Let's Talk Television: One Chicago does Die Hard
Fight fear with action, but don't forget to rest
I didn’t get my second post out last week and I apologize. But in my defense, I work in higher education (under attack by the federal government) coordinating scientific research (under attack by the federal government) and a DEIA program (under attack by the federal government). I work directly with immigrants/international students (under attack by the federal government) and transgender youth (under attack by the federal government). I am very busy offline. Plus the list below represents eleven hours of new television this week.
The last two weeks have been exceedingly chaotic, and it may seem absurd or callous to care about what Dr. Robby and Captain Benson are up to. But it’s not. We need to slow down and care about the mundane, too, or we won’t have the energy to care about or, more importantly, address the existential threats. Cling to things that make you happy—and fight like hell against the chaos and the dark.
New This Week
9-1-1: Lone Star (Hulu)
FBI (Paramount+)
FBI: Most Wanted (Paramount+)
High Potential (Hulu)
Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, Chicago PD (Peacock)—crossover event
Elsbeth (Paramount+)
Law & Order (Peacock)
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (Peacock)
The Pitt (Max)
The Good
These are the episodes I recommend watching.
High Potential
Hurray! Morgan (Kaitlin Olson) finally got herself out of the middle. This week’s murder mystery is a cold case, one of Selena’s (Judy Reyes) from ten years ago, that’s revived when the family patriarch confesses on his deathbed. He was the original suspect who was found not guilty because he’s an old, white, rich guy—but Selena didn’t think it was him. And she’s right. Morgan figures out the timeline of the murder was wrong, and the team works together to uncover the real motive, which leads to the real killer.
The episode is full of the show’s quirks: flashback rewinds, quick cuts over the evidence, and small scenes of characters speaking to the camera—all of which are used to give the audience insight into how Morgan’s mind works. They can be jarring sometimes, but they work here. I think it’s partly that we start with so much evidence (the hostage situation worked better for me, too), partly because there’s a character literally filming a documentary, and this plays off that, and partly because it’s better utilized. This show is better when it’s stylized for a reason instead of just being quirky.
And I think it’s a smarter script. This series is very much a dramedy but sometimes the offbeat humor and the candy-colored outrageousness of Morgan’s mind doesn’t work against the backdrop of major crimes. But here it does. The case and direction nod to Knives Out. There are stakes for the people we care about—Selena’s job is on the line and Morgan is nearly thrown off the case and out of the job but she interrupts her dismissal to solve the murder. The murderer is much more sympathetic than the victim and Morgan tells the story with empathy which in turn sets up a heartfelt confession. Justice is served all around. And it starts and ends with adorable moments from Karadec (Daniel Sunjata) and Morgan that almost tip me over into shipping them.
Chicago Fire + Med + PD
It’s a crossover! And it’s a pretty good one. There is really no separation between the series, no “now we’re all in a Med episode” type posturing, the casts and sets are evenly spaced throughout, and the story flows like a movie. Specifically, a Die Hard because it’s a catastrophe set up to hide a burglary: the baddies steal a hard drive with millions of dollars of first responders’ pension funds. Fire is on scene at the disaster, PD investigates the case, and the Med people mainly come in at the hospital, though Frost (Darren Barnet) starts on a ride-along and ends up befriending the daughter of one of the perps, and Archer (Steven Weber) is on the rescue team at the end. In the first hour, PD’s Ruzek (Patrick Flueger) and Fire’s Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) get trapped underground while trying to get people off a subway car, and PD’s Trudy (Amy Morton) is shot. It is not a coincidence that all three of them have a significant other on the outside: Trudy is married to Fire’s Mouch (Christian Stolte), Kidd is married to Fire’s Severide (Taylor Kinney), and Ruzek is engaged to PD’s Burgess (Marina Squerciati). This sets up the stakes nicely.
We get three villain reveals: one of the victims, one on the train, and one who has connections to our heroes. I’m being vague to retain suspense if you choose to watch, though none of them was particularly surprising (the last felt obvious from the beginning). However, I don’t watch any of these shows for Ah-ha! moments. I watch them for the dramaz, and it delivered on that. If you’ve never seen a single minute of One Chicago, this isn’t the worst way to start. However, I also don’t know that it would make anyone want to watch more.
Law & Order
You know what? OG is on a roll this season. They finally figured out they needed to consistently give us a reason to care about these characters, to build out their families and their lives beyond the precinct and the courthouse. The case of the week is an assisted suicide that is initially described as an execution-style murder. Nolan (Hugh Dancy) takes it personally because he’s dealing with his father’s declining health and his brother, Thomas (guest Justin Chatwin), who wants to put him in hospice and let him go. Nolan is not ready and that baggage affects his case. If this were reality (or earlier OG L&O) it would all be very pat. But as unrealistic as it might be I loved the synergy of life and case.
Nolan is adamantly against offering the defendant a deal. He doesn’t care that Victoria (guest Katie Lowes) killed her father at his request, she did it in a shady and violent way and then lied about it (he does have a point). Baxter (Tony Goldwyn) argues that the law is turning toward accepting assisted suicide and Sam (Odelya Halevi) argues very sympathetically that Nolan is emotionally compromised (accurate). After a pretty devastating cross of Victoria, Nolan learns his father developed dysphasia and would need a feeding tube to survive. The doctor and Thomas believe that instead, they should let him die peacefully. Nolan is distraught but ultimately gives in, his father dies, and the next morning, he tells Baxter he’s ready to offer Victoria a deal because he had a change of heart. Baxter looks at him with such a sad and worried expression that, once again, I almost ship them and I’m mad about it.
During the last scene of the trial, Victoria acknowledges that what she did was wrong but she doesn’t regret it. Then during the last scene in the hospital, Nolan acknowledges that what they did was right, but he regrets it with his whole self. It was a very effective ending.
Thomas asks Nolan to come get a drink together but Nolan says he has to go back to the office and if no one else writes Sam helping him grieve I will have to do it myself. They need to kiss.
The Pitt
Honestly, I can’t wait to binge-watch all 15 hours at once. I don’t think I will really know how I feel about this show until then.
In this hour, we’re still waiting on the results of the probably brain-dead teen’s brain test, but the dad who died last week was rolled away. The guy having a seizure in chairs (last week’s cliffhanger) is brought back and worked on by Santos (Isa Briones) and Langdon (Patrick Ball), who are still sniping after their altercation over her mistake last week/hour. Santos thinks she’s discovered something wrong with a vial of Lorazepam (Ativan) because it didn’t seem as effective as it should have been, and she had trouble opening it. But Langdon thinks she’s just inexperienced. She does not seem to be letting it go, though.
The unhoused patient Cassie (Fiona Dourif) treated in an earlier hour returns, and Cassie opens up to her to try and get her to reciprocate. Thus, we get more info about her sketchy past: she’s an addict, went through a rough patch, and even lost custody of her son, but she’ll get joint custody back when she gets the ankle bracelet off next week. We still don’t know why she has it, but presumably, it’s related to drugs. The patient listens and maybe would have let Cassie help her but Javedi (Shabana Azeez) scares her off by suggesting she speak with a social worker. Cassie is pissed.
Samira’s (Supriya Ganesh) sickle-cell patient needs to be intubated, which is of course very scary for her and her wife, and Samira gives them time and space to come to terms with it over Robby’s (Noah Wyle) orders to pick up the pace already. But Collins (Tracy Ifeachor) notices and appreciates the effect Samira’s process has on the patient and apologizes for calling her Slo-Mo, which is nice.
Collins reveals that the teen who wants a medical abortion is over eleven weeks pregnant so it would be illegal to provide it. Robby says to lie as Abbot did earlier, but Collins is worried that would threaten her job and medical license. Robby has tenure while Collins is a resident. Also, Robby is a white man while Collins is a Black woman—she doesn’t say it but it feels implied. Robby agrees to take responsibility and does a third ultrasound, declaring that the pregnancy is one day behind eleven weeks so she qualifies for the abortion. But just as Collins arrives to give her the instructions and first pill, the teen’s mother shows up and refuses to let it happen. The woman who’d said she was the mom is actually the aunt. The episode ends with this confrontation.
There are two amusing runners. Whitaker (Gerran Howell) has had to get new scrubs out of the scrubs machine twice already in earlier hours. In this hour he gets new scrubs, that are not the right color scrubs, and then almost immediately gets squirted with blood and needs new scrubs again. Poor Whitaker is having A Day. He does do well with the patient, though.
And Robby’s 17-year-old son arrives to pick up tickets to a concert they were going to attend together but now he has a girlfriend so he’s bringing her. He hangs out with the staff while Robby’s busy and both Langdon and a nurse give him a condom which is very responsible and progressive of them, great job show, and also made me laugh. Then when Robby goes to give him cash he says “Please don’t give me a condom” which made me laugh even more.
The Bad
Bad equates to “I don’t have much to say about this.”
9-1-1: Lone Star
Things that happen in this episode: a nuclear meltdown, Tommy (Gina Torres) learns her cancer is inoperable and will kill her imminently, a DCPS social worker tells T.K. (Ronen Rubenstein) and Carlos (Rafael L. Silva) they can’t adopt Jonah because they both work dangerous jobs, Nancy (Briana Baker) tells Matteo (Julian Works) she doesn’t believe in marriage and then ICE tells Matteo he’s being deported, Owen (Rob Lowe) tells Judd (Jim Parrack) he’s taken the NYC Chief gig and is leaving Texas, Paul (Brian Michael Smith) befriends a nonbinary teen, Tommy dies (?) alone unless you count her dead husband, and scientists discover an asteroid is headed for Austin. The episode ends with the impact.
So, since the episode starts with the nuclear meltdown that Owen fails to shut down before flashing back some hours, we can assume the asteroid does not kill everyone in Austin as it was suggested it could. But some part of it must hit the reactor starting the meltdown. As for the rest, my guess is T.K. takes a less dangerous job (maybe he becomes a 911 operator) and they adopt Jonah after all, Nancy and Matteo get married so he can become a citizen (that’s not how that works in reality but in TV it is) or Nancy goes with him (get out while you can Nancy!), Owen survives and goes back to NY, Judd becomes captain or leaves to join his wife in which case Paul becomes captain and Marjan (Natacha Karam) his lieutenant. Presumably, there’s a memorial for Tommy. I don’t know but this episode is absurd in every possible way and way more fun to watch than last week.
FBI
Hey, remember when Law & Order’s winter premiere was about 9/11? FBI’s winter premiere is ALSO about 9/11! The Wolfverse does this a lot and I sometimes wonder about it. They want us to be watching all of them, right?
Anyway, terrorists take control of a fleet of airplanes using a new software that networks them together. Our team tracks the signal to a random few blocks in NYC and shuts off the power to end the connection. Yay, now there’s chaos on the ground as well as in the sky! The bad guys still have control of the plane, though, because they’re using a car battery for power. Luckily they know what the suspect’s car looks like so they track it down and the tech patsy who was honey-trapped into creating this problem cuts off the connection to restore control to the pilots just in time to stop them from being blown out of the sky by the army. Whew!
There are a few nice moments in the episode. Jubal (Jeremy Sistio) bonds with the captain of the airplane, predictably over their sons because Jubal only has two personality traits and we don’t want the pilot to be a drunk. But as annoying as Jubal is written, Sisto sells it (especially with Alana de la Garza) and I find his exchanges with the pilot touching despite myself. Meanwhile, Scola (John Boyd) tries to bond with the honey-trap terrorist because he lost someone on 9/11, too, and the episode ends with Nina (Shantel Van Santen) supporting Scola as he reads a letter from the mayor’s office confirming they’ve identified his brother’s remains through DNA testing. Turns out their baby is named after this brother, which is very sweet. Scola’s without a partner again now (Syd was promoted to DC, lol, ok) so it’s nice he has his family. Also: they didn’t make OA (Zeeko Zaki) explain racism to anybody this week, which shows a lot of restraint given the storyline.
This ep is better than the L&O one because it doesn’t scold anyone about 9/11 but it is also worse because it doesn’t say anything new or interesting about 9/11, just uses it to make us care. The most important thing it does is say (once more for the people in the back) (who are not listening if the news about Elon Musk is anything to go on) (it’s fine, everything is fine) DO NOT NETWORK PLANES.
FBI: Most Wanted
Rather than being ripped from the headlines, this one is ripped from history. Specifically the MOVE bombing and fire in Philadelphia in 1985. As is the norm in this show the perpetrator has a good reason for his rage: he lost his home in the fire that Philly PD and FD intentionally let burn for 90 minutes (yes, that’s the true story). And then his family broke up because of it. The perp focuses on causing collateral damage by going after the loved ones of the firefighters, which is cold and less sympathetic, but nicely thematic. He was the collateral damage of the initial attack and fire.
In other news, Nina’s sister is beaten up by her deadbeat husband after Nina tells her to confront him (oops) so she’s rushing home. The lack of Scola in this episode wouldn’t be as glaring if she hadn’t just played a super supportive wifey in his series.
A Quick Note About the FBIs
These TV FBI would absolutely be among those fired by the current administration. They are way too woke. OA would probably be deported. And I just want to point out how insane that is.
I’m behind on FBI: International, and not sure I’ll keep watching it. But they announced a backdoor pilot for FBI: CIA this season, and a) that is the most hilarious title ever, and b) I can’t wait.
Elsbeth
This week’s murder case centers on a wellness clinic that Lt. Connor (Daniel K. Isaac) rightly calls out as appropriating Asian culture. Lt. Connor’s deadpan is a welcome addition to this season, I really enjoy him. The victim is the younger brother of an earlier victim. His family settled a wrongful death suit with the wellness leader who poisoned his sister but there was a clause that if he ever used tree frog venom in his practice again he’d have to pay out an extra two million. The brother got the proof but the evil leader injected his snacks with mustard seed oil, which he was allergic to. Elsbeth (Carrie Preston) checks into the clinic to investigate and through her normal shenanigans solves the case.
I liked that the show made fun of wellness culture and some of the personalities that seek it out, but provided a little counterbalance with Elsbeth and her assigned buddy. Taking a break from the stress of her job and opening up to her buddy helped Elsbeth and both got something out of spending time together. Scams bad, frog poison bad, cultural appropriation and misappropriation bad, all discussion of toxins really very bad—but thinking about how to be well can work.
The heavy feelings that bothered Elsbeth so much relate to the revelation that her dark past as a defense attorney was even darker than she knew and she helped cover up domestic abuse. She’s angry and embarrassed and according to the leader/murderer she doesn’t think she deserves love. He told her so in a sauna and it was so creepy I might never go to a spa again. But once the case is closed Elsbeth asks Kaya (Carra Patterson) for help and agrees to tell her everything. And then in the coda, Wagner (Wendell Pierce) tells a city prosecutor to reopen the baseball murder case that I kind of forgot was a thing.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Good news, SVU didn’t make me angry this week, and I only rolled my eyes a few times. Kyra, a young woman working in insurance sales, is set up by her boss to be sexually assaulted by a potential client—she’s the sweetener to close the deal. And she has to close the deal because if she doesn’t she’ll be fired for losing $2000 the month before, and she’s the sole caretaker for her little brother. Carisi (Peter Scanavino) makes a deal with the client in order to go after the boss, and finds a bunch of other women, one willing to take it to court along with Kyra. When that one left the company after being pimped out on the reg, she stood on a table to call her boss out while swigging tequila and I love her, okay.
The case comes down to the creep’s defense that “incentives dictate outcomes”, i.e., they all knew what they were doing and got rewarded for it (for example, he gave Kyra a $50k “commission”). Carisi tells Benson (Mariska Hargitay) that he needs somebody who colluded with the boss to turn on him and she knows just who that is. The woman Chief Operations Officer of the firm was tingling Olivia’s rapey-sense the whole episode (this is not even an exaggeration, every time they were in a room together Olivia narrowed her eyes at the woman). So, of course, Olivia parks outside her building so she can pop up and feminist-shame her into helping Kyra. I don’t know how long Olivia waited but it was dark and real question: does Noah ever see his mother these days? Anyway, the shaming works. The COO shows up at the courthouse the next morning and testifies that their boss set up Kyra exactly the same way he did to her twenty years earlier (the missing money was a set-up, too) and the jury comes back with two guilty verdicts. Since he’ll only get around 3 years in prison, Carisi prepares to now go after him for perjury, which could get him 15. Benson is annoyed that lying about the crime has a harsher punishment than the crime but she’ll take it.
Fin (Ice-T) was back this week but Bruno (Kevin Kane) was off and I’m glad that the cast is back to being big enough to rotate, it feels like a functioning precinct. Fin got off one quip, Joe (Octavio Pisano) got to be his outraged himbo self, and Curry (Aimé Donna Kelly) got the best clap back, “There’s nothing alleged about your DNA in her vagina” bitch. The ‘bitch’ was silent, but I lol'd for real. The big news is I’m starting to care about Silva (Juliana Aidén Martinez) which I’m sure means she’ll disappear soon. But she takes care of Kyra’s little brother while Benson is at the ER with her and the kid comes to trust her enough to call when Kyra needs help. And she stares down the perp with ice-cold judgment incongruous with her sweet freckles and it legit reminded me of Olivia in the early years. Which I’m very into. Two episodes in a row now Olivia brought up her working for the NYPD for thirty years. If I didn’t know better I’d think they were setting this up to be her or the show’s last season and purposefully using Silva to make parallels. But I’ll take the parallels in any case.
The Ugly
Don’t bother.
Shocking but everything reached or surpassed the level of “meh”.
Also Watching
Inexplicably, I rewatched the first two seasons of The Newsroom. I don’t know why I watch that stupid series so often but I do. I practically have it memorized.
I watched the first episode of Watson, but it doesn’t get added to the roster until it passes my rule of three.
And I watched the first episode of the Scamanda docuseries because I listened to the podcast and it’s wild (and so far, better than this).
Mental Illness Sidebar
A schizophrenic was abandoned by her daughter in the Pitt. It will be interesting to see if/when the daughter comes back and how the mother’s care is handled, whether she does or not. In this episode, the mom was forward but mostly charming, and the daughter was visibly and textually exhausted and overwhelmed.
I hope Nolan gets therapy because as much as I want Sam to be his confidant it’s not her job to fix him and he needs to deal with his grief and guilt. This episode was about his father but he brought up abandoning his brother, too, and we know he died of an opioid overdose.
Finally, I just want to be very clear that overpriced wellness clinics that blame all your problems on toxins are not mental healthcare. Sometimes, maybe even most times as long as it’s not a scam or a cult, they are perfectly innocuous. And the structure and escape and self-care can help. But it’s not a cure for your cancer or your clinical depression.
Ship of the Week
So many options this week! In Chicago, Kidd and Severide are hot as hell and also adorable. Mouch and Trudy are the heart of the story. Burgess and Ruzek are my One Chicago OTP. In LA, Morgan and Karadec’s moment brought such a smile to my face—and hers, that was the moment, her smiling at him being a sweetheart and it really got me. Over on The Pitt, Robby and Collins get another charged moment, too, AND nurse Dana thinks there is still something between them. But in New York, Thomas met Sam and said that Nolan told him about her, which, I need to know more! Then later he apologized for being so weird around her and I need to know more (but also, maybe Thomas wants to date Sam). Plus Sam was just very concerned about Nolan the whole time and at one point when she suggested he was taking the case too personally (she was right) he stroked her arms as he told her it wasn’t a problem and I just really go a little crazy every time they touch. On L&O it’s basically the same as sex.
I’ll give it to Mouch and Trudy though since they’re official and went on a journey.
Show of the Week
The Pitt is probably definitely the correct answer but you know what? High Potential was the most fun to watch and I cared the most about Law & Order.
What are YOU watching?