I had a hard time with this one. While I found the acting on the part of the supporting players excellent, it was cringe for me between Elsbeth and the younger fire-dude who flirts with her. Granted, it's written that way but Elsbeth could have given us a bit more with her acting: either show us that you are attracted to the guy (he wasn't half bad looking) but you are fighting that internally, or go goofier with your interactions with him. Instead, she made it so cringeworthy that it was uncomfortable watching their scenes. The fireman actor didn't have much to work off of, so he seemed a bit confused as to where he ought to take his character. A bit of direction would have helped: director, where art thou? Plus, I thought Elsbeth had a sense of humor? Where is the actress' own?
Pity because I found the guy who plays the killer to be excellent in his acting. His micro-expressions with his eyes, wow. I especially liked the first, when he's VERY SUBTLY annoyed by her being a spazz, and when his character (I do mean Neal Sr.) realizes that she's on to him. Brings a new dimension to being a bad guy in this show, when so many actors gloss over the fact that Elsbeth is on to them. Even the guy who played the son was excellent, rare for a Zillennial, and I didn't see anyone dropping character or "relaxing" into non-acting mode while they were on-camera without any lines.
Bonus: we get the dude who played Kevin "Doug" Heffernan's best friend (TKOQ). He doesn't have much to do here, but he's there and I like his presence. (Dunno his name.)
Another down: who makes the costumes here? They're hurting my eyes. I've paused this at 49 mins in and Tascioni's atrocious orange blazer is an eyesore and I mean that near literally: physically painful to look at that ugly color. Why does the production think viewers are gonna stick around to stare at vomit-inducing colors they're inflicting upon us? This had to be the worst wardrobe she's worn to date. The rest of her clothes aren't much better: some blazer with a design that makes one sleeve dark blue, the other white with colors in between. A top coral and purple with a purple blouse and matching ribbons/bow round her neck. Those shades (coral red and purple on the lilac side (but not quite) are truly clashing colors that ought never been seen next to each other.
To the wardrobe people: look, I get you want to make her quirky but if the colors are clashing so much that they make me miss what the characters are saying and I keep having to rewind to get it, that's a hindrance against this show because of YOUR work. Get a color wheel, pick a palette and make HARMONIOUS color choices. You can still design atrociously obnoxious prints but don't attack your viewers sense of sight, please! The clashing colors brings my rating down. Do better. (Yeah you can still Build Back BETTER here, folks, LOL!)
Not a solid episode but the acting was 10/10 on the part of the supporting cast. I feel that the actress playing Tascioni (who is she??) is getting a bit aggravating, sometimes she's trying too hard to be "cute" and her acting technique shows. I don't mind a little quirkiness, heck I don't mind a LOT of quirkiness, but I do mind seeing the seams unraveling to show the woman behind the curtain.
Otherwise, her character was compassionate at times and still watchable. I hope it's not the beginning of downhill with the show, though. Otherwise maybe she can retire from acting, reinvent herself as a VP assistant, dry off some tears. OUCH!
A very generous 7/10. I hope it gets better with the following.
And PS: you made me wait until THE END OF OCTOBER for this?! What is it with generation SNOOZE and making seasons with only 13 episodes?? There was a time these were between 26 to 37 episodes a season. Put them lazy writers to work and give us 22 to 25 a season, sell some soap while entertaining us, folks!
