Homicide Episode Guide: Betrayal

Written by Gay Welch; story by Tom Fontana

Directed by Clark Johnson

                This episode finds two detectives in the show at a crossroad in their lives. For one of them, it is a professional problem; for the other, it starts out seeming professional but ends up being far more personal.

                After three months of buildup, the time has come for Mike Kellerman to testify before the grand jury regarding the allegation that he took bribes from the Rolands while he was in arson. We have known this was an ordeal for Kellerman but it is only now that we understand the magnitude of the problem. If Mike testifies that he didn’t know about the bribery going on in his unit, he will be charged with perjury. If he testifies that he did know, he will be brought up on charges of failing to report graft. More importantly, if he survives that he will be ruined in the eyes of the other cops in the department. He is therefore faced with one option: taking the Fifth Amendment, an act which will have its own repercussions.

                After all the work that the writers have done at setting up this dilemma, they then sort of take an easy way out when he learns that one of the other detectives under indictment names Kellerman. Realizing that he has no other options, he tells the FBI investigator that he is will give her all the evidence that she needs for an indictment. The investigator is so impressed by Kellerman zeal and fire that when the time comes to question Mike, she stops short of asking him the hard ones. Afterwards, when a stunned Kellerman asks why she let him go she tells him that she was impressed by his loyalty and dedication, and anyway she has enough evidence for indictments.

                Not only is this difficult to believe as real it seems kind of disappointing that after everything that happens all we get is this. But as we see at a celebration at the Waterfront, Mike is now convinced that no matter what the grand jury says or what his colleagues say, they still think he’s dirty. He has gone through the system at one end and came out the other, and he is harder, bitter and more cynical for it. This will have immediate ramifications in the next few episodes. The more lasting consequences will not become clear until the season is almost over and Kellerman faces another, far worse ordeal.

                We’re not as upset about how the Kellerman storyline is playing out because a far more agonizing crime is happening in the main story. Bayliss and Pembleton are called out on the murder of another young black girl--- this one, dead from what blunt trauma on top of what may have been years of abuse.

                From the beginning of this episode to the end Tim is pissed off at just about everybody--- from the social worker who was called in to investigate claims of abuse at her home and did nothing to the assistant D.A. who ends up giving the killer a light sentence. He is shouting at the dead girl’s mother, her boyfriend and at Frank. This is the same kind of anger we saw involving Adena Watson and the murder of Janelle Parsons last year. But it is clear that this case has struck a far deeper nerve then usual.

                Then again, this case is more disturbing. The mother of the dead girl reported the girl missing and claims complete ignorance of how she got the bruising and welts on her body. In an unusual reversal, Frank takes the role of sympathetic voice as a fellow parent and manages to get the truth out of the mother—that her boyfriend struck her hard enough to kill her. But the more chilling part comes when she explains to Frank why she helped dispose of the body, lied to the police and protect her boyfriend from prosecution. He’s all the family she has left, and she has to protect him even if he did murder her daughter. The ultimate shock comes when we learn why--- she is pregnant with his child. Perhaps the most unnerving sequence in this episode occurs when the mother tells Frank that this baby will be safe because it’s his. LaTanya Richardson gives one of the most unsettling performances in Homicide’s history.

                Kyle Secor gives an astonishing performance in a season where he has already done some of his finest work. That he wasn’t even nominated for an Emmy was one of the biggest robberies in the history of the awards. Yet all of his anger does not prepare us for one of the more stunning revelations in the show. He reveals to Frank that he was sexually abused by his uncle from the age of five, and that we he revealed this to his father, the man never believed him or did anything to help him. It is stunning when we learned that Secor came up with the idea recently because it explains so much about Tim Bayliss--- why he wanted to be a cop, why he goes after child murderers with such furor, why he had such a terrible relationship with his father. (In an odd synchronicity, on NYPD Blue, the equally troubled and tortured Detective Russell, played by Kim Delaney, would reveal a similar pattern of abuse in her past.)

                Even more stunning then this is Tim’s telling Frank he doesn’t want to partner with him anymore. There has been a gulf building between the two detectives since Frank returned to duty and there’s clearly more going on then just this revelation. He will stand firm to this, not partnering with Frank till the season is almost over.

                ‘Betrayal’ is a stunning episode dealing with who is telling on whom, and who protects whom. It features brilliant acting and writing as well as brilliant camera work (one of the most breathtaking shots in Homicide’s history occurs when the camera follows Giardello as he circles a beleaguered Pembleton) It holds for a long time in the memory of the characters and the viewers and the images are not happy ones.

My score: 4.5 stars.

SMILF Review: Back to that Dark, Showtime Place

At some point in Showtime's evolution as a network, it has changed from a home for original series that targeted a specific audience (Soul Food, Queer as Folk, The L Word) to dark series with an edge (Homeland, United States of Tara, The Big C) to specializing in series with a genuine sense of sketchiness to them, usually featuring in dark sex. It has moved a bit away from that direction, mainly with its dramas (Billions, The Affair) , but its comedies have a very dark edge to them. So it would be easy to look at SMILF,  which centers around Bridget (Frankie Shaw) a twenty-ish mother in Southie (Boston) as just another series in the Californication/Weeds mold.

But this is different. For one thing, Shaw is the creator/writer of this series, which is based not only on a short film she designed, but also has an autobiographical flair. She is trying to raise her toddler son, co-parenting with her baby daddy Raffi (Miguel Gomez), who has also moved on to dating a local sportscaster named Nelson (Samara Weaving). The series also goes out of its way not to demonize the other woman, which is refreshing. She is trying to support herself and her son doing small acting jobs and tutoring richer kids (as she freely admits, this involves doing most of the work for them). It's very clear that at some point Bridget saw so much more for herself - in addition to her education, she's also an excellent pick-up basketball player. But now, she lives life on the fringes, spending time working for the family of a much more affluent student (Connie Britton does good work as the mother), and actually considering working in a similar field with her friend (Raven Goodwin) who is into a very specialized form of an internet porn. And there's a certain tragic aspect to her life - almost in passing in the pilot, she mentioned that she was sexually abused by her father, and its clear that it affects her nearly as much as living in poverty does.

Now, because this is Showtime, there's a level of skeeziness to  this that seems obligatory She basically picks an old friend off the street to have sex with so she can see if she's back to normal, she has sex with a former student of her, which leads to an interrupted ejaculation shot (ewww!!) and in the middle of looking for work at a temp agency, she has what amounts to a fantasy where she considers working in something 'prostitution adjacent'. But there's a certain level of humanity to this that has been severely lacking in so many similar Showtime series. At one point, desperate to earn money, she goes on Craigslist meets with a man who seems more desperate for companionship and conversation than deviant sex. They go into a convenience store and have a long conversation about the American Dream and dashed hopes that, frankly, wouldn't have been out of place on a David Simon series. Of course, it climaxes with something much darker, and a more realized punch line, but there seemed more energy to it than I'm used to from a typical Showtime series.

SMILF is not a perfect series by any stretch of the imagination. I can definitely see ways that it could end up operating in the same wheelhouse where Shameless did for far too long. And it still hasn't found a way to balance its cast very well. (Rosie O'Donnell plays Bridget's mother, but still hasn't been given enough to make a character yet.) But there's enough good stuff there for the series to work a lot better than its title would suggest. Unfortunately, this is Showtime. A lot of series start with the perfect measure of darkness and comedy and flatten out very quickly. I hope for Frankie Shaw, and for Bridget, that this it not the case.

My score: 3.5 stars.

Homicide Episode Guide: The Documentary

Written by Eric Overmeyer; story by Tom Fontana, James Yoshimura, and Eric Overmeyer

Directed by Barbara Kopple

                It isn’t very often that a television show will make deliberate attempts to satirize itself and its atmosphere. Such attempts of mockery often fall flat or leave viewers scratching their heads. (This would change in the 21st century where series would become more and more insular, even the comedies.) Only three programs that I have watched have made this attempt.  The X-Files satirized itself several times, most memorably in the extraordinary episode ‘Jose Chung’s “From Outer Space”. Buffy The Vampire Slayer did so on a couple of occasions, perhaps having the greatest success with ‘Superstar’ and ‘The Zeppo’, two episodes that looked at the show from a completely different angle. And Homicide  does so in ‘The Documentary’, a multi-layered, interwoven episode that while presenting itself straightforward is, in many ways, one long in-joke.

                The episode centers around an unusually quiet New Year’s Eve as the detectives gather to watch a documentary made by J.H. Brodie in his spare time during the last year. While much of the documentary is pretentious (it is titled Back Page News: Life and Homicide on the Mean Streets of Baltimore), in many ways it runs like an episode of the series. It also features many elements openly mocked by the detectives that are, in realty, probably based on what network executives thought of the show. It features editing that repeats some shots, over and over that are considered mistakes. It also features the camera lingering on things over and over and the detectives frequently complain that the show doesn’t have enough action.

                On a more personal level, the detectives are also annoyed that Brodie has captured many secretive moments that they don’t want revealed--- jokes about overtime, their off-screen relationships, and their approach to the job--- all obstacles David Simon had to overcome when he wrote his book on the Homicide unit. It is clear that Gee realizes how embarrassing this could be to the squad when he tries to get the tape from Brodie. He is therefore particularly upset when Brodie reveals he has sold the documentary to PBS (ironically, one year later PBS would broadcast a documentary based on the filming of Homicide) It is here that Perlich makes an impassioned speech saying that his pursuit of the truth in the film is exactly the same as the detectives pursuit at their job, that invading their privacy serves the greater good by documenting the truth about police work.  It is his finest hour on the series.

                In the actual documentary, Brodie films a series of sequences that are among the best the show would ever do. Set in the interrogation room, it features all six detectives, describing in detail the rights of a murder suspect, how the detective gets around them, and how he manages to elicit a confession from these less than brilliant minds. Essentially, the detectives are splitting a five page passage in Simon’s book about this very subject, often line for line. One of the highlights of the book, the actors’ delivery (particularly Braugher’s, Richard Belzer’s and Melissa Leo’s) is near perfect, putting the viewer literally in the hot seat.

                Another great sequence appears when art imitates life imitating art. Kellerman and Lewis  chase after a suspect around a corner--- right into the production team of Homicide  including Barry Levinson playing himself. This is in fact a fictional adaptation of a real-life incident that occurred in October 1996, when security guards chased a thief right on to a location where the show was filming--- whereupon the suspect promptly surrendered to the fake cops! Brodie’s adds to the general surrealism when he tells Levinson how to make the show more realistic.

                Many of the montages that we see in the film feature clips from actual episodes of Homicide filmed over the past season. (The creators don’t care that much for continuity, as  not only are many of the clips Brodie uses he never filmed but in fact wasn’t even in the episode they took place in!) The main one is filmed in a music video style, practically identical to the musical sequence that we have seen on the show.

                The main case featured in Brodie’s documentary--- the murder of Llewelynn Kilduff--- is filmed very much like a typical case. The suspect  (played by Melvin Van Peebles) in the murder--- a mortician---  is on the scene when Bayliss and Pembleton arrive, he is still holding the gun, and he is more than willing to surrender himself to their custody. He does not, however, offer an explanation as to why he killed the man and while this is good enough for Frank, Tim (as always) is focused on the why. Ever persistent he pursues the cases and uncovers the lonely undertaker’s secret--- he took corpses home, dressed than up, took pictures of them, and (though this is not explicit) had sex with them. The nature of the murder is probably a subtle in-joke about how many executives and viewers considered Homicide too dark a show.

                We also see a lot about personal relationships—those Brodie caught on film (Howard with her unidentified boyfriend, Gee with two young ladies) and one he hasn’t--- Mike and Julianna Cox, who are actually trying to make a relationship out of the attraction they share.

                Brodie even manages to solve one mystery of his own--- the identity of the Lunch Bandit (first mentioned in last seasons ‘Map of the Heart’) To everyone’s surprise, the bandit is Captain Gaffney.

                Magnificently shot and well-written ‘The Documentary’ does require that the viewer know a lot about Homicide in order to get all the references. But even if you don’t this is still a very entertaining show and one of the most memorable in the series history.

My score: 5 stars.

Ranking by Fans: 5^th

Return to Deadwood?

I have always considered it something of a mixed bag when any network, cable or streaming, decides to bring back a classic series in some format. I was elated to see Arrested Development return in any format, delighted (in the end) by the X-Files revival, and impressed by the new season of Twin Peaks earlier this year. But there's just as likely a chance that the series will collapse - Curb Your Enthusiasm doesn't seem to have much life to it, the newest incarnation of 24 was a disaster, and I think the world could have gone without another season of Prison Break.

It's even harder to tell whether or not a film continuation of a TV series is something that will work or should even be attempted in the first place. Serenity brought closure to an unusual number of Firefly fans, and Fire Walk With Me is now considered a masterpiece. But did we really need a Sex and the City movie, let alone a third? And what convinced someone to give California a tax break to film the Entourage film was ridiculous.

But now it appears a film continuation of a series is coming that I would actually approve of, mainly because that it could deliver closure to a loyal group of fans who have been hoping for something to wrap it up since the series was killed too soon in 2005. It now appears that a movie version of Deadwood has finally moved beyond the conceptual stage, and may start filming for a late 2018 release.

A few words of explanation for those who may have missed its run. Deadwood was one of the series that helped lead TV into its current golden age. David Milch, the wunderkind behind Hill Street Blues and NYPD Blue's best work, creating the best version of a television western this century has ever had. Set in the South Dakota mining town in 1876, the series centered around several real characters who settled in that town, and helped it slouch towards civilization. At the center of the action were two magnificent characters Al Swearengen (Ian McShane), the owner of the Gem,  corrupt, venial, bloodthirsty, and yet far more far-seeing than so many 'civilized' men, and Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant),  the easy to anger reluctant lawman, whose reluctant partnership would help bring the town forward.

Surrounding them was one the most extraordinary casts ever assembled, many of whom would launch their careers because of this series. The older hands were Brad Dourif, William Sanderson, John Hawkes, Brian Cox, and the late Powers Boothe. The series would launch the careers of Titus Welliver (Bosch), Paula Malcolmson (Ray Donovan,) Molly Parker (House of Cards), Kim Dickens (Fear the Walking Dead), and Anna Gunn (Breaking Bad).  Many of them would do great work in other series, but few would match their performances here.

The series worked wonderfully for three seasons. Then, for reasons that have never been entirely clear, not even the showrunners and executives, Deadwood was cancelled after its third season was filmed, leaving so many of the storylines unfinished. We were promised two TV movies to wrap up the stories, and the possibility lingered until 2010 that they would come, but they never did. For that reason, HBO's creative peak has never been the quite same since the series died. More importantly, despite how brilliant it was, Deadwood has never quite  registered as being quite as great as the other two giants of HBO's golden era: The Sopranos and The Wire. One ending was controversial, one was perfect, but at least there was an ending.

So the idea for closure for this series is an encouraging one that I would favor. And I'm glad to know it's going to happen. However, there are several questions I have to ask:

First off, what will the script be like? For those who don't know, there were no scripts for much of the Deadwood series. Milch would meet with his writers each day, they would discuss the filming, then he would tell the actors what scenes they would do, and scenes would typically be filmed out of order. Now, it's one thing to do this for a series (God knows it work spectacularly in the case of Deadwood); it's harder to imagine it working for the movie. Then again, I may be over-thinking this part; Mike Leigh and Christopher Guest have made careers based on films like this.

More to the point, what will the movie be about? Part of the skill of Deadwood was that so much of the action took place over a compressed period of time: the typical episode would last a day. It's hard to imagine Milch and company managing to wrap up everything about the series in a single film; it's part of the reason I doubted even two TV movies could do it.

And then there's the problem that was the greatest strength of Deadwood. The language. The amount of profanity that could be spoken by a character in a single speech was, frankly, awe-inspiring, even considering it was HBO. Milch took more abuse about the fact that all of the vulgarities were not anachronistic, and the plain truth is, after you got used to it, there was genuine poetry in it. What I don't know is if the MPAA would be able to handle it. I don't think any movie has managed to get an NC-17 rating just for profanity alone (and that's before you add the high level of violence that was equally present), but it definitely seems like this would be a major challenge to the ratings board. Milch might be able to charm them into it, but it would be a harder sell than the people at HBO.

Now, don't get me wrong. I desperately want a Deadwood movie. For years, I've been trying to get the nerve to write Deadwood fanfiction so I could come up with a final season that the series never got. I want closure, and lacking that, I want to spend time with so many of this infuriating, incredible characters in this Old West that Louis L'Amour never came close to painting.  Still, I make this tremulous suggestion to HBO? Why not make a fourth season of Deadwood as well/instead? You owe it to Milch, you owe it to the viewers, and frankly, you owe to it yourself? You were more than willing to bring back for other seasons lesser shows (alright yes, The Comeback was clearly ahead of its time), and you have been willing to give wrapups for lesser series like Hello Ladies and Looking.

 Would it be a struggle to get the cast back together? Olyphant, McShane, Welliver and Dickens  are tied to other series, and it would have to be done without Cy Tolliver. But I have a feeling that if they would be willing to make this movie, they would be more than willing to make another season, much like the cast of Arrested Development was willing to drop everything to do a Season 5. All of them have said it was the greatest experience in the careers, and I can't imagine they wouldn't jump to get the band back together.

Come on, HBO. Things have never been quite the same for your network ever since you allowed the original series to die the death of a hundred cuts. And frankly, considering how abominably you treated Luck, you owe Milch a fair amount more. Let's make this happen. And I don't just 'want you to tell me something pretty.'

Homicide Episode Guide: Blood Wedding

Written by Matthew Wittem; story by Tom Fontana and James Yoshimura

Directed by Kevin Hooks

                As I have mentioned at least a half-dozen times by now, one of the things that made Homicide such a brilliant show was how it would, once or twice a season, stop a while to linger on the anguish of the victims. This has already been done to brilliant effect in episodes like ‘Every Mother’s Son’ and ‘A Doll’s Eyes’ or this season’s ‘The Heart of a Saturday Night’.  You wouldn’t think there would be any new twists they could put on it, but again ‘Blood Wedding’ shows that Fontana and company know how to do it.

                Assistant District Attorney Ed Danvers has always been portrayed as the typical city prosecutor--- not deliberately mean or callous, but mainly because he feels the endless pressure to try and get the case file closed or the docket freed up. As such viewers--- and probably some of the detectives---   saw him as indifferent or unemotional to the process of crime. In this episode Danvers learns about this in an incredibly violent way. While shopping for a wedding dress with his fiancée Meryl Hansen, an armed robber comes into the store with a gun. Somehow, Meryl ends up dead at the end of a .38  and Ed Danvers spends much of the episode with his clothes splashed with  the blood of his intended.

                The case ends up being Pembleton’s first as a primary detective since his stroke nearly six months ago and when Danvers learns this he doesn’t think Frank’s up to the task. However, even though Frank is still a little rocky as an investigator, Ed is in no shape to be making judgments of sense. Much like Robert Ellison in Season 2’s ‘Bop Gun’, Danvers spends much of the episode almost in a trance. He has clearly been wounded but he can not bring himself to go to the hospital. Unlike Ellison, however, Danvers is constantly challenging Frank, interfering with witnesses statements and coming up with different angles for the detectives to investigate. Pembleton is understandably pissed at having to deal with this, especially when Giardello backs Danvers on this.

                Eventually Frank and Tim track down a suspect in the robbery homicide. They find some evidence linking him to the robbery—ammo, ski masks, threads--- but nothing that conclusively links the suspect to the murder. In the interrogation they go after the robber hard, especially saying that since the victim was a public defender, every prosecutor in the city will want to convict him and no lawyer in the city will want to defend him. This shakes the suspect up but not enough to make him confess. The stoic prosecutor voices his demand very simply—he wants the suspect to die. So much so that he goes down to see him and lock-up and tells him that he will make it his life’s work to see the man dead.

                But neither Danvers or anyone else will get any kind of closure with this case, because at the end of the episode the suspect hangs himself in his cell. In typical Homicide fashion, we never learn whether this is out of guilt or because of the fear that the detectives and Danvers rammed into him.

                Zeljko Ivanek gives the most emotional and intense performance that he will ever deliver as Ed Danvers finds himself at the hands of the callous investigative process and the indifference of the legal system, an indifference he himself fostered. In a powerful scene near the end of the episode, he berates himself for all the years of cutting corners and closing files, of forgetting the victim’s names and the heinousness of the crimes. This is a strong scene made even stronger by the fact that when Danvers returns to work later this season, he will be obeying the same rules and sticking with the same indifference; the criminal justice system can not survive any other way.

                Danvers isn’t the only person becoming disgusted with how the system works: Kellerman is becoming more and more dismayed by the procedure of his case--- by the end of the episode, the FBI has postponed the grand jury hearings until mid-January, thus forcing him to spend the holidays wondering if he has a future in law enforcement. He is so upset at this that he turns to Gee and the lieutenant does try to help. He goes to the three other detectives who are being prosecuted and asks them point blank if they will testify against Kellerman. Two of them (Goodman and Pires) say they won’t but Connelly, who we have seen twice before, reveals that in exchange for reduced prison time, he will give Mike’s name, whether or not he is guilty.

                In desperation Gee turns to Deputy Commissioner Harris, who we haven’t seen since season three. It is here we learn an ugly truth: Roger Gaffney was promoted to captain over Giardello because Harris wanted to remind the lieutenant to be more politically pliant. He is still holding a grudge against Gee about the Congressman Wade affair and the beauty of being in power is that you have the ability to carry out your grudges. The antagonism between the two men will fester until the end of the season when a conspiracy will reveal ugliness in Harris’s past---  enough to destroy a career.

                Not only are things going lousy professionally for the squad, they are faring badly personally. After Kellerman’s one night stand with Cox, Mike thinks that the two of them have more of a relationship then they do. It will develop but not very well, as it will take both Mike and Julianna into a severe downward spiral. And now Brodie has been reduced to sleeping in the morgue, having run out of detectives to pinch rooms out of. Fortunately, in a couple of weeks, he will find a place to stay and this overly milked storyline will get dropped.

                ‘Blood Wedding’ is a very dark episode of the level we have almost come to expect from Homicide. Andre Braugher, Yaphet Kotto and the woefully underutilized Melissa Leo deliver top-notch performances. We have seen the grief that murder brings to the victims, now we see how callousness of the system can often be as brutal as the crime itself. Ed Danvers will get over the death of Meryl Hanson but he will be scarred forever.

My score: 4.5 stars.

Fall of A hOUSE OF cARDS

There is no denying a simple truth: the great power in so much of Kevin Spacey's work has always been that he seems a little... off. From his breakout character of crime lord Mel Profit in Wiseguy, to his stunning work as the serial killer in Se7en to his first Oscar as Verbal/Keyzer Soze in The Usual Suspects, there has always been something in his character that makes you realize there is something dangerous below the surface. Even in his work in such brilliant films as American Beauty and Beyond the Sea, there has always been something that you just can't trust. That was perhaps the inner charm of Frank Underwood in House of Cards; even as Frank seemed to let you in on all of the Machiavellian plans for power, even to the point of climbing over bodies, you never could quite believe that you were seeing everything.

And now its become very clear that, just like so many of his characters, we never knew the whole truth about the actor. Over the past month, multiple allegation of sexual assault and harassment have been made against Spacey. Unlike most of the other major sexual scandals, Spacey's have been entirely been made by younger men. It is unclear whether any of the allegations are true, but as is the case with Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby, when there's this much smoke, one has to assume there is at least some fire.

I'm not going to deal with the charges against Spacey. What I do want to deal with is how it will affect the series he has been nominated for multiple Emmys for. In the week that the charges began to come out, Netflix has sent mixed messages. They first announced that the sixth season of House of Cards, due out in 2018, will be its last. Two days later, they announced that they were suspending production on the series. The last announcement has been made that the final season will go forward, but that they have not decided on Spacey's role in it.

Let us consider first how much this will damage the story of the series. There have been situations in the past where series have decided to move forward despite the death of their lead character. In most cases, it has been disastrous for the show. Considering that the sixth season was in production, that probably means that most of the storylines will have to be seriously, if not completely rewritten. And even if they can manage somehow to find a way to do this, even given everything that's happened, its ridiculous on the face of it - one could almost say that it would be like doing the final act of Hamlet, if Hamlet had been murdered in Act Four. For better or worse,  House of Cards has been the story of Frank Underwood. How do you proceed even if you kill him off early on? One could make the argument for continuing the suspension of the series until the charges are made official, and Spacey has a chance - however remote - to clear his name. (And indeed, given that the most recent season ended with Spacey's character being removed from office and his wife becoming president, one could have made the argument that Cards could've just as simply come to an end then, with no complaint.)

But the fact is the damage has already been done to House of Cards. TV advertisements for Netflix have removed it from their slots, and its no longer prominent on the website itself. And considering that the series is the show that essentially put Netflix on the map as a source for original programming, its nearly as criminal as all the backstabbing and doubledealing that went on the series.  Because so much  of House of Cards  - particularly in the first two seasons - was some of the most engaging and brilliant television I've seen on any network. It was by far one of the most realistic and cynical series about politics in medium, and at times, it even made the British series that was its inspiration seem tame. And not all of it had to do with Spacey. Beau Willimon's writing, and the entire cast from Robin Wright and Michael Kelly, down to Reg E. Cathey and Molly Parker was some of the most astounding work for the medium, and considering the level of competition that has been available this decade, that is impressive.

Will Hollywood be able to forgive Kevin Spacey, even if he is found innocent? It's hard to say. Hollywood has a long history of forgive and forget when it comes to this type of sexual behavior. Witness that they were eventually able to honor Mel Gibson, Roman Polanski, and Woody Allen at the Oscars. A more interesting question is whether I can forgive Spacey. He was always one of my favorite actors, and considering his incredible gifts for impersonation, one of the most entertaining performers to watch. Now, I'm not certain I can watch his work with the rose-colored glasses I did before. I stopped watching House of Cards in Season 3, not because I had a problem with anything connected with it, but because I simply didn't have the time. Now that I know what I do about Spacey -  I'm just not certain I can ever find my way back to it again. Much of the series was based on the character of Frank Underwood. And now I don't know if I can disassociate Spacey from Frank's ever again. Which I think is a real loss, and a painful one.

Homicide Episode Guide: Control

Written by Les Carter and Susan Sisko; story by Tom Fontana and Julie Martin

Directed by Jean de Segonzac

                No doubt there was a huge outpouring of relief when this episode first aired as fans finally got what they had wanted, to see Frank Pembleton back on the street. Later, some critics would wonder whether or not Frank’s return—both working cases and in attitude---  had been rushed a bit by Fontana and company. To this I would say how many shows would dare put their star actor on the bench for more than a third of the season. Furthermore, close observance of Braugher over the rest of season five would show that many of the habits and behaviors we have seen throughout the first third of the season--- stumbling over words, faulty memory, slowed speech---  would remain largely present for the remainder of the year.

                This is particularly clear in ‘Control’ where Frank needs to continuously dictate into a tape recorder to protect his untrustworthy memory. He also misspeaks on more than one occasion, and gets on verbal  sidetracks repeatedly. However, the one who clearly doesn’t think Frank has recovered is Bayliss. Acting as primary, and no doubt somewhat buoyed up about working solo the past few months, Tim repeatedly challenges Frank throughout the investigation of  a triple murder. A woman and her two children have been killed—the woman stabbed over twenty times, the children dispatched with a bullet in the head for each of them. Frank wants to pursue her boyfriend, a bartender with a record for assault and a tendency to get angry with the wife. Tim, however, wants to pursue her ex-husband, a naval commander in Annapolis who seems very calm and unemotional--- almost too unemotional.

It seems that Frank is more anxious to interrogate the boyfriend because he’s here and he wants to get back in the box to prove he’s still a good cop. Bayliss, however, seems a little more determined to pursue the other leads, probably because he doesn’t want to be witness to another  stroke by his partner. He has no problem abandoning Frank and butts heads with him more than usual. At one point he complains that the two of them don’t have a rhythm any more, even though the interrogation of the ex-husband has the two of them working at optimum strength. It is clear that Tim has some kind of problem with his partner beyond his understandable fear. Their disputes, which have always been a part of their relationship, will get louder and more frequent until  they hit a breaking point

 While Frank and Tim are getting their groove back (so to speak) Lewis Is

handling a ghost of his own. Called in on the shooting of a low level drug dealer, he finds that the slinger worked for Luther Mahoney. Working again with Terri Stivers, he learns the slinger worked for Junior Bunk, Mahoney’s nephew and, as we will see, one of the most cowardly criminals to work the street. (When Meldrick comes to arrest him, he bursts into tears after being charged.)

Bunk is more than willing to testify ’monogamously’  that his uncle called in a hit man to kill the slinger in question. We learn a lot about Luther when we hear that he paid this hitman $5000 in heroin to kill someone for cheating him out of $300 of heroin. This is how a man like him operates and we will see how far he takes his code.

For once the case seems to be proceeding swimmingly. The detectives get the gun that killed the man, they get the hit man, and they have a man more than willing to testify to conspiracy charges against Mahoney. However, Luther remains as calm and controlled as ever. It is here that things get a little unreal. Supposedly Junior Bunk is in custody, out of reach of Luther. Nevertheless, he manages to get a message to Luther forcing Junior to reverse himself. It seems unlikely that any man would have this kind of reach, but as we will learn in years to come Mahoney does have friends in the department.

Luther’s gall is such that he has the nerve to got to the Waterfront after being cleared and buys a drink for the house. He wisely clears out when Meldrick gets in his face but it is here that Luther that probably goes over the line with Lewis. He’s gone too far and Meldrick will not forget it

Things are getting worse for Kellerman as the grand jury officially subpoenas him. But in another way things are getting better as Juliana Cox makes a couple of visits to him in the squad before spending the night on his boat. This relationship will be a life raft to Mike, but it will eventually become self-destructive to both of them.

‘Control’, much like the previous episode ‘The True Test’ isn’t a bad episode of Homicide. The stories are good, there are good performances by Mekhi Phifer as Junior and Erik Todd Dellums as Luther and it is a critical episode for Lewis, Pembleton and Bayliss. It just doesn’t seem quite up to the high standards that Fontana and company have established this season. Still, there’s little wrong with this episode and it really does feature some good moments, particular in Frank’s final conversation with the ex-husband  in lock-up and Meldrick’s talk with Luther. Fans were probably happy and in truth there isn’t a huge amount to complain about.

My score: 4 stars.