Ah, Identity Crisis...
Keith Gow
was definitely the best episode of Season 7. (Okay, I've got "Forgive
Us Our Trespasses" left... Then I'll watch the Movie tomorrow night.)
Finally an episode without multiple scenes of the detectives in
personal trauma. It was also quite entertaining - especially the
montage in the morgue and the successive investigation into the body
without paperwork.
I think the general perception of "Lines of Fire," was negative. Am I
right? Is this because people didn't like Gee Jnr? I have to say I
don't have a problem with Esposito or the character. So I thought the
episode was quite tense - and even with my devil-may-care attitude to
spoilers, I didn't know what was going to happen at the end. I'd put
this ep up with one of my favourites of the season.
I also thought "The Why Chromosone" wasn't too bad. I could've done
without Meldrick's chauvanist attitude being forced down our throats,
but for once Sheppard didn't irritate me - and finally Ballard was
away from Falsone.
With only a single episode of the series left to see and having
watched a couple of episodes that people like (Identity Crisis) and
don't (Why Chromosone), I'm wondering what people would list and their
least favourite episodes of the entire series.
I'd have to go with "La Famiglia," "The Twenty-Percent Solution,"
"Abduction," and the "Blood Ties" trilogy. All Season 6 and 7, to be
sure. Nothing stands out from the first five that I consider as bad as
these.
|| Keith Gow ||
Lester: "I know you don't have any idea what I'm talking
about. It's okay. You will." - American Beauty
TVFan87656
>
>I also thought "The Why Chromosone" wasn't too bad. I could've done
>without Meldrick's chauvanist attitude being forced down our throats,
>but for once Sheppard didn't irritate me - and finally Ballard was
>away from Falsone.
"The Why Chromosome" has an atrocious Munch/Billie Lou subplot, and the main
story sucks. The sole point of interest is the guest cast. JD Williams
(Casper), and all the female gang members simply wipe the floor with Michael
Michelle, and taken from an acting standpoint, it's a lot of fun to watch.
>I'm wondering what people would list and their
>least favourite episodes of the entire series.
>
>I'd have to go with "La Famiglia," "The Twenty-Percent Solution,"
>"Abduction," and the "Blood Ties" trilogy. All Season 6 and 7, to be
>sure. Nothing stands out from the first five that I consider as bad as
>these.
This is always fun. Top 10 ::drumroll::
10. Fits Like A Glove
9. Wu's On First
8. Deception
7. Blood Ties 3
6. Lines of Fire
5. Saigon Rose
4. Strangers & Other Partners
3. Blood Ties 1
2. The Why Chromosome
1. Birthday
Season 7 has incredibly dull episodes, but few that jump out as nuggets of
terror. Season 6 has quite a few, unfortunately. "Strangled Not Stirred", and
"Abduction" are chosen by many athers as worst, but I considered them boring
and not that offensive.
Before seeing seasons 6/7, I usually included "Fire 2", "The Gas Man",
"Valentine's Day", and "Sniper 2".
Pamela Rose
Okay, I'll bite. My worst, counting down from 10:
10. Lines of Fire (it should have worked, but didn't. I think it was
too late to make me care for Little Gee, and while Ron Eldard was
terrific, I still couldn't get emotionally involved).
9. La Famiglia (for a season opener, it sucked even worse than Blood
Ties Part 1--the only highlight being Bayliss and Munch).
8. Bones of Contention (should have been better, but bored me silly)
7. Wanted Dead or Alive (Part 2) (Babes in bikinis being the only point
of the Florida excursion; Bayliss stole shellfish (if he'd given some to
Ballard, and she'd gone into alergic shock, I might have forgiven that),
the entire Meldrick car wreck was pointless and nobody seemed to give a
damn (it only happened to let us watch Little Gee emote badly)).
6. The Why Chromosome (Ooooh, *women* working a case all by their
lonesome oooooh! Nobody ever watched Cagney & Lacy...)
5. Brotherly Love (They already did evil twins once with Thrill of the
Kill; twice is too much, and three times as boring)
4. Just an Old Fashioned Love Song (boring, stupid, badly acted--except
for "Lemonhead" and...did I mention boring?)
3. Self Defense (I don't remember a damn thing about it--enough said.)
2. A Case of Do or Die (I hated seeing Tim doing a rotten job as a
cop--if nothing else, he was always a good cop; in this he sucked: "I
thought *you* talked to the fiance!" "No, I thought you did.")
1. Abduction (still the all-time champ of stinkers for me)
But if we're going for bottom 20, I'd put *everything* in season 7 in
there except for Identity Crisis and Forgive Us Our Trespasses. Shaken
Not Stirred and Baby Its You just might rank worse than Zen And the Art
of Murder or Shades of Grey--but not by much.
I thought time would make me feel more forgiving towards season 7 as it
did for season 6, but it's done just the opposite. Season 6 is
rewatchable, but even after a year, I can't stand season 7. I shudder
to think what an 8th season might have brought.
--
Pamela
TVFan87656
>
>But if we're going for bottom 20, I'd put *everything* in season 7 in
>there except for Identity Crisis and Forgive Us Our Trespasses.
What are the redeeming features in "Forgive Us Our Trespasses"? More than a few
fans have mentioned the Ryland killing and the ending resembling "Gone For
Goode", but a shlocky (no offense schlock) murder of a character no one gave a
crap about, and Rene Sheppard blandly reciting Crosetti's dialogue don't do
much for me. With the poorly staged Munch/Billie Lou wedding (Ballard as
bridesmaid? Did we ever hear about this before the ceremony?), and the out of
character bit of Gee turning down his promotion, it's a pretty worthless hour
of television.
---------------------------
Bender: Leela, meet Sal.
Sal: Nice eyeball, eyeball.
Leela: Nice ass, ass.
"Futurama", 2/13/00
--------------------------
Kim Smith
> >But if we're going for bottom 20, I'd put *everything* in season 7 in
> >there except for Identity Crisis and Forgive Us Our Trespasses.
>
> What are the redeeming features in "Forgive Us Our Trespasses"? More than
a few
> fans have mentioned the Ryland killing and the ending resembling "Gone For
> Goode", but a shlocky (no offense schlock) murder of a character no one
gave a
> crap about, and Rene Sheppard blandly reciting Crosetti's dialogue don't
do
> much for me. With the poorly staged Munch/Billie Lou wedding (Ballard as
> bridesmaid? Did we ever hear about this before the ceremony?), and the out
of
> character bit of Gee turning down his promotion, it's a pretty worthless
hour
> of television.
>
I couldn't believe what Laura wore to Munch and Billie Lou's wedding. Aside
from her helping Billie Lou in the bar when Munch and Gharty had the Vietnam
fight, did she really show any friendship with Billie Lou???? I hate to
sound trivial about Laura's dress, but I thought it was tacky. I loved the
show, but part of it was that I had never seen Gone for Goode until after
that episode. Strange to see Jessica Hecht (sp???) as a nun after seeing
her as Ross' wife's love interest on Friends.
--
Kimmy Smith
kimmy...@kimmysmith.com
http://www.kimmysmith.com/
Unhurried1
> What are the redeeming features in "Forgive Us Our
> Trespasses"?
The Bayliss montage was worth the price of admission,
though for full value it has to be seen both real-time and
slomo.
* Sent from AltaVista http://www.altavista.com Where you can also find related Web Pages, Images, Audios, Videos, News, and Shopping. Smart is Beautiful
Katy IJL
> bridesmaid? Did we ever hear about this before the ceremony?),
At least they didn't have Falsone drooling. I can just see it.
[Ballard running down the hallway, she's late, in wedding outfit]
Falsone: Hey.
Ballard: Hey. So how, you doing?
Falsone (staring): Fine. You look . . . nice.
Ballard: What? Oh, thank you. Munch's wedding. Gotta go.
[She runs off, he stares.]
Yuck. I was expecting that. Was it cut from NBC?
Katy,
who wishes Ballard and Falsone ran off and got married in S6 so they wouldn't
be around any more.
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
"I'm the queen of my f******* own universe."
"Nobody's perfect . . . . in the grand scheme of things I am nobody . . .
therfore, I am perfect."
Remove -crapola to reply
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Pamela Rose
>
> Pamela Rose pr...@infohwy.com wrote:
>
> >
> >But if we're going for bottom 20, I'd put *everything* in season 7 in
> >there except for Identity Crisis and Forgive Us Our Trespasses.
>
> What are the redeeming features in "Forgive Us Our Trespasses"? More than a few
> fans have mentioned the Ryland killing and the ending resembling "Gone For
> Goode", but a shlocky (no offense schlock) murder of a character no one gave a
> crap about, and Rene Sheppard blandly reciting Crosetti's dialogue don't do
> character bit of Gee turning down his promotion, it's a pretty worthless hour
> of television.
Agree on the sucky wedding and the sucky promotion idea, but to me it
was all worth it for the following scenes:
Tim pushing Danvers down the stairs.
The scene with Tim and Meldrick in the garage.
The scene on the ramp with Tim and Sheppard.
The scene with Tim and Munch outside the Waterfront.
The scene when Tim leaves the squadroom.
Those were all powerful enough that I was willing to grimace through the
rest. I'm a Tim fan, and this was a huge crossroads in his life. (And,
yes, before you say it, it was a mistake to use that particular case,
but Kyle made it believable nonetheless.) I think Kyle, Clark and
Belzer did some fantastic acting in the scenes I mentioned.
Do I think Forgive Us Our Trespasses is on par with Betrayal or Black
and Blue? Of course not, because the episode as a whole doesn't mesh.
But, in my opinion, those individual scenes rose above the crappy
framework they shoehorned around them.
--
Pamela
RESchwalb
<<Tim pushing Danvers down the stairs.
The scene with Tim and Meldrick in the garage.
The scene on the ramp with Tim and Sheppard.
The scene with Tim and Munch outside the Waterfront.
The scene when Tim leaves the squadroom.
Those were all powerful enough that I was willing to grimace through the
rest. I'm a Tim fan, and this was a huge crossroads in his life. (And,
yes, before you say it, it was a mistake to use that particular case,
but Kyle made it believable nonetheless.) I think Kyle, Clark and
Belzer did some fantastic acting in the scenes I mentioned.
Do I think Forgive Us Our Trespasses is on par with Betrayal or Black
and Blue? Of course not, because the episode as a whole doesn't mesh.
But, in my opinion, those individual scenes rose above the crappy
framework they shoehorned around them.>>
What she said. There were gems of scenes to be found throughout season 7, if
you picked carefully through the sludge, and for me, many of them had to do
with Bayliss (yeah, I know: alert the media). I would rate season 6 as much
higher, because there were more eps in that season which didn't totally stink;
it took a long time to settle into a groove, and there were heart-breaking,
back-sliding lapses, but overall, I'd rate 6 way over 7.
Robin
Kay
TVFan87656 wrote:
> kw...@web.solutions.net.au (Keith Gow) wrote:
>
> >
> >I also thought "The Why Chromosone" wasn't too bad. I could've done
> >without Meldrick's chauvanist attitude being forced down our throats,
> >but for once Sheppard didn't irritate me - and finally Ballard was
> >away from Falsone.
>
> "The Why Chromosome" has an atrocious Munch/Billie Lou subplot, and the main
> story sucks. The sole point of interest is the guest cast. JD Williams
> (Casper), and all the female gang members simply wipe the floor with Michael
> Michelle, and taken from an acting standpoint, it's a lot of fun to watch.
I agree, that's why I don't mind watching that episode again. It was the guest
stars that were so much fun to watch, and they did get a lot of the screen time,
so it was worth it IMHO.
>
>
> >I'm wondering what people would list and their
> >least favourite episodes of the entire series.
> >
> >I'd have to go with "La Famiglia," "The Twenty-Percent Solution,"
> >"Abduction," and the "Blood Ties" trilogy. All Season 6 and 7, to be
> >sure. Nothing stands out from the first five that I consider as bad as
> >these.
>
> This is always fun. Top 10 ::drumroll::
>
> 10. Fits Like A Glove
agreed... I hated the white glove murder trilogy.
>
> 9. Wu's On First
I disagree... it was chaotic and ridiculous, and Wu's scenes were awful, but
otherwise, I liked the scenes with Kellerman and his bros. It's not great
television, but I wouldn't call it one of the worst episodes of Homicide ever.
>
> 8. Deception
Hmmm, controversial... it's still a decent ep in my opinion though, for the same
reason other people here have stated, pure shock value... I remember what it was
like after seeing that episode when it originally aired and that sick, uneasy
feeling it gave me.
>
> 7. Blood Ties 3
agree.. stupid, pointless, god-awful trilogy that was a waste of James Earl
Jones' talent.
>
> 6. Lines of Fire
> 5. Saigon Rose
both of these were pretty lame, but they didn't irritate my enough to make my
bottom ten list.
>
> 4. Strangers & Other Partners
again, not irritating enough...
>
> 3. Blood Ties 1
see above comment on Blood Ties trilogy
>
> 2. The Why Chromosome
Decent enough for the guest performances that it couldn't make my bottom ten
list.
>
> 1. Birthday
pretty bad, but I thought "Abduction" and "Strangled Not Stirred" were much
worse.
>
>
> Season 7 has incredibly dull episodes, but few that jump out as nuggets of
> terror. Season 6 has quite a few, unfortunately. "Strangled Not Stirred", and
> "Abduction" are chosen by many athers as worst, but I considered them boring
> and not that offensive.
>
> Before seeing seasons 6/7, I usually included "Fire 2", "The Gas Man",
> "Valentine's Day", and "Sniper 2".
I'm not even gonna comment on "The Gas Man" since it seems to be a love it or
hate it kind of episode.... As for Sniper 2, I really liked it. In fact
"Sniper" is really the only two parter that I really, really like and can watch
again and again.
My picks for worst episodes are:
Abduction
Strangled Not Stirred
Brotherly Love
The Blood Ties trilogy(though I think it was the second one that didn't bother me
too much.)
The White Glove trilogy(though I think it was the first one that didn't bother me
too much.)
Other than those, nothing stands out enough in my mind to list it as a "worst
ever" episode.
-Kay
--
Remove "bychecker" from my addy to contact me.
TVFan87656
>Agree on the sucky wedding and the sucky promotion idea, but to me it
>was all worth it for the following scenes:
>
>Tim pushing Danvers down the stairs.
>The scene with Tim and Meldrick in the garage.
>The scene on the ramp with Tim and Sheppard.
>The scene with Tim and Munch outside the Waterfront.
>The scene when Tim leaves the squadroom.
After hitting send, I forgot about one of the moments I did like in FUOT,
seeing Judge Susan Andaahl one last time. Homicide ending without a final
glimpse of her would've irritated me a great deal. Homicide, like all fantastic
drama series, had unforgettable supporting and minor characters, in some cases
more interesting than the regulars.
>Those were all powerful enough that I was willing to grimace through the
>rest.
I can understand, if Tim were my favorite character I might agree. At the time,
I couldn't help shaking my head over the fact that, other than the Bayliss
scenes, so much of the last ep was shaky, hastily put together, and made no
sense. Gee Jr's decision to "go back to the streets" (where are these streets,
Quantico?) still puzzles me, 9 months later.
TVFan87656
>
>agreed... I hated the white glove murder trilogy.
Individual good scenes, but the trilogy doesn't work overall. I always go back
to "Fits Like A Glove" because they still had such a strong cast then and they
made them stand around for an hour to talk about psych profiles, the
Waterfront, collectors of serial killer memorabilia, and nutso Beth Felton. The
other problem is that by this point you can tell they're dragging the murders
out for no reason, also a problem in some of the season 4 two-parters.
>
>I disagree... it was chaotic and ridiculous, and Wu's scenes were awful, but
>otherwise, I liked the scenes with Kellerman and his bros. It's not great
>television, but I wouldn't call it one of the worst episodes of Homicide
>ever.
The Kellerbrothers scenes weren't bad, but Wu wins out. Even in the final
seasons, the characters we loathed were regular characters who interacted with
others for the entire season. Wu came out of nowhere and took over so much of
the ep. I still don't know why. Why was Frank Pembleton used as a foil for her?
I cringed when *Wu* found the killer and called Pembleton afterward to pick him
up! Was that lifted from a Miss Marple story?
There's a scene in "Wu's On First" that is so unlike Homicide that it should be
removed and burned. Bayliss sitting at a table and reading her purple prose
from a newspaper, then gushing over what a talented writer she was, while the
other detectives stood around, with amazed looks on their faces. What the
hell....? You'd think she'd invented paper, the pen, and ink all in one fell
swoop.
>I remember what it was
>like after seeing that episode when it originally aired and that sick, uneasy
>feeling it gave me.
I agree about the sick feeling, but I had it during most of the episode.
>
>again, not irritating enough...
Think Falsone/Gharty working on the Felton case while Frank talked on the phone
to Mary, or Kay and Megan being asked to pick out funeral clothes.
>As for Sniper 2, I really liked it. In fact
>"Sniper" is really the only two parter that I really, really like and can
>watch
>again and again.
"Hostage" is the two-parter I can watch repeatedly. Sniper 2 has that tacked-on
feeling and the killer is too blatantly obvious. It is pretty good in
comparison to the final seasons, which is why I removed it from the worst 10.
>
>Strangled Not Stirred
Who portrayed the wife in this ep? At the time, her performance impressed me
enough that it balanced out most of the crappy Ballard "spunk" and "meer-der"
scenes.
Kay
TVFan87656 wrote:
> Kay lilchubb...@imaginemail.com wrote:
>
> >
> >agreed... I hated the white glove murder trilogy.
>
> Individual good scenes, but the trilogy doesn't work overall. I always go back
> to "Fits Like A Glove" because they still had such a strong cast then and they
> made them stand around for an hour to talk about psych profiles, the
> Waterfront, collectors of serial killer memorabilia, and nutso Beth Felton. The
> other problem is that by this point you can tell they're dragging the murders
> out for no reason, also a problem in some of the season 4 two-parters.
I agree, that pretty much sums up my feelings on the trilogy.
>
>
> >
> >I disagree... it was chaotic and ridiculous, and Wu's scenes were awful, but
> >otherwise, I liked the scenes with Kellerman and his bros. It's not great
> >television, but I wouldn't call it one of the worst episodes of Homicide
> >ever.
>
> The Kellerbrothers scenes weren't bad, but Wu wins out. Even in the final
> seasons, the characters we loathed were regular characters who interacted with
> others for the entire season. Wu came out of nowhere and took over so much of
> the ep. I still don't know why. Why was Frank Pembleton used as a foil for her?
> I cringed when *Wu* found the killer and called Pembleton afterward to pick him
> up! Was that lifted from a Miss Marple story?
Lol... yes, the Wu scenes were awful, but I like the Kellerbrothers' romp through
Baltimore enough to not hate this episode.
>
>
> There's a scene in "Wu's On First" that is so unlike Homicide that it should be
> removed and burned. Bayliss sitting at a table and reading her purple prose
> from a newspaper, then gushing over what a talented writer she was, while the
> other detectives stood around, with amazed looks on their faces. What the
> hell....?
Yeah, I remember that... totally ridiculous, and out of character, unless Bayliss
just has a thing for Asian women... after that Emma Zoole thing, and now Wu, you
have to wonder.
> You'd think she'd invented paper, the pen, and ink all in one fell
> swoop.
Yep, very similar to all that crap about Ballard and Falsone being ace detectives
and completely infallible.
>
>
> >I remember what it was
> >like after seeing that episode when it originally aired and that sick, uneasy
> >feeling it gave me.
>
> I agree about the sick feeling, but I had it during most of the episode.
>
> >
> >again, not irritating enough...
>
> Think Falsone/Gharty working on the Felton case while Frank talked on the phone
> to Mary, or Kay and Megan being asked to pick out funeral clothes.
yeah, it was messed up, but it just didn't irritate me enough. However, there
really weren't enough good moments in that two parter to make me watch it again...
I've seen it maybe two times... The first was when it was on NBC, and the second,
I was only half paying attention when it was on court tv. Maybe I didn't give it
enough of a chance to irritate the hell out of me. I sure do wish we could've seen
Felton's murder get wrapped up at some point... that was the real crime of this
two parter.
>
>
> >As for Sniper 2, I really liked it. In fact
> >"Sniper" is really the only two parter that I really, really like and can
> >watch
> >again and again.
>
> "Hostage" is the two-parter I can watch repeatedly.
Hostage is decent, and probably my second favorite two parter, but my praise for
Hostage has a lot to do with Frank's return to work, not so much with the actual
Hostage situation at the school. Frank's return was compelling television.
> Sniper 2 has that tacked-on
> feeling and the killer is too blatantly obvious.
Yeah, it was obvious, but there were so many great scenes there, with Megan taking
over in the box... Alex Robey making sure Frank brought Megan some tea with sugar
in addition to the coffee. It was great to see Russert have a really good
interrogation scene, especially when she wasn't even supposed to be there in the
first place. The eggcream scene at Jimmy's was good, and I liked the fact that the
exhaustion this redball created was well portrayed.
> It is pretty good in
> comparison to the final seasons, which is why I removed it from the worst 10.
>
> >
> >Strangled Not Stirred
>
> Who portrayed the wife in this ep? At the time, her performance impressed me
> enough that it balanced out most of the crappy Ballard "spunk" and "meer-der"
> scenes.
Hmmm, according to the episode guide it's Francie Swift... It was a decent
performance, and I remember seeing her sometime more recently in an episode of Law
and Order where she was good also, but the plot and the writing for "Strangled"
just really sucked.... it had too much of a phony "Profiler" like feeling...
pretty hard to stomach.
TVFan87656
>Yeah, I remember that... totally ridiculous, and out of character, unless
>Bayliss
>just has a thing for Asian women... after that Emma Zoole thing, and now Wu,
>you
>have to wonder.
He was drawn to Shep too, between her and Wu he must have a thing for cardboard
women.
>
>Hostage is decent, and probably my second favorite two parter, but my praise
>for
>Hostage has a lot to do with Frank's return to work, not so much with the
>actual
>Hostage situation at the school. Frank's return was compelling television.
I agree, I also like Meldrick/Mike and their idiotic games about how Frank's
going to talk, Kay and the "pepe le pew", the Gaffney/Gee/Barnfather scene, and
that chilling moment when the little girl sees Brodie's camera and thinks it
was all a big movie and people weren't actually killed.