#It was just so disappointing after the INCREDIBLE performance on Law & Order SVU

[scammydoesstuff]

So about that 'Blue Bloods' episode…

I recently saw something come across my dash regarding Alex Brightman’s guest appearance on the season 11 episode of 'Blue Bloods' (The Common Good) and it reignited the vehement response I had to the episode as a whole. And, since I have this blog now, I figured…fuck it. I need to rant about it.

So that's what this is.

Take what I say with a grain of salt, of course. This show is so clearly not for me and I acknowledge that, but I went to school for and got my degree in creative writing and so much of this episode pissed me off from a narrative perspective and I just really need to talk about it. Putting it under a Read More, though, so you can ignore me if you’d like while I rage to no one in particular. Apologies in advance if you choose to read on. I'm super long-winded. Luckily I don't have pictures and this is more of just a lot of text, so…it could be longer?

So, to begin, I’ll freely admit that I’d never seen an episode of 'Blue Bloods' before this and I’ve not watched it since. I mean, if the rest of the episodes are as badly written as this one, I have no interest to either, but I digress.

Overall my main problem with the episode was how desperately it avoided ‘showing’ over ‘telling’ and, as a visual medium, that’s kind’ve a big deal. We were told pretty much every detail that was presented to us. These people love to hear themselves talk, but do little to actually show things as they happen and I believe a part of that has to do with the focus of the show itself, which is definitely unique to this brand of television. By that, I just mean that it’s not the format I might’ve expected from a show like this. Most cop shows give a lot of focus to the cases, and the intrigue you get with the characters is how they apply their own skills and knowledge to solve them, with the hi-jinks they get into along the way being more of a bonus.

This is not that kind of show.

No, 'Blue Bloods' as a show is way more interested in the cops and their familial ties than it is about the actual job that they’re doing, as shown prominently with the political plot of this episode which was also very focused on the relationship between Tom Selleck’s character and his daughter and the wholly unrelated dinner scene where they talk about lent for 2 and a half minutes and acknowledge nothing else that happened in the episode. This show doesn’t care about the job of being a cop so much as it cares about the cops themselves.

Which would be fine if I gave a shit about cops, but I don’t.

You could argue that the mentor plot is the exception to that, but that entire situation had no real consequences for the cop in question, Jamie, abusing his power. It was entirely focused on how the situation affected him and how it was fine that he’d nudged this kid to get information which ultimately led to the arrest of Dion's brother, and Dion quitting the program. Hell, if Jamie had, in his final scene with Dion, owned up to his abuse of power and left the program — to then urge Dion to rejoin so that he can have that positive outlet in his life without him there — I would’ve been way more okay with it, but Jamie faces no consequences past ‘I don’t wanna see you anymore’, which I was never convinced he actually cared about in the slightest. There's nothing cathartic about it, it's just shitty and left me feeling frustrated at the lack of consequences for the cop.

But hey, you prolly don’t wanna read me going on and on about those parts. You prolly wanna know why I hate it despite Alex’s plot — which I fully expected to love because he’s perfect and gorgeous even when he’s playing a bad guy and he was just so adorable in his lil suit and they let him keep the scruff this time, and he was all handsome an— I need to stop. That could go on forever.

Anyway, to put it simply; it was bad, but I'll definitely explain why.

Now, I don’t think any of the guests in this episode necessarily did a bad job. They still acted well enough for what they were given. I just think they had a shit script that wasn’t interested in that story line. I mentioned at the top of this that this show cared more about telling than showing and that’s a huge problem when you want me to buy a character being the culprit in your murder plot. I need evidence, not anecdotes. Cuz, yeah, by the end of the episode, I didn’t buy for even a second that Ralph did it. And it’s not because he was played by Alex who is just charisma incarnate. I can believe him playing a bad guy. I also watched his 'Law & Order SVU' episode where he scared the shit outta me. He can play a creepy and violent character very well, he just wasn’t convincing to me as a bad guy in this show.

And here’s why!

First of all, he confessed at knife point. That confession would be thrown away IRL. It’s the same problem with using torture to get information. If a person’s life is threatened or they're being harmed in some way, they’ll usually say whatever it takes to get you to stop threatening them/causing them pain. Same deal here. You can’t convince me with a confession like that.

But they didn't seem to be interested in convincing anyone as far as I could tell. They just expected you to believe it because, ‘no, didn’t you hear? He said he did it, so he did it.’ They had so many opportunities to portray this character as the shitbag that we’re told he is. Hell, great way to really implicate him? Give him a female assistant that Donnie Wahlberg and his partner overhear / walk in on him berating for something small like getting him the wrong coffee or something. Then have them talk to that assistant later on and her mention some weird behavior from him on the night of Andrea’s death. It's cliché, but it's more than what we got.

Or you could have him talk to Meghan in a super condescending voice when he approaches her after her interview later on. Or, hell, have him refer to the murder victim in a condescending way even as he talks about her death. But no. The most we get out of him is that he's maybe a little snarky and smug when talking to the cops, but that’s not enough to convince me he’s a bad dude. Frankly, his producer buddy came off as more of an asshole, if I'm being honest. Just cuz (we’re told) his character did shitty things to her in the past doesn’t mean he’s still shitty. Show me he’s still shitty. I wanna see it and I know Alex is capable of a performance like that.

Second, it’s also just…obvious to make him the culprit if we're to believe everything we're told about him. He and Andrea are described as having had beef a little while before the murder with him being abusive mentally and physically. He’s known in the community to be a misogynist and an abusive person overall. He’s the obvious suspect, but if there’s anything that Scooby-Doo taught me, it’s that it’s never the most obvious person. Like, once in a blue moon, sure — but it’s rare.

So yeah, I don’t believe that Ralph did it. You wanna know who I do think did it?

Meghan.

Alright, so bear with me. This'll prolly sound a little conspiratorial, but hear me out:

She had the motive. She confirms in the beginning of the episode that she’s also a female gamer like the victim, but that she was ‘no Andrea’. Andrea was her competition. They were (supposedly) friends and stuck together as female gamers, but Andrea was still competition. With her out of the way, Meghan’s able to rise in the ranks, if even a little bit.

She had a scapegoat in Ralph — again, the obvious suspect given his tumultuous relationship with Andrea sometime prior — and an obvious grudge against men in their community in general. And, don’t get me wrong, men in gaming can and often are hella toxic — I’m not, in any way, denying that — but she got way more emotional when talking about the men in their community than when she was talking about her supposed friend lying dead in the adjoining room.

Speaking of the adjoining room, how did she not hear the murder happening? It couldn’t have been when she was down in the bar, cuz we see Ralph there too in the crappy CCTV footage that was supposed to show him being an asshole, I think (hard to really see). Was she just fucking around somewhere else when it happened? She doesn’t mention as much that I recall (correct me if I'm wrong on that, of course). And Andrea was strangled to death. I would assume that there would’ve been a struggle with that. Are you seriously telling me she wouldn’t hear that in her adjoining hotel room? Those walls aren’t that thick. I find that kinda hard to believe. And that she wouldn’t have found her till the next morning after that, also strikes me as a little odd.

Going off on some previous points, she shows very little grief over her friend’s death. Not just in the intro scene, either, but later on as well. (Side bar: that intro scene itself was very misleading. Don’t lead with a murder plot if it only takes up less than 10 minutes of the overall runtime, kay?) The show did a pretty bad job at indicating the passage of time, but it’s implied that the convention is still happening when Meghan gets the confession out of Ralph, so it would’ve had to have been the same weekend, or possibly the same week (though most conventions I’m aware of don’t last that long — it’s usually a weekend thing, at most Thursday-Sunday — but it could be similar to AGDQ, which seems to last about a week). So, if this is only a day or so later, why would someone who is supposedly grieving over their dead friend do interviews like nothing is wrong? Wouldn't you, like, reschedule or just politely decline and say you need time to process the shock? Like, when we cut to ol’ Donnie Wahlberg calling her after her interview, she doesn’t look upset — as I imagine she might if they’d likely asked her questions about Andrea / her feelings about the murder — and she seems cool as a cucumber when she asks Ralph to go somewhere private. In fact, the look on her face indicates pretty clearly that she’s planning to do something. Specifically, not that she's scared, that she's angry.

Finally, she’s the one who’s attacking Ralph when Donnie Wahlberg and company arrive on the scene. She doesn’t seem to have any marks on her indicating that he made any move to harm her (again, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't remember seeing her with any marks / cuts), but he’s got a clear, bleeding cut on his face. She attacked him first and was going in for the kill.

Or…was she? Cuz right before Donnie Wahlberg pulls her into that bear hug to stop her from the attack, she doesn’t do a great job of actually trying to kill Ralph. She was close enough that a quick dart at him would’ve probably been enough to at least injure him pretty significantly — maybe even fatally — and would’ve surely led the cops to pull them apart to secure him, but she kinda just hops around a bit and screams before lunging for him. That’s a really weird way to attack when you actually want to kill someone.

But, then again, I don’t necessarily think she did want to kill him. I’m convinced she wanted that confession, but that she also wanted him in jail and was playing the part of the super sad and hysterical victim who was just so overcome with her grief that she wasn’t in her right mind. I think that’s what they were going for in regards to her character in general, but it came across as less sincere in the performance and more like the character was putting on an act. They then cart Ralph off while comforting her — despite the fact that she disobeyed a direct order from police, which should lead to her being detained as well! — and that plot ends.

So, she gets what she wants in the end. A person she despises is now in police custody, her competition is out of the way, and the publicity she might get for bringing that ‘murderer’ to justice might eventually lead to her own career getting a nice boost. I dunno, it just strikes me as her having a great reason to have initiated this over Ralph just being a misogynist who 'was really trying to kill Meghan and just got the wrong girl'.

So yeah, with what the show presented to us, I believe Meghan’s the real killer. Again, if they’d done more to show me that Ralph was a bad dude or that she was more affected by her supposed friend’s death, or if they'd just given that plot more room to breathe to show those things, I might’ve been more inclined to buy the narrative they were pushing but…as is, I don’t believe it.

That’s pretty much all I wanted to say on the matter. I had a lot of issues with the domestic abuse plot line too, but they barely gave that 5 minutes of the overall runtime, so does it really matter in the long run? This is just…my thought process of the only part of the episode I watched for and how disappointing it was for me. And yes, I timed each section of the episode to figure out how much time was given to each of the 4 plots, plus the dinner scene at the end, but not counting the intro theme, and the murder plot got just over 8 minutes, of which Alex was on screen for half of that time. He got less than 5 minutes of screen time. It was definitely worth it just because he’s wonderful and I just like seeing him on these shows, but from a narrative standpoint, it felt pointless.

Okay, I’m done. Thank you for coming to my TED talk. Unless y’all wanna talk about this some more, cuz I’m so down for that.

[racingtoaredlight]

Profiles in IMDb Greatness: Glenn Fleshler

I love the Internet Movie Database. was that the big boy from Modern Family working the front desk at a hotel in Almost Famous? Sure was. As such I enjoy looking over random performer pages and arbitrarily judging the scope and quality of their careers to determine if they merit entry into my vaguely defined IMDb Hall of Fame. Today’s enshrinee: Glenn Fleshler

Hello old friends, hope everyone is doing well during this pandemic and instead of protesting at state capitol buildings with the shittiest people alive you’re safe at home enjoying wholesome blog content. While riding out quarantine the mind has more time to wander and ponder the deeper mysteries, like what are the moral obligations a government has to keeping its population alive and in the nearly 50 years of HBO has there ever been a more vital figure in its programming than Glenn Fleshler over the past decade?

Much like Gus Frerotte appearing out of nowhere to be every team’s backup quarterback at some point in the last 20 years, Fleshler just strolls from one prestige television set to another covering the gamut from drama to horror to comedy. I considered writing this post months ago when I first realized we were dealing with Mr. HBO here but quarantine boredom was just the propellant needed to get this baby off the ground.

First Listed Role: While fans of the IMDb HOF may remember my affinity for these actors getting their starts in soap operas the true character actor spirit is captured from appearing in network crime dramas so of course Glenn Fleshler opening up with an episode of Homicide: Life on the Street which also featured friend of the HOF Jon Polito! The episode description is simply “The team investigate a woman who appears to be murdering her husbands for the insurance money” so I’ll assume they ripped the whole thing from the plot of Addams Family Values and Fleshler played Uncle Fester.

Newest Role: Of course after calling Fleshler Mr. HBO I’m immediately served up a role on Showtime’s Billions. I didn’t get into that show when it premiered since I don’t trust Showtime original programming anymore and when I tried to start it up a couple weeks ago I made it five minutes before realizing that a show about rich assholes talking about the stock market wasn’t what I was looking for in 2020. I’m sure it’s delightful.

CSI/Law & Order/NCIS Guest Spots: Three episodes of Law & Order and three more of SVU, six different characters. This is legendary stuff. Let’s go in chronological order where I play my favorite game of trying to guess who the character was in each episode.

Don Hamilton, 2/6/02 - A former aide for a state senator has turned up missing and it’s revealed that she was having an affair with the senator and was pregnant. My money’s on Fleshler as the murderous, fertile politician.

Dr. Noah Kamens, 11/1/02 - Yikes, child sex ring episode here. Fingers crossed that Fleshler was just appearing as a child psychologist and not as a predatory pediatrician but as we’ll visit later he can pull off menacingly creepy well.

Rick Kawalchuck, 4/20/05 - A porn star is murdered, safe to assume Fleshler is the corpse and this light-hearted episode is filled with wisecracks about how with his rigor mortis they won’t be able to close the coffin.

Jimmy Curren, 12/3/08 - A man from upstate New York is found dead in Chinatown, a realistic crime based on my knowledge of midupstate New Yorkers and their appreciation of a good Chinese buffet. This crime leads all the way to the governor’s office and since Jimmy doesn’t sound gubernatorial I’ll guess Fleshler is an adviser who kills the victim over the last potsticker.

Corrections Officer Kravitz, 10/7/09 - This game isn’t fun if you do all the work for me, character name.

Phillip Altshuler, 12/6/17 - A true pro still doing these gigs when at this point he’d been in some truly great TV. this episode is about the rape of a social media star so he’s the venture capitalist funding the app and trying to keep the story under wraps.

One of these days I really should watch an episode of Law & Order.

Hall of Fame Ballot Submissions: Just from the HBO division we got Sex and the City (he looks like Charlotte’s type based on the schlubby lawyer she ends up marrying down the stretch), Boardwalk Empire (not the best show but I did love him as George Remus who always referred to himself as “Remus”), True Detective (hope everyone’s working from home in case remembering the “Making flowers” scene gets you understandably horny), The Knick (technically Cinemax but I always thought they were owned by the same crew, if not when a show has a guy taking a shot of cocaine to the dick it gets in here), The Night Of (kind of became a mess at the end and there entirely too much John Turturro foot picking but the pilot was great), Barry (fantastic show, Fleshler should do more comedy) and then he turned up in the best episode of the incredible Watchmen season.

What a run, when Glenn Fleshler passes on down the road I hope this kicks off his funeral.

Miscellaneous Credits: I didn’t think Joker in any way deserved a Best Picture nomination and the conversation around it was embarrassing all around since in the end it was a mostly entertaining Taxi Driver ripoff but hey, Glenn Fleshler can say he was in award nominated motion picture.

Highest Rated IMDb Entry: Kinda surprised that the True Detective finale landed here since I remember there being disappointment with it even though I thought it and that whole season were fantastic (his relative/ladyfriend Ann Dowd would be a good one to cover in the next post so keep that in mind for the next pandemic) but here it is at a robust 9.6. Fleshler is the right kind of unnerving after a season of buildup to who the killer was. I can see how a fella like that would catch on in multiple Law & Orders universes even if he’s appeared enough times for people to question why everyone in New York City looks like Glenn Fleshler.

Lowest Rated IMDb Entry: A 2016 film called The Rendezvous where Fleshler’s the only name I recognize on the cast list. Let’s learn about this movie together, shall we.

Oof, I was rooting for armageddon to come take me less than a minute in to that. My only intrigue in diving in further is to see if the “we work for a higher power” sticks with that Steel Magnolias accent all throughout the movie. And the quips, my god the quips. The “you think?” line is what happens when Marvel movies are oversold for their witty banter, everyone wants a taste of jokes they don’t have to work on.

IMDb Fun Fact: The only three I had to choose from

Off-Broadway, he has appeared in such plays as Measure for Measure and Pericles, Prince of Tyre.

Fleshler studied acting at New York University's Tisch School of the Performing Arts, from which he has an MFA.

Fleshler's Broadway credits include Death of a Salesman, Guys and Dolls, Arcadia and The Merchant of Venice.

Neat.

IMDb HOF Members: Looking for a Mother’s Day gift for the special ladies in your life? Just send her this list of links and they’ll wish quarantine would never end so long as there are more to read!

Bob Balaban

Jim Beaver

Clancy Brown

W. Earl Brown

Reg E. Cathey

Gary Cole

Keith David

Cary Elwes

Noah Emmerich

Glenn Fleshler

Jami Gertz

John Hawkes

John Michael Higgins

Toby Huss

Allison Janney

John Carroll Lynch

Margo Martindale

David Morse

Joe Morton

Robert Patrick

Bill Paxton

Jon Polito

Alan Rickman

Stephen Root

Matt Ross

Alan Ruck

Peter Stormare

Daniel von Bargen

Next Time: If the pandemic is still ongoing, the monkey from Outbreak. If not, the monkey from Outbreak.