch: Blood Ties (Part 1)

 

Written by Anya Epstein ; story by Tom Fontana & Julie Martin

Directed by Alan Taylor

 

How does Homicide choose to begin its sixth season? 

Bayliss and Pembleton return to the squad after three months spent in robbery. Lewis went to vice (though we learn he didn't go that far) and Kellerman went to auto.  We're told essentially that all of the detectives at the end of Season 5 went out on rotation to other units. (Except for Munch who never goes anywhere.) Through the magic of the rotation (and television) the entire unit is being brought back to Homicide three months later.  (The exception is Howard who has been shifted to fugitive and will not be seen again for the rest of the series run.)

Bayliss is speaking rhapsodic terms: "Give me Homicide or give me death," certain that Giardello and the unit will be thrilled their back. And the show immediately undercuts them by having the bosses cheering the unit and then first Munch, then Giardello saying: "Nope you were missed at all. In fact the closure rates never been better."

So the tables have been turned yet again. Now it's not just Frank who has something to prove but all the detectives who've come back. And all three of the new detectives – Falsone, Gharty and fresh from Seattle Laura Ballard – who have new detective smell and have the edge going forward.

Homicide has never once been concerned with making its viewers comfortable, whether it comes to attracting new faces or isolating the old. So it begins its most triumphant season with two ambitious storylines: one of which is clear from the jump, one which will only become clearer as the season unfolds. The former is the most prominent as Homicide embarks on what is it first three-part episode since Season Three led by one of the greatest actors of all time and two of the greatest African-American character actors in history, though it would be a while until the latter demonstrated it. The latter is by far the most ambitious storyline Homicide would ever do and whose likes would not be seen again on network television until more heavily serialized dramas like 24 would debut at the start of the new century.

What's remarkable about the show going into the new season is how brilliantly all three new regulars hit the ground running. This is particularly impressive when it comes to Callie Thorne as Laura Ballard. Historically Homicide has a hit or miss  track record when it comes to new characters particularly female ones and its astonishing that Thorne – who at the time had only three films to her credit and no history in TV – is immediately superb. And all the more so because she's the first female detective the show has introduced since we met Howard. Ballard immediately makes it clear she will not be trifled with, sarcastically mocks Frank as being a low-key Type B guy'  and then proves the point when Pembleton is enraged to find Ballard has not only taken over his old desk but that Al tells his ace learn to share.

The other problems are subtler. Lewis shows up and makes it clear he wants a new partner though he refuses to tell Al why exactly. When Kellerman asks him later why he ended up with Falsone – and Meldrick immediately lies and says Gee put him with Paul  - it confirms what we suspected: Meldrick wants to get as far away from the shooting of Luther Mahoney as possible and that means not working with the man who shot him.

Kellerman actually doesn't seem that bad when we first run into him – or rather into Cox. Their relationship is clearly in the awkward small talk phase though Mike's clearly making an effort. When he tells Juliana he hasn't been going to the Waterfront in a while, it's a pleasant surprise as is the fact that he clearly seems happy to be going back to Homicide. Given how badly the previous year was for him Mike is clearly hoping that he can start in the rotation with a clean slate. He doesn't know that being partnered with Munch is the best change that's coming to him.

While we get hints of the major plot in the opening sequence where someone in a motorcycle helmet with a gun seems to be stalking several detectives at the unit we're almost inclined to dismiss it because we've spent most of the first act catching up with old friends and meeting the new people. The active plot comes when we learn that Al is attending a black tie dinner for Felix Wilson, the snack cake king and that Al is a friend of Regina, the man's wife. "There's a lot we don't know about you," Munch says when he learns that. As it turns out Al knows less about his friends.

Frank ends up picking up the phone because Ballard offers to first do so. There's a murder at the Belvedere hotel: a woman's body has been found in the second floor men's room.  When Ballard and Gharty offer to help Frank pushes them off and only because of Bayliss saying that there will be nearly 200 guests to interview does Frank say: "We'll make this a road trip." He doesn't know what he's stepped in for his triumphant return.

The women in the men's room has been thrown into the wall and someone tried to clean up the mess. We learn almost immediately this is where the function that Giardello is at it taking place and while he doesn't know the victim the Wilson family does – Melia Brierre, a Haitian domestic. It's when Frank refers to Felix Wilson as better known for his good work to the black community then his cupcakes. Al makes it clear he grew up with Regina in Perkins Homes – and then he gets called away from what's been going on without him knowing.

Its at the first commercial when Lewis and Falsone are driving back from dinner and complaining about the check that shots start being fired at their black and white. It's the driver from before but we still don't know who it is. Only that he was firing .50 caliber rounds.  Bonfather shows up and for once his fear has less to do with PR: he makes it clear he wants all plainclothes wearing Kevlar from now on. And because this is Homicide Lewis and Falsone are immediately called to a murder.

There is another familiar face: Stivers, whose been rotated to robbery. She was interviewing a woman named Molly Bowman and while she was talking to her Bowman was shot dead.  Tellingly Al makes it very clear he wants the Bowman murder put on hold: he wants them to find out who's taking shots at his detectives. "I'm not going to any more police funerals this year," he sees meaningfully.

Each of the detectives takes one of the Brierre family. Bayliss talks to Thea who says she brought her in from Haiti to try and save her. "Arrogant, Ivy League me."  Gharty talks to Regina and tells her that Al needs to separate himself from the interviews. Ballard talks to Hal the son who asks almost dumbly: "Did it hurt?" Ballard in her fashion says: "Yeah, it probably hurts like hell."

And Pembleton and Felix Wilson get into a longer talk then he usually has with witnesses to murders about a woman named Hattie Caroll, a woman who was casually hit by a blue blood and the woman dies of a heart attack while the white blue- blood gets away with a nothing sentence. The first real sign that this isn't business as usual comes after the interviews ends and Bayliss asks Frank a question we've never heard him ask Frank in five years: "If this wasn't Felix Wilson, would we have just let him leave?"  Frank, who has a rejoinder for everything Bayliss says, simply says. "It's time to go."

Cox tells the detectives (including Ballard and Gharty) that in addition to being beaten and strangled Melia Brierre had what appeared to be consensual sex before she was killed. Pembleton then wants to talk with Thea Wilson about potential lovers, which would be the next step in the investigation. He's told that Melia's last boyfriend, a man she knows only as Caja a member of the Haitian Army before Aristide took over, Caja becomes the suspect.

Ballard actually has a conversation with Cox which basically passes the Bechdel test before the term was coined. Ballard is trying to think about what it means to be a good cop and that she respects Pembleton but she thinks he's undercutting her.  Cox says to stand up to him. "That's easy. You have height on your side,"     Ballard jokes.

Munch actually seems to be looking forward to working with Kellerman – he reminds us the bad luck he has with partners. He flinches when he hears a noise which Kellerman mocks but Munch – who's been shot at before is nervous about. Immediately after shots ring out and Kellerman gets nicked in the arm.  After that Falsone puts two and two together and figures out the three detectives who've been shot at all were present at Luther Mahoney's death. This immediately pisses off Kellerman who wants to work the case while bleeding.

Jon Seda would start taking abuse almost immediately as Paul Falsone and I suspect much of it had to do with his apparent determination to get to the truth behind the Mahoney shooting. Because Falsone was the new guy and Kellerman and Lewis were established characters it was natural long time viewers took sides – that combined with the 'cop-a-ganda' narrative that Homicide basically resisted but that was still baked into 90s TV.

The show tells us that the Mahoney empire is being divvied up by a bunch of wanna-be Luther's and no one wants to talk about whose shooting even though these people will 'roll at the drop of a crack pipe.' When Falsone tries to reconstruct the shooting with an already hostile Kellerman he tries to be honest but admittedly does so in a way that really seems like he's trying to get a rise out of Mike when he details everything that happened as well as the fact that Lewis can't look him in the eye as well as that Mike seems perfectly fine with it. I suspect we're uncomfortable because we actually know what happened and Falsone is making the viewer complicit in rejoicing in Luther's death. It doesn't help that Mike is starting to ask with a snideness and unpleasant we're not used to from him. It really does seem like Falsone and Mike are going to come to blows before Meldrick brings Falsone down to talk to one of Luther's old suppliers Willkie Collins.

Falsone and Lewis go to town on Collins. Falsone brings up the fact that cops are being shot and that doesn't muss Willkie's hair. Its when Meldrick starts threatening his cash flow that Willkie takes it personally. "I'm an import/exporter," he demurs. "You are a narcotics trafficker!" Meldrick snarls.  "But I'm also a reasonable man." Willkie takes the position not unlike Stringer Bell would with Avon Barksdale that the Mahoney family had too much killing and not enough business. He gives up the shooter as Junior Bunk.

Junior has not changed since we first met him: he runs for the door the moment Lewis and Stivers track him down, he starts crying the moment he's caught and he flips the moment the heat gets too bad. Lewis takes his normal tone; Falsone is far more aggressive. And we learn who sent Junior on his rampage: Luther's sister Georgia Rae Mahoney. Georgia Rae is convinced that Kellerman, Lewis and Stivers set her brother up to be killed because they couldn't make a case against him. (The look that Lewis and Stivers share when Junior says that makes it clear they know this is bad.) Georgia Rae has been in the Caymans handling the money and now that her brother's dead. "She has my uncle's way of seeing things," Junior says.  And talk about dysfunction: Junior is more than willing to give us his mother in exchange for a deal.

Much of what happens has quite a bit of action heavy level – bullets flying and hitting police cars and regulars, a helicopter chase to a private airstrip, Georgia Rae greeting Kellerman by kneeing him in the grown. Some fans saw this as action heavy but I have little doubt this was not far removed from what the producers had done during Season 4 when they'd successfully managed to boost the ratings. As always the show remained true to itself keeping it within the context of Homicide. Georgia Rae is caught but its clear we're nowhere near finished – though at this point we can't guess how. Falsone is still pushing at Lewis at the end, and Meldrick clearly doesn't want to talk about it.

The final scene demonstrates just how good Callie Thorne is. It takes a great actor to go head to head with Andre Braugher and keep even. Ballard makes it very clear that she wants to talk to Felix and Hal Wilson in regard to whether they had a relationship with Melia. Frank, who's mostly held it in, says he had no reason to dislike Ballard but that he is the primary and he will run this case the way he sees fit. "This is the way I've always worked. Do we understand each other?"

We've seen other detectives react in anger or frustration or just walk away from Frank for five seasons. Ballard doesn't even blink. "Perfectly." Before Frank can say good Ballard says sweetly: "So I guess that means you want to handle the press?"

Frank blinks and says what. Ballard's eyes flick towards the outside of the squad. She barely cracks a smile. "Smile Pembleton. It'll look a lot better on television." Then the two of them walk outside and Ballard basically lets Pembleton face the vultures on his own.

And in the final shot we see Georgia Rae in a jumpsuit and behind bars. She tells the guard to send a message to Kellerman making it clear that they have no idea what they're in for and what they've unleashed. And like her brother before her, this is one promise that will be kept.

 

 

 

NOTES FROM THE BOARD

"Detective Munch" The moment Frank and Tim show up Munch describes Ballard as 'flavor of the month, detective de jure,". When Frank asks which makes us Munch replies: "Well the phrase 'chopped liver' comes to mind. He then says thanks to Ballard they're all getting citations of merit and then says "Welcome back. I gotta get my picture taken."

That line's nearly as good as after Munch finishes the interview and leaves he says: "I feel like I've been in this ballroom all night. Maybe it's because I've been in this ballroom all night." Of course two minutes after he leaves he and Kellerman get shot at…

The episode explains Max Perlich's absence from the show in one of the greatest in-jokes. Brodie's documentary (the one we all saw in the episode of the same name) won an Emmy and he moved to LA. "An Emmy?" Bayliss says snidely. "They give those to anybody." No, the cast and crew of Homicide is not the least bit bitter that they only got one Emmy nomination in 1997. Not at all.

Get the DVD: As the Mahoney crew is rousted you'll hear Terrell's 'Black and White Blues'. In the bar when Junior is rousted RunOn's 'Bring Her Blues can be heard.' The helicopter chase is scored to INXS 'Elegantly Wasted'. On either the DVD or streaming you can hear the Jason Stevens Quartet play 'Say What in the Belvedere ballroom before the arrest.

Considering the incredible caliber of guest stars in the first three episodes alone I'm going to highlight each of the big names in their own episode of Blood Ties. I will start, as you can imagine, with the biggest.

Hey, Isn't That…James Earl Jones was arguably the biggest get Homicide had managed since Robin Williams had appeared in Bop Gun back in Season 2. While he's understandably known for his movie and Broadway work, I'm going to focus on television which during his more than six decade career was just as impressive as anything else.

For one he was the man who generations of people knew said 'This is CNN. But his career dated back to playing the Prince of Morocco on the TV series Monitor back in 1962. He played Dr. Jim Frazier on Guiding Light for 2266 episodes in 1966. While he had many small TV roles in in the interim he played Long John Spoilsport on the 1975 series Vegetable Soup. He played Balthazar on the 1977 series Jesus of Nazareth (the same year Episode IV came out) and played Alex Haley in Roots: The Next Generation and Father Divine in the Emmy Winning TV Movie: Guyana Tragedy. He played the title tole in the short-lived series Paris in 1979-1980, Lou Garfield in the justly forgotten TV series Me and Mom and Lee Atkins in two episodes on L.A. Law which earned him an Emmy nomination. He played Gabriel Bird on the TV series Gabriel's Fire, then again on Pros and Cons. (He's also known to this viewer for playing Thad Green on the Mathnet sequence of SQUARE ONE TV) He served as the Narrator on the first season of 3^RD Rock from the Sun, the Angel of Angels on Touched by an Angel and countless  other roles.

Jones would be nominated for eight Emmys and win two, both in 1991. He won Best Actor in a Drama for playing Gabriel Bird in Gabriel's Fire and for playing Junius Jackson in the TV Movie Heat Wave. He was nominated for playing Alice in the HBO TV movie  By Dawn's Early Light in 1990, for Best Guest Actor in a Drama for Bryant Thomas in Picket Fences in 1994, for Best Supporting Actor in a dram for Under One Roof, for Best Guest Actor in a Comedy for Frasier in 1997 and for Guest Actor in a Drama for playing Will Cleveland in Everwood. His last major award nomination was for playing himself in The Big Bang Theory in 2014.

Of course there's always been a fair amount of voice work connected to his major works Star Wars and The Lion King and every TV show connected with it. He last did the voice of Darth Vader in Obi-Wan Kenobi in 2022. He passed away much beloved and honored in 2024 at the age of 93.

Robert Chew who plays Willkie Collins will later go on to play a very similar character in The Wire, Prop Joe. Those of you who remember that series will know he met a similar fate as he will in Homicide.

It's Baltimore: Lenny Moore who introduces Felix Wilson was a halfback and flanker for the Colts from 1956 to 1967. He was MVP of the NFL in 1964 and was selected to the Pro Bowl seven times. Incredibly as of this writing he is still alive at 92.