In Plain Sight – Bullet points, questions and quotes
I have just realized that with the clearing of Rafe, Jinx, Brandi, Bobby D, and Eleanor from the boards, I have absolutely nothing to complain about in paragraph form. However, I do have several bullet point observances.
- Season 3, Episode 4 - "Whistle Stop"
Guest Clacker A. Camille Nicholson is now an ABD in Cultural Studies and English Literature who, due to the dearth of available academic positions, has returned to the seemingly, yet not fully desiccated heart of the E-Commerce fold.
- They are clearly continuing the theme of maturity as Mary retains her introspective narrations. While I like the continuing focus on Mary’s job, I also miss her home life. Although I felt the deluge of loser family members a bit much, what happened to Mary’s life without them? What does she do when she returns home? Even if she appears lonely or sad, I’d like to get to know a Mary outside the insanity of her family. Perhaps this is what we now see from the show. Without Jinx and company to distract her, all Mary has are her thoughts.
- I almost felt Mary had become too internally focused until her rant against Marshal for his verbal impotence, which doubly assisted in lightening the mood. But, I think it’s interesting that for the past two episodes the writers have shown Marshal’s ability to force Mary to talk against her will, yet the one time she requested his assistance (to either force her to talk or distract her from talking), he could not ‘perform.’
- Huzzah on showing Stan work a case. Although I still prefer seeing M&M in the field, it shows us the manager still has the chops. All the same, I did not like the newbie agent and would prefer to see a more seasoned agent or the return of Bobby D/Eleanor. Obviously, the possibility of Eleanor returning in the future for an FBI match-up (possibly against/with Faber) exists.
- Also, kudos to the show for showing Mary visit her witness last week without Marshal’s assistance. Although I like the partner aspect, sometimes the show forgets that they are inspectors with separate cases.
- On the Marshal-Mary connection, I enjoyed the reinstatement of their early morning conversations and found myself squee-ing at Marshal’s ring check. In hindsight, does he glance at her ring each morning to verify its presence? Probably not, all the same, I like throwing out softballs every now and again.
- Last season, the show’s chemistry felt like a warm comforter I could wrap myself within. This season, with the new narration and the new shots it has shifted into a slightly darker terrain including the eerily beautiful side shot of Faber’s swing set confession. All the same, I found myself not really missing the side characters.
- Season 1 seemingly went out of its way with the hot, girl power theme. Although I enjoyed parts of the show then, it’s early theme of ‘look! It’s a girl! And, she’s strong! And, she’s hot!’ a bit too obvious, including episodes featuring Mary dressing like a happy hooker bachelorette, simulating phone sex, and wrestling with another female officer beneath a sprinkler system on a front lawn. Unsurprisingly, I enjoyed the covert and coordinated teamwork focus, not only from an action perspective but from a narratorial one. I liked that the camera avoided overtly focusing on and glamorizing the star through its ‘business as usual’ approach over the ‘look how cool they are!’ visual message some shows prefer. All the same, I found their orchestrated takedown of 4-5 gang mobsters totally bada$$.
- I definitely didn’t miss Janney’s character this week.
Questions:
- What do you think of Marshal’s verbal impotence? I love Weller’s acting style and his ability to speak through silence. Side note: I loved his quiet sidestep after explicating Faber’s date request.
- Why are we seeing high powered individuals (and highly paid guest stars) playing people who don’t care about WitSec? I find it hard to believe that Faber changed after seeing the harm he did. I also find it hard to accept that characters such as Mary’s new boss and Faber never encountered that in the past and actually care now.
- What did you think about the Faber-Mary match-up? While I like Steven Weber, I didn’t quite feel the connection between the two (compared to Bobby D or her witness from season 1). Additionally, I do not believe that Marshal’s ending Mary’s phone call would ‘save her from falling’ as her narrative implied but shifted him into the vein of jealousy (which is a new side to Marshal). I’m always intrigued at the twists the show takes. However, Faber could have left a voice mail and Mary could have checked her ‘missed calls’ box. So, Marshal didn’t necessarily ‘save’ so much as ‘delay’. I don’t know if I want the Faber character to return. I like Weber, but this character felt more like a one-shot deal.
Quotes:
- I loved Mary’s introspective imagery surrounding standing on tiptoes as a child while words came out of the mouths of others like a gasp.
- Faber: “My timing’s awesome.”
Mary: “Yea, for a soulless, brainless slag.”
- Marshal (paraphrasing): “So, why did you and Rafe break up?”
Mary: “He’s a beautiful sweet man who adores me.”
Marshal: “Yea, who wants that?”
Photo Credit: USA Network
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As much as I hated Mary’s family drama, it was an important part of showing who the character was. Without it, they were forced to shoehorn in a B-plot that didn’t seem thematically related to the main story at all, unless the only point was to introduce Charlie to us. I do miss both Dershowitz and Eleanor, but not Pearson.
Agreed on the darker tone, and I hope they’ll mix it up a little in the future, beyond Faber’s temporary love interest. I didn’t feel the chemistry there either, but it may have been due to the fact that their “love-hate” interactions could have been lifted whole out of any other cop show. Their dialogue barely had a hint of any originality or underlying personality. And I didn’t care about his father issues at all; that revelation should have been saved for his third or fourth episode, once we actually liked the guy.
Of course Faber’s going to leave a message, or call again in a few days. I think the point of Marshall’s (it’s two l’s, BTW) protection was saving her from having to complicate her life thinking about Faber at that moment, when she was still working the same case with the witness and his family, not from ever going out with the G-man.
Hmm, you’re right about the family drama. I always wanted her family out of the picture because while it showed one part of her, it didn’t show Mary’s personality without them and outside of the job (although, admittedly, they’re probably the same). Even so, they annoyed me. However, with everyone gone, we don’t get any snapshot into her private life. Admittedly, secondary characters help us learn about the primary character, but I wish we could find some in-between. Regarding the spelling, sometimes I forget it’s Marshal Marshall Mann and convince myself it’s Marshal Marshall.
I hear you. I was writing Marshall Marshal Mann consistently throughout a rather lengthy post, and was unable to go back and correct it later.
Note that I said nothing about missing Jinx, Brandi, and Raph. ;) Mary needs some kind of private life, just not all dysfunction, all the time. It was nice that she had tentative friendships with Dershowitz & Eleanor.
That being said, I’ve learned from TWoP that the Dershowitz actor will be a regular on a new show if the pilot gets picked up, the Eleanor actor was the previous showrunner’s wife and thus is unlikely to return, and the Brandi actor is pregnant, so will probably return after her delivery. So it was more a confluence of different events rather than a deliberate clean-sweeping of the boards.