NYPD Blue: "A Remington Original" Summary/Review
Alan Sepinwall
NYPD Blue, Season 4, Episode 14, "A Remington Original"
Story by David Milch & Bill Clark
Teleplay by Nicholas Wootton
Directed by Michael M. Robin
PLOT ONE: PORN TO BE BAD
Andy and Bobby pay a visit to a local junkyard, where the mutilated
corpse of Antoinette Todd was dumped in the trunk of a car scheduled for
compacting. Moose, the junkyard watchdog, apparently tussled with the
man who hid the body, and the yard manager got a plate number from the
getaway car, which happens to belong to Todd's boyfriend Tim Dolan, who
reported it stolen three days ago.
Dolan seems too genuinely grief-stricken to be the killer, but mentions
that Antoinette was being harassed at the bar where she worked by a
strange customer with coke-bottle glasses. Meanwhile, a crackhead named
Jeremy Monk gets picked up for using Todd's credit card, which he says
he picked up out of a trash can after seeing it dumped there - by a guy
with coke-bottle glasss. Sure enough, the brown paper bag that Monk
described is still in the trash can, and while the detectives are
sifting through it, Monk spots their vision-impaired suspect, a nervous
sort named Mel Lentz.
Mel, who has a dog bite on his hand, plays the dumb innocent in
interrogation, and even with the statements of the junkyard manager, the
bartender who used to work with Todd, and Monk, ADA Cohen says it's
still not enough to get an indictment from the grand jury. Andy settles
for a search warrant for Lentz's apartment, where the detectives find a
body bag with some blonde hairs inside and an extensive porn collection,
including a shrine to Lentz's three favorite actresses, one of whom
bears a very superficial resemblance to Todd.
With the body bag also useless as evidence (it was found in a trash can
outside the building), the detectives go in to secure a confession. Andy
berates Lentz with his own interpretation of how things happened, but
spells it out in such a way that Lentz sounds like a complete pervert.
An angry Lentz declares, "I want to say it the way I want to say it; not
the way he makes it sound," and starts writing a statement.
PLOT TWO: GREG AND STYMPY
Greg and James catch the strange murder of Sig Johnson, who was found in
front of his apartment building with his head caved in so badly that
Greg comments "it was raining buses last night." Mrs. Johnson and her
neighbor, Carol Buono, explain that Sig went to the local bar the night
before in an attempt to get a refund for a faulty air conditioner he
bought from a con man named Stympy Powell. Mrs. Buono says she didn't
hear anything because there was a lot of arguing in the building that
night, though none from her apartment.
Powell, his body riddled with bruises and cuts from a beating he
apparently received at the hands of Sig Johnson, claims that he spent
the night with his girlfriend, an aging hooker named Millie Banks.
Millie's not particularly fond of Stympy at the moment, since he just
stole her CD collection, but she admits that he did spend the night.
Medavoy and Martinez are back at square one until a uniformed cop finds
a typewriter caked with blood in a dumpster near the building, which
looks like the murder weapon. Returning to recanvas the building, the
detectives meet Mrs. Buono's husband Frank, and find enough
inconsistencies between his account of the previous evening and his
wife's to merit bringing them both in for questioning. While
interviewing Mrs. Buono, James unveils the typewriter, which prompts her
to cry "God help us!" When she becomes uncommunicative, James picks it
up and brings it into the room where Greg is talking to Mr. Buono, who
agrees to talk so long as his wife doesn't go to jail. As he explains
it, his wife made extra money typing legal briefs, but her tendency to
ignore her wifely duties in favor of the part-time job started to get to
him, and when he arrived home that night to find dinner uncooked and her
pecking away at the keyboard, he got so mad that he carried the machine
up to the roof and flung it to the ground, not even realizing that his
friend Sig was walking below. "I'm such an asshole," he cries.
PLOT THREE: BEGINNING OF A BEAUTIFUL FRIENDSHIP
The apartment building Bobby inherited is still giving him headaches.
Edith Murphy, a senior citizen whose rent controlled apartment lets her
live there for under $200 a month, kept making angry demands to have her
apartment painted, and the only person Simone could find to do the job
is Henry Coffield, who, typically, complains all the way. He tries to
explain to Bobby that once Edith "established a beachhead" by getting
Henry in the room to paint, she started ordering him to perform all her
household tasks. Bobby doesn't have much patience for the building in
general and Henry in particular, but reluctantly agrees to speak to Mrs.
Murphy on Henry's behalf.
Bobby's attempt to play mediator starts off poorly, as Henry and Edith
keep harping on each other. Schoolmarmish Edith suggests that all of
Henry's complaints are a ruse to fish for compliments and thanks, and,
after a moment, proceeds to thank him for the work he's doing and the
company he's providing. Henry, taken aback by the praise, seems
appeased, and Edith invites the two men to stay for tea. Bobby accepts,
but the minute Edith leaves the room, Henry mutters that her tea stinks,
and Bobby sighs, realizing that his hassles with the building are far
from over.
MISCELLANEOUS THREADS:
Gina returns to work for the first time since the slashing incident.
James deflates Greg's plan to decorate her desk with balloons,
suggesting everyone remain low-key. All the detectives greet Gina
warmly, but she has trouble taking her own mind off the scar -
especially after she catches Henry staring at her when he visits the
squadroom. But having made it through the first day in relative good
shape, Gina's glad to go home with James, who has special plans for
their evening.
Diane's therapy is working out well so far, though her attempts to
involve the family have been getting mixed results (Doug shows up but
isn't talkative, while her mom misses most of the sessions). Meanwhile,
she's trying to broaden her relationship with Bobby to realms other than
the bedroom, and has taken up cooking - though both she and Bobby can't
help but consider a quickie in the squad shower while getting ready to
go off-shift.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
One of the things I love about "Blue" is the way it ignores the hype of
network "sweeps" months. Where other shows feel the need to pack their
episodes in November, February, and May with all sorts of sensational
plots and stunt guest stars, "Blue" goes about its usual business,
telling stories when their time is right and not before. So while the
show may try the occasional action-packed story arc (Diane and Jimmy
Liery), it could fall during December and January, while February can
sometimes find itself the home to a fairly routine but extremely
well-crafted episode like "A Remington Original."
"Blue" has never had particularly original or surprising stories. We
know that, and most of us don't watch the show looking for them, because
often, when the show tries to be daring - as was the case with Jimmy
Liery - it doesn't work. What the show does well, better than almost any
other show on the tube, is characterisation and conflict. The recent
"Upstairs, Downstairs" sparked not because we didn't know that Mike
Zorzi was the killer - which was pretty obvious from the first
commercial break on - but because of the heated confrontations between
the detectives and the uniformed cops. The last episode, "Tom and Geri,"
clicked with a lot of people for the sympathetic and well-rounded
portrayal of Geri Turner.
"A Remington Original" worked a lot like that. Just looking at the
summary above, it sounds a lot like the same-old, same-old, but the
usual plots were spiced up with some great characters and a couple of
unique spins on the formula. This was straight-up, meat-and-potatoes
"Blue," and a very fine example of it.
Take the murder of Antoinette Todd, which featured featured several fun
characters (my favorite was Dennis Kehoe, the pooch-loving junkyard
manager), plus two fairly nifty interviews. The first was with her
boyfriend Tim, who seemed an obvious suspect to me at first because I
didn't think he reacted emotionally enough to the news of her murder. But
then he did start sobbing, and Andy, realizing that the man's defenses
were seemingly down, very quickly lobbed his "Did you kill her?"
question, and the fact that Tim barely even noticed the question
confirmed to both Andy and the audience that he was innocent. Nicely done.
Even better was the interrogation of Mel Lentz, which was one of the
strongest of the season, even if my vague understanding of criminal law
(accumulated through a lot of TV watching and one criminology class at
Penn) had me thinking that Cohen certainly had enough for an indictment,
if not a conviction, without that statement. We've seen Andy and Bobby
intimidate a suspect with physical violence. We've seen them scare them
with the threat of the death penalty. We've seen them con them into
writing a statement so they can put things in a more positive light for
the jury. All these gambits have been used multiple times. But Nicholas
Wootton put an interesting spin on it here. Lentz wasn't confessing
because he was going for a lesser sentence; he just didn't want the jury
to look at him solely through Andy's eyes. And Smits and Franz's timing
on their good-cop, bad-cop routine (with them actually swapping roles a
few times) was impeccable.
Meanwhile, the Greg and James story was worth watching if for no other
reason than for their interview with the caustic Millie, who was
wonderfully portrayed by Grace Zabriskie. Usually, I don't like it when
the show recycles a guest actor in a new role (she played the mother of
a murder suspect near the end of season two), but I can't imagine anyone
but Zabriskie doing justice to that scene, which was a howl from start
to finish. All I can say is that Millie and Stympy deserve each other.
:)
The rest of the case wasn't too shabby, even if I had Mrs. Buono pegged
as being involved from the start, since Roger Ebert's good old law of
economy of characters in screenwriting says that any character in a
murder mystery who has a lot of dialogue for seemingly no reason has to
be the killer. What I liked was the fact that this *wasn't* really a
murder, just a marital spat gone horribly and accidentally awry. (And
I'm wondering what, if any, charge Frank Buono would receive. Is this
involuntary manslaughter? Reckless endangerment? Just an accident?)
The Henry/Edith subplot was a pleasant surprise, especially after I had
read the episode blurb, which said "Simone puts Henry to work at the
tenement, with amusing results." The edgy conflict between Bobby and
Henry is still my favorite material of the season - I don't think Jimmy
Smits has ever been better than he was in Bobby's final interrogation of
Henry - and I wasn't looking forward to seeing Henry turned into the
butt of a joke.
The way that scene turned out, it almost felt like we were watching
another show, but for once, we were watching a *good* show. I can just
imagine Henry and Edith constantly picking at each other and making up,
week in and week out, while glamour boys like Bobby solve murders and
have passionate sex scenes. And while Henry was a source for comedy, it
felt natural here, largely because of the good rapport between Willie
Garson and Maxine Stuart, who played Edith. I doubt I'd want this to
become an ongoing subplot, but it was a refreshing change of pace, and
nice to see Bobby, so cool in the room with a cold-blooded murder
suspect, be so flustered trying to mediate between a crotchety old lady
and a wall-eyed weasel.
I'm a little antsy about the rate at which Gina's story is unfolding.
They're featuring it just prominently enough for us to know that it's a
big deal, but the individual scenes are usually so brief that Lourdes
Benedicto has to convey most of Gina's fear and anxiety through a series
of glances. So far, she's doing a wonderful job, but I hope at some
point we get to see Gina really open up.
I'm very happy, meanwhile, with the amount of screentime devoted to
Diane's therapy this week. While I'd like to see Kim Delaney more than
she was on this week(a regular partnership between Rusell and Kirkendall
might be a very good idea), Diane's childhood traumas don't interest me
enough to want to see more than a few minutes in an episode devoted to
them. I have to admit, though, that the idea of Diane trying to become
domesticated was pretty amusing - Bobby always struck me as the chef in
that relationship.
Only two more episodes before the six-week hiatus (again, ABC is taking
the show off temporarily to showcase a new drama called "The Practice");
if the next two are as good as the last batch has been, it's going to be
a really long six weeks.
So what'd everybody else think?
Quick Hits:
-Was it me, or was James acting very intellectually superior towards
Greg this week? Nick Turturro was doing a lot of eye-rolling at most of
Gordon Clapp's dialogue. Now, admittedly, Greg was being his usual
well-intentioned but dense self this week, but in James has never really
been a mental giant, either.
-Guest Star Notes: In addition to Grace Zabriskie, the other actress who
caught my eye was Donna Pescow (Mrs. Buono). It was twenty years ago
that she played Annette, the shy redhead with the crush on John Travolta
who got gang-raped near the end of "Saturday Night Fever." She was also
"Angie," and most recently played the mother on "Out of this World." For
some reason, it was harder here to get used to her in character than it
usually is when the show brings in a recognizable face. Pescow was fine,
but her usual screen persona is so chipper that it was weird seeing her
as a downtrodden working-class housewife.
-An odd result of knowing in advance that Henry was returning; when Tim
Dolan described the creep who was hassling Antoinette as having coke
bottle glasses and looking like he stepped out of an R. Crumb cartoon, I
automatically assumed it was Henry.
-So Bobby's heard of "The People vs. Larry Flynt," eh? He's always
struck me as the type who's pretty oblivious to the world of pop culture
(have we ever seen him watch TV?). Andy, on the other hand, is a
veritable fountain of entertainment knowledge.
-One of my co-workers mentioned that she thought this episode was a
little more prurient than most, particularly in all the closeups of
Lentz's porno pictures, which she didn't feel were particularly germane
to the story (as opppose to, say, the nude shot of Antoinette in the
trunk of the car). Was anybody else troubled by this?
-Speaking of which, the show seems to be doing a lot of porn and kinky
sex-material lately. A few weeks ago, James and Jill discovered the
world of the crush fetish, the following week we visited the S&M shop,
and this week, our killer killed because he's a porn freak (among other
reasons; I'm sure the majority of pornography buyers are not
sociopathic).
-I really liked the Cohen scene this week (a quote of which is
reproduced below). Usually, he's presented as a real weasel, but for
once, it was acknowledged that he really does care about the law, which,
depending on your point of view, makes him a lot more noble than
Sipowicz and Simone.
-Lines of the Week:
"Well, since the Moose took a beating, we'll do his interview
later."
-Andy, to the junkyard owner who's too devoted
to his dog
"He'll be what's left after nuclear war."
-Millie offering parting thoughts on Stympy
"How come with you Cohen, it comes out like the principal doing
us a favor?"
"Because the school's the Constitution, Sipowicz, and you're the
class dunce."
-Cohen and Andy, sharing their usual warm bond
"That's first cousin to 'I didn't do nothin,' and that's gonna
get you struck."
-Andy applying friendly persuasion to Mel
See ya in the funny papers...
Alan Sepinwall * e-mail: sepi...@force.stwing.upenn.edu
Homepage: http://www.stwing.upenn.edu/~sepinwal/
NYPD Blue page: http://www.stwing.upenn.edu/~sepinwal/nypd.html
RANDOM QUOTE:
"Life...it's like a box of chocolates. A cheap, thoughtless perfunctory
gift that nobody ever asks for. Unreturnable because all you ever get
back is another box of chocolates. So your stuck with this undefinable
whipped mint crap that you mindlessly wolf down when there's nothing
else left to eat. Sure once in a while there's a peanut butter cup or
an english toffy but they're gone too fast and the taste is fleeting.
You end up with nothing but broken bits filled with hardened jelly and
teeth-shattering nuts. If you're desperate enough to eat those, all
you've got left is an empty box filled with useless brown paper
wrappers."
-William B. Davis, "The X-Files"
David Cross
In <5dt9r7$3...@force.stwing.upenn.edu> sepi...@force.stwing.upenn.edu writes:
> -I really liked the Cohen scene this week (a quote of which is
> reproduced below). Usually, he's presented as a real weasel, but for
> once, it was acknowledged that he really does care about the law, which,
> depending on your point of view, makes him a lot more noble than
> Sipowicz and Simone.
I've had a problem with the way they've dealt with ADA Cohen for a while
now. It seems as if we're supposed to think he's just an annoying creep,
but almost every time they've tried to show him that way, I end up siding
with him.
The example that sticks in my mind the most was when he said something
about Bobby handling the case when Diane's father was killed. Bobby and
Andy got all indignant and pissed off, but Cohen was right; Bobby had no
business anywhere near a case involving his girlfriend's family.
I can't decide if this is just bad writing, or very good writing. If this
has been done intentionally just to show that Our Heroes have feet of clay,
and they're going to go somewhere with it besides this niggling feeling
that they think they're somehow not required to adhere to laws and proper
police procedure, then I'll be very impressed. Unfortunately, I'm more
inclined to believe they're just ham-handedly trying to portray Cohen as
a jerk. If they were going to make a point about the methods Our Heroes
use, something would have happened to Bobby for screwing with the Liery
case.
David Cross
cro...@ces.aces.uiuc.edu
"Maybe attach a little booklet to each steak giving the cow's life history...
Although since most of the booklets would say "Born. Ate. Died." this
might not be very exciting." - Al Crawford
Chris Morris
sepi...@force.stwing.upenn.edu (Alan Sepinwall) wrote:
>I'm a little antsy about the rate at which Gina's story is unfolding.
>They're featuring it just prominently enough for us to know that it's a
>big deal
I noticed this too -- and really hope it's not going in the direction
I think it is: Gina's eventual suicide. I like her rapport with the
rest of the cast. This is, of course, just a guess, but judging from
the way she reacted to her warm welcome backs (a fleeting, polite
acknowledgement -- with no real smile or sense of community) and how
much Henry's comments seemed to bother her, I got a nasty feeling....
>-An odd result of knowing in advance that Henry was returning; when Tim
> Dolan described the creep who was hassling Antoinette as having coke
> bottle glasses and looking like he stepped out of an R. Crumb cartoon, I
> automatically assumed it was Henry.
I didn't know Henry was going to be on the show. (It wasn't mentioned
in the local paper/previews) but I, too, instantly thought of him when
Dolan described the creep. Great and warped minds must think alike....
:>
Lori Crittenden
Alan Sepinwall wrote:
> I'm very happy, meanwhile, with the amount of screentime devoted to
> Diane's therapy this week. While I'd like to see Kim Delaney more than
> she was on this week(a regular partnership between Rusell and Kirkendall
> might be a very good idea), Diane's childhood traumas don't interest me
> enough to want to see more than a few minutes in an episode devoted to
> them. I have to admit, though, that the idea of Diane trying to become
> domesticated was pretty amusing - Bobby always struck me as the chef in
> that relationship.
I liked how there was just enough mentioned so that we won't get 500 posts
complaining that Diane's apparently all better (even though these are
usually from the folks who hated that storyline). I also liked how Diane
said that she didn't want her personal problems to be the only thing they
ever talked about. Cute that she was making spagetti, usually the first
thing non-cooks learn to make.
Lori
Lori Crittenden
Chris Morris wrote:
> sepi...@force.stwing.upenn.edu (Alan Sepinwall) wrote:
> >I'm a little antsy about the rate at which Gina's story is unfolding.
> >They're featuring it just prominently enough for us to know that it's a
>
> I noticed this too -- and really hope it's not going in the direction
> I think it is: Gina's eventual suicide. I like her rapport with the
> rest of the cast. This is, of course, just a guess, but judging from
> the way she reacted to her warm welcome backs (a fleeting, polite
> acknowledgement -- with no real smile or sense of community) and how
> much Henry's comments seemed to bother her, I got a nasty feeling....
I got that feeling, too, particularly at the end when she agreed to meet
James downstairs. I almost thought she wouldn't be making it downstairs to
meet him.
Lori
Nancy Dooley
>Quick Hits:
>
>-Was it me, or was James acting very intellectually superior towards
> Greg this week? Nick Turturro was doing a lot of eye-rolling at most of
The only incident I thought was blatant was when James (clearly
Hispanic) reacted to Greg's statement about the "northern areas" not
being as "hot" with crime and riots, etc., because of the
temperatures. James' look was hilarious - like, "...this guy is so
dense, I might as well not even say anything."
Nancy.
"Get your facts first, and then you can
distort 'em as much as you please." (Samuel Clemens)
Lori Crittenden
Alan Sepinwall wrote:
> -Was it me, or was James acting very intellectually superior towards
> Greg this week? Nick Turturro was doing a lot of eye-rolling at most of
> Gordon Clapp's dialogue.
I thought James was acting awfully proprietorial towards Gina. Poor Greg
getting shot down about his balloons. I also think James is far more
bothered (as in repulsed) by Gina's disfiguring than he's letting on. And
there is some good makeup that would have made her face less visible from a
distance.
> -Guest Star Notes: ....Donna Pescow (Mrs. Buono). It was twenty years ago
> that she played Annette, the shy redhead with the crush on John Travolta
> who got gang-raped near the end of "Saturday Night Fever."
For what it's worth, she wasn't really gang raped. She was consenting
because she thought that John Travolta's character would be more interested
in her than if she was a "nice girl" and she wanted him to see that his
friends liked her. Obviously the experience was not what she expected (it
was her first time) and she was tramatized, but it was consentual.
> -One of my co-workers mentioned that she thought this episode was a
> little more prurient than most, particularly in all the closeups of
> Lentz's porno pictures, which she didn't feel were particularly germane
> to the story (as opppose to, say, the nude shot of Antoinette in the
> trunk of the car). Was anybody else troubled by this?
The closeup of Antoinette's nude corpse pretty much showed her breasts
entirely but it seemed like the nipples might have been airbrushed out.
Didn't bother me but seemed unnecessary since it wasn't titilating (at least
not to me).
> -I really liked the Cohen scene this week (a quote of which is
> reproduced below). Usually, he's presented as a real weasel, but for
> once, it was acknowledged that he really does care about the law, which,
> depending on your point of view, makes him a lot more noble than
> Sipowicz and Simone.
Noble? Seemed like he was determined not to prosecute their case unless it
was dressed up with a ribbon. He acted like he would have to really do some
persuasion to get them a search warrant. I think he was a real jerk and was
more interested in yanking Andy and Bobby's chain than caring about the law.
Lori
Scott Hollifield
On 12 Feb 1997 21:37:32 GMT, CRO...@SCORPION.AG.UIUC.EDU (David
Cross) wrote:
>I've had a problem with the way they've dealt with ADA Cohen for a while
>now. It seems as if we're supposed to think he's just an annoying creep,
>but almost every time they've tried to show him that way, I end up siding
>with him.
>
>The example that sticks in my mind the most was when he said something
>about Bobby handling the case when Diane's father was killed. Bobby and
>Andy got all indignant and pissed off, but Cohen was right; Bobby had no
>business anywhere near a case involving his girlfriend's family.
>
>I can't decide if this is just bad writing, or very good writing.
I think it's very good writing. Our "heroes" aren't perfect, and
even the guys who are the real jerks sometimes have the right
play.
Cohen's line about Sipowicz being the "class dunce" was a classic
-- not only do we so rarely get to see someone else effectively
throw Andy's trademark wit back in his face, but it came out of a
very real place of Cohen thinking that he's the one who's really
doing God's good work -- and is partially correct.
Another example of this phenomenon, which I also liked (although
some may disagree with me about it being in the same category)
was Henry's final retort to Bobby at the station. When Bobby
warns him to "watch how you walk out of here" in reference to
Gina, Henry replies sarcastically, "Thanks for the yellow flag,
Simone; I had intended to point and laugh." He's an asshole, but
even he has a line he won't cross. The line wasn't exactly a
stinging riposte, but it did point to a certain grey truth.
>If this
>has been done intentionally just to show that Our Heroes have feet of clay,
>and they're going to go somewhere with it besides this niggling feeling
>that they think they're somehow not required to adhere to laws and proper
>police procedure, then I'll be very impressed. Unfortunately, I'm more
>inclined to believe they're just ham-handedly trying to portray Cohen as
>a jerk. If they were going to make a point about the methods Our Heroes
>use, something would have happened to Bobby for screwing with the Liery
>case.
I think maybe you're relying a bit too much on karmic principle,
which is a nice ideal, but not everyone gets what's coming to
them, even on television. Even if Our Heroes never have to face
the music for their unconstitutional methods, I like that the
writers least bother to show us someone like Cohen who, despite
his flaws, possesses a certain small chunk of his own brand of
integrity that the detectives can't touch.
---
Scott Hollifield * sco...@cris.com * http://www.cris.com/~scotth/
Scott Hollifield
>>Quick Hits:
>>
>>-Was it me, or was James acting very intellectually superior towards
>> Greg this week? Nick Turturro was doing a lot of eye-rolling at most of
>
>The only incident I thought was blatant was when James (clearly
>Hispanic) reacted to Greg's statement about the "northern areas" not
>being as "hot" with crime and riots, etc., because of the
>temperatures. James' look was hilarious - like, "...this guy is so
>dense, I might as well not even say anything."
I actually thought that part of James' reaction to Greg's
nonsense about the "northern countries" being more capable thanks
to their climate might be slightly, subconsciously race-related.
James could very well have relations in a tropical part of the
world.
And while we're talking about Greg, allow me to say a word or two
in his defense. The whole sequence with Greg going overboard in
the balloons with Gina made me realize why I like Greg and cut
him as much slack as I do. As much as he bumbles, Greg
understands good sense when he hears it, when it's offered to
him. He's slow to take offense, and there's almost always some
shaky chain of well-meaning logic behind his actions, which he
rarely fails to try to verbally explain, to account for himself.
He's not afraid of taking responsibility for what he does. In a
way, he and James are a lot a like -- I think the chief
difference is merely that James thinks a bit more before he
talks.
S. Leung
Lori Crittenden wrote:
>
> Chris Morris wrote:
> > sepi...@force.stwing.upenn.edu (Alan Sepinwall) wrote:
> > >They're featuring it just prominently enough for us to know that it's a
> >
> > I noticed this too -- and really hope it's not going in the direction
> > I think it is: Gina's eventual suicide. I like her rapport with the
> > rest of the cast. This is, of course, just a guess, but judging from
> > the way she reacted to her warm welcome backs (a fleeting, polite
> > acknowledgement -- with no real smile or sense of community) and how
> > much Henry's comments seemed to bother her, I got a nasty feeling....
>
> I got that feeling, too, particularly at the end when she agreed to meet
> James downstairs. I almost thought she wouldn't be making it downstairs to
> meet him.
>
> Lori
I don't know about this. I think she acted just rather normal for
someone who's having her face day back on the job. A little nervous, a
little trepidatious, pretty normal behavior. I think, if I may be a
little presumptious, that this suicide talk arises more from ER and NYPD
Blue watchers who got spooked when Gant (Omar Epps) jumped in front of a
moving train on ER last month.
Bill Wasson
>
> I don't know about this. I think she acted just rather normal for
> someone who's having her face day back on the job. A little nervous, a
> little trepidatious, pretty normal behavior. I think, if I may be a
> little presumptious, that this suicide talk arises more from ER and NYPD
> Blue watchers who got spooked when Gant (Omar Epps) jumped in front of a
> moving train on ER last month.
I agree, if this line is going anywhere it is with James. His show of
anger when they were closing in on the Gina slasher perp was freighting
(he actually pulled his gun at the apartment door). Some of this anger
could boil over again with the right suspect.
Bill
Nancy Dooley
On Thu, 13 Feb 1997 03:03:04 -0600, "S. Leung" <sle...@eagle.wbm.ca>
wrote:
>
>I don't know about this. I think she acted just rather normal for
>someone who's having her face day back on the job. A little nervous, a
>little trepidatious, pretty normal behavior. I think, if I may be a
I wish there would be more story-line effort to cover up Gina's scars.
Maybe they're too fresh, yet, but I know there is makeup that will do
the job, not to mention probably some sort of plastic surgery down the
line. Remember that model who got her face all cut up in New York? A
TV camera shot shows very, very faint lines where the scars are. They
are certainly nothing like Gina's.
C'mon, folks, Gina doesn't have to look grotesque, and in the real
world, probably wouldn't.
tmw
Alan Sepinwall wrote:
> Take the murder of Antoinette Todd, which featured featured several fun
> Meanwhile, the Greg and James story was worth watching if for no other
> reason than for their interview with the caustic Millie, who was
> wonderfully portrayed by Grace Zabriskie. Usually, I don't like it when
> the show recycles a guest actor in a new role (she played the mother of
> a murder suspect near the end of season two), but I can't imagine anyone
> but Zabriskie doing justice to that scene, which was a howl from start
> to finish. All I can say is that Millie and Stympy deserve each other.
> :)
>
I knew she'd been on the show before, but I couldn't quite remember. Wasn't
she the loud-mouthed, chain smoking mother of a suspect? I remembered her so
vividly because she had some of the best lines from that episode. She and
Sipowicz sniped at each other. She called him "fatso" and "stumpy."
That's what I generally like about NYPDB, the one time characters are as
interesting and involving as the recurring cast.
tmw
D. Barrington
Alan Sepinwall (sepi...@force.stwing.upenn.edu) wrote:
: NYPD Blue, Season 4, Episode 14, "A Remington Original"
: What I liked was the fact that this *wasn't* really a
: murder, just a marital spat gone horribly and accidentally awry. (And
: I'm wondering what, if any, charge Frank Buono would receive. Is this
: involuntary manslaughter? Reckless endangerment? Just an accident?)
:
Given my dim understanding of such things, he's guilty of involuntary
manslaughter -- he committed an illegal act which directly caused a death,
though he did not intend that to happen. Whether the state would find it
worthwhile to prosecute would be an interesting question. But I don't think
it could be "just an accident" because it's illegal to throw heavy objects
off of buildings. Can anyone with real legal expertise help answer Alan's
question?
:
: I'm very happy, meanwhile, with the amount of screentime devoted to
: Diane's therapy this week. While I'd like to see Kim Delaney more than
: she was on this week(a regular partnership between Rusell and Kirkendall
: might be a very good idea), Diane's childhood traumas don't interest me
: enough to want to see more than a few minutes in an episode devoted to
: them. I have to admit, though, that the idea of Diane trying to become
: domesticated was pretty amusing - Bobby always struck me as the chef in
: that relationship.
This scene was worth it for the brief shot of Diane after Bobby left, looking
genuinely happy for the first time in months.
: So what'd everybody else think?
I agree with you entirely, but what else is new?
: -Was it me, or was James acting very intellectually superior towards
: Greg this week? Nick Turturro was doing a lot of eye-rolling at most of
: Gordon Clapp's dialogue. Now, admittedly, Greg was being his usual
: well-intentioned but dense self this week, but in James has never really
: been a mental giant, either.
The eye-rolling I noticed was after Greg's remark about "northern peoples
accomplishing so much", and I thought he was reacting to the clueless
racism of the statement. This is consistent with James' increased
self-assertiveness lately.
Greg and James seem to have been assigned to the Crimes Committed by Stupid
People Task Force lately, but notice that they handled this case, and the
interrogation, quite expertly when you really look at it.
:
: -So Bobby's heard of "The People vs. Larry Flynt," eh? He's always
: struck me as the type who's pretty oblivious to the world of pop culture
: (have we ever seen him watch TV?). Andy, on the other hand, is a
: veritable fountain of entertainment knowledge.
If Bobby looks at the _Times_ or has NPR going on the way to work, he would
have heard of the controversy over the movie.
: -One of my co-workers mentioned that she thought this episode was a
: little more prurient than most, particularly in all the closeups of
: Lentz's porno pictures, which she didn't feel were particularly germane
: to the story (as opppose to, say, the nude shot of Antoinette in the
: trunk of the car). Was anybody else troubled by this?
What surprised me the most were the many explicit references to male
masturbation in the interrogation of Mel. While they were essentially
related to the plot and plausible for these characters, they violate what
has been one of the strongest taboos around.
: -Speaking of which, the show seems to be doing a lot of porn and kinky
: sex-material lately. A few weeks ago, James and Jill discovered the
: world of the crush fetish, the following week we visited the S&M shop,
: and this week, our killer killed because he's a porn freak (among other
: reasons; I'm sure the majority of pornography buyers are not
: sociopathic).
The "pervert equals killer" equation is a bit troubling, especially given
recent laws requiring that any "sex offender" be publicly stigmatised for
life.
Great job, as usual.
Dave MB
James Lloyd Hill
bar...@fiji.cs.umass.edu (D. Barrington) writes:
>Alan Sepinwall (sepi...@force.stwing.upenn.edu) wrote:
[re: the Typewriter of Death]
>: What I liked was the fact that this *wasn't* really a
>: murder, just a marital spat gone horribly and accidentally awry. (And
>: I'm wondering what, if any, charge Frank Buono would receive. Is this
>: involuntary manslaughter? Reckless endangerment? Just an accident?)
>:
>Given my dim understanding of such things, he's guilty of involuntary
>manslaughter -- he committed an illegal act which directly caused a death,
>though he did not intend that to happen. Whether the state would find it
>worthwhile to prosecute would be an interesting question. But I don't think
>it could be "just an accident" because it's illegal to throw heavy objects
>off of buildings. Can anyone with real legal expertise help answer Alan's
>question?
A question I've been mulling over is "what sort of punishment is appropriate
for Mr. Buono?" On the one hand, he directly caused the death of a human
being and then tried to conceal that fact by lying to the police and
getting his wife to do so as well. On the other, he was horrified at the
result of his actions and was quite repentant for what he had done.
So, what do you do? Do you send the guy away for a while, to be
"rehabilitated" in the Calcuttan Black Holes we call prisons? Do you run
the risk of being thought "soft on crime" and send him to the kind of pokey
where tax cheats and inside traders go for the weekend? Do you consider
that prison would serve little purpose and nail him with a huge fine and a
while lotta community service time?
Lawyerly types: what's the standard penalty for someone who inadvertently
causes a person's death and feels like hell?
Jim
--
j-h...@coewl.cen.uiuc.edu http://www.swcp.com/~jimhill/
"I'm sorry, was that insensitive?"
wal...@dnvn.com
In article <330246...@worldnet.att.net>, Lori Crittenden
<LoriCritt...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
> Chris Morris wrote:
> > sepi...@force.stwing.upenn.edu (Alan Sepinwall) wrote:
> > >I'm a little antsy about the rate at which Gina's story is unfolding.
> > >They're featuring it just prominently enough for us to know that it's a
> > >big deal
> >
> > I noticed this too -- and really hope it's not going in the direction
> > I think it is: Gina's eventual suicide. I like her rapport with the
> > rest of the cast. This is, of course, just a guess, but judging from
> > the way she reacted to her warm welcome backs (a fleeting, polite
> > acknowledgement -- with no real smile or sense of community) and how
> > much Henry's comments seemed to bother her, I got a nasty feeling....
>
> I got that feeling, too, particularly at the end when she agreed to meet
> James downstairs. I almost thought she wouldn't be making it downstairs to
> meet him.
>
> Lori
Doesn't James's behavior seem very patronizing to you? I don't know
how he can act -- but it seems apparent that he is turned off by
the scarring and is trying to 'do the right thing.' by her, but it
nevertheless not really still interested in her. I hope they take
this someplace more interesting than 'suicide'. [and wouldn't she be
wearing Covermark or something over the star? while it wouldn't go
away entirely, it would be less noticeable.
k
Alan Sepinwall
In article <5dt9r7$3...@force.stwing.upenn.edu>,
Alan Sepinwall <sepi...@force.stwing.upenn.edu> wrote:
>
>Meanwhile, the Greg and James story was worth watching if for no other
>reason than for their interview with the caustic Millie, who was
>wonderfully portrayed by Grace Zabriskie. Usually, I don't like it when
>the show recycles a guest actor in a new role (she played the mother of
>a murder suspect near the end of season two), but I can't imagine anyone
>but Zabriskie doing justice to that scene, which was a howl from start
>to finish. All I can say is that Millie and Stympy deserve each other.
>:)
>
Two more addition to the recycled actors carousel that I didn't notice on
writing my review:
A couple of sharp-eyed viewers e-mailed me to ask if Maxine Stuart, who
played Edith Murphy (the cranky old lady), had also played John Kelly's
senile mother back in the first season. I checked the episode guide, and,
indeed, she did. While I was there, I also looked up Don Stark (who
played Frank Buono here) because he looked familiar, and, sure enough, he
also appeared in the first season, as a crooked private investigator who
was scamming Dom Bucci out of money to search for his missing daughter.
Alan Sepinwall * e-mail: sepi...@force.stwing.upenn.edu
Homepage: http://www.stwing.upenn.edu/~sepinwal/
NYPD Blue page: http://www.stwing.upenn.edu/~sepinwal/nypd.html
Save EZ Streets!: http://members.aol.com/SaveEZSts
RANDOM QUOTE:
"When I was in school, I cheated on my metaphysics exam: I looked into
the soul of the boy sitting next to me."
-Woody Allen, "Annie Hall"
D. Barrington
James Lloyd Hill (j-h...@ehsn26.cen.uiuc.edu) wrote:
: A question I've been mulling over is "what sort of punishment is appropriate
: for Mr. Buono?" On the one hand, he directly caused the death of a human
: being and then tried to conceal that fact by lying to the police and
: getting his wife to do so as well. On the other, he was horrified at the
: result of his actions and was quite repentant for what he had done.
: So, what do you do? Do you send the guy away for a while, to be
: "rehabilitated" in the Calcuttan Black Holes we call prisons? Do you run
: the risk of being thought "soft on crime" and send him to the kind of pokey
: where tax cheats and inside traders go for the weekend? Do you consider
: that prison would serve little purpose and nail him with a huge fine and a
: while lotta community service time?
: Lawyerly types: what's the standard penalty for someone who inadvertently
: causes a person's death and feels like hell?
The problem with compassion and leniency is that his case is directly
analogous to a drunk driver (though at least in MA there seems to be
a separate classification for "vehicular homicide"). On the other hand,
I sort of go along with reserving hard time for threats to society (maybe
including _repeat_ drunk drivers). It's been said that the threat of
rape in prison is the major deterrent to white-color crime, but if this
is true it's certainly immoral.
I'd go with soft time, fine, community service and like that. With drunk
drivers you can revoke licenses, but he hasn't got a typewriter-throwing
license...
Dave MB
Rob Means
In article <330362...@syr.edu> tmw <tmmi...@syr.edu> writes:
>From: tmw <tmmi...@syr.edu>
>Subject: Re: NYPD Blue: "A Remington Original" Summary/Review
>Date: Thu, 13 Feb 1997 10:49:06 -0800
>Alan Sepinwall wrote:
>> Take the murder of Antoinette Todd, which featured featured several fun
>> Meanwhile, the Greg and James story was worth watching if for no other
>> reason than for their interview with the caustic Millie, who was
>> wonderfully portrayed by Grace Zabriskie. Usually, I don't like it when
>> the show recycles a guest actor in a new role (she played the mother of
>> a murder suspect near the end of season two), but I can't imagine anyone
>> but Zabriskie doing justice to that scene, which was a howl from start
>> to finish. All I can say is that Millie and Stympy deserve each other.
>> :)
>>
>I knew she'd been on the show before, but I couldn't quite remember. Wasn't
>she the loud-mouthed, chain smoking mother of a suspect? I remembered her so
>vividly because she had some of the best lines from that episode. She and
>Sipowicz sniped at each other. She called him "fatso" and "stumpy."
On Twin Peaks, she played the mother of the murder victim, Laura Palmer.
Rob Means
Delphi International
1090 Vermont Avenue, N.W.
Seventh Floor
Washington, DC 20005
Tel.: 202/898-0960, ext. 67
r...@delphi-int.org
David Cross
In <330265f8....@news.cris.com> sco...@cris.com writes:
> On 12 Feb 1997 21:37:32 GMT, CRO...@SCORPION.AG.UIUC.EDU (David
> Cross) wrote:
[ Re: Cohen: Creep or Noble Upholder of Truth, Justice, etc? ]
> >I can't decide if this is just bad writing, or very good writing.
>
> I think it's very good writing. Our "heroes" aren't perfect, and
> even the guys who are the real jerks sometimes have the right
> play.
I'm just not convinced. I think it's ambiguous writing. Almost every
time I see Cohen, I think Andy and/or Bobby is a jerk, but I've seen a
lot of posts from people who believe just the opposite. Either I'm
missing something, or they are.
> >a jerk. If they were going to make a point about the methods Our Heroes
> >use, something would have happened to Bobby for screwing with the Liery
> >case.
>
> I think maybe you're relying a bit too much on karmic principle,
> which is a nice ideal, but not everyone gets what's coming to
> them, even on television.
Maybe part of my problem is that my midwestern values and sense of
fairness (which I've tried to eradicate) make me believe that someone
needs to get nailed for some of the things they do, but a big part of
that is the writers' fault. No matter what Andy and Bobby do, there
appear to be absolutely no repercussions.
The Liery case has really brought this more into focus for me. I can
understand how Diane could forgive Bobby for what he did. I don't really
like it, but I understand it. What I don't understand is why someone
*else* isn't in his face about it. Diane wasn't running that investigation
by herself, and she didn't pull that tape out of thin air. Someone,
somewhere should be pretty damn pissed off about the whole thing and
raising a big stink about it.
I also never bought that Fancy would let Bobby investigate the murder of
Diane's father. Although he didn't really "know" that they were involved,
if Cohen knew it, then I think Fancy has to put someone else on the case
so it doesn't look bad.
I guess I'm just tired of the idea that since they've got such strong
feelings about what's right, they can do whatever they think is necessary
with impunity. Bobby's feelings are *exactly* the reason he shouldn't
have been allowed near Diane's family. I'm also sick of seeing suspect's
rights get trampled for the Greater Good.
> Even if Our Heroes never have to face
> the music for their unconstitutional methods, I like that the
> writers least bother to show us someone like Cohen who, despite
> his flaws, possesses a certain small chunk of his own brand of
> integrity that the detectives can't touch.
If that's really what they're trying to do, they're going to have to
be a little more clear, because it's so subtle that most of us are
missing it.
David Cross
cro...@ces.aces.uiuc.edu
"When connecting, faxes send out a series of tones which, in the world
of fax machines, apparently say something like 'Wake up, roll over and
make love to me.'" - Tequila Rapide
tmw
Nancy Dooley wrote:
>
> On Thu, 13 Feb 1997 03:03:04 -0600, "S. Leung" <sle...@eagle.wbm.ca>
> wrote:
>
> >
> >I don't know about this. I think she acted just rather normal for
> >someone who's having her face day back on the job. A little nervous, a
> >little trepidatious, pretty normal behavior. I think, if I may be a
>
> I wish there would be more story-line effort to cover up Gina's scars.
For starters they could have her wear her hair down. She still wears it
pulled back and off her face. I would think that if she was so self
conscious that she'd try to hide it a little by wearing her hair down.
tmw
Don Weinman
Alan Sepinwall wrote:
>
> NYPD Blue, Season 4, Episode 14, "A Remington Original"
>
> Story by David Milch & Bill Clark
> Teleplay by Nicholas Wootton
> Directed by Michael M. Robin
> as being involved from the start, since Roger Ebert's good old law of
> economy of characters in screenwriting says that any character in a
> murder mystery who has a lot of dialogue for seemingly no reason has to
> be the killer. What I liked was the fact that this *wasn't* really a
> murder, just a marital spat gone horribly and accidentally awry. (And
> I'm wondering what, if any, charge Frank Buono would receive. Is this
> involuntary manslaughter? Reckless endangerment? Just an accident?)
Excellent question, Scott, and one that I voiced out loud at the end of the
show.
Any legal types out there care to chime in?
> -Was it me, or was James acting very intellectually superior towards
> Greg this week? Nick Turturro was doing a lot of eye-rolling at most of
> Gordon Clapp's dialogue. Now, admittedly, Greg was being his usual
> well-intentioned but dense self this week, but in James has never really
> been a mental giant, either.
James was (righfully) quite aghast at James' line "That why your northern nations
get so much more accomplished". Shades of Howard from Hill Street Blues...
> "How come with you Cohen, it comes out like the principal doing
> us a favor?"
> "Because the school's the Constitution, Sipowicz, and you're the
> class dunce."
> -Cohen and Andy, sharing their usual warm bond
That's my favorite!
DPW
Matt Ackeret
In article <330242...@worldnet.att.net>,
Lori Crittenden <LoriCritt...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>Alan Sepinwall wrote:
>I thought James was acting awfully proprietorial towards Gina. Poor Greg
>getting shot down about his balloons. I also think James is far more
>bothered (as in repulsed) by Gina's disfiguring than he's letting on. And
>there is some good makeup that would have made her face less visible from a
>distance.
I dunno, but in terms of Gina's actual looks, I don't think she even looks
that bad. I mean I'd be POed at whoever did it, but she's nowhere near
as "disfigured" as that real life model that got all cut up a decade or so
ago.
Gina just has a couple of red lines down her face! Maybe it's not-extensive-
enough makeup or something, but it seems to me it'll mostly go away. (if
it were real that is.)
--
mat...@apple.com
S. Leung
S. Leung wrote:
>
> Lori Crittenden wrote:
> >
> > Chris Morris wrote:
> > > sepi...@force.stwing.upenn.edu (Alan Sepinwall) wrote:
> > > >They're featuring it just prominently enough for us to know that it's a
> > >
> > > I noticed this too -- and really hope it's not going in the direction
> > > I think it is: Gina's eventual suicide. I like her rapport with the
> > > rest of the cast. This is, of course, just a guess, but judging from
> > > the way she reacted to her warm welcome backs (a fleeting, polite
> > > acknowledgement -- with no real smile or sense of community) and how
> > > much Henry's comments seemed to bother her, I got a nasty feeling....
> >
> > I got that feeling, too, particularly at the end when she agreed to meet
> > James downstairs. I almost thought she wouldn't be making it downstairs to
> > meet him.
> >
> > Lori
>
> someone who's having her face day back on the job. A little nervous, a
> little trepidatious, pretty normal behavior. I think, if I may be a
> Blue watchers who got spooked when Gant (Omar Epps) jumped in front of a
> moving train on ER last month.
A little mistake, I meant to say that she acted normal for someone who
has to face her first day back on the job.
jene...@aol.com
In article <5dt9r7$3...@force.stwing.upenn.edu>, sepi...@force.stwing.upenn.edu (Alan Sepinwall) writes:
> (And
>I'm wondering what, if any, charge Frank Buono would receive. Is this
>involuntary manslaughter? Reckless endangerment? Just an accident?)
>
How about littering?
:-)
Jenelle
"May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows you're dead!"
jim and/or ann
Alan Sepinwall wrote:
>
> Mrs. Johnson and her
> neighbor, Carol Buono, explain that Sig went to the local bar the night
> before in an attempt to get a refund for a faulty air conditioner he
> bought from a con man named Stympy Powell.
Gotta be the best character name in a long time: Stympy Powell.
> Only two more episodes before the six-week hiatus (again, ABC is taking
> the show off temporarily to showcase a new drama called "The Practice");
> if the next two are as good as the last batch has been, it's going to be
> a really long six weeks.
But "The Practice" is from the creator of "Picket Fences" and promises
the kind of thorny legal/ethical issues explored so effectively on that
series, so it ought be worth a look.
jim
("what kinda liquids would those be, Mel?)
BamBam
On 12 Feb 1997, Alan Sepinwall wrote:
...yet another great review.
> With the body bag also useless as evidence (it was found in a trash can
> outside the building), the detectives go in to secure a confession. Andy
> berates Lentz with his own interpretation of how things happened, but
> spells it out in such a way that Lentz sounds like a complete pervert.
> An angry Lentz declares, "I want to say it the way I want to say it; not
> the way he makes it sound," and starts writing a statement.
And, in about the time it took you to write the summary, Our Boys In Blue
"solved" the case with yet another "trick" confession. C'mon, writers,
are there *no* unsolved cases in The Big Apple anymore? Hell, fire the
real NYPD; hire Bobby & Andy. They'll clean up Manhattan in two shakes.
Three, tops.
> up and brings it into the room where Greg is talking to Mr. Buono, who
> agrees to talk so long as his wife doesn't go to jail. As he explains
> it, his wife made extra money typing legal briefs, but her tendency to
> ignore her wifely duties in favor of the part-time job started to get to
> him, and when he arrived home that night to find dinner uncooked and her
> pecking away at the keyboard, he got so mad that he carried the machine
> up to the roof and flung it to the ground, not even realizing that his
> friend Sig was walking below. "I'm such an asshole," he cries.
I'm truly curious; why wouldn't they just have told the truth in the first
place, that this was an accident, albeit a *stooopid* accident?
> Gina returns to work for the first time since the slashing incident.
> James deflates Greg's plan to decorate her desk with balloons,
> suggesting everyone remain low-key. All the detectives greet Gina
> warmly, but she has trouble taking her own mind off the scar -
> especially after she catches Henry staring at her when he visits the
> squadroom.
Ok Bobby, was it really necessary to tell Henry that Gina was the victim
of an attempted rape? Sheesh!
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> Even better was the interrogation of Mel Lentz, which was one of the
> strongest of the season, even if my vague understanding of criminal law
> (accumulated through a lot of TV watching and one criminology class at
> Penn) had me thinking that Cohen certainly had enough for an indictment,
> if not a conviction, without that statement.
You too? Haven't we seen them do much more, with much less, in the past?
I had the feeling that Cohen was going to ask for a videotape of the
murder, just to be on the safe side...
> to look at him solely through Andy's eyes. And Smits and Franz's timing
> on their good-cop, bad-cop routine (with them actually swapping roles a
> few times) was impeccable.
Even though it ended predictably, I do think that this was one of the
better interrogations they've had together in quite awhile. Hell, *I*
would've been scared to piss Bobby off at the end of it!
> be the killer. What I liked was the fact that this *wasn't* really a
> murder, just a marital spat gone horribly and accidentally awry. (And
> I'm wondering what, if any, charge Frank Buono would receive. Is this
> involuntary manslaughter? Reckless endangerment? Just an accident?)
(Guess I should've read the whole thing before I asked my question ;)
> have passionate sex scenes. And while Henry was a source for comedy, it
> felt natural here, largely because of the good rapport between Willie
> Garson and Maxine Stuart, who played Edith. I doubt I'd want this to
> become an ongoing subplot, but it was a refreshing change of pace, and
> nice to see Bobby, so cool in the room with a cold-blooded murder
> suspect, be so flustered trying to mediate between a crotchety old lady
> and a wall-eyed weasel.
I felt exactly the opposite. That last ten minutes was a snoozer, and
could've easily been used for the other cases (especially the real murder)
to make it seem like a real challenge for them to have been solved.
> I'm a little antsy about the rate at which Gina's story is unfolding.
> They're featuring it just prominently enough for us to know that it's a
> big deal, but the individual scenes are usually so brief that Lourdes
> Benedicto has to convey most of Gina's fear and anxiety through a series
> of glances.
Shades of Donna?
> -Was it me, or was James acting very intellectually superior towards
> Greg this week? Nick Turturro was doing a lot of eye-rolling at most of
> Gordon Clapp's dialogue. Now, admittedly, Greg was being his usual
> well-intentioned but dense self this week, but in James has never really
> been a mental giant, either.
I only noticed it after Greg's comment about the northern countries being
superior; guess that means our friends in Canada outgun us, eh? :)
> -So Bobby's heard of "The People vs. Larry Flynt," eh? He's always
...and isn't the language getting a little bit more "out there"?
> -One of my co-workers mentioned that she thought this episode was a
> little more prurient than most, particularly in all the closeups of
> Lentz's porno pictures, which she didn't feel were particularly germane
> to the story (as opppose to, say, the nude shot of Antoinette in the
> trunk of the car). Was anybody else troubled by this?
Maybe not troubled, but most definitely more aware of it; between the
pictures and the language, I thought I was watching HBO for a minute...
> "How come with you Cohen, it comes out like the principal doing
> us a favor?"
> "Because the school's the Constitution, Sipowicz, and you're the
> class dunce."
> -Cohen and Andy, sharing their usual warm bond
LOL
"Real knowledge is to know one's own ignorance." -Confucius
Rose "BamBam" Cooper /~\
Sgt. At Arms/Web Moderator, /','\
Ebony Queens Motorcycle Club /','`'\
DoD #EQUEEN email: BAM...@MANETHEREN.CL.MSU.EDU /',',','/`,
http://mlss15.cl.msu.edu/~bambam/eqmc/eqmc.html `~-._'c /
http://mlss15.cl.msu.edu/~bambam/jupiter/rott.html `\ ( dski
http://mlss15.cl.msu.edu/~bambam/customerpower/wwwboard.html /====\
Mike Coldewey
David Cross wrote:
>
> In <330265f8....@news.cris.com> sco...@cris.com writes:
>
> > On 12 Feb 1997 21:37:32 GMT, CRO...@SCORPION.AG.UIUC.EDU (David
> > Cross) wrote:
>
> [ Re: Cohen: Creep or Noble Upholder of Truth, Justice, etc? ]
>
> > >I can't decide if this is just bad writing, or very good writing.
> >
> > I think it's very good writing. Our "heroes" aren't perfect, and
> > even the guys who are the real jerks sometimes have the right
> > play.
>
> I'm just not convinced. I think it's ambiguous writing. Almost every
> time I see Cohen, I think Andy and/or Bobby is a jerk, but I've seen a
> lot of posts from people who believe just the opposite. Either I'm
> missing something, or they are.
>
> > >a jerk. If they were going to make a point about the methods Our Heroes
> > >use, something would have happened to Bobby for screwing with the Liery
> > >case.
> >
> > I think maybe you're relying a bit too much on karmic principle,
> > which is a nice ideal, but not everyone gets what's coming to
> > them, even on television.
>
> Maybe part of my problem is that my midwestern values and sense of
> fairness (which I've tried to eradicate) make me believe that someone
> needs to get nailed for some of the things they do, but a big part of
> that is the writers' fault. No matter what Andy and Bobby do, there
> appear to be absolutely no repercussions.
I tend to agree. I kind of enjoy - in a visceral way - seeing them beat
up suspects, but then I become real aware that they don't have any
knowledge for sure whether the suspect is guilty or not; just their
intuition/cop instincts. I don't like Cohen's character, but he needs to
be around more, not less; and he is, in the end, on their side, no
matter how much it seems the relationship is adversarial. This is all
"Dirty Harry" stuff, without anybody riding herd on them.
>
> The Liery case has really brought this more into focus for me. I can
> understand how Diane could forgive Bobby for what he did. I don't really
> like it, but I understand it. What I don't understand is why someone
> *else* isn't in his face about it. Diane wasn't running that investigation
> by herself, and she didn't pull that tape out of thin air. Someone,
> somewhere should be pretty damn pissed off about the whole thing and
> raising a big stink about it.
I was just unhappy with the writing of that whole episode. It
represented a big blown opportunity.
>
> I also never bought that Fancy would let Bobby investigate the murder of
> Diane's father. Although he didn't really "know" that they were involved,
> if Cohen knew it, then I think Fancy has to put someone else on the case
> so it doesn't look bad.
>
> I guess I'm just tired of the idea that since they've got such strong
> feelings about what's right, they can do whatever they think is necessary
> with impunity. Bobby's feelings are *exactly* the reason he shouldn't
> have been allowed near Diane's family. I'm also sick of seeing suspect's
> rights get trampled for the Greater Good.
>
> > Even if Our Heroes never have to face
> > the music for their unconstitutional methods, I like that the
> > writers least bother to show us someone like Cohen who, despite
> > his flaws, possesses a certain small chunk of his own brand of
> > integrity that the detectives can't touch.
>
> If that's really what they're trying to do, they're going to have to
> be a little more clear, because it's so subtle that most of us are
> missing it.
>
And Our Heroes haven't had to face the music yet. At some point I
anticipate a plot line where some scumbag-looking suspect gets really
exercised about the brutality, turns out to be guilty (or even innocent
- hey let'em be wrong once in awhile), but gets freed because of it.
How's Sipowitz/Simone going to react to that?
Mike
Paul Randall Robinson Jr.
Alan Sepinwall (sepi...@force.stwing.upenn.edu) wrote:
:
: NYPD Blue, Season 4, Episode 14, "A Remington Original"
:
: Story by David Milch & Bill Clark
: Teleplay by Nicholas Wootton
: Directed by Michael M. Robin
: PLOT ONE: PORN TO BE BAD
: Andy and Bobby pay a visit to a local junkyard, where the mutilated
: corpse of Antoinette Todd was dumped in the trunk of a car scheduled for
: compacting. Moose, the junkyard watchdog, apparently tussled with the
: man who hid the body, and the yard manager got a plate number from the
: getaway car, which happens to belong to Todd's boyfriend Tim Dolan, who
: reported it stolen three days ago.
:
: Dolan seems too genuinely grief-stricken to be the killer, but mentions
: that Antoinette was being harassed at the bar where she worked by a
: strange customer with coke-bottle glasses. Meanwhile, a crackhead named
: Jeremy Monk gets picked up for using Todd's credit card, which he says
: he picked up out of a trash can after seeing it dumped there - by a guy
: with coke-bottle glasss. Sure enough, the brown paper bag that Monk
: described is still in the trash can, and while the detectives are
: sifting through it, Monk spots their vision-impaired suspect, a nervous
: sort named Mel Lentz.
:
: Mel, who has a dog bite on his hand, plays the dumb innocent in
: interrogation, and even with the statements of the junkyard manager, the
: bartender who used to work with Todd, and Monk, ADA Cohen says it's
: still not enough to get an indictment from the grand jury. Andy settles
: for a search warrant for Lentz's apartment, where the detectives find a
: body bag with some blonde hairs inside and an extensive porn collection,
: including a shrine to Lentz's three favorite actresses, one of whom
: bears a very superficial resemblance to Todd.
:
: With the body bag also useless as evidence (it was found in a trash can
: outside the building), the detectives go in to secure a confession. Andy
: berates Lentz with his own interpretation of how things happened, but
: spells it out in such a way that Lentz sounds like a complete pervert.
: An angry Lentz declares, "I want to say it the way I want to say it; not
: the way he makes it sound," and starts writing a statement.
Why did they need 4 detectives to search Lentz's apartment? They only
needed Sipowitz and Simone.
:
: PLOT TWO: GREG AND STYMPY
: Greg and James catch the strange murder of Sig Johnson, who was found in
: front of his apartment building with his head caved in so badly that
: Greg comments "it was raining buses last night." Mrs. Johnson and her
: neighbor, Carol Buono, explain that Sig went to the local bar the night
: before in an attempt to get a refund for a faulty air conditioner he
: bought from a con man named Stympy Powell. Mrs. Buono says she didn't
: hear anything because there was a lot of arguing in the building that
: night, though none from her apartment.
:
: Powell, his body riddled with bruises and cuts from a beating he
: apparently received at the hands of Sig Johnson, claims that he spent
: the night with his girlfriend, an aging hooker named Millie Banks.
: Millie's not particularly fond of Stympy at the moment, since he just
: stole her CD collection, but she admits that he did spend the night.
:
: Medavoy and Martinez are back at square one until a uniformed cop finds
: a typewriter caked with blood in a dumpster near the building, which
: looks like the murder weapon. Returning to recanvas the building, the
: detectives meet Mrs. Buono's husband Frank, and find enough
: inconsistencies between his account of the previous evening and his
: wife's to merit bringing them both in for questioning. While
: interviewing Mrs. Buono, James unveils the typewriter, which prompts her
: to cry "God help us!" When she becomes uncommunicative, James picks it
: up and brings it into the room where Greg is talking to Mr. Buono, who
: agrees to talk so long as his wife doesn't go to jail. As he explains
: it, his wife made extra money typing legal briefs, but her tendency to
: ignore her wifely duties in favor of the part-time job started to get to
: him, and when he arrived home that night to find dinner uncooked and her
: pecking away at the keyboard, he got so mad that he carried the machine
: up to the roof and flung it to the ground, not even realizing that his
: friend Sig was walking below. "I'm such an asshole," he cries.
:
: PLOT THREE: BEGINNING OF A BEAUTIFUL FRIENDSHIP
: The apartment building Bobby inherited is still giving him headaches.
: Edith Murphy, a senior citizen whose rent controlled apartment lets her
: live there for under $200 a month, kept making angry demands to have her
: apartment painted, and the only person Simone could find to do the job
: is Henry Coffield, who, typically, complains all the way. He tries to
: explain to Bobby that once Edith "established a beachhead" by getting
: Henry in the room to paint, she started ordering him to perform all her
: household tasks. Bobby doesn't have much patience for the building in
: general and Henry in particular, but reluctantly agrees to speak to Mrs.
: Murphy on Henry's behalf.
:
: Bobby's attempt to play mediator starts off poorly, as Henry and Edith
: keep harping on each other. Schoolmarmish Edith suggests that all of
: Henry's complaints are a ruse to fish for compliments and thanks, and,
: after a moment, proceeds to thank him for the work he's doing and the
: company he's providing. Henry, taken aback by the praise, seems
: appeased, and Edith invites the two men to stay for tea. Bobby accepts,
: but the minute Edith leaves the room, Henry mutters that her tea stinks,
: and Bobby sighs, realizing that his hassles with the building are far
: from over.
:
: MISCELLANEOUS THREADS:
:
: Gina returns to work for the first time since the slashing incident.
: James deflates Greg's plan to decorate her desk with balloons,
: suggesting everyone remain low-key. All the detectives greet Gina
: warmly, but she has trouble taking her own mind off the scar -
: especially after she catches Henry staring at her when he visits the
: squadroom. But having made it through the first day in relative good
: shape, Gina's glad to go home with James, who has special plans for
: their evening.
:
: Diane's therapy is working out well so far, though her attempts to
: involve the family have been getting mixed results (Doug shows up but
: isn't talkative, while her mom misses most of the sessions). Meanwhile,
: she's trying to broaden her relationship with Bobby to realms other than
: the bedroom, and has taken up cooking - though both she and Bobby can't
: help but consider a quickie in the squad shower while getting ready to
: go off-shift.
:
: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
:
: One of the things I love about "Blue" is the way it ignores the hype of
: network "sweeps" months. Where other shows feel the need to pack their
: episodes in November, February, and May with all sorts of sensational
: plots and stunt guest stars, "Blue" goes about its usual business,
: telling stories when their time is right and not before. So while the
: show may try the occasional action-packed story arc (Diane and Jimmy
: Liery), it could fall during December and January, while February can
: sometimes find itself the home to a fairly routine but extremely
: well-crafted episode like "A Remington Original."
:
: "Blue" has never had particularly original or surprising stories. We
: know that, and most of us don't watch the show looking for them, because
: often, when the show tries to be daring - as was the case with Jimmy
: Liery - it doesn't work. What the show does well, better than almost any
: other show on the tube, is characterisation and conflict. The recent
: "Upstairs, Downstairs" sparked not because we didn't know that Mike
: Zorzi was the killer - which was pretty obvious from the first
: commercial break on - but because of the heated confrontations between
: the detectives and the uniformed cops. The last episode, "Tom and Geri,"
: clicked with a lot of people for the sympathetic and well-rounded
: portrayal of Geri Turner.
:
: "A Remington Original" worked a lot like that. Just looking at the
: summary above, it sounds a lot like the same-old, same-old, but the
: usual plots were spiced up with some great characters and a couple of
: unique spins on the formula. This was straight-up, meat-and-potatoes
: "Blue," and a very fine example of it.
:
: Take the murder of Antoinette Todd, which featured featured several fun
: characters (my favorite was Dennis Kehoe, the pooch-loving junkyard
: manager), plus two fairly nifty interviews. The first was with her
: boyfriend Tim, who seemed an obvious suspect to me at first because I
: didn't think he reacted emotionally enough to the news of her murder. But
: then he did start sobbing, and Andy, realizing that the man's defenses
: were seemingly down, very quickly lobbed his "Did you kill her?"
: question, and the fact that Tim barely even noticed the question
: confirmed to both Andy and the audience that he was innocent. Nicely done.
:
: Even better was the interrogation of Mel Lentz, which was one of the
: strongest of the season, even if my vague understanding of criminal law
: (accumulated through a lot of TV watching and one criminology class at
: Penn) had me thinking that Cohen certainly had enough for an indictment,
: if not a conviction, without that statement. We've seen Andy and Bobby
: intimidate a suspect with physical violence. We've seen them scare them
: with the threat of the death penalty. We've seen them con them into
: writing a statement so they can put things in a more positive light for
: the jury. All these gambits have been used multiple times. But Nicholas
: Wootton put an interesting spin on it here. Lentz wasn't confessing
: because he was going for a lesser sentence; he just didn't want the jury
: to look at him solely through Andy's eyes. And Smits and Franz's timing
: on their good-cop, bad-cop routine (with them actually swapping roles a
: few times) was impeccable.
:
: Meanwhile, the Greg and James story was worth watching if for no other
: reason than for their interview with the caustic Millie, who was
: wonderfully portrayed by Grace Zabriskie. Usually, I don't like it when
: the show recycles a guest actor in a new role (she played the mother of
: a murder suspect near the end of season two), but I can't imagine anyone
: but Zabriskie doing justice to that scene, which was a howl from start
: to finish. All I can say is that Millie and Stympy deserve each other.
: :)
:
: The rest of the case wasn't too shabby, even if I had Mrs. Buono pegged
: as being involved from the start, since Roger Ebert's good old law of
: economy of characters in screenwriting says that any character in a
: murder mystery who has a lot of dialogue for seemingly no reason has to
: be the killer. What I liked was the fact that this *wasn't* really a
: murder, just a marital spat gone horribly and accidentally awry. (And
: I'm wondering what, if any, charge Frank Buono would receive. Is this
: involuntary manslaughter? Reckless endangerment? Just an accident?)
:
: The Henry/Edith subplot was a pleasant surprise, especially after I had
: read the episode blurb, which said "Simone puts Henry to work at the
: tenement, with amusing results." The edgy conflict between Bobby and
: Henry is still my favorite material of the season - I don't think Jimmy
: Smits has ever been better than he was in Bobby's final interrogation of
: Henry - and I wasn't looking forward to seeing Henry turned into the
: butt of a joke.
:
: The way that scene turned out, it almost felt like we were watching
: another show, but for once, we were watching a *good* show. I can just
: imagine Henry and Edith constantly picking at each other and making up,
: week in and week out, while glamour boys like Bobby solve murders and
: have passionate sex scenes. And while Henry was a source for comedy, it
: felt natural here, largely because of the good rapport between Willie
: Garson and Maxine Stuart, who played Edith. I doubt I'd want this to
: become an ongoing subplot, but it was a refreshing change of pace, and
: nice to see Bobby, so cool in the room with a cold-blooded murder
: suspect, be so flustered trying to mediate between a crotchety old lady
: and a wall-eyed weasel.
:
: I'm a little antsy about the rate at which Gina's story is unfolding.
: They're featuring it just prominently enough for us to know that it's a
: big deal, but the individual scenes are usually so brief that Lourdes
: Benedicto has to convey most of Gina's fear and anxiety through a series
: of glances. So far, she's doing a wonderful job, but I hope at some
: point we get to see Gina really open up.
:
: I'm very happy, meanwhile, with the amount of screentime devoted to
: Diane's therapy this week. While I'd like to see Kim Delaney more than
: she was on this week(a regular partnership between Rusell and Kirkendall
: might be a very good idea), Diane's childhood traumas don't interest me
: enough to want to see more than a few minutes in an episode devoted to
: them. I have to admit, though, that the idea of Diane trying to become
: domesticated was pretty amusing - Bobby always struck me as the chef in
: that relationship.
:
: Only two more episodes before the six-week hiatus (again, ABC is taking
: the show off temporarily to showcase a new drama called "The Practice");
: if the next two are as good as the last batch has been, it's going to be
: a really long six weeks.
:
: So what'd everybody else think?
:
: Quick Hits:
:
: -Was it me, or was James acting very intellectually superior towards
: Greg this week? Nick Turturro was doing a lot of eye-rolling at most of
: Gordon Clapp's dialogue. Now, admittedly, Greg was being his usual
: well-intentioned but dense self this week, but in James has never really
: been a mental giant, either.
:
: -Guest Star Notes: In addition to Grace Zabriskie, the other actress who
: caught my eye was Donna Pescow (Mrs. Buono). It was twenty years ago
: that she played Annette, the shy redhead with the crush on John Travolta
: who got gang-raped near the end of "Saturday Night Fever." She was also
: "Angie," and most recently played the mother on "Out of this World." For
: some reason, it was harder here to get used to her in character than it
: usually is when the show brings in a recognizable face. Pescow was fine,
: but her usual screen persona is so chipper that it was weird seeing her
: as a downtrodden working-class housewife.
:
: -An odd result of knowing in advance that Henry was returning; when Tim
: Dolan described the creep who was hassling Antoinette as having coke
: bottle glasses and looking like he stepped out of an R. Crumb cartoon, I
: automatically assumed it was Henry.
:
: -So Bobby's heard of "The People vs. Larry Flynt," eh? He's always
: struck me as the type who's pretty oblivious to the world of pop culture
: (have we ever seen him watch TV?). Andy, on the other hand, is a
: veritable fountain of entertainment knowledge.
:
: -One of my co-workers mentioned that she thought this episode was a
: little more prurient than most, particularly in all the closeups of
: Lentz's porno pictures, which she didn't feel were particularly germane
: to the story (as opppose to, say, the nude shot of Antoinette in the
: trunk of the car). Was anybody else troubled by this?
:
: -Speaking of which, the show seems to be doing a lot of porn and kinky
: sex-material lately. A few weeks ago, James and Jill discovered the
: world of the crush fetish, the following week we visited the S&M shop,
: and this week, our killer killed because he's a porn freak (among other
: reasons; I'm sure the majority of pornography buyers are not
: sociopathic).
:
: -I really liked the Cohen scene this week (a quote of which is
: reproduced below). Usually, he's presented as a real weasel, but for
: once, it was acknowledged that he really does care about the law, which,
: depending on your point of view, makes him a lot more noble than
: Sipowicz and Simone.
:
: -Lines of the Week:
:
: "Well, since the Moose took a beating, we'll do his interview
: later."
: -Andy, to the junkyard owner who's too devoted
: to his dog
:
: "He'll be what's left after nuclear war."
: -Millie offering parting thoughts on Stympy
:
: "How come with you Cohen, it comes out like the principal doing
: us a favor?"
: "Because the school's the Constitution, Sipowicz, and you're the
: class dunce."
: -Cohen and Andy, sharing their usual warm bond
:
: "That's first cousin to 'I didn't do nothin,' and that's gonna
: get you struck."
: -Andy applying friendly persuasion to Mel
:
: See ya in the funny papers...
:
: Alan Sepinwall * e-mail: sepi...@force.stwing.upenn.edu
: Homepage: http://www.stwing.upenn.edu/~sepinwal/
: NYPD Blue page: http://www.stwing.upenn.edu/~sepinwal/nypd.html
:
: RANDOM QUOTE:
:
: "Life...it's like a box of chocolates. A cheap, thoughtless perfunctory
: gift that nobody ever asks for. Unreturnable because all you ever get
: back is another box of chocolates. So your stuck with this undefinable
: whipped mint crap that you mindlessly wolf down when there's nothing
: else left to eat. Sure once in a while there's a peanut butter cup or
: an english toffy but they're gone too fast and the taste is fleeting.
: You end up with nothing but broken bits filled with hardened jelly and
: teeth-shattering nuts. If you're desperate enough to eat those, all
: you've got left is an empty box filled with useless brown paper
: wrappers."
: -William B. Davis, "The X-Files"
:
James Pritchett
Alan Sepinwall (sepi...@force.stwing.upenn.edu) wrote:
: NYPD Blue, Season 4, Episode 14, "A Remington Original"
: "Blue" has never had particularly original or surprising stories. We
: know that, and most of us don't watch the show looking for them, because
: often, when the show tries to be daring - as was the case with Jimmy
: Liery - it doesn't work.
What was so daring about the Liery arc? You are right about it not
working!
What the show does well, better than almost any
: other show on the tube, is characterisation and conflict.
Poor 2nd (especially this season) to Homicide. Just when you get a lull
in quality stories, Blue trots out a raging Andy to stir things up
(again).
The recent
: "Upstairs, Downstairs" sparked not because we didn't know that Mike
: Zorzi was the killer - which was pretty obvious from the first
: commercial break on - but because of the heated confrontations between
: the detectives and the uniformed cops.
Very true...a really interesting episode.
:
: "A Remington Original" worked a lot like that. Just looking at the
: summary above, it sounds a lot like the same-old, same-old, but the
: usual plots were spiced up with some great characters and a couple of
: unique spins on the formula. This was straight-up, meat-and-potatoes
: "Blue," and a very fine example of it.
:
Yes, a lot of the best and worst of the show...
:
: Even better was the interrogation of Mel Lentz, which was one of the
: strongest of the season, even if my vague understanding of criminal law
: (accumulated through a lot of TV watching and one criminology class at
: Penn) had me thinking that Cohen certainly had enough for an indictment,
: if not a conviction, without that statement. We've seen Andy and Bobby
: intimidate a suspect with physical violence. We've seen them scare them
: with the threat of the death penalty. We've seen them con them into
: writing a statement so they can put things in a more positive light for
: the jury. All these gambits have been used multiple times. But Nicholas
: Wootton put an interesting spin on it here. Lentz wasn't confessing
: because he was going for a lesser sentence; he just didn't want the jury
: to look at him solely through Andy's eyes. And Smits and Franz's timing
: on their good-cop, bad-cop routine (with them actually swapping roles a
: few times) was impeccable.
If you were Lentz, would you have fallen for that claptrap? Maybe I've
seen too many cop show, but please! Andy's baiting was much too obvious.
:
: The way that scene turned out, it almost felt like we were watching
: another show, but for once, we were watching a *good* show. I can just
: imagine Henry and Edith constantly picking at each other and making up,
: week in and week out, while glamour boys like Bobby solve murders and
: have passionate sex scenes. And while Henry was a source for comedy, it
: felt natural here, largely because of the good rapport between Willie
: Garson and Maxine Stuart, who played Edith. I doubt I'd want this to
: become an ongoing subplot, but it was a refreshing change of pace, and
: nice to see Bobby, so cool in the room with a cold-blooded murder
: suspect, be so flustered trying to mediate between a crotchety old lady
: and a wall-eyed weasel.
This was very good and touching. Well played by all!
: While I'd like to see Kim Delaney more than
: she was on this week
I almost thought we could have a week without her...I was hoping
(a regular partnership between Rusell and Kirkendall
: might be a very good idea),
Kirkendall is too sharp for Diane. Would like to see her with James on a
case now that he is coming into his own.
:
: -I really liked the Cohen scene this week (a quote of which is
: reproduced below). Usually, he's presented as a real weasel, but for
: once, it was acknowledged that he really does care about the law, which,
: depending on your point of view, makes him a lot more noble than
: Sipowicz and Simone.
:
Cohen is the man! I hope we get to see him featured in a show. He is
arrogant, bold and smart. Would love to see him lock horns with
Kirkendall!
: -Lines of the Week:
Some of the weakest lines of any Blue except for
:
: "How come with you Cohen, it comes out like the principal doing
: us a favor?"
: "Because the school's the Constitution, Sipowicz, and you're the
: class dunce."
: -Cohen and Andy, sharing their usual warm bond
:
Leo, you are just too much!!
Kind of a mixed bag show for me, with the closing scene with Henry being
the saving grace. I'm glad to see James and Greg getting on cases and not
being bound by diet/puppy love. I hope they don't have Gina become
another Lesniak.
They have to do better in the interrogation room with Simone and Sipowicz.
Too predictable and unrealistic for me.
James bringing in that typewriter was an excellent change of pace from the
usual tepid interviews!
More Kirkendall, more Cohen...please
Late...
/ l l l \
Steve Ferra
D. Barrington wrote:
>
> Alan Sepinwall (sepi...@force.stwing.upenn.edu) wrote:
>
> : NYPD Blue, Season 4, Episode 14, "A Remington Original"
> : murder, just a marital spat gone horribly and accidentally awry. (And
> : I'm wondering what, if any, charge Frank Buono would receive. Is this
> : involuntary manslaughter? Reckless endangerment? Just an accident?)
> :
> manslaughter -- he committed an illegal act which directly caused a death,
> though he did not intend that to happen. Whether the state would find it
> worthwhile to prosecute would be an interesting question. But I don't think
> it could be "just an accident" because it's illegal to throw heavy objects
> off of buildings. Can anyone with real legal expertise help answer Alan's
> question?
If the DA really wanted to be a hard-ass, they could charge him with
as high as second-degree murder, which includes what are colloquially
referred to as "depraved heart" offenses, intentional acts which show
a complete disregard for human life. The example I remember from law
school is dropping a penny off the Empire State Building (cf. Macaulay
Culkin in "The Good Son" dropping a mannequin off the overpass).
Now while it can be argued that the he threw the typewriter in a fit
of pique and wasn't thinking about his actions, I noticed that the
scriptwriters made a specific point that didn't just throw it out the
window, but went up to the roof, and then threw it off.
More likely he would be charged with voluntary manslaughter, not
*involuntary*. Voluntary manslaughter is when you kill someone,
though not intentionally, as a result of a voluntary act. While
Frank didn't intend to kill anyone, he *did* intend to throw the
typewriter off the roof, making his act voluntary. Involuntary
manslaughter is when you kill as the result of a careless or negligent
act - something you didn't intend to do, but did anyway because you
were negligent or created a situation that led to death as a result
of your negligence.
--
Steve Ferra
"Life is like a box of chocolates -- a cheap, thoughtless
perfunctory gift that nobody ever asks for; unreturnable,
because all you get back is another box of chocolates. So
you re stuck with this undefinable whipped mint crap that
you mindlessly wolf down and there s nothing left to eat.
Sure, once in awhile there s a peanut butter cup or English
toffee, but they re gone too fast and the taste is fleeting.
So you end up with nothing but broken bits filled with
hardened jelly and teeth-shattering nuts. If you're desperate
enough to eat those all you ve got left is an empty box
filled with useless brown paper wrappers."
- William B. Davis as the "Cigarette Smoking Man" on X-Files
Alan Sepinwall
In article <330324a7...@news.uiowa.edu>,
Nancy Dooley <nancy-...@uiowa.edu> wrote:
>
>C'mon, folks, Gina doesn't have to look grotesque, and in the real
>world, probably wouldn't.
Maybe I'm the only one who feels that way, but I don't think she looks
particularly grotesque. Yes, the scar is extremely noticable (and it's
too soon after the attack for extensive plastic surgery to have been
performed), but Gina still looks very beautiful, IMHO.
Alan Sepinwall * e-mail: sepi...@force.stwing.upenn.edu
Homepage: http://www.stwing.upenn.edu/~sepinwal/
NYPD Blue page: http://www.stwing.upenn.edu/~sepinwal/nypd.html
Save EZ Streets!: http://members.aol.com/SaveEZSts
RANDOM QUOTE:
"Ehm, look. Sorry, sorry. I just, ehm, well, this is a very stupid
question and..., particularly in view of our recent shopping
excursion, but I just wondered, by any chance, ehm, eh, I mean
obviously not because I guess I've only slept with 9 people,
but-but I-I just wondered... ehh. I really feel, ehh, in short, to
recap it slightly in a clearer version, eh, the words of David
Cassidy in fact, eh, while he was still with the Partridge family,
eh, "I think I love you", and eh, I-I just wondered by any
chance you wouldn't like to... Eh... Eh... No, no, no of course
not... I'm an idiot, he's not... Excellent, excellent, fantastic,
eh, I was gonna say lovely to see you, sorry to disturb... Better
get on..."
"That was very romantic..."
"Well, I thought it over a lot, you know, I wanted to get it just
right."
-Hugh Grant & Andie MacDowell, "Four Weddings and a
Funeral"
Lori Crittenden
Matt Ackeret wrote:
> Lori Crittenden <LoriCritt...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
> >I thought James was acting awfully proprietorial towards Gina. Poor Greg
> >getting shot down about his balloons. I also think James is far more
> >bothered (as in repulsed) by Gina's disfiguring than he's letting on. And
> >there is some good makeup that would have made her face less visible from a
> >distance.
>
> I dunno, but in terms of Gina's actual looks, I don't think she even looks
> that bad. I mean I'd be POed at whoever did it, but she's nowhere near
> as "disfigured" as that real life model that got all cut up a decade or so
> ago.
>
> Gina just has a couple of red lines down her face! Maybe it's not-extensive-
> enough makeup or something, but it seems to me it'll mostly go away. (if
> it were real that is.)
*I* don't think her face looks all that bad either but I think that James is
pretty shallow and I think that *he* is bothered by her face.
Lori
Lori Crittenden
BamBam wrote:
> On 12 Feb 1997, Alan Sepinwall wrote:
> > And while Henry was a source for comedy, it
> > felt natural here, largely because of the good rapport between Willie
> > Garson and Maxine Stuart, who played Edith. I doubt I'd want this to
> > become an ongoing subplot, but it was a refreshing change of pace, and
> > nice to see Bobby, so cool in the room with a cold-blooded murder
> > suspect, be so flustered trying to mediate between a crotchety old lady
> > and a wall-eyed weasel.
>
> I felt exactly the opposite. That last ten minutes was a snoozer, and
> could've easily been used for the other cases (especially the real murder)
> to make it seem like a real challenge for them to have been solved.
I found that last scene with Henry and Edith tiresome, too. I don't like
either of those characters and their bickering wasn't funny to me. Having the
show end on that note was a bit of a letdown, kind of like the show ended just
a tad too soon.
Lori
S. Leung
I thought the reason he went up to the roof to throw out the typewriter
was because his apartment had no windows. Would a DA really want to put
a guy who's a normal working stiff into already crowded jails? Wouldn't
he get off with probation or a few years in minimum security? I mean
with a favorable story (ie. a confession in which he states there was no
malice intended) and a statement of remorse he shouldn't have to do hard
time. There's no reason to make an example out of this guy. Let's face
it how many people are killed by falling typewriters.
Michael Kwun
In article <3304E8...@eagle.wbm.ca>, sle...@eagle.wbm.ca wrote:
) Steve Ferra wrote:
) >
) > D. Barrington wrote:
) > >
) > > Alan Sepinwall (sepi...@force.stwing.upenn.edu) wrote:
) > >
) > > : NYPD Blue, Season 4, Episode 14, "A Remington Original"
) > > : What I liked was the fact that this *wasn't* really a
) > > : murder, just a marital spat gone horribly and accidentally awry. (And
) > > : I'm wondering what, if any, charge Frank Buono would receive. Is this
) > > : involuntary manslaughter? Reckless endangerment? Just an accident?)
) > More likely he would be charged with voluntary manslaughter, not
) > *involuntary*. Voluntary manslaughter is when you kill someone,
) > though not intentionally, as a result of a voluntary act. While
) > Frank didn't intend to kill anyone, he *did* intend to throw the
) > typewriter off the roof, making his act voluntary. Involuntary
) > manslaughter is when you kill as the result of a careless or negligent
) > act - something you didn't intend to do, but did anyway because you
) > were negligent or created a situation that led to death as a result
) > of your negligence.
) I thought the reason he went up to the roof to throw out the typewriter
) was because his apartment had no windows. Would a DA really want to put
) a guy who's a normal working stiff into already crowded jails? Wouldn't
) he get off with probation or a few years in minimum security? I mean
) with a favorable story (ie. a confession in which he states there was no
) malice intended) and a statement of remorse he shouldn't have to do hard
) time. There's no reason to make an example out of this guy. Let's face
) it how many people are killed by falling typewriters.
I'm not a lawyer (I'm a second-year law student), and my knowledge of the
crim side of law is minimal (like most law students, I took crim law first
year, but I haven't taken any other crim classes), but here's my take:
First, there's no such thing as "involuntary manslaughter" or "voluntary
manslaughter" under the NY Penal Code. The reasonably possible charges
under the NY Penal Code for the typewriter death (ignoring the attempt at
covering it up--that could result in additional charges) are:
(A) Criminally negligent homicide (NY Penal Code section 125.10),
punishable by imprisonment of one to four years. Causing the death of
another person through criminal negligence.
(B) Manslaughter in the second degree (section 125.15), one to fifteen
years. Recklessly causing the death of another.
(C) Murder in the second degree (section 125.25), fifteen to life. One
definition, according to the code: "Under circumstances evincing a depraved
indifference to human life, he recklessly engages in conduct which creates
a grave risk of death to another person, and thereby causes the death of
another person . . . ."
Between (A) and (B), I think (B) is more appropriate. Typically,
"reckless" is legally defined as conscious disregard of a substantial and
unjustifiable risk. This disregard should furthermore constitute a gross
deviation from the standard of conduct a law-abiding person would observe
in the situation. Negligence is similar: failure to perceive a subst. and
unjust. risk, where the failure to perceive it constitutes a gross
deviation from the std a law-abiding person would observe in the situation.
(These definitions are paraphrases of the Model Penal Code, sections
2.02(2)(c) and (d).)
With regard to (C), I don't think this standard has been met. Depraved
indifference, maybe, but "grave risk of death"? I would think that
throwing a typewriter off a roof is stupid, but in the middle of the night
generally unlikely to result in someone's death.
So we have 2d deg. manslaughter, a Class C felony, punishable by one to
fifteen. Likely result? Only 5% of all criminal cases go to trial. I'd
be quite surprised if this one did. So maybe a guilty plea (maybe even to
a lesser charge) and either a light sentence or a suspended sentence. Of
course, he'll still have a felony conviction on his record.
--
Michael Kwun Boalt Hall Class of 98 http://www.igc.org/kwun/
Berkeley Women's L.J. Production Ed. http://coming.soon/I/think
Berkeley Tech. L.J. Assoc. Editor http://server.berkeley.edu/BTLJ
Jim & Shelley Hackett
Alan Sepinwall <sepi...@force.stwing.upenn.edu> wrote in article
<5dt9r7$3...@force.stwing.upenn.edu>...
>
>
> Even better was the interrogation of Mel Lentz, which was one of the
> strongest of the season, even if my vague understanding of criminal law
> (accumulated through a lot of TV watching and one criminology class at
> Penn) had me thinking that Cohen certainly had enough for an indictment,
> if not a conviction, without that statement. We've seen Andy and Bobby
> intimidate a suspect with physical violence. We've seen them scare them
> with the threat of the death penalty. We've seen them con them into
> writing a statement so they can put things in a more positive light for
> the jury. All these gambits have been used multiple times. But Nicholas
> Wootton put an interesting spin on it here. Lentz wasn't confessing
> because he was going for a lesser sentence; he just didn't want the jury
> to look at him solely through Andy's eyes. And Smits and Franz's timing
> on their good-cop, bad-cop routine (with them actually swapping roles a
> few times) was impeccable.
>
>
This has got to be one of the best interview scenes they've done yet, not
necessarily from a technical standpoint, but from a pure enjoyment in
watching one. Bobby and Andy were playing their normal roles, Bobby the
sympathetic one and Andy the hard line asshole, but with the little twist
that it was Bobby they were physically threatening him with (with which
they were threatening him???). I loved the smug little look that Mel gave
Bobby when Andy left the room, like the two of them had really shown Andy.
I did think it was a little unbelievable that Mel didn't realize what he
had done; that he had just confessed and was agreeing to tell all, but it
didn't bother me enough to ruin the scene. My husband and I agreed that it
was a classic!!
Shelley Hackett
Ceon Ramon
>I wish there would be more story-line effort to cover up Gina's scars.
>Maybe they're too fresh, yet, but I know there is makeup that will do
>the job, not to mention probably some sort of plastic surgery down the
>line. Remember that model who got her face all cut up in New York? A
>TV camera shot shows very, very faint lines where the scars are. They
>are certainly nothing like Gina's.
That depends to some extent on what she was slashed with. Wasn't the
model slashed with a razor blade, and Gina with a knife? A knife would
create a wider cut with more microscopically irregular edges. I also
recall reading an article by a cosmetic surgeon who works on accident and
assault victims, and he said that people with olive or dark skin scar more
badly than those with fair skin. Since scar tissue is always lighter in
color than the epidermis, perhaps it only looks worse.
The scar will fade, but it takes time. It's supposed to have been, what?
six or seven weeks?
>C'mon, folks, Gina doesn't have to look grotesque, and in the real
>world, probably wouldn't.
If someone is gauche enough to ask, I think Gina ought to tell them she
was slashed by a sabre while dueling in Germany. :-)
I have a facial scar, acquired when I was seven and fell on a log crossing
a deep gully; my foot slipped on moss wet from recent rain and a small
twig jammed itself into my face. It's on the curve of my jaw and not
particularly noticeable, but I was riding a bus a few years ago when the
stranger sitting next to me yanked on my elbow and said, "Howdja get that
scar on your face?" I told him I was bitten by a clumsy vampire.
--Barbara
Ceon Ramon
In article <330382...@syr.edu>, tmw <tmmi...@syr.edu> wrote:
>Nancy Dooley wrote:
>> I wish there would be more story-line effort to cover up Gina's scars.
>For starters they could have her wear her hair down. She still wears it
>pulled back and off her face. I would think that if she was so self
>conscious that she'd try to hide it a little by wearing her hair down.
Perhaps she's trying to get used to it, desensitizing herself to stares,
maybe even on the advice of a therapist.
--Barbara
Ceon Ramon
In article <5e1soj$t...@force.stwing.upenn.edu>,
Alan Sepinwall <sepi...@force.stwing.upenn.edu> wrote:
>In article <330324a7...@news.uiowa.edu>,
>Nancy Dooley <nancy-...@uiowa.edu> wrote:
>>
>>C'mon, folks, Gina doesn't have to look grotesque, and in the real
>>world, probably wouldn't.
>
>particularly grotesque. Yes, the scar is extremely noticable (and it's
>too soon after the attack for extensive plastic surgery to have been
>performed), but Gina still looks very beautiful, IMHO.
No, you're not the only one to feel that way. When I notice her slash
mark it's almost as an afterthought. Gina is a young, pretty, fresh-faced
young woman, and I'm certain she's shocked and going through some process
of grief about the alteration in her appearance, but I appreciate that
she's not slathering make-up on to cover it up. It needs to heal, skin
needs to breathe, and it's my observation that heavy make-up often calls
more attention to a condition (black eye, acne, whatever) than the simple
fact of the condition itself. When you look at Gina now you register the
fact that she's had some kind of injury. If she were wearing heavy
make-up to conceal it, you'd think, "There's something wrong with that
woman's face, but I can't figure out what," and would probably wind up
paying much more attention to it.
I don't find her appearance grotesque by any means.
--Barbara
Tom Betz
Quoth sle...@eagle.wbm.ca in <3304E8...@eagle.wbm.ca>:
|I thought the reason he went up to the roof to throw out the typewriter
If so, his landlord is also subject to prosecution.
All NYC apartments have been required to have windows since late in the
19th century.
Big gaffe on the part of the writers.
--
|We have tried ignorance | Tom Betz (914) 375-1510 |
|for a very long time, and | Want to send me email? First, read this page: |
|it's time we tried education. | <http://www.panix.com/~tbetz/mailterms.shtml> |
|<http://www.pobox.com/~tbetz> | I mock up my reactive mind twice daily. |