Cop Fridays 5: After 8 Seasons, the Sheriff Can't Stop Doppelgangers and their Vampire Diaries*

     Happy 20th Anniversary today to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the grandmommy of all teen vampire dramas! We'll touch on BTVS briefly tonight as it relates to The Vampire Diaries but devote more time to it soon.

"Evacuate the town. Yeah, it's another gas leak." -- Sheriff Matt Donovan

     This is the Mystic Falls town slogan. I would also accept, "Come for the vampires, but stay for the lies that everything is going to be okay," because nothing in Mystic Falls is ever going to be okay. This place has been haunted by vamps since the Civil War! I find it ironic that in the last episode of the series, we're going back to the old classics. Similar to the old Buffy adage, "This crime was committed by a gang on pcp." The Vampire Diaries had their share of police cover-ups. In the beginning, Sheriff Forbes and Mayor Lockwood put the town at ease by straight up lying. Vicki Donovan (sister of Matt) was bit by vampire Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder) during a party in the woods, and everyone believed she was bit by an animal, another Buffy lame excuse. When in doubt, all of the vampires could glamour humans and make them believe whatever they told them in a trance-like state. It worked fine until Stefan became human again. All of his glamours became undone and the town was ready to riot before the gates of hell were being opened. Much like Buffy, TVD also has a gateway to hell lurking around their school. This is more a recent development as the "Hells Bells" came to town with TVD's siren sisters this season.  
     

Image fro GURL.com

     Let's talk more about the concept of a vampire going back to being a human. This concept has been a big part of TVD and I believe the cure was introduced around season four. The cure would only work for one person, and it looked like a large capsule of blood. Apparently, some Internet reading led me to find out the cure came from a brotherhood hunting The Originals witches as early as the year 1100. It was buried in some remote part of the earth and everyone wanted it for their own reasons. The idea was to give it to Elena (Nina Dobarev) because being a vampire was kinda an accident and it made her miserable.

Multiple Dimensions, Bonnie's Deaths and "The Cure"

     When a few witches created alternate dimensions to trap people {1994 for Kai Parker (Chris

Bonnie and the Bennett Witches
Image from Youtube

Wood) and 1903 for Mama Salvatore}, there were multiple cures created in those prison worlds. This brought the number of cures to 3. The first cure went to Katherine Pierce, a big bad doppelganger of Elena, also played by Dobarev. (The total number of doppelgangers she played was three.)The second cure went to Silas, a doppelganger of Damon's more saintly brother Stefan (only two doppelgangers for Paul Wesley). The third cure went into Elena's body before a season 6 wedding. Instead of Elena dying (and Dobarev leaving the show forever), she was put in a coma, her life tied to her best friend, Bonnie Bennett (Kat Grahm). For all her witchy ways, Bonnie could not figure out how to bring Elena back, aside from killing herself. Bonnie died three times over the course of the series and almost a record 4th time in the penultimate episode (Buffy only dies twice). But Bonnie is a fighter and she made it back through a loophole every time, so things were not looking good for Elena in this lifetime. After the big battle (see below) is over, Elena wakes up. Suddenly, Bonnie realized she knew how to break the spell. This was a stretch of convenience for the last few minutes of the episode. We don't know how she did it after barely practicing magic for the last 3-4 years.  I sincerely hope she channeled the power of her ancestor witches, in the image above. Bonnie used their strength to win the big battle (like Willow when she gave slayer hopefuls their powers early from the cool slayer scythe). Bonnie ends the show along, but she keeps seeing the ghost of her dead boyfriend Enzo, and she seems to be cool with it. Bonnie finally got out of that town and was headed off to see Europe. You go, Bonnie Bennett.

The Big Battle- "I was Feeling Epic"

     A few episodes ago, Bonnie injected some of  the cure out of Elena's sleeping body so she could give it to her boyfriend, Enzo. Then sweet Stefan went evil (just like Angel lost his soul and became Angelus) because he turned off his humanity to serve the devil for a few years. Also known as "Cade", the devil made the Salvatore brother work for him collecting bad souls in exchange for not taking Caroline and Ric's twin witch toddlers, which is like a magical full house. Bonnie punished Stefan by stabbing him with the cure, and turning him human for the first time in 150 years. At this point, the cure rules become unclear. Stefan got the cure, but it's still in Elena's sleeping body. It does, however, becomes clear that doppelganger Katherine is pulling the strings in hell. Surprise! She's had Cade torturing the gang since she died a few years ago.  Through Stefan and Caroline's wedding, they lure Katherine back to town. Here's the plan, trap her in the underground tunnels, and hope Bonnie can channel hellfire through the tunnels (like when an earthquake swallowed Sunnydale into the Hellmouth) to swallow Katherine back to hell and destroy the whole construct, once and for all. Stefan volunteers, he has a family to protect now. Damon volunteers, because he's done some bad stuff and has spent the last season pondering if he would ever be worthy of Elena when she wakes up. As Heath Ledger said in 10 Things I Hate About You, "Does this chick have beer flavored nipples?" The blind love and devotion for Elena is at times, completely revolting. So  now Damon is going to trap Katherine in the tunnels. Psych! Stefan comes at the last minute and stabs his brother with (you guessed it) the cure, so he can also be human, and live out a human life with Elena. Stefan goes down in hellfire with Katherine as a hero. He is officially, dead. Everyone was pretty upset about it, especially his brother (after 150+ years on earth, you get attached). I was near tears when they had a  "woods funeral" for Stefan, playing The Fray's Look After You. This song was significant for two reasons, it was callback to Stefan and Elena in the pilot, and Candace Accola (Caroline) actually married one of the band members. We saw Stefan pass over as he jumped into a car with his old (dead) pal, Lexie, where he proclaimed, "I was feeling epic!"

What exactly is hellfire? 

      Now we come back to Sheriff Matt Donovan and what he did for the town. First of all, Matt is the only character on the show that (a) did not die and (b) remained human the entire time.  Secondly, he only became the Sheriff because enough people died, moved away, or quit that he was the only one dumb enough to stick around in a town that was at one time, preventing non-vampires from entering at the "welcome" sign.  Does that make him a good cop? I can't say. I can say that Matt was the Mystic Falls equivalent of a Xander Harris. He had a pure heart, and he needed to do just one thing to prove he was worthy of being part of this extraordinary group. 

     Matt finally got parents this season, and they revealed he was from one of the founding families (he could have been Miss Mystic Falls). This means Matt wasn't the white trash he always believed he came from. The Maxwell family designed the founders' town bell, and the Bennett witches put a spell on it to drive away sirens. But a different number of rings would open the gates of hell, located just under the town square (just like the high school library). Before the grand plan to eradicate Katherine was developed, Matt agreed to ring the bell.  Then his 20-years absent dad jumped in to ring it, but hey changed their minds after hearing the town would be eradicated. Then Matt's mom came back from the dead (don't feel bad, Matt didn't even know she died) and got his (also dead) sister Vicki to ring the bell, bringing hellfire. Matt and Damon tried to kill Vicki, but remember, she's been dead since about episode 5. At least by this point, the crack team had a plan in place to take down Katherine and preserve the town. The town later presented Matt with a bench (for still having a town to come back to) while the ghosts of his sister and friend Tyler watched.  

Caroline/Rick/Stefan- One Happy Family?

     Caroline and Stefan got married in the penultimate episode. I know they've been engaged all season, but something about their relationship has never won me over. Maybe I am a sucker for the chemistry Stefan first had with Elena, and that fact that they're doppelgangers, souls reborn into identical bodies over and over again. That means something! Does it mean something that Caroline was hard core hitting on Stefan in the first episode? I choose to believe it was just a way to show her personality at that time, she was a boy-crazy friend of Elena, light and airy until she (within the first half of the season) became a vampire. That being said, a more grown up Caroline was forced into this family with Ric because she was gifted with carrying his wife's mystical twins. We all remember Jo's devastating murder at the hand of her twin brother (Kai) during her wedding. She is the only mom these kids will ever know, and Ric is the dad to all of the kids in mystic falls, because they have terrible family situations. Ric almost married Elena's aunt at one point (before she died), and it turned out his first wife was Elena's biological mother. Talk about an awkward family reunion... So Caroline and Ric called off their wedding a few years ago because she was really in love with Stefan. But, I always believed Ric had fallen in love with Caroline and I wanted to see them end up together. With Stefan gone a day after he got married, I am hoping Caroline and Ric come together again, this time with love and gratitude fro what they've faced with these twin terrors (siren nannies and the like). Their last scene is opening a magic school (just like Charmed) with Elena's brother Jeremy, much like the Derek Zoolander center, except books catch on fire and there may be Harry Potter robes. I guess the idea of the school is to prevent kids from spinning out and becoming magical super villains, like Kai. Despite their generous endowment to begin the school from creepy vampire Klaus, I choose to believe Caroline and Ric are together. 

Elena and Damon- Happily Ever After, or Are They Dead? 

     Elena and Damon are living happily as humans. I'm not happy with it, but I'm accepting it based on the circumstances. Elena writes in her journal, with a big rock on her finger, back in the graveyard again. In the first episode, she went to the cemetery to feel close to her recently deceased parents. Now, I think it's mostly for Stefan's benefit. I assumed she was writing ho him in her journal. As a typical back from the dead over-achiever, Elena completed college, med school, and actually became a doctor. I guess she handles blood well. She finished journaling and Damon met her to walk somewhere. There's a crow in the graveyard. It's another callback to the first episode. I also think Stefan's soul may be in that crow. Yes, it's a stretch, but it makes me happy.

     Here's where TVD lost me: the last scene. I'm going out on a LOST limb here, so bear with me. From all the interviews and pieces I have read, we are flashing forward to the end of Damon and Elena's lives. Otherwise, all of this was for nothing because it seems like we're following them into the not too distant afterlife. Elena and Damon were strolling down the street. Elena stopped at her home, (which she burned down upon becoming a vampire) and her dead parents were out on the porch. She ran up the steps, hugging them and her dead aunt, Jenna. Then her dead biological father (Uncle John) came out with a bottle of wine and hugged her. To me, one reunites with dead people when they have also crossed over. The last shot was Damon ringing the bell at the old Salvatore house, which a second ago was being converted into a magic school by Caroline and Ric. Stefan opened the door and greeted his brother home with a hug. The last words are another callback to the pilot, when Damon breezed into town to murder people. He said to Stefan, "Hello brother." If Damon was worried he would never see Stefan again, and here they are together in their home, they must be dead. If they really did destroy hell with it's own fire, they must be in heaven. So it seems like both brothers found redemption for being such vicious killers.

     While that's a great note to end on, I want to believe Stefan got another shot with Elena in the afterlife. They had such a beautiful (but too short) moment saying goodbye while Elena was in her sleeping beauty coma that I can't be completely satisfied with this ending.

 NOTE: A "woods funeral" is a memorial held for someone who is dead on TVD. I coined this term because it's happened multiple times, and at least a few of them were for Bonnie.  I guess this group needs to say their goodbyes in private, so a real funeral may also be held. They meet in the woods near the graveyard, possibly by the Lockwood family crypt. They say some nice things and often leave tokens for the dead. 

     *My original intent was to call this "Twins, Doppelgangers and Time Jumps", but there was only one jump, three sets of twins and a gaggle of vampires, diaries and doppelgangers to discuss., so we paired it down. 

Fashion or Foe: It's Not Easy Being Petite

   In honor of International Women's day, I'm tackling an issue dear to my heart: petite fashion!

Sometimes getting dressed is like this Clueless scene. GIF from Tumblr. 

This is not how a maxi dress should fit!
Image from Pintrest

     I enjoy shopping for clothes as much as the next gal, but I sometimes find the task insurmountable because of my size. I am 5 feet tall, and I am a petite size. You must be thinking now, is this girl complaining about being small? How dare she? For the record, it's not all it's cracked up to be. I often feel like I'm a child playing dress-up in my dad's work shirts. Unlike in Rom-coms, it is not a cute look. I also had a maxi dress that made me look like Kirsten the American Girl (left) in her Christmas robe. As an investment in my sanity, I have found a delightful tailor that knows my shape and has saved countless garments from return or the Goodwill pile.



     I've taken to online shopping, sight unseen, to find the most petite options. In recent months, Express, Gap and Old Navy have all launched online petite collections. I enjoyed the petite fit of The Limited, but as mentioned in a previous post, that is no longer an option. Part of the frustration in petite shopping is that these stores have the audacity to carry the items only in their warehouses. They're doing you a "favor" by creating shorter length pants (still not short enough if you ask me), but you have to use a picture of a model to guess the fit. It says the pants are made for a 5'4" size and under, but those cropped jeans will still hit me at the ankle. The size chart is often not helpful enough in determining fit. Some petite sizes are just less long than the regular, or give a general size like 4-6, which is neither a 4 or a 6. These retailers need to size clothing accordingly and address common problems like the butt/waistband gap issue. (For this problem, I am now wearing petite curvy jeans). In a nutshell, you have no idea how they really fit, and they make you pay to ship the items to your house. You may order two sizes, and you end up spending a lot of time dealing with returns because a blousy petite small tank is still about 2 sizes too big for some reason.

     If you can brave out the petite section of a store, god bless! I took a stroll through my local Macy's petite section, which is about 20' x 15' total due to the Macy's Backstage taking up most of one floor. The cute sweaters in the women's sportswear were nowhere to be found in this postage stamp of a collection. At best, it looks like someone that cared little about fashion or fit could find some petite options here. It was pathetic. I stop in at Ann Taylor Loft every few weeks to check their petite section. If I'm looking for jeans, I may be in luck. If I'm looking for anything else, the options are 'lofty.' I bought a small striped top a few months ago, and it still appeared huge on my frame, as low as my mid-thigh and mid-sleeved. Who is the parson that thinks all small women want to wear tunics? I would love to see more dresses and tops that fit or follow my frame.  I don't need more over-sized sweaters and drapey tops!

Supergirl: Daddy’s Home

Some comic book humor
 from Instagram Search Meme

     In a brilliant casting turn, last year’s Supergirl pilot brought in former TV Superman Dean Cain playing Kara’s earth father, Dr.  Jeremiah Danvers. Of all the parents that face their grown children in this show, Dr. Danvers is by far the one with the most baggage (see comparison below). In a convenient plot twist, Dr. Danvers appeared in a few flashbacks because he died in an “accident.” Later in the first season, Kara (alias Supergirl, played by (Melissa Benoist) and her adoptive sister Alex (Chyler Leigh) discovered their dad was still alive, held captive for over 13 years by a top-secret organization called  Cadmius. I had to look it up, but Cadimus is a top-secret genetic engineering project, for those of us not up on our comic book lore.  The women also learned that their dad was part of the same alien protection agency (DEO for short) that the sisters joined to protect earth from bad aliens. Kara, recently kidnapped by Cadimus to drain her powers, was freed from the compound by dead old dad. It was only a matter of time before we saw him again. This week, Jeremiah escapes the organization's convoy and comes home.

     Dr. Danvers is eager to jump back into his family life. A family dinner was called with wife Eliza, the girls, and their beaus, Mon-El (Chris Woods for Kara) and Maggie (Floriana Lima for Alex), Mama Danvers makes things very clear to her estranged husband. He’s been missing for a decade and  half, and they can’t just pick up where they left off.  Dr. Danvers is also physically limited from his previous work. He is missing a hand, a punishment for helping Kara and Mon-El escape.  Dr. Danvers asks to come back to the DEO, and his old friend Director Henshaw (the delightful David Harewood)  invites him back with open arms. The two have a very interesting past.*

     The gentleman working at the DEO ( Mon-El and Kara's friend Winn) both are overly suspicious that Dr. Danvers is a spy. The sisters refuse to believe their dad would betray them, even though he was held captive and possibly brainwashed  for almost 15 years. For those of us that loosely understand the Superman folklore, Cadimus is evil. The group wants to rid earth of aliens and it's run by the mother of all baddies, (literally) Lillian Luthor. The big action is that Cadimus was supposed to be transporting a chemical bomb when Dr. Danvers escaped. The bomb used Kara's power from her captivity and it will blow up the whole city if the DEO can't stop it. Of course, Dr. Danvers was corrupted by Cadimus and is stealing information from the DEO to help Cadimus. Most importantly, he accesses the master list of all aliens on earth. I'm sure the same list could be put together just walking into the local alien bar (which reminds me of  Angel's demon karaoke bar Caritas). In the last minutes of the show, Kara stops a train from crashing, after the bomb blew up the train track over a ravine. (Back to the Future much?) Alex confronts her father for stealing from the DEO, but lets him escape because she cannot deal with bringing him in for punishment. It's heartbreaking, it's real, and it's not over yet. Tonight we should get more closure on the issue, but I cannot see how Dr. Danvers will ever be a good guy again.  Here is how Dr. Danvers fares against other parents on the show:

Kara’s real alien parents:

     Kara Zor-El’s mom and dad were wise rulers back on the planet of Krypton. Kara held them in high regard and would reach out to their holograms in season 1 when she found trouble on earth . Being sent away from her home as a pre-teen, Kara had issues opening up to people. She finally had the opportunity to get together with her pal James (Jimmy) Olsen (Mechad Brooks)  toward the end of last season, but she abruptly changed her mind and walked away. I’m going to chalk this departure up to psychological trauma and abandonment issues.  Despite her lovely earth family and the resilient Mrs. Doctor Danvers, Kara formed a close parental attachment to her boss, Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart). Ms. Grant called Kara by the wrong name, sent her on stupid assignments and chastised her for disappearing in the middle of the day. Secretly, I think she knew Kara was always a bit distracted because she was out saving the city. Ms. Grant took an abrupt sabbatical from her company at the beginning of this season, ruining everything. She promoted Kara from assistant to reporter and Supergirl has been super lost all season. 

     In other disturbing family news, Kara’s alien prison escapee Aunt Astra (Laura Berlanti) came to earth last season to bring eco-terrorism! Through many fights, Kara’s feeling about her parents got taken down a peg. Were they as perfect and just as they claimed to be back home? It also didn’t help that Astra was Kara’s mom’s identical twin. It gave me enough of the heebie jeebies, I imagine it was a head trip for Supergirl as well. In last season’s battle royale, Alex killed Astra, leaving her adopted sister with no other blood relatives. This messed with Kara’s head to the point that being trapped in delusion of being on her home planet sounded better than reality.  Astra’s creepy husband came earlier this season for revenge, and the group had to take him down as well. This left me with big questions: 

What is the Zor-El side of the family tree like? 

Will we ever see Supeman’s alien parents? Are they nice?

Is Kara's dad named Zor-El Zor-El? 

General Lane, Dad of Lucy and Lois:    
     General Lane is not a nice man, much like the real Hank Henshaw. He is an army general with a heart of steel. He made life for Supergirl very difficult, vehemently opposing aliens and refusing to accept her help in taking down some very bad creatures. We are left with the impression that he barely speaks to eldest daughter (and Superman's gal) Lois. His younger daughter Lucy (Jenna Dewan Tatum) joined the family practice, becoming a lawyer for the army. He forced Supergirl to fight an army-created android, and took over the DEO, torturing alien prisoners. When Lucy learned Kara was Supergirl, she wanted her dad to lighten up, but he could not change his thinking about aliens. These daddy issues made things between Lucy and James rough at a time when we were all rooting for them to break up and James to declare his love to Kara. By the time it happened, Kara's issues got in the way and Lucy left the gang.

Winslow Schott Sr., Winn's Dad    
     Winn's dad is a literal mad scientist. The brilliant Henry Czerny (Revenge) played the jailbird with ease. Also known as Toyman, Winn Sr. weaponized toys to make them do evil things. He tried to get Winn to help him, but he turned him down and helped capture him. 

Cat Grant, Adam's Mom
     Cat revealed to Kara that she is the mother of two sons. Kara gets stuck babysitting the precocious tween Carter while Cat goes out of town, but she later learns Cat has another son. Cat gave up Adam for adoption when she was about 20 and she has always felt bad about never reaching out to her son and building a relationship with him. Kara tracks down Adam and reunites the pair, and the begins dating Adam. It all ends badly, the pair break up and Cat goes back to being tough on Kara.

Lillian Luthor, Lena and Lex's Mom
     Two episodes ago, we got a deep dive into the backstory of the Luthor family. Off-screen Lex Luthor (a known nemesis of Superman) is criminally insane and rotting in jail. His younger sister Lena (new to the cast this season)  and has taken over the family business Lexcorp to try to rebuild and re-brand. It was revealed that Lena was an illegitimate child, taken in and raised as a proper Luthor. Lillian (Brenda Strong) was against the idea, and she always cared more for her biological son than her adopted daughter.  Lena was offered her mother's love once this season, but turned it down and helped put her in jail for her sketchy criminal activities. Remember, this woman is the head of Cadimus. Lena was recently framed for breaking her mother out of jail, but Supergirl helped prove her innocence because the two have developed a sweet friendship. Kara and Lena also have a lovely reporter/subject relationship that has developed, which may take the place of Lena's crappy family.  

The Henshaw/Danvers connection:
* Dr. Danvers and the real Hank Henshaw were members of the Department of Extra-Normal Operations. The pair went out to retrieve a martin as part of their DEO assignment. Henshaw, a cruel human that hated all aliens, died on the mission. The martian (J'onn J'onzz) assumed Henshaw's physical form, bringing about a friendlier DEO. From then on, the DEO set out not only to capture aliens, but to assist good aliens like Kara and her cousin Clark.

Cop Fridays 4: This Partnership is Lethal

   Welcome to another installment of Cop Fridays! Let it be known that (in Oprah voice) I love buddy cop dramas. There's something about a wild card and a straight man that brings comedy and joy to every scene. When a network takse a beloved 80's movie franchise and turn it into a TV show, it can go one of two ways, it can be as good as or better than the original, or it can tank. Luckily, FOX's new Lethal Weapon has been to quote Barney Stinson, "All Rise." The delightful pairing of Damon Wayans as the seasoned  "I'm too old for this S**t" Det. Murtaugh and Clayne Crawford as the "request backup later" Det. Riggs is one for the TV partners hall of fame. In my opinion, they are neck and neck with Hawaii 5-0's McGarrett and Danno, which we'll get to in a future post.

     The most recent (2/22) episode involved a murder of a promising college football recruit. It brought the pair to a new location as Murtaugh considers a cushy job in college security. The pair would have to disband their partnership, but Murtaugh could guarantee free college for his three kids assuaging his newly unemployed wife, Trish (Keesha Sharp). In a previous episode, Mrs. Murtaugh quit her big firm law job. After jumping off (again) a dormitory building, Riggs exclaimed somewhat shockingly, somewhat delighted, "I'm literary covered in beer." Riggs's pursuit of the case, of course, ruins Murtaugh's chance at the security job and tanks the popular college football team's season.

     Though the pair are not Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, they have a palpable chemistry. Det. Riggs (shown above) comes to Los Angeles as a transfer from Texas, escaping after a cartel murders his pregnant wife. His in-laws live in the area and try to bring him back to reality, but he doesn't want their help. Riggs spends nights drinking himself to sleep, dreaming about his wife Miranda (Floriana Lima) and taking risky chances on the job. The two were partnered in the hopes that sensible Murtaugh would help to even out the volatile Riggs. Riggs at times over the season opens up to Murtaugh and his family, even becoming a confidant of Murtaugh's teenage son and daughter. Trish's first invitation to family dinner becomes an open one and Riggs slowly shifts into the" fun uncle" role, although Murtaugh's toddler makes him squirmy after his previous trauma.

     Both Riggs and Murtaugh have been to therapy, and for good reasons. Riggs is forced by the department (see risky antics and borderline alcoholism) to see a shrink, played by Jordana Brewster. Brewster's Dr. Cahill seems to get through to Riggs marginally in each session we witness, as he gives a little and then takes it all back at the end. Dr. Cahill is incredibly patient, letting Riggs eat her salad from the work fridge because it must mean more to him than to her since he went to the trouble of stealing it. I could see this  duo blossoming into a "will they or won't they" type of ship in the future. Riggs also has struck up a friendship with DEA Agent Karen Palmer (Hilarie Burton) that could turn romantic, and I am on board for that. Burton plays a role that reminds me of her White Collar character Sara, only on the law-enforcement side instead of the con/conned side. A recent episode ended with Riggs covering Sara with a blanket after fetching some late night Chinese food. It's a relatively new side to Riggs and it looks like this may develop more in next week's episode. I would like to see him start to move on, or at least make another friend besides Riggs.

Damon Wayans on Happy Endings
 Photo From Youtube

     Murtaugh's journey is a bit more complicated. He is always the dependable one, the by-the-book cop, which becomes one of the main sources of conflict, and comedy. Damon Wayans is a great comedic actor, as are all Wayans brothers, but I tie his best work to his facial expressions and his son, Damon Wayans, Jr.  As Murtaugh, Wayans is expressive in small, quiet ways. He seems grumpy most of the time, but lights up in scenes with his family. Murtaugh is cop before he is a father. He makes sure to punish his kids when they get busted for things a fake I.D. or for joy riding an expensive car.

     Following the pre-pilot heart attack that sidelined him,  Murtaugh slowly falls to pieces  in an episode where he must wear a heart monitor while on the job. Police work is bound to be stressful, but Riggs jumping off buildings and chasing cars sets the monitor off at an alarming rare. I know I shoul be concerned for Murtaugh and his health, but Wayans keeps me laughing. Another great episode paired the detectives with a Chinatown detective that was Murtaugh's procedural equal. They both wanted to call in backup  early, a refreshing change from what usually happens (usually backup is not called or comes after the gunfire with the perps has started). In the end, Murtaugh could not take up the detective's offer to switch departments because he seems to relish in the frustration and danger that comes with each day on the job.

     Reality is not lost on this show. Los Angeles is a crazy place, and crimes have taken the investigators to model parties, casinos, churches, and even burglaries in Murtaugh's suburban neighborhood. At the end of the pilot, the duo get reamed out by their superior Capt. Avery (Kevin Rahm,) for causing over $60,000 dollars of damage to the the city while pursuing suspects. This seems like a scene that would end a movie. Since this is a TV show, we see from week to week how the detectives are treated by the department after messing up. They are given a warning, they are sent to therapy etc.. Some may call the show predictable, but there's something nice about a predictable show. It's almost as if this show was a  drama trapped in the body of a sitcom. As an audience, we see changes in Murtaugh and Riggs's interactions with each other, but they tend to be stock characters and we know that in each new situation, something will go amiss.  By the end of the episode, they find a way to bring in the bad guys, and they try to resolve personal issues that develop during the episode. That's something I'll never be too old for...

See the 1st  Cop Fridays post here.
See the 2nd Cop Fridays post here.
See the 3rd  Cop Fridays post here.

Why Sports Night Failed

GIF from Imgur

     I made it 5 episodes into Aaron Sorkin's half-hour single-camera comedy Sports Night before I realized that this two-season show was doomed from the start. It had an interesting premise- behind the scenes of an ESPN-style show. It even had a great cast of promising actors:

Felicity Huffman

Joshua Malina

Peter Krause

Josh Charles

1. The music did not fit the show
2.  It oddly reminded me of Melrose Place.
3. It was funny sad, not funny 'haha'
4. Awkward camera angles
5. The Sorkin "walk and talk." *
6. The love story that wasn't a love story
     Dana (Huffman) is the producer of the show and Casey (Krause) is the anchor. Casey gets divorced. Casey finally has a chance with Dana. Dana kisses Casey. Dana tells Casey he has to date other people because she can't be his rebound. This all happens over the first two episodes!

*Sorkin is big on passing from one location to another with a walk and dialogue. This builds a wonderful foundation for scenes in Gilmore Girls and Sorkin's movie The American President, but it is an over-used trope in this half-hour show.