What happens when we get a mediocre writer, a competent director, and a storyline with a bit of heart? Surprisingly, a decent—if some what forced—episode of CSI:NY. (I won’t lie…I was very shocked I didn’t hate this episode.) When I see Aaron Rahsaan Thomas credited with writing an episode I cringe, and make sure to bring a book because I have thus far been bored to tears by the episodes he has presented. His color-by-numbers approach to storytelling sends me diving under the kitchen table as I have horrific flashbacks to my first year of Creative Writing class. The episode Air Apparent was just that—very apparent. However, there was enough skill in the directing and acting department to enhance Thomas’ attempts at emotion.
The episode opens with the juxtaposition of brothers; one in prison, one on the basketball court, or rather one in hell and one in heaven (the announcer to the game even calls the winning shot as one from “heaven”). The story begins moving between the two brothers, showing closeness in nuances and thoughts but clearly separated by circumstances or choices—Hank the Inmate and Riley the Good. I am not a big sports fan. I had enough of basketball growing up with three brothers who were obsessed with the game. Oddly though, basketball and prison sent my memory a’scramblin’ and I remembered reading a story about a basketball player from BYU named Jimmer Somethingorother (later found it was Fredette) who had gone with his brother to play basketball with inmates in prison. I can’t help but seriously consider this the idea that inspired the episode. Even the teams colors were blue and white (BYU’s colors) as well as having Jimmer…I mean Riley…shown as a clean-cut, religious young man. The dynamic is set up clearly from the beginning of the episode. A bit too clearly in fact since before the opening sequence was over I knew who the “killer” was. We have two very distinct characters introduced to us in the first five minutes, but we also had a third character heavily hinted at. Coach Gavin was declared the “winningest coach in ADL History” after already being mentioned by name moments earlier. In a show that keeps a great deal of details generic or vague it is always pretty telling to have a character so well touted. This again goes back to Thomas’ lack of subtly and finesse.
Yet director Anthony Hemingway (who managed to work his name into the opening sequence “Hemingway passes the ball.”) was able to add enough flash and pizzazz to take the heavy handed emotional manipulation and actually make it meaningful. Though I may never forgive either of them for the embarrassingly obvious jump to Don’s storyline. Don basically says “You should watch out for your sibling with an addiction problem.” Then cut to Mac who asks, “So Don, how is your sibling with and addiction problem?” Ugh! Really? They aren’t even going to buy us dinner first? But, again, there was something to save it and this time it was Eddie Cahill and Kathleen Munroe as the Siblings Flack. The dialogue was very “After School Special” but Cahill and Munroe managed to deliver their lines with easy and grace. Their chemistry kept the scenes engaging and heartfelt even as I could feel the proverbial gun of emotional manipulation to my head. Don wants to look out for his sister. “NYPD. Open up!” And Samantha wants her chance to be an unsupervised adult. “You’ve been knocking on my door like that since the Academy.” These two played well with each other, even if they both needed to be put in time out for a moment. Munroe’s performance added a splash of color to Cahill’s character. It was wonderful to see. We usually get a scene report, and a line or two of laughter from his character so this was a great departure.
If they could have gotten the pacing of the episode a bit more on target then they really would have had a strong episode. The scene where Don is following his sister was so fast and choppy that I had to go back and watch it three times just to be sure I didn’t miss anything. But the scene where the two brothers play basketball seemed to go on forever. I later realized the 3 minute basketball game in a male psyche is equivalent to the gratuitous naked dancing woman we typically get. There needs to be someone making better calls in the editing department.
Everything wrapped up nicely in a disgustingly Disney-esque fashion. Both sets of siblings paralleled each other by making up in the end. But that’s just because Thomas lacks refinement (and Alan Menken was unavailable to provide an award winning musical number). However, there was a lot of old school CSI magic here too. I can’t remember the last time we had a “good ol’ fashion internal organ getting stabbed” shot. Morbid, but interesting. Also having Lindsay perform the blood analysis was great continuity, and I am totally digging the stronger, sassier Lindsay this season. And Mac wasn’t doing everyone else’s job this week. There was a strong season two vibe to this episode—it just missed the great DL interaction from that season.
The show is getting closer to finding the balance between plot and character. They still have a way to go but this one was definitely a lot closer to knocking it out of the park (that’s a basketball reference right? …Right?)
So which do you prefer: an episode that features a character’s story heavily with a case being the subplot or the reverse? Or are you a “keep the drama in the kitchen I just want some crime solving” type? Or how about the “case shmase—just give me the character stuff” type?
Next Week: H-A-double L-O-W-double E-N spells a case that looks eerily familiar, almost like we had a someone come out of the grave in a previous episode…oh yeah it was called Boo from season 4! Hmm…here’s hoping this episode isn’t just a zombie! Wait…that actually just spells HALLOWEEN…I knew I should have paid closer attention in school.
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