Caviar Emptor
By Hank 74
Lennie-10/10
Ed-9/10
Van Buren-10/10
Jack-9/10
Serena-8/10
Arthur-7/10
Supporting Cast-7/10
Plot-6/10
Performance-7/10
Value-5/10
Total-78/100
Notes:
I am happy
this was not the season 14 finale and Lennie's departure ep, because this would
have been a real downer for me. I don't know why they put this on during
May sweeps, but at least they got it out of they way because it was pretty
bad.
Even with
the supposed "confession" of the husband that he and not his wife
killed the father, I can see this was too scripted and too rigid. The
acting was not up to par either on all sides. This was made worse with a
plot that looked too simple for us to connect the dots and come up with a lame
twist. It was if they simply borrowed this from the introductory textbook
for screenwriting and didn't put in the pizzazz or spice that seperates a
yawner from a classic.
Getting
back to the acting, the only bright spot was giving Van Buren more screen time
than before. Maybe TPTB wants to showcase her more like they do with
Cragen in SVU. I can only hope this will be more of a trend because she
will need to be seen more come next year. This is whether Dennis Farina
is the new senior detective or not.
Wasn't that
interesting to see Frank Converse play another horse owner in a different
ep? It was he who played Lyle Christopher, a horse owner, in season 6's
Corpus Delecti who stood accused of killing a former partner which ended
up in a mistrial because Jack couldn't control his emotions.
I bring up
Converse because there were wasted opportunities that I saw from those who came
up with this ep. They could have brought back the Christopher angle,
since he wasn't convicted before, which would have brought up the emotions
again of Jack since he was determined to convict him. Then they could
have used some of the elements of S4's Black Tie, with a fight over the
autopsy on religious grounds and lo and behold, we saw Prof. Rothenberg back
then when he was in better eps than he has been recently. On and on
I could go, only to say again this was a cookie cutter episode that had no
flavor or taste left in my mouth.
I liked
Lennie's line about "family feud being his favorite." Maybe he
was a fan of that game show. In any case, next week will indeed be his
finale. My concern though is his departure will be secondary compared to
the main issue or plot of the ep. My ep idea called "Internal"
would have made his life and departure the main topic. To me, the fact
that a central figure of L&O's success will apparently only receive a
simple good bye from TPTB does not do Jerry Orbach or his fans any justice.
But we will see. I can only warn you though, from what it appears, this
will be similar to Abby's departure than say Mikey's, Ceretta's, Claire's, or
Stone's.