I was well into this episode when I realized it was the one with Steven Hill's amazing closing scene. I'd been doing stuff around the house with it on in the background until then; once I realized, I sat down and gave it my complete attention.
Still as heartrending as ever. What an amazing actor. Neat, clean, pure. I wish I could see more of him.
His incredible performance aside, I slashed off a couple of stars based on how the guest characters were written. For some reason, reliably good crime shows with high scripting standards fall repeatedly into the trap of over-writing the "bad guys". Witness the original "Prime Suspect", where the most powerful officials all but twirled their mustaches and snarled "Yah-hah-hah!" With Helen Mirren at the helm, they *really* felt they needed to give her cartoons to act against? Same thing here. With actors the caliber of Hill and Waterston, surely the scenes would work better with subtler villains. But no. The governor's representatives are unctuous and slimy. The one sitting second chair to Jamie comes complete with grating insincere smile and insults her to boot. I hate being talked down to like this.
Still: Hill makes up for it all. Do watch this one.
Still as heartrending as ever. What an amazing actor. Neat, clean, pure. I wish I could see more of him.
His incredible performance aside, I slashed off a couple of stars based on how the guest characters were written. For some reason, reliably good crime shows with high scripting standards fall repeatedly into the trap of over-writing the "bad guys". Witness the original "Prime Suspect", where the most powerful officials all but twirled their mustaches and snarled "Yah-hah-hah!" With Helen Mirren at the helm, they *really* felt they needed to give her cartoons to act against? Same thing here. With actors the caliber of Hill and Waterston, surely the scenes would work better with subtler villains. But no. The governor's representatives are unctuous and slimy. The one sitting second chair to Jamie comes complete with grating insincere smile and insults her to boot. I hate being talked down to like this.
Still: Hill makes up for it all. Do watch this one.