The Night Of #7: The Kiss

Not much that we didn't already know in last night's penultimate The Night Of episode 7 on HBO, but it was a very satisfying episode, anyway, mainly because of the kiss between Naz and Chandra.

I don't know realistic that was - a lawyer kissing her client like that in a jail-cell visit - but it felt right and told us something important:  Chandra believes in Naz's innocence.  In fact, her statement of that is what leads to the kiss.  Not many other people share that belief.  Naz's mother apparently does not. Even Jack has made it clear, many times, that this is not about Naz's guilt or innocence, but about giving him a fair hearing.

Though it's not clear if Jack's thoughts have changed on this, especially given what he's been uncovering about the retiring Dt. Sgt. Box.  And Jack doesn't know the half of it, at this point.  What was it that we saw at the very beginning of last night's episode, and we saw nothing more of in the hour? Wasn't that Box on the scene of another murder, with a knife-riven body cut up a lot like Andrea's?  And when exactly did that take place - before or after Andrea's murder?

Meanwhile, as The Night Of has been doing in almost every episode, we get another little shot against Naz - he committed not one but two violent acts while in school.  But you know what?  I have confidence in Chandra, and her kissing Naz has now 100% convinced me of his innocence.  I think she's a good judge of human nature.   And there's that intelligent testimony that that Michael Baden-like coroner Dr. Katz gave on Naz's behalf on the stand.

But that, then, leaves us with who else?  I went over the three prime, non-Naz suspects last week.  I guess I'm hoping that it's Duane Reade, not because he seems more guilty than the others, but because it would be great to see Richard Price's little joke made even more memorable by Reade being the killer.  Price must have thinking, when he came up with this little gambit, that, hey, how many times, like in The Usual Suspects, do we see someone under questioning come up with a name that was on a nearby coffee cup or sign, so why not make it the suspect's or whoever's real name after all?   I have nothing at all against the drug store chain, but it would be cool if Duane Reade were the killer, after all.

Looking forward to finding our more about that next week.

See also The Day After The Night Of on HBO ... The Night Of #3: The Schlep vs. the Star ... The Night Of #4: Chandra To The Rescue ... The Night Of #6: Three Suspects

The Blacklist Season 1 Finale: Meets Keyser Soze

A superb Season One final for The Blacklist tonight, which leaves us with -

• Meera is dead.
• Tom is very likely dead.  Why just likely?  Lizzie tells Red that Tom is dead, but she asked him to leave the room after she shot Tom, and she has some reason to want to keep Tom alive.   Also, though Tom was shot a bunch of times, it wasn't in the head.  Still, he's likely dead.  Just not definitely.
• Either Berlin or Red is Lizzie's father.   They both have a picture of someone who almost definitely is her, when she was a girl.  I guess it's more likely Berlin who's her father, but Red has shown he's more than willing to dissemble when he sees that as protecting Lizzie.   Red also assured Lizzie that her father is dead - died in the fire.  Which means either that Berlin isn't Lizzie's father, or Red is lying.  But if neither Berlin nor Red are Lizzie's father, then who? Someone we haven't met before?   That wouldn't be as good a solution as either Berlin or Red being Lizzie's father, and since both of those possibilities require Red lying to Lizzie, I still prefer thinking that Red his lying to her along about not being her father.  I mean, why else would he be so devoted to her?  The very last scene clearly shows Red with scars from being burned.   So either he's the devoted friend who brought her to Sam, or he's Lizzie's father, who was burned but didn't die in the fire.  We'll see in the seasons ahead.
• Berlin is a great Keyser Soze character, the best I've seen so far on television.   But Red is a Keyser Soze kind of character, too.   They both run constant circles around the best police and their efforts.   As I was watching the season finale tonight, I realized that The Blacklist has both been inspired by The Usual Suspects - one of my all-time favorite movies - and has taken some of its cues from that movie, not easy at all to do on television, especially network TV.  And come to think of it, James Spader and Kevin Spacey both have that quirky, irrepressible power on any screen they're on.

See you back here in the Fall, with Season 2.

See also The Blacklist Debuts: Alias Meets Jay Z ... The Blacklist 1.2: Mysteries ... The Blacklist 1.3: Construction Site Heights ... The Blacklist 1.6: Truth and Enigma ... The Blacklist 1.7: Natural Immunity ... The Blacklist 1.8: The Father and the Husband ... The Blacklist 1.9: Field Transfusion ... The Blacklist 1.10: Those Words ... The Blacklist 1.11: Red's Retribution ... The Blacklist 1.12: The DNA Meister ...  The Blacklist 1.13: Red Writ Large ... The Blacklist 1.15: The Husband's Other Shoe ... The Blacklist 1.16: True Colors ... The Blacklist 1.19: Leveling the Scales? ... The Blacklist 1.20: Unanswered Questions

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Person of Interest 1.7 Meets Flashpoint and The Usual Suspects

A fine Person of Interest 1.7 on CBS last week, guest starring Enrico Colantoni who puts in great performances every week on Flashpoint (formerly on CBS now on Ion TV).

Colantoni plays school teacher Charlie Burton whose number is up, which gets Reese on the case.   Charlie witnesses a mob shooting.   The killers are intent on getting rid of Charlie, and Reese is determined to protect him.  Early in the action, Charlie is shot in the shoulder and Reese's phone is knocked out of commission, which makes it much more difficult for Finch to oversee the operation (suggestion to Reese and Finch - work a few spare phones into standard procedures).

The soft-spoken Colantoni is perfect for the twist that awaits us concerning Charlie - who turns out to be not an innocent witness but Elias,  head of the rival gang that's seeking to knock out the Russian mob in New York.   Elias has been undercover as a teacher to get a better sense of the community, and build up grass roots support.

Reese realizes what's going on a little too late to stop Charlie/Elias, who walks away in Verbal Kint/Keyser Soze fashion.  We'll no doubt be seeing more of Elias somewhere down the line in Person of Interest.

This is what I like most about the show - Finch and Reese are not infallible.  There is always the possibility that the number that comes up is not a victim's but a villain's, and in episode 1.7 the bad guy was bad indeed.


The weakest part of the show continues to be the Detectives Carter and Fusco thread.  It was worked into the story in 1.7 well enough, and will likely have some major impact before the end of the season, but at this point it's mostly a distraction from the major action.


See also Person of Interest of Interest  ... Person of Interest 1.2:  Reese and Finch ... Person of Interest 1.5: Potentials

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The Plot to Save Socrates
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"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

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House Reborn in Season Six?

A quieter, change of pace, nonetheless satisfying two-hour premiere of House, Season 6, on Fox tonight. House may be the most brilliant show on television - in fact, I think it is - with the astonishing logic of misanthropic Gregory House, MD, often playing a central role, and the occasional glints of almost genius of the doctors on his team also in the mix. It's medical mystery, angst in the extreme, and jab in the gut humor, like no other show on television.

Tonight's start of the sixth season had almost none of this - none of the regulars except a brief phone conversation with Wilson, no strange medical conditions all but inexplicable to everyone except eventually House. What it did have was Andre Braugher (of Homicide fame) as the head shrink Dr. Darryl Nolan in the mental institution House voluntarily committed himself to at the end of last season. Nolan moves from arch antagonist who won't give House the letter he needs to practice medicine again (it was great to see Braugher vs. Hugh Laurie as House), to a friend and supporter. House gets his letter, and in the process has a semi-normal start of a relationship with Lydia (played by Franka Potente, who was perfect in The Bourne Identity, as she was in this episode of House), who unfortunately is married. But this was probably the most normal we've ever seen House, certainly for most of two hours.

How did House get there? The suicide of Kutner was a little more than his tenuous grip on reality could take last season. Just for the record, I won't be surprised if somewhere along the future line it turns out that House's initial insistence was right that Kutner was murdered, after all. It's also worth noting, as everyone in our world outside of television knows, that Kutner had to leave the show because Kal Penn accepted a post in the Obama administration as Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement. This was consistent - if contributing a lot more to the public good - with a connection between House and our real world that runs through all of the show like a live wire, with House revealing to the real world of viewers the identity of Keyser Sose in the The Usual Suspects (don't worry, I won't), cracking wise about Heroes (which runs opposite House on NBC), and more in just Season Five.

But what will happen now in Season Six? Is House truly cured of his vicodin dependency, has he really found a way to handle his daily pain and deal with unexpected pain without resort to that little bottle? In the past, such liberations have always been temporary. Because, if permanent, we would have had a significantly different character from the flawed, troubled genius who has been such a commanding, exhilirating presence over the past five years.

The series has been so superb, so far, that I'm betting whatever way House goes, we'll find him no less provocative and riveting. And I'll be reviewing every episode right here.


8-min podcast review of House

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The Plot to Save Socrates

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