Let's Talk Television: Bunny Day

I throw out my playbook in favor of ranting about 9-1-1 (and more!)

A Quick Note About Programming

So ‘New This Week’ lists thirteen shows and two premiered with multiple episodes, adding up to approximately fifteen hours of terrible television. There are a few topics I have a lot to say about, and another few I want to highlight because they’re interesting and/or fun. Thus, I’ve chosen to abandon my format for a more conversational post. After all, it’s Easter, the time of rebirth.

New This Week

• The Last of Us (Max)

• Alert: Missing Persons Unit (Hulu)

• FBI (Paramount+)

• FBI: Most Wanted (Paramount+)

• Chicago Med (Peacock)

• 9-1-1 (Hulu)

• Doctor Odyssey (Hulu)

• Law & Order + Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (Peacock) crossover

• Law & Order: Organized Crime (Peacock) — two-episode season premiere

• Leverage: Redemption (Prime) — three-episode season premiere

• NCIS: Sydney (Paramount+)

• Black Butler: Emerald Witch Arc (Crunchyroll)

  

First of all, how dare you?

I have been ranting for two weeks (and also for decades) that killing off main characters is cheap, easy, and unimaginative. Well, in the latest effort to prove me wrong, 9-1-1 killed off Captain Bobby Nash (Peter Krause) for “creative reasons”.

[A]fter eight years, it just felt like, if we have any hope of creating stories going forward that have actual stakes, then someone’s got to die.

— 9-1-1 showrunner Tim Minnear

One, as I wrote literally last week about Bobby Nash, you can create emotional reactions in the audience without killing anyone. Mr. Minnear even acknowledges this; the quote above begins with “I still think people grip their seats and are excited when Athena lands a plane on the freeway or a ship capsizes.” So, I guess he thinks “actual stakes” are about something other than audience reaction. Maybe it’s storytelling. In that same interview, Mr. Minnear explained he chose Bobby because “if you track the tragic arc of his character, of where he started, and how he came to LA looking for atonement, it just makes a kind of tragic sense for his character in a way it wouldn’t for another character.”

Two, as I wrote at the end of 2019, atonement arcs are ALWAYS better than redemption by death. It “makes tragic sense”? It “makes tragic sense”??? Fuck you, actually. What is the point of THE ENTIRE SERIES if Bobby’s journey of atonement does not save him from a redemption by death? Seriously. This has killed my interest in the entire series. Why should I continue watching if nothing matters? Why should I rewatch if nothing matters? Why should I care at all if nothing matters?

Finally, as regards realism, I think the author of this petition to Bring Back Bobby says it best: “Sir, nothing about this is ‘real life’ and it never has been”. Whomst out there is watching 9-1-1 for realism? Who is watching any Ryan Murphy (!) series or, honestly, any television series at all for realism? That is not the point of fiction. It’s just not. Stories take place in a realm of heightened reality. Guess how many real firefighters died of a super virus released by a rogue mad scientist who broke protocol to prove her genius, and there was only one vial of her antiviral miracle cure last year? Most firefighters die of stress-induced heart attacks. But if we wanted to be realistic about that storyline, we would have to include the persistently American lack of access to preventative healthcare, including psychotherapy and stress management, and crushing medical debt. So don’t tell me Bobby’s death by supercharged virus while in a secure research lab surrounded by the army to the soundtrack of Hozier’s most devastating song was realistic. Nor should it be. We all watch this show for the RESCUES, you absolute idiots.

The Laws and Orders killed off two named characters that provided personal stakes to the protagonists this week, and I am sad about them and their potential. But I’m not angry in the same way because it served the story (Olivia’s and especially Elliot’s stories are atonement arcs by the way). Bobby’s death does not serve the story, or the characters, or the audience. It only serves Tim Minnear’s ego.

Moving On

On FBI: Most Wanted, Barnes (Roxy Sternberg) had her interview for the supervisory position in DC, and the job is hers if she wants it. On Alert: Missing Persons Unit, Mike (Ryan Broussard) is offered a promotion to lieutenant and head of the unit, but turns it down. On Chicago Med, Naomi (Asleigh Sharpe Chestnut) had her last shift in the ER before starting in cardio-thoracic. On Doctor Odyssey, Max (Joshua Jackson) visits his hometown and interviews at a local hospital in dire need of good leadership, but chooses to return to the ship instead. On Leverage: Redemption, a disenchanted Hardison (Aldis Hodge) takes some time off to think about his career/life goals. And on Black Butler: Emerald Witch Arc, Sebastian is temporarily reassigned as Sieghilde’s butler while Ciel recovers from the curse/plague. I don’t have much to say about Mike, Naomi, Hardison, or Sebastian.

Barnes has every reason to take the job, but I still think there’s a strong possibility Remy (Dylan McDermott) steps down and she leads the task force. That said, Barnes could go to DC, Remy could retire to run his bar, and Nina (Shantel Vansanten) could lead the task force (I expect her to show up on OG FBI periodically after her series ends anyway, and it’d be nice to see her in charge).

Max’s story made me angry. The episode followed similar beats to Star Trek: The Next Generation’s “Family” where Picard also visits his brother, muses about settling down by interviewing for a local job, but chooses to stay where he is. Except when Picard returns to the Enterprise, it’s to accept his calling, and no one back home suffers, but when Max returns to the Odyssey, he’s turning his back on his friend who straight up says the hospital needs him (proven when Max saves a kid’s life by making a scene breaking protocol) to remain the concierge doctor on a ship that caters solely to the rich. And it’s not even because he thinks he belongs there or loves the adventure he’s pursued since childhood or because the ship is family now or even that his brother is right that near-death experiences with illness changed him—it’s for Avery (Philippa Soo), who has at least two other suitors and is leaving the ship????? Idk y’all, Max’s trip to his hometown hospital made me feel icky about enjoying the show, which seems bad.

The Laws and Orders of Missed Opportunities

I liked the Laws and Orders crossover. I like to see them all work together, I like the camaraderie, and I like the friction. The story was trauma on top of trauma on top of trauma, but that’s not unexpected, and in general, it worked. I was suspicious of Gomez (guest Reinaldo Faberlle) in the first hour, and after the encounter with the priest, it was obvious he was the murderer. However, it was obvious to Olivia (Mariska Hargitay) too, so well-played. Also, I like that they keep making cops bad because it’s true. And that even extends to my favorite cops, because when Olivia spots the guy who went after Noah (Ryan Buggle) intimidating their witness in the middle of testifying, she does not stop the trial, she does not tell the DA or the judge or the lead detective, she texts Elliot (Christopher Meloni). And then Elliot assaults the guy in the bathroom. And you have to know that that was my favorite part of the whole two hours, but also it’s unhinged and illegal.

Anyway, the missed opportunities share something in common: women supporting women. First, they killed off Maria Recinos (guest Dani Montalvo). Olivia saved Maria way back in season seven, and she became a cop last season. In between then and now, she was promoted to detective and worked undercover to save undocumented immigrants from trafficking, exploitation, rape, and ICE raids. We learn that Olivia wrote her a letter of recommendation and has been mentoring her. None of which we saw. We only see Olivia spiraling out in anger because Maria is dead and at the hands of her supervisor. Olivia got Maria a job and the guy raped her and burned her alive. Imagine a world where we instead got scenes of Olivia and Maria discussing cases, of Maria coming to Olivia for help and advice, of them solving crimes together. Of coffee chats, and Olivia attending Maria’s wedding. Of Maria mentoring new baby cop Eli Stabler (Nicky Torcha). Of Maria and Eli joining SVU and the whole damn show starting over. IMAGINE.

Second, Olivia and Jessica (Maura Tierney) are the focus of the crossover, which is great. But they spend the whole time annoyed with each other. They both take this case personally, they are both driven by anger and guilt, they are both leaders, and they’re both experienced and have their own way of doing things. Friction, even conflict, is natural. And I grant that the seesaw back and forth throughout is compelling to watch. I don’t want to erase it all. But I would love a scene or two of commiseration—about the boys club, about leadership, about family and romance, about values, about mentoring the next generation of women cops. I would love a crossover event where they are not in conflict (in the last one, Olivia was so mad about what Jessica did, she went to the press and got the practice outlawed in the whole state). Let Olivia have a friend who is a peer! Again, I love that she called in Elliot, I love it with my whole SVU soul, but imagine if she trusted a woman to help her.

Finally, it’s fun for Nolan (Hugh Dancy) and Carisi (Peter Scanavino) to work together, and of course, Baxter (Tony Goldwyn) is involved. Their collective exasperation with Olivia is particularly delightful. But Sam Maroun (Odelya Halevi) is sidelined once again. She’s not in SVU, and she’s barely in OG. They can’t give everyone a big role, and the secondary cast is actually pretty balanced. Fin (Ice-T) has like one scene, but it’s worrying about Olivia being reckless, which is perfect. The Riley (Reid Scott) and Silva (Juliana Aidén Martinez) team-up works well. But Sam is a nonentity, and she’s the only woman on the court side (and also the only person of color). That’s not a great look and I missed her.

It’s Holy Week

Leverage: Redemption debuted three episodes of their third season, and the last is a Christmas episode, which, sure. The series is and always has been about redemption (it’s in the title, but also the first series was about redemption, too). So welcome back, Leverage. I don’t have much else to say about that. Nor about MPU’s redemption story—it was good, and it also involved a heist, and yeah, that’s it.

9-1-1’s episode was about sacrifice, and Bobby’s arc has been about atonement from the beginning. If he has to die (he doesn’t), dying during Holy Week—literally on Good Friday for those of us who watch on streaming—is appropriate. He spends his last minutes praying.

Over on Black Butler, Ciel and Sebastian are cursed by the Werewolf Forest and have to go through a ritual baptism/rebirth. It takes place in a giant cauldron—Sieghilde orders them all “to the cauldron room,” and the door opens to a library with a GIANT CAULDRON on a raised dais, which gave me the biggest laugh of the week by far—but as with everything Black Butler the witchcraft is all wrapped up in religion, too. Ciel comes out of the cauldron blind and afraid of all adults (Ciel’s childhood would make for the most horrifying episode of SVU ever). As with everything, it’s so dark.

Which brings us to the also dark and also deeply catholic, Law & Order: Organized Crime. Everyone knows I am utter trash for OC and Elliot Stabler, but this show is made for me. Elliot almost dies twice but doesn’t. He only accepts the UC job to stop the trafficking of women and girls, and throws the actual investigation away to save them with zero regard for it. He befriends a kid and burns everything down to rescue her, but she becomes the latest on the list of people he can’t save, the personal failures who haunt him forever, sometimes, as in this case, literally. We get scenes of Olivia at his bedside while he’s in a coma, and not for nothing, his whole family and his current partner are in the waiting room, but she’s in Elliot’s room. We get Elliot being the worst patient ever, and Olivia enabling it. We get the squad and they are a tight knit dysfunctional family in a way OG’s and SVU’s squads are not. We get Randall (Dean Norris) bringing the comedy and the heartbreak. We get Eli. And we get Bernie (Ellen Burstyn), the absolute legend.

Bunny (guest Maggie Toomey) was created to die. Elliot’s story is about loss, it’s explicit. It’s in the interviews, it’s in the promos, it’s in the text. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the series is about all the people Elliot can’t save and it is heartbreaking and I love it. Elliot has to learn that he is not responsible for all the bad things that happen to the people he knows and loves. He doesn’t have that power. But the characters who think they should have that power, those are characters I love most. Those are the characters who sometimes save me.

I made a video about it.

Did you have this on your bingo card?

Doctor Odyssey and Black Butler, respectively, revealed that Max and Ciel are twins.

Also Watching

Top Chef and Watson. Watson fit the redemption theme, too, AND includes twins, but I didn’t want to just insert it without any background. Also, I listed The Last of Us but I didn’t actually watch the new episode yet. Too much television!

Mental Illness Sidebar

Elliot is seeing ghosts again and I am Here For It.

Over in Chicago, both Lenox (Sara Ramos) and Frost (Darren Barnett) spent the hour projecting their own personal issues onto their patients. Frost treats a kid with a snake bite whose parents have a huge following on the socials so they live stream from the hospital and ask their followers for help identifying the snake (among other things). Frost considers this child endangerment and exploitation and he’s not wrong wrong but we know he’s cut off his own parents and that he was abused while on the TV series so it’s not hard to connect the dots about why he’s so upset.

Meanwhile, Lenox treats a man with a heart condition and his ex-wife whom he’s recently reconciled with, who is diagnosed with a neurological condition. The wife doesn’t want to tell her husband about the diagnosis and Lenix supports that because she thinks it’s better to hide degenerative conditions from loved ones. Which, whew. She needs to deal with the trauma of losing her mother to disease and her father to suicide and also take the test to find out about her own diagnosis. But her reluctance is understandable. I just want to give her a hug.

Ship of the Week

In Sydney, JD (Todd Lasance) is jealous of Mackey’s (Olivia Swann) civilian friend Etienne (guest John Fabry), whom she is close and flirty with and who went out on a limb for her. We end of a cliffhanger so check back next week to see if Etienne is a new-old love interest or will die tragically so Mackey can mourn dramatically or whatever.

In the middle of the ocean Max, Tristan (Sean Teale), and Monroe (Marcus Emanuel Mitchell) all profess their love to Avery. I called Monroe being Avery’s ex in his second appearance and I feel great about that but I do not feel great about this plot line or poor Vivian (Laura Harrier), who wanted more of a relationship with Tristan.

In Chicago, Lenox initially (accidentally?) tells Hayes (Brenden Hines) that she’s not interested in seeing him outside of work but ends up making plans to spend time together at a medical conference, while Hannah (Jessy Schram) and Mitch (Luke Mitchell) are still broken up, and Hannah and Archer (Steven Weber) still have the best relationship in One Chicago history (I said what I said).

In New Orleans, Parker (Beth Riesgraf) struggles a bit with Hardison’s choices but they end in a good place, while Harry (Noah Wyle) and Sophie (Gina Bellam) are starting to date but not starting to date each other (yet). In NYC, Eli and Becky (Kiaya Scott) are adorable while Elliot and Olivia are each other’s person/soulmate/life-partner/most important relationship/I don’t care what you call it even if they never do kiss. I will take no arguments.

And in Los Angeles—SIGH. The worst part of Bobby’s death, for me, is the death of the Bobby and Athena (Angela Bassett) relationship. We’ve already seen Athena grieve. A lot. So much. We’ve already seen her lose love, we’ve already seen her pick up the pieces and rebuild. This death will not bring anything new for Athena, just more of the same, which is tragedy. Never ending tragedy. WHY. But also, it was a beautiful mature relationship that never shied away from drama or trauma or flaws but met them head on and worked through them together and the relationship was dynamic without will they/won’t they-break up/make up shenanigans, proving that such a thing is possible, and I loved to watch them.

Randall asked Olivia out on a date over Elliot’s comatose body so that wins.

Show of the Week

Law & Order: Organized Crime

What are YOU watching?