If you're really bored, I also reviewed the season 2 finale episode, with an equally long rant. If you're involved in this show and somewhat masochistic, go read that first and enjoy the flogging. Or if you're like me and occasionally like to feel vindicated that you weren't the only one pausing the episode to yell at the TV, you probably don't want to be reminded of how bad season 2's finale was. Either way, I think it's safe to say I am not a fan of how this show has started leaning toward the unrealistic superdrama nonsense, and am hoping season 3 gets back to the quality of season 1 and most of season 2.
After the events of the season 2 finale unfolded, many of us were left wondering what the big reveal would be in season 3. Surely, after all, Nolan couldn't possibly be that dumb -- it just didn't fit within the context of the character we'd watched grow and develop as a rookie officer over the first two seasons.
The absurdity is apparent even within this episode's dialogue, as several of his colleagues consider him "the best of us" and other similarly high praise as Nolan being, in essence, a straight arrow. Given the way this show has presented LAPD as earnest and competent, it seems very far-fetched that the best officer their training produced would be so inept as to commit all the grievous mistakes these writers try passing off as believable behavior. I get that he's not the youngest guy ever, but the character isn't in his seventies -- even my old flip phone had a "record memo" feature on it, and smart phones have been around for over a decade. It's hard to believe anyone, let alone a police officer, would enter into a conversation with the intention of getting a confession, without using his phone's built-in recording capability. I would actually imagine even if a cop was coloring outside the lines as Nolan was in this situation, he would still wear a wire. Also, it's incomprehensible that the corrupt cop would have spilled all his secrets, also assuming Nolan wasn't recording the conversation. The story is only believable if the show is actually set in the 1960s or some equally distant past where compact recording devices didn't exist -- either one cop forgets to record, or the other cop forgets to check, but it's just implausible to believe both, especially considering the corrupt cop is supposedly very clever.
There are a bunch of other "hot mess" writing issues with this episode, for example why the two officers visiting the prison (to obtain surveillance recordings) decide to stop by and visit their favorite prisoner-of-the-week, even though they had every reason to expect that visit would result in her poking at their wounds. Maybe they were there to pick up the videos and also interview the prisoner, in which case maybe the problem was with the editors mistakenly removing the sergeant's line where he instructs them to do that. Maybe I didn't hear it right, but it sure sounded like that little visit was unnecessary. Also, maybe I'm being overly critical here, but she really seems to have a fancy jail cell. Maybe she's in a federal penitentiary.
This show was great when it focused on actual community police work, with realistic plots and criminals. Now that this storyline has wrapped up, hopefully we can get back to reality and enjoy a solid cop show that represents police issues, gives everyone an example of how policing *should* work, problems people have with police interactions, bad practices from cops who mean well but bend the rules, and all the other things that make for great compelling stories, without all this nonsense of serial killers and corrupt cops being busted by rookies still in training. (That, or maybe change the show title to "Super-Boo Saves The Day")
It's clearly hard as #*%^! to write great TV consistently. But I'd rather wait a little while between seasons if it meant better writing. Tasty food delivered late is always better than hot garbage delivered on time.
15 out of 22 found this helpful.
Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
