I watch terrible television so you don’t have to.
New This Week
NCIS: Sydney (Tuesday, Paramount+)
So this was the season one finale and first of all, Georgina Haig forever. Second, I got way too excited when I started to read the synopsis: “when JD’s son is kidnapped”. No idea what comes after that cuz I pressed pay immediately. It’s okay, they never kill the kid in these situations. JD (Todd Lesance) rescued his kid, with Georgina’s help, she got away to bother them another time, and implicated the American liaison or whatever they thought was on their side— dun, dun, dun, cliffhanger!
All in all, the best thing about this show (besides Georgina) is the cinematography. But also it’s silly crime/mystery fun and I look forward to S2. If I was in charge Georgina (Anna?) would be recruited and become part of the team Fast & Furious style.
Chicago Med (Thursday, Peacock)
Dean Archer (Steven Weber) got his kidney! His ex-wife, and Sean’s mother, Leanne (Paula Marshall) showed up to try and halt the operation but Maggie (Marylene Barrett) is going through a convenient (to the plot, not to Maggie) divorce and talked her out of interfering. Leanne definitely thought Dean and Hannah (Jessy Schram) were/are sleeping together but we the audience still don’t actually know where their relationship stands. Other than she is his staunchest supporter but also willing to call out his bad behavior in a heartbeat. I actually love their relationship as is and I’m really only waiting for the show to screw it up.
In other news, last year maverick doctor Will Halstead (Nick Gehlfuss) left the hospital/show and now there are two new doctors vying for that maverick spot: Mitch Ripley (Luke Mitchell), introduced last week as a former patient of Dr. Charles (Oliver Platt), and Zola Ahmad (Sophia Ali), introduced this week as someone who is prone to protocol violations and therefore hired on a probationary basis. By the end of the episode Crockett (Dominic Rains) explicitly calls Zola the new Halstead after she runs off to bring a whole shelter full of sick refugees into the ER on a hunch. But Ripley gave a woman in a coma something to make it look like she agreed to his wild treatment plan in order to prove his wild theory was right so the contest is still on.
Chicago PD (Thursday, Peacock)
Ugh. While still off duty after being shot in the chest by a child Adam (Patrick Flueger) gets embroiled in a few murders and the Intelligence team have to cover up his involvement. They also use his CI to try and catch the murderers which of course gets the CI murdered, too. One, this was already a plot on Organized Crime and two, this was already a plot on Chicago PD.
Adam also passed his exam so he can come back to work now.
Law & Order (Friday, Peacock)
Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston) has gone to the Dark Side.
Now, it’s reasonable to say Jack McCoy has been on the Dark Side since inception. He is an ambitious career prosecutor who was fully on board with the Death Penalty and has been called overzealous in his pursuit of justice multiple times. I love Jack McCoy the way I love Anakin Skywalker and Gaius Baltar— they’re not “good people”, they’re evocative characters. But since being given the top chair, Jack has been extra political, hard-lined, and focused on winning. And as a commentary on our broken system I love that for him but it makes him even less of a good person.
This episode is focused on a tech bro feud over AI that ends in murder. And a maybe-probably deepfake is used to prove the man bun + sweater-wearing Adderall-popping AI-developing defendant did it. ADA Nolan Price (Hugh Dancy) doesn’t want to use it if they can’t prove its validity but Jack tells him what matters is the truth and the truth is this guy’s guilty. It is very true to the twisted upside down logic of our world right now. And also interestingly meta given half the strike was about AI replacing actors.
Anyway, the top tech bro (Gopal Divan), who could be an evil genius who killed his bestie and manipulated reality to blame it on a hapless employee or just an evil genius who replaced his employees with a sexy AI, is HOT AF. Petition for him to be a recurring character please and thank you.
Law & Order: SVU (Friday, Peacock)
This episode is for me and about me. It has everything. Pretty upperclass white lesbians whose anxiety over social justice keeps them up at night, who want to save the young Black boy who no one ever looked out for despite knowing he’s a rapist, despite the very real harm he caused, who understand that villains are victims, who hold even the most empathetic cop who ever lived (Olivia Benson pb Mariska Hargitay) accountable for being part of a deeply flawed system. They, and Olivia, are trying so hard but they are also trapped in the same imperfect system. When the kid showed up to confess and ask for leniency Carisi (Peter Scanavino) proved again why he’s far and away my favorite ADA with just the way his eyes turned from harsh to concerned, to sad, to kind, the way his bravado disappeared and he treated the kid with respect and compassion and promised his life wasn’t over. I can imagine Carisi visiting him in prison, making sure he gets therapy, helping him find a job when he gets out. The lesbians, Olivia, and Carisi all said out loud and plainly that there are systemic problems in law enforcement that need to be addressed and promoted rehabilitation and healing over punishment and prison. This is SVU at its best— and perhaps at its most flawed.
Captain Olivia Benson and ADA Sonny Carisi are unicorns. They are not a part of the real Manhattan SVU. Are there real cops who were inspired to become cops in the first place because they wanted to be just like Olivia Benson? Yes, absolutely, I believe that one hundred percent. Still: ACAB. The one moment I really didn’t like was when Liv told the victim not to let the pendulum swing “too far in the other direction”. I think swinging “too far” toward allowances for grace and practicing restorative over punitive justice is the course correction we need to break the system that exists. But earlier in the episode the smash-and-grab band of teenage miscreants who started this attack the squad room and Olivia forces everyone to stand down and explicitly takes a gun away from an officer, the result being no one, cop or kid, is hurt in the incident. This is maybe the most magical thing to ever happen in a Law & Order— in reality everyone would be dead in an OK Corral type shootout!— but also proof that a) Liv’s come a long way from the season 12 finale aka the last Stabler episode for 10 years where he shoots a kid in the middle of the squad room and yes I am relating that to this and I honestly think I am meant to, it’s not a one-to-one comparison but it’s related and Captain Benson’s squad room is safer! And b) she actually does want the pendulum to swing pretty far (left).
Maddie Watch: The case is open but not really progressing. The FBI is now involved, with “Clark Kent”, actual name Harrison Clay (Josh Cooke) back to push Benson’s buttons— except he was somewhat open and helpful which surprised her and worried me. Olivia is still wearing the MADDIE bracelet and the case is negatively affecting her (see the Mental Health sidebar below).
Law & Order: Organized Crime (Friday, Peacock)
This was also for me because it was equal parts high stakes crime mystery and family-centered melodrama. The series is at best a selection of flimsy overdramatic plots made up to showcase Christopher Meloni’s ability to EMOTE, but here’s the thing, he is the actual best person alive at EMOTING. Organized Crime has had seven (seven!) different showrunners in three years and only ever gets attention when Mariska Hargitay pops up to remind everyone it’s secretly late night SVU. It’s not a great show and it’s really not trying to be. It’s trying to be a show about messy emotions and messy emotional connections and Chris Meloni understands the assignment. He is fully committed. He elevates every stupid scene he’s in. He turns Elliot Stabler into a Shakespearean protagonist but never takes it too seriously. His timing and execution and EMOTION is pitch perfect and I love him.
OCCB is brought into the investigation of a not-actually-a-hate-crime bombing thanks to Elliot’s reputation as someone who is reliably disinterested in following rules or authority (there’s a reason Olivia was promoted three times during the ten years Elliot wasn’t in her life lol) but is also actually pretty good at solving crimes. And Elliot and his new sidekick/mentee, Sam Bashir (Abubakr Ali), the Hate Crimes detective who secretly brought him in, are vindicated when their suspicions prove true. The case is not wrapped up by the end: the main bad guy, a European with one of the “funny” accents “like Dutch” (and FWIW blonde hair and pale skin), is still out there after killing a beat cop, the kid he tried to pin the crime on, and his partner. And, I assume, the Imam whose assassination the bombing was meant to cover up.
Meanwhile, Elliot’s big brother Randall (Dean Norris) arrived to visit with their dementia addled mama (Ellen Burstyn), and also needle Elliot about his devotion to his job and his failures as a son, father, and brother. Gosh I love sibling drama! There were moments of begrudging affection, plenty of references to childhood trauma, and a peek into Eli’s off screen life (I miss Eli so much y’all). Ayanna (Danielle Moné Truitt) got a professional rival (/ex-girlfriend? that’s the kind of mess I expect from this universe) and the Jet (Ainsley Sieger) and Bobby (Rick Gonzalez) relationship melodrama continued apace. Bobby is sleeping in his car and lying about the obvious trouble brewing in his marriage while Jet is spending time with Kyle (Tate Ellington), the AI tech geek assigned to help them solve crimes (according to Ayanna and Jet) and ruin their lives (according to Elliot and Bobby).
Also Watching
I’m watching Transplant, a Canadian medical drama that recently wrapped after four seasons, though only three are currently available on Peacock. It’s centered on a Syrian refugee who was a trauma surgeon back home and now works in the ER. The refugee and racism aspects make it harder to watch many episodes at once and one plot line mid season one reminded me of a later season of ER so I also watched a few episodes of that. ER remains the medical drama I measure all medical dramas against, and so far none have topped it.
Mental Illness Sidebar
While jogging Olivia caught sight of an energy drink van like the one Maddie was transported in and she chased it down and freaked out the driver. Both Fin (Ice-T) and Carisi called her out for treating the current case like the Maddie case. And she’s treating the MADDIE bracelet like a talisman. And it isn’t even Maddie’s bracelet, it was one taken of a Maddie sex doll, and I can’t tell if that makes Olivia’s treatment of it better or worse. Anyway, point being, Liv is dealing with some post traumatic stress and burnout and it is only gonna get worse.
Fin, Carisi, and Bruno (Kevin Kane) (babes, I love Bruno) have all noticed Liv’a trauma/behavior and are taking steps to help her through it. Which is excellent and actually amazing progress for a show that is explicitly about trauma but did not figure out how to portray a supportive and healthy workplace until, idk, last year. A++ emotional maturity show.
Over on Organized Crime Elliot is also dealing with post traumatic stress and showing (GASP!!!) emotional maturity. When viewing crime scene photos of the bombing he flashes back to the bombing that ultimately killed his wife. And though he initially brushes it off, he ends his conversation with Medical Examiner and old friend Melinda (Tamara Tunie sporting amazing braids) by pulling her into a tight and fully unexpected embrace. He apologizes for not returning the call she left when Kathy was killed and tells her how much he appreciated it, and her. It was such a beautiful moment (I legit cried) and super meaningful that he reached out after that moment of anxious grief, that Melinda totally noticed and understood. Then later, after Elliot and his team were themselves in the middle of a bombing, he took a moment before heading into what is not at all a relaxing home life and Randall came out to check on him. And they didn’t talk about any of the trauma they’ve carried around for decades, but the subtext that they know they have to was there.
Ship of the Week
Not a lot of options here. On Chicago PD, Adam and Kim (Marina Squerciati) talk about he has to trust her/let her in. On Chicago Med Dean and Hannah continue to dance and Crockett and Zola will probably have a thing. JD’s ex shows up on NCIS. And Jet and Bobby are a mess over on Organized Crime. Also Mama Stabler likes Randall’s ex-wife more than him. All in all, not a great week for romance.
I guess I’ll say Eli and Becky ’cause I love when they remember Eli exists.
But also I noticed that Benson and Stabler were both blindsided by the anger of the parent of a kid they failed and that parallel is Chef’s kiss.
Show of the Week
My head says SVU because it had a thesis. My heart says Organized Crime because I cried.
What are YOU watching?