Homicide Episode Guide: Just An Old Fashioned Love Song

Written by Eric Overmeyer

Directed by Leslie Libman & Larry Williams

The biggest flaw with Homicide is, in retrospect, that they never really got a handle on how to deal with regulars who weren't detectives. They would do find with all of the actors who appeared in smaller roles in other jobs, but whenever they tried to introduce a character who didn't work in the squad, they would fail. Russert's up and down movement within the department seems to smack of desperation; when Howard was promoted to Sergeant, her character practically disappeared into the ether; the effort to paint Brodie as an outsider worked a bit too well, and as good an actress as Michelle Forbes was, Juliana Cox only seemed to work as a romantic lead less than an actual character with the ME.

When the writers moved Mike Giardello into the squad as Agent Liaison, they clearly were trying a little harder. By having someone who could link to the FBI and CIB, there was clearly a mix of both insider and outsider to the character. And because he was Al's son, there was an added element of tension to the character that wasn't just professional, it was personal.  We can see it when Al basically spends most of the investigation barking at Mike, even though Ballard is the primary of the case, and the way that Mike has a clear problem with his father. In another telling conversation, mostly having to do with all the failed marriages in the squad, Mike very painfully points out what a failure his father was. "She was married to him. He was married to the job." For six seasons, Al had been painted as a lonely widower, now it becomes clear that he misses her more in theory than he did when she actually alive.

Much of these problems with love come into play in the central investigation at the heart of 'Love Song'. Ballard goes out to see a shooting where a prominent sports doctor has shot and killed a prowler, who turns out to be his own sister-in-law. It soon becomes clear that the victim was a desperate woman long before she walked into her brother-in-law's garage. She was a gambler who was in debt up to her eyeballs, and maxed out her credit cards in order to pay her markers. Gradually, it becomes clear that she conspired with her sister to murder her brother for her life insurance policy.  What gives the story a bit of a Homicide feel is that the husband (well played by Oz  actor O.L. Duke) refused to admit that his sister-in-law would have a reason to kill her, and that his marriage to his wife was superb. He's even willing to post a half-million dollar bail for his wife after she's arresting for conspiracy to commit murder. The story basically ends with the very real possibility that the wife will try to plant reasonable doubt by basing blame on her husband, something Danvers more than admits might work.

This is an intriguing case, far more interesting than we got in the first two episodes. Unfortunately, we're still getting buried in so much of a hormonal messes that we've gotten before. Meldrick may have decided that he's not going to try anything with Sheppard, but that merely means that Bayliss is now entering into a flirtatious period. At least, Meldrick and Falsone were blunt about how they approached things; Tim's way around Renee looks and is incredibly painful, both for him and the viewer. What gives this even the slightest bit of interest is that when Renee points out Tim's sexual history with men, he eventually refers to himself as 'bi-curious', a phrase that had barely entered the vernacular in 1998. To have a lead character that questioning of his sexuality would have problems these days; twenty years ago, on a network TV series, it really was ground-breaking, and I imagine a lot of fans missed it.

But there's no redeeming value to what's going on between Ballard and Falsone. When the two characters are in a gym to learning more information about one of their victims, Falsone gets into the ring, and Ballard does everything short of tossing her panties at him. It's all the more painful, because right now, Falsone is oblivious. (I'm honestly not sure what would have been more painful, him finding out or his ignoring it)

What gives the series a little more room to breathe is what's going on in two smaller stories. Gharty is officially moving out of his house as the divorce proceedings begin. Munch is particularly sympathetic, saying that the Irish tend to internalize - "alcoholism and ulcer'. For once, he has remarkable insight, as this is a problem that will plague Stu for much of the season.

But Munch has problems of his own. The IRS has basically started going after him due to back taxes that basically will end up crushing him even more financially. In typical fashion, he turns to Mike Giardello's help in going after his IRS agent. MGee is particularly smart in saying know. Even the FBI doesn't want to screw with the IRS.

Just An Old Fashioned Love Song is marginally better than the first two episodes of the series. The investigation is more interesting, and than the conversations between Ballard and Mike paint a far more compelling story of the Giardello family than we've gotten before. (There's some background about Mike's former relationship with a woman when he was in Arizona, but its never followed up.) And even though Mike shows some flair of his own, particularly in pursuit of a gun dealer with the unlikely street name of Lemonhead, the writers are going out of the way to make sure that he is not going to be an Andre Braugher imitator. It makes for interesting television, but its still not up to nearly the high bar that Homicide has even with its weakest episodes. And sadly, things are not going to get better quicker.

My score:3 stars.

50 Greatest Episodes of the 21st Century, Part 8: 15-11

15. Parks & Recreation - 'Leslie & Ben' -  5.14

Trying to choose the best episode of Parks & Rec is incredibly difficult - it's one of the rare comedy series that actually got better with each successive season. But its funniest moments were also included in its most sweet, when Leslie and Ben finally decided, on the spur of the moment to get married. The comic gold - Ron making wedding rings out of household objects - was mixed with unusual bittersweetness - when Chris told Ben about how happy he was that they'd found a home in Pawnee. And of course, the most wonderful moment came at the end when, after it seemed their plans had been Jammed,  their friends did what they always did and brought them together. Their wedding vows are really their finest hour. Considering how busy everyone on the series is, I'd be shocked if they got back together. But I can hope.

14. Fargo  - The Castle - 2.9

Trying to choose the best moment from this incredible anthology series is always going to be difficult - there have been so many great heroes and villains throughout the series run that to choose one season out of the other seems unfair. In the end, I must go back to the past - Season 2. The long struggle between the Gerhardt family, the Kansas City mob, and Ed and Peggy, finally climaxed in the key moment in the series mythology - the Sioux Fall Massacre. And unlike so many series where the great moments are anticlimactic, this one surely wasn't. As the Gerhardt family was betrayed by one of their most loyal soldiers, who climaxed his fighting by slaying family matriarch Floyd, the series erupted in one of the bloodiest massacres this side of Sam Peckinpah. (Though as far as I know, Peckinpah never used a literal deux ex machina to save anyone). It's more bloody and real than anything you see on Game of Thrones, mainly because the buildup has been leading to this, and even though we know Lou will survive, we sure are terrified while its going on. One never knows just how Noah Hawley will top himself. Season 4 can't come fast enough.

13. Mad Men -  'Shut The Door, Have A Seat'  - 3.13

Though I feel that this AMC series was often overrated, that certainly wasn't true in the first four seasons. There were a lot of incredible moments throughout the series, and it is tempting to consider 'The Suitcase' their finest hour. But I'm equally fond of the third season finale. When it seems like Sterling Cooper is about to be swallowed whole by a bigger agency, Don and Roger reunite after a season of disagreements to do the equivalent of a heist. Many of Jon Hamm's finest moments are in this episode - when he finally admits that Pete has a better handle on the voice of the country than he does, when he persuades Joan to come aboard, and in his finest moment, when he tells Peggy that he can't imagine working without her. It's a brilliant moment, particularly considering simultaneously his marriage finally collapses and two seasons of trying to hold it up. Most of the ensemble does their best work in collaboration. The fact that the series basically ended with them throwing it all away doesn't do anything to diminish it.

12. Battlestar Galactica -  Crossroads - 3.20

It's always difficult trying to figure out which of these episodes is the greatest. TV Guide flip-flopped, going with 'Blood on the Scales' in their last list, and '33' in this one. Last time out, I remember I chose Kobol's Last Gleaming. All of them are remarkable episodes, but in the end, I think the series finest hour is one of the few that the Emmys actually recognized with nominations. There's so much going on -  Apollo deciding to state quite clearly the hypocrisy of Baltar's prosecution, the verdict that nearly tears the fleet apart (with Adama casting the deciding vote), and the reappearance of Starbuck in the final moments. But by far, the greatest moment was one of the biggest shocks of all time: when we learned who four of the Final Five were. The fact that the characters were just as appalled (including, understandably, Saul Tigh) as the audience was, wasn't nearly as shocking as how they were turned on - the lyrics to 'All Along the Watchtower'. Its still one of the biggest stunners in the history of TV. The fact that the series ultimately couldn't quite measure up to in its final moments doesn't change the fact as to how brilliant a moment it was.

11. The West Wing - 'Shibboleth' - 2.8

Technically, this one may not fit on the calendar here as, technically speaking, it aired in November of 2000. In this case, however, to quote Mulder in a similar context, "Nobody likes a math geek'. Besides, this is still one of the most incredible moments in the history of television. It features the series high point in comedy (and considering how brilliant The West Wing was in the Sorkin years, that's saying a lot) as Allison Janney is forced to decide between two turkeys to receive the traditional pardon. Watching her dealing with it hysterical, watching her react when the other is about to be sent pack is comedy gold. But amidst all the comedy gold, there are truly great moments as the Bartlet White House tries to deal with the issue of Chinese stowaways claiming to be Christians, and how to figure out to grant them asylum, and the wonderful business as the Bartlet forcing Charlie to get him a new carving knife, which seems to be more comic business, until it leads to one of the most moving moments in the series history. This episode is required viewing in my family's household every Thanksgiving. It should be for everybody. All year.

Better Late Than Never: The Good Fight Season 2

It's really hard for any spinoff of a series to be at least half as good as the original. For every Better Call Saul, there's half a dozen Law & Order: SVU, for every The Flash, there's Fear The Walking Dead.  It would have been just as easy for the writers of CBS' All Access The Good Fight to take so many of the characters from the incredible The Good Wife, and just put them through the paces of a legal drama (another genre that seems to be going the way of all flesh).

But the Kings have never done anything remotely close to easy. If anything, they seem to be swinging for the fences now that they are unfettered from the profanity and nudity limitations that they would eventually satirize in so many of their brilliant TV parodies that seemed to be in the background so often in the latter seasons of Good Wife. And in response to a chaotic world that seems to be getting more combustible, they start their episode with everything exploding and keep blowing things up from there.

Never has this been more clear than with Diane. The rock of the Kings world for more than a decade, world events are starting to leave her more undone. And it isn't just the Trump Administration that is terrifying this life-long liberal (though we'll get to that), its more current events. In the Season 2 premiere, an attorney was shot by a man who confessed to the media 'Kill All Lawyers!" Since then, a string of similar deaths have struck fear into the legal community - including a supposed ricin attack that was just a scare - and now the world around law is  terrified. Bozeman-Reddick's new partner, Liz (Audra McDonald, finally in a TV series worthy of her) starts by befriending Diane, and then seems to openly scheme to undercut her, leading Diane to close an episode using an obscenity she could never have gotten away with on CBS. Now, she's starting microdosing with LSD, and has had an extramarital affair. It's stunning to see Christine Baranski, so long a pillar strength, play Diane as a character starting to unravel.

Other characters are trying to move through the chaotic world in a positive way. Maya (Rose Leslie) has finally had the scandal that dogged her all through Season 1 taken of her back in the second episode of Season 2, and seems to be positioning herself to be a major player. Marissa Gold (the incredible Sarah Steele) has finally become licensed to be a PI at the law firm, and is demonstrating that she is nearly as brilliant as Kalinda was in the original series (though she's a lot funnier) And Luca (Cush Lumbo) is facing major changes in her life, as she is now pregnant with the child of the ASA she had an affair without Season 1. Only he doesn't know about it yet.

The series cases are as ripped from the headlines as they were in so many David E. Kelley series, but Good Fight does is with a subtlety and far less pontificating than we ever saw on The Practice. A recent episode where a Bachelorette-type realty show was sued when one contestant assaulted another was done with so many of the cast demeaning the genre while admitting they enjoy it. And the series dialogue has wit and flow than even on its best day Aaron Sorkin couldn't match. And its always great to see that so many of the characters who made The Good Wife such a joy keep dropping by -  if they did a spin-off where Carrie Preston and Mamie Gummer decided to form a law firm together I would gladly pay twice the asking fee to see it. (Hint, hint.)

All right, yes. The Kings do not like Donald Trump. And if you've decided that TV shouldn't be political, an episode where the DNC comes to Reddick-Bozeman asking about how to make a case for impeachment isn't going to make you happy. But they've made it clear from the Pilot episode of The Good Wife that so much of this series is about politics, and how you deal with people who disagree with you. But they do it in such a way that its always entertaining. (The way they deal with the prequel to Darkness at Noon just makes me dissolve into laughter.) This is an angry series, but these are angry times.

The Emmy judges may not have nominated this series because they don't yet count CBS All Access a real network. Of course, The Good Wife was one of the great shows of the past decade, and the Emmy judges never gave it the love it deserved. Maybe in an era of TV that seems so devoted to period pieces and dystopian futures, the Emmys have forgotten how brilliant the truly original contemporary series can be. The Good Fight is one of the best shows on any service, and I hope enough people eventually find that out.

My score: 5 stars.

Homicide Episode Guide: Brotherly Love

Written by Julie Martin

Directed by Peter Medak

Ever since Homicide began running full seasons, it has traditionally started with multi-part episodes, either red ball cases or investigations that required more than one episode to resolve. 'Brotherly Love' is the first - and, unfortunately, the last - episode of the series that would serve as a standalone. Maybe that's the reason its so popular with the rank-and-file, though there's very little in it that would work for the series.

Lewis and Sheppard are called in on what seems to be a simple murder, that quickly spirals into bizarre. The victim, David Ralston, is found dead of a gunshot in his home. Before the teaser is over, we learn that he lived with his identical twin brother, Adam. It doesn't take more than a few minutes for the episode to get even creepier as we learn how obsessed the two brothers were with each other - the identical layout of their living room, complete with two TVs side by side leads one of the few good lines from Meldrick: "Maybe he couldn't decide between Hercules and Xena'.  There is clearly some kind of obsessive love going on between the two, and it just gets creepier when we learn that each brother had their own gun.

All of this is unsettling, but it honestly feels like its something that you would have expected from the minds of X-Files rather than the writers of Homicide. What gives this story any oomph at all is the work of Clark Johnson, doing his best actually policework in nearly two years.  The scene at the funeral home where he goes after Adam Ralston is some his best work in years, as is the scene where he manages to elicit a confession out of him. There's a certain amount of ambiguity here when we learn why the murder took place - Adam slept with his brother's girlfriend while masquerading as David, and when he told David about it, the two of them got into a huge fight, and he killed him. We never know whether he meant it for certain, but that maybe the point.

Unfortunately, one has to take this with the baggage that is being attached to Sheppard. Meldrick spends most of the episode treating Renee like a cop, and at the Waterfront, he actually unburdens himself of a secret we learned back in season 4, about his older brother having to be institutionalized for schizophrenia. This kind of unburdening would seem to be a nice character moment, were it not surrounded by the fact that Lewis still seems determined to try and get his partner into bed. And it doesn't help matters that for much of the episode, it now seems like Bayliss is determined to get in the line of suitors for Renee's hand as well, which is just starting to border on the ridiculous side.

What makes this episode work a little better is that we have a secondary investigation that is a bit more interesting. Ballard and Gharty go out to Johns Hopkins, and find themselves involves with a gunshot victim who bled to death. The kid who drove him to the ER is brain-dead in the sense that so many Homicide characters are, and finally tells them that they drove to DC to score meth, and a dealer shot his friend. (He didn't take his dying friend to a DC hospital, because if their parents found out they were getting meth, they would kill them.) Giardello does what so many squad commanders does, and tries to dump a stone-cold murder on DC. DC sends a detective down to Baltimore in a repossessed Mustang to tell them they don't want it. The brass finally tell the two of them to work together, using their brain-dead suspect.

This is actually mostly from Simon's book, although the end result is not nearly as pretty as it is here. (Indeed, an entire three pages in Simon's book was devoted to just how grateful the Baltimore PD is not to be working in Washington, where they averaged three hundred murders a year with a thirty percent clearance rate.) In typical Homicide fashion, there's a nifty bit of casting here with the Aerosmith drummer Joe Perry playing the DC detective who never quite warms up to Baltimore. There's a little bit of goofiness when Ballard starts flirting with him, but that's countered very quickly when Gharty tells her that he's left his wife. After spending the previous episode complaining on how getting shot changed Bayliss for the worse, Stu now admits that his brush with death has forced him to face certain truths about his own life. Unfortunately, his path will be a lot darker than Tim's.

By far the most significant change to the series takes place almost in passing. Mike has applied for a transfer to Baltimore and has agreed to work as FBI liaison for CIB, which would work in conjunction with Homicide, and naturally his father. Gaffney approves the transfer with relative subtlety, and then when he comes down to tell Al about the DC shooting, casually mentions it to him, because, well, he's Gaffney. This leads to a heated conversation between the two on the roof, and some actual awkwardness when he starts his official job. Things are not going to get any easier from here.

When all is said and done, 'Brotherly Love' is not a particularly good episode of Homicide, yet paradoxically, it was considered one of the favorite episodes of the series in a Court TV poll. This makes less sense, since its not even among the best episodes of the seventh season. Maybe there were some Aerosmith fans juking the stats, maybe there were some people figured Sheppard should have her own episode. However you view it, its barely worth a single look.

My score: 2.75 stars.

Fan Ranking: 8th.

50 Greatest Episodes of the 21st Century, Part 6: 20-16

20. black-ish - 'Hope' - 2.`16

This is one of the few episodes from the original TV Guide list that I can't help but agree with. This series always mixed its dealings with relevant issues with a big dose of humor, but in this rare exception, it went into territory it rarely dove into. Dealing with an issue that has sadly become too common - a black child gunned down by a white man - the episode dealt with the stain of prejudice, and the futility that the Johnson clan so frequent bury. In perhaps the most painful moment of all, Dre recounts a moment that almost every African-American must have feared - the possibility that Obama would have been assassinated. But even after everything else, it ends on the tiniest ray of hope possible when Zoey, who spent the entire episode pretending not to care, finally admitting feeling futility, and the way the rest of the Johnson children tried to seize to this. There should be more episodes like this starting discussions. We need them now more than ever.

19. Parenthood - 'Because You're My Sister'

This was one of the most undervalued series in television history, a brilliant comedy-drama that touched on dozens of issues, and never seemed heavy handed, that had sixteen lead roles and never seemed like it was favoring one character more than another. Choosing just one episode as better out of the 103 that finally aired is very difficult, but if I was forced too, I would have to pick the fourth season finale. That season dealt with one of the most gutwrenching storylines on a show that has dozens of them - Kristina's season long battle with breast cancer. Fueled by the brilliant work of Monica Potter and Peter Krause, watching Adam and Kristina fight all season with this horrible crisis, and then finally get the good new was one of the pure joys. The series also balanced it with another heartbreakers, as Sarah (the incomparable Lauren Graham) having dealt with a love triangle all season long, dropped the wonderful Mr. Cyr, in favor of Hank - only to find that Hank had chosen to move back to Minnesota. (It would only be a temporary problem, but I felt like my heart had been stepped on.). The episode was moving, funny, angry, and ultimately joyous - all the things that this series could do perfectly, often in the same ten minutes. Stream it. Now.

18. Mr. Robot - eps3.4_runtime-error.r00

This is by far one of the darkest and most relevant series on the air, featuring some of the most brilliant cold openings since the days of Breaking Bad (which we'll get to soon enough), and features some of the most daring plot twists since Lost (ditto). There have been many incredible episodes over the course of its three season run, but by far, it's tour de force came just last year. Eliot finds himself trying to undo part of his hack at ECorp. During the course of forty-five minutes, he finds that his job is non-existent, that both Angela and his sister have betrayed them, and then finds the building overrun by the Dark Army. All of this would be stunning enough, but what makes the episode remarkable is that it seems to flow in a single, unbroken shot, following Eliot and Angela as they run around the building, trying to fix or break everything the other is trying to do. This was something that I've only seen tried before a few times, but never on a scale like this. With this episode, it more than demonstrated why its one of the greatest series currently on the air. I can't wait to see what happens in Season 4.

17. Homeland - 'The Weekend' - 1.7

This Showtime series has been all over the map. At times it has been one of the greatest accomplishments TV has ever aired, at other times, so slapdash in its plotting that you wonder whether writers learned anything from their mistakes from 24. What I think all viewers of the series can agree on is that the first season has been by far the best of them, and while the season finale was incredible, I think the highpoint came before that in this episode. Brody and Carrie have run off to a cabin in the woods to have a sexual encounter. During the course of this episode, Brody learns (inadvertently at first) that Carrie works for the CIA, that she has been surveilling him illegally, and that she thinks he's working for Al-Qaeda. Up until this point, the series has measured all of Brody's movements with ambiguity, so we still don't know anything for certain. Claire Danes and Damian Lewis are magnificent throughout this, but what makes this episode even better is the encounter going on as Saul drives an American sleeper agent to prison, and gently tries to get information from her on the entire trip. In the final ten minutes, he succeeds, and we begin to get the scope of the plan. We learn that an American prisoner of war was turned, but it was the other man, one that we have had reason to believe Brody murdered. If this had been the final resolution - and Gordon and Gansa said it might have been - I still think a lot of people would have been satisfied. As it is, it stands as the finest hour of one of the best first seasons in TV history.

16. American Crime - Season 2, Episode 7

This was one of network television greatest accomplishments this decade, a series that looked with real intensity, at the true darkness that penetrates America's soul when it comes to some of the biggest flashpoints in all culture. One could make an argument that first season of this anthology series, which dealt with racism and hate crimes, was the best, but by far the best episode came in an episode which dealt with the aftermath of a homosexual rape at an Indiana prep school. After Taylor spent the length of the season being attacked an ridiculed, he finally acted out on his aggression by bringing a gun and killing one of his attackers. All of the leads - from Felicity Huffman to Timothy Hutton on down were brilliant - but what made this episode work was how intercut between survivors of the all too frequent school shootings in this country, as they dealt with their real life problems. Like this series so brilliantly - and rarely - it pushed no agenda, it took no side. It just showed the horror and scale of the madness that has penetrated our world in human terms. That a series this good was allowed to air on network TV was a triumph. That ABC canceled it in favor of more Shonda Rhimes just goes to show the world we live in.

Homicide Episode Guide: La Famiglia

Written by Tom Fontana

Directed by Nick Gomez

What strikes you almost immediately within the first few minutes of the series premiere, are the changes. It's not just that the squadroom has a new paint job, or that the interrogation room has been completely remodeled. It's that many of the leads, even those we've known for only a season, are acting completely out of character. So much so that even the characters themselves notice it.

The most obvious change, and by far the hardest to take, is that of Bayliss. For six seasons, he has been the true north of Homicide, our way into unit, and its conscience. Considering the dual whammy of nearly dying in last season's finale, and the departure of Frank Pembleton, one can only expect that he would be reeling from the loss. Instead, his Zen approach to everything appears to be not a realistic reaction to what ever life-changing events have happened, but rather a chance to rewrite Bayliss. This seems particularly odd, considering that Tom Fontana is writing the first episode.

This would be a jarring change in itself, but Tim is only the most obvious case of what's going on here. First, there's the new detective to the unit, Renee Sheppard, late from the fugitive squad. Now, I'm not one of the people who thought that Michael Michele, like Jon Seda, was another horrible character. While initially seeming like one of those 'beautiful people' that Fontana said he'd initially never write into the series, Michele was actually a better actress than this, and throughout the season would actually seem to have more range than that. Fontana, however, does her character no favors by having both Falsone and Meldrick all but throw themselves at her throughout the episode. For six years, the writers have stayed away from the cliches that even David Milch would fall prey to on NYPD Blue of having two detectives from the same shift have any kind of relationship. Now, maybe trying to get to the attention that those higher rated series got, they seem to be determined to do it. They even sweeten the pot by having Renee be a beauty pageant winner. It's pat and its cheap and its everything Homicide wasn't.

And it gets worse! Now, Ballard who apparently worked an entire year alongside Falsone without having any attraction to him at all is now trying to throw herself at him. Considering that the two haven't had, or ever will have, any real chemistry,  it boggles the mind that the writers would go down this route either.

Honestly, with all the talk about the squadroom and the misfiring hormones, one wishes they'd get back to working old-fashioned murders. But even here, the series stumbles. It's not that the murders themselves are just more gruesome than the ones we usually get on this show, its that, for the first time, they're being tagged to someone on the squad. This is something that was old-fashioned in the days of Quinn Martin. What gives the episode its saving grace is that its tied to Al Giardello, who we only occasionally get ties to anything remotely resembling a backstory. One of the few things that the series will do right in its final year is give some more insight into the life of Al.

It stumbles a little here, too. Al's son, who has not even been mentioned on the series, shows up from Arizona, when its revealed that the third victim is one of Al's cousins. It's a shabby way to introduce a new character, but what saves it is the presence of Giancarlo Esposito as Mike. From the moment he shows up, we sense the coldness and bitterness between the two. We've gotten bits and pieces at how bad Al's family life has been ever since his wife died, but now we see the results, and they aren't pretty. When Mike wants to look into his cousin's murder, he goes first not to his father, but to Falsone. When Al learns of his sons involvement, his anger is probably not just motivated by the involvement of an outside agency, but by the fact that his son has learned a secret that he never wanted to tell.

The actual investigation is kind of second-hand for the series as well - the three murdered men were involved in putting away a mobster for twenty-five years, and when he gets out of prison, he seeks revenge - the twist being, that because he had brain damage, his family has carried it out. But at least, there's still an element of the old-fashioned Homicide as well. With no confessions from the suspects, and blood from only two of the victims on the weapons, Danvers agrees to try the family for only two of the three murders. Gee agrees to this, even though it means his cousins name will be in red forever.

As is the case with all season premieres, La Famigilia has too much going on to quickly absorb. In addition to all this, Meldrick is finally getting divorced, it looks like Gharty is heading in the same direction, and Munch seems to be dating Billie Lou, the Waterfront bartender we met last season. (Unlike all the other romances going on, I don't consider this one out of character for the series; Munch has always been perpetually lovelorn, and when he falls in love, he tends to punch above his weight.) Its troublesome that so much of the episode seems to be building around a dance party, and seeing our detectives troll for dates like a senior prom, much less boogying on  the dance floor, really seems like Fontana and the rest are finally listening to the network for more 'life-affirming moments'. It's the fact that Fontana chooses to have the episode close as the Giardello men have their first real conversation in more than a decade - where Al reveals how he, in his own way, is responsible for his cousin's death as anyone else, how much resentment Mike has towards his father, and how the two of them take the smallest possible steps towards reconciliation - that ring far truer than anything we've seen the detectives do in this episode.

This episode probably isolated a lot of the fans who had stuck with for six years, and even the ones who were still defending couldn't have been thrilled in the evolution - Clark Johnson started the series partnered with Jon Polito, who looked like the typical detective, and is now working with someone who looks like the network's idea of a detective. And while there are good moments, the seeds of what Season 7 will look like are more present in the bad ones, and will continue to sprout throughout the first half.

My score:2.75 stars.

A Trial, But No Errror

Kristin Chenoweth has always been one of the most incredible talents of the 21st century. Her work on Broadway has always been astounding - it never fails to amaze that such a melodious voice comes from such a tiny body. But nearly as impressive as her work on the boards has been her work on the small screen. As Annabeth Schott, she was one of the highlights of the often chaotic final seasons of The West Wing. Her work as Olive, the waitress who yearns for Ned on the criminally underwatched Pushing Daisies  was wonderful, deservingly getting her an Emmy.  And about the only thing wrong with her work on the satiric GCB was that ABC had no faith in it.

Now, she returns to series TV,  and as always, she's picked a gem of a series to work in: NBC's Trial & Error, a satire of the true-crime documentaries that perforate the airwaves, combined with the same mockumentary style that NBC has become famous for.

In this series, New York attorney Josh Segal has settled into the town of East Peck (where the residents are all Peckers, of course) and his second trial is that of the wife of the town's elders, Lavinia Peck-Foster. Chenoweth grabs on to a role she has yet to have a chance the play: the femme fatale. It's clear from the beginning of the series that everybody in this town loves her, which is why people have such a hard time thinking she's guilty of murder, even after the crushed body of her husband is found in a suitcase in her husband's trunk. Josh naturally considers her a dream client, even after she does everything in her power to appear guilty. This includes buying gifts for the jury, openly trying to seduce Josh, and in the final minutes of the second episode, being caught shoplifting. She may be guilty, but its hard for the viewer to accept it, because, come on, Kristin Chenoweth.

If it were just for the glorious work of Chenoweth, this would be a delight to watch.  But this is the second season of this series, and its very clear the writers have taken out a leaf from the Parks & Rec playbook. East Peck is just as messed up a town as Pawnee was (Peck rum is drunk at elementary schools, the voting age is around 8, East Peck is to the south of North Peck), and almost every resident of this town could be wonderful to build a series around. Nicholas D'Agosto as Josh is, more or less, playing straight man to almost everybody else. There's his secretary Anne Flatch (Sherri Shephard) whose naivety is matched only by the incredibly rare ailments that she seems to have by the bucketload (she seems to have to ability to nearly spontaneously combust, for one).  There's Dwayne, who seems to have a forcefield a stupidity around him. He's working for the police now, but he probably won't be for long, considering one of his major mistake was shooting his own toe of while demonstrating gun safety in front of an elementary school. And there's Carol Anne, the head prosecutor, who has a major affair with Josh last year, and is now seriously pregnant, using her pregnancy to manipulate the judge, and trying to keep poor Josh running through hoops. (Jayma Mays is a real revelation here.) And of course, there's the investigation itself, which involves trying to find out time of death based on the murder weapon, which is a grandfather clock.

If you want to see a real satire of all those murder-based series, Trial & Error is the show for you. If you want to see a genuinely brilliant comedy, it works as that as well. And, of course, if you want to see Chenoweth satirize her own ability to sing, well, you don't really need a reason to watch her. Really, about the only mystery about Trial and Error is why such a great show is working in the summer instead of being at the center of NBC's fall lineup. But then again, considering the dark materials that make up so much network programming, maybe this is the time we really need a little Pecker in you.

My score: 4.5 stars.