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Reviews
Castle: Reckoning (2015)
Best Wishes
I have loved this show, including the cheesy over-acting of Castle's mother and the awful Gates, the ridiculous improbabities, because the two leads and two main supporters did a very good job. Now the show has reached the end, and not a moment too soon. After this season so far, I am glad to see it go, because it has become sheer tedium. The trend of procedurals was to have series-long story lines, in which the kitchen sink inevitably makes an appearance. At least they are not going to die the ignominious death of CSI, where the producers actually injected Ted Danson, who is the Ted McGinley of drama. Goodbye Stana and Nathan. All best.
Castle (2009)
Cheat code for Castle
This show is well done, for the most part. Certainly watchable, sometimes excellent. Just make sure you FF through any and all scenes, chiefly at the beginning and end, with his mother and daughter. Stereotypical caricatures, and the actors were born to be stereotypical caricatures, wretchedly over-emoting til you'll become ill. Your enjoyment will quadruple if you completely avoid ever watching them.
Big Sky: Pilot (2020)
entertaining
If you are entertained by slow, depressing, humorless tedium, this is the show for you.
The Closer: Dial M for Provenza (2008)
Dial M for miserable
The team stings a woman who hired the undercover Provenza to kill her husband. Instead of securing the evidence -- video, money, etc. -- and bringing it back with them, the team tosses it in Provenza's trunk and leaves. He and Flynn then take the perp for pancakes, uncuffed. Of course, the car is stolen right in front of them. What a wacky, wacky set up. I believe this episode was a bold experiment, in that the writers let their pre-teen children do the writing. The Closer often does a good job balancing the serious with the colorful, but not here. It is stunningly bad. Not even Brenda in her underwear (another adolescent element) could rescue this dog.
Major Crimes: Sweet Revenge (2014)
I'm Out
I have been determined to watch this series, since I love The Closer so much, but with this episode, I'm out. Ms Sedgewick left, and naturally the producers wanted to continue with such a great supporting cast. So they replace the dynamic, passionate, brilliant Brenda with the nasal, monotone, deadpan Raydor. Okay, trying something different, certainly valid. They then add a thoroughly obnoxious, humorless, know-it-all teenager, played by an actor who is just that. Okay, a conflicting element, necessary to drama. Put them together, and it sucks on a monumental scale, made all the worse because of the contrast with maybe the best character to ever lead a detective/mystery show. The heart of the show was gone, and they replaced it with liver and onions. In this episode, Raydor the Robot is actually going to adopt the little creep against the calm and reasoned objections of her biological son, harshly castigating him for having the gall to express his opinions. He says he doesn't want his children to call this street hustler 'uncle' She practically disowns her own son in favor of the wretched little dirtbag. The whole thing just turned my stomach.
Adios.
The Closer: Help Wanted (2010)
She's Back!
An excellent episode, despite the awful Raydor. The good thing about this appearance is that Brenda gets off some cracking good retorts. However, Raydor's behavior is highly questionable. A professional who has attained her rank and authority would hardly engage in such petty, personal sniping. Otherwise, very good, dramatic end, and while the crime is not much of a mystery, it doesn't matter. This is the Kyra show, and she never fails to deliver.
The Closer: Strike Three (2009)
I agree
With the reviewer who criticized the FID chief Raydor. The first principle of screenwriting is conflict, but it is here taken to a terrible extreme .Maybe since Taylor was neutralized as Brenda's antagonist they wanted another. It wouldn't be so bad if the actress didn't look like she's from the planet Wodenfroz. I assume that the very good McDonnell, whom I loved in Passion Fish and Sneakers, was in a horribly disfiguring accident, and while thankfully completely recovered, needed a face transplant. Seriously, I did not recognize her. NOT saying this to be mean. And while I don't FF her scenes, I look away.