Of Swords and Parasols

The show seems to have hit its stride with me here. The supporting characters and messages don’t seem as forced and heavy handed, and there weren’t any dominant themes or tropes in these last few episodes that rubbed me the wrong way. I’m still not overly comfortable with how many cases have to do with women killed and/or being the killer for reasons directly related to sex, or just being female in general, but it wasn’t as bad on that front as the season progressed. I do wish, though, that the cases weren’t so easy to telegraph. I think it’s why I watch so few of these shows. It’s harder to be impressed by the Big Reveal if you’re waiting for the detective to figure out what you did ten minutes in. I think part of why I like Monk so much is that it tells you exactly who did it (and sometimes how) and the mystery is how they covered their tracks.

Basic premise: Brenda Lee Johnson is a CIA-trained interrogator from Atlanta who is brought to L.A. to head up a unit of the police force specializing in high profile cases. The rest of the L.A.P.D. hates her because her department automatically has priority in all cases. Her department hates her because she has very very bad social skills when it comes to work. She doesn’t care about either.

I’m a bit iffy. Or at least, I’d be a bit iffy if I hadn’t already seen parts of some later episodes. While I like Brenda and her sidekick, Gabriel, most of the rest of her department are glorified extras so far, except for the one who’s aggressively politically incorrect so he can be put in his place. Her boss is a so unlikable that I’m appalled Brenda had a personal relationship with him a few years pre-series. I’m doing my best to write it off as a youthful indiscretion. The captain of regular homicide would be ok, except they tried to make sure we sided against him in the pilot by hinting that he was unethical so we’d root for Brenda in their conflict, and I don’t always respond well to such blatant narrative instructions.

Then there’re the crimes. So far, all three victims have been women, all murdered specifically because of sex, though for different sex-motivated reasons. Two were murdered by women who had been romantically betrayed. If I didn’t remember the resolutions of a few cases we watched at work (and that some of the rest of the cast seemed to have some development) and know that it wasn’t always like that, I might throw in the towel. Also, I’m not sure if it’s the narrative, or because we see it through Brenda’s eyes, but the two female killers have been portrayed very sympathetically (both were betrayed-one intentionally, one not) while the male murderer was portrayed as deserving what he got. I’m still somewhat undecided about that aspect, so far.

All that probably makes my opinion seem more negative than positive, but it really isn’t. Though the cases have been painfully predictable, including motivation, they have been interesting. While Brenda is abrasive on the job, it’s also made clear that she’s mostly amazingly blunt, and the worst only comes out when people are in her way, or not doing their jobs right, or she’s (always rightly, so far) designated them as being scum. Though cliché, they also take the edge off by having her be a slob, get lost easily, and apparently be fighting off an addiction to junk food. They also tend to portray her as cute and charming in spite of the abrasiveness, not because of it. Granted, it probably wouldn’t work with a different actress, but Kyra Sedgewick does it well.

Under the cut are the brief bits I typed up after I finished each ep. There’s some repetition, as I didn’t bother to change anything.