Red Ball
By Hank 74
Joe-10/10
Ed-10/10
Van Buren-10/10
Jack-10/10
Borgia-10/10
Arthur-9/10
Supporting Cast-9/10
Plot-8/10
Performance-8/10
Value-7/10
Total-91/100
Notes:
Great to be back here
with all of you as we kick off Season 16!
I thought the acting by
the main 6 was terrific, and it had some tense moments between the veteran lead
in each part (Fontana and McCoy) and their superiors (Van Buren and
Branch).
But while the acting was
superb, I felt as if the plot and its execution was from a cookie cutter like
season 7's classic "Double Down." I know there was some great
drama as to whether the girl was alive or not, but there was nothing to stand
out and say that it would be so memorable. For that reason, I was a bit
disappointed.
I was also disappointed
to not find out the conclusion of the first defense atty (Adam Arkin).
What the heck happened to him? Maybe he was innocent and did everything
by the book. OTOH, maybe he did play a role in the crime and hence the
book should be thrown at him.
It seems there will be
some more tension brought in and politics will play a bigger role with a
possible election that Arthur has to face this year. I'm not too keen
though about the ep next week as the tie in with SVU and Lynda Carter as the guest
wraps up. When I heard that SVU and L&O were going to have a tie in
this year, I presumed it would have been last night's compeller ep with Stabler
going undercover and this one. On paper, it seemed to make some sense,
huh?
Speaking of SVU, I was
impressed that the original was able to take a script and plot fitted for SVU
and make it look like an original. For that, they get brownie
points. Liked the tease though about calling Cragen and getting SVU
involved.
The final quote in the
final scene by Arthur was great. I interpreted this as him saying that
publicly he didn't like what Jack did, but privately he didn't mind that much
knowing that he might have done the same thing in his shoes. I felt
Arthur had that dinner with the judge so as to cover his own tracks.
That's why we have always said that Jack will never be elected DA because of
the political aspect of this and Jack is not a political person.
Finally, could someone
explain to me the meaning of the term "Red Ball"?