Let's Talk Television: The Pitt sticks the landing

SVU rallied for this one and that was before we got Elliot in the crossover preview.

A Quick Note About Programming

I apologize for the lack of other content—I work in academic scientific research and it’s been, uh, a lot lately. Outside of all the precarity and uncertainty, and my desire to be active in advocacy, it is simply the busiest time of the year for me. I have a lot of posts I want to get out, and I hope to figure out a schedule soon. Thank you for your patience.

Also, there’s so much (too much) television! And it no longer cycles in the same way so there kind of always is. I appreciate that The Pitt ended its season before Law & Order: Organized Crime came back so I don’t have to choose between ‘the actually great show’ and ‘the show that has my bruised and battered heart’ when it comes to awarding personal and meaningless accolades. 🩵

New This Week

• White Lotus (Max)

• Alert: Missing Persons Unit (Hulu)

• FBI (Paramount+)

• FBI: Most Wanted (Paramount+)

• 9-1-1 (Hulu)

• Doctor Odyssey (Hulu)

• Elsbeth (Paramount+)

• Law & Order (Peacock)

• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (Peacock)

• The Pitt (Max)

• NCIS: Sydney (Paramount+)

• Black Butler: Emerald Witch Arc (Crunchyroll)

  

The Good

These are the episodes I recommend watching.

9-1-1

I’m not sure this episode really rises to the level of Good/recommendation per se. It’s pretty standard for the series which equates to good but not Good. I chose to list it here because it agrees with my commentary on killing off characters*. The first call of the hour is a bus-plus-cars pile-up that is very combustible due to all the fuel. It ends with Bobby (Peter Krause) running into the fire to save a baby right before the inevitable explosion. Everyone on screen briefly thinks Bobby and Baby are dead until he strides out of the smoke with an infant carrier. I did not think Bobby was dead for a millisecond, and I suspect that’s true of all the show’s faithful audience. However, my stomach tightened, my heart sped up, I grinned at Bobby’s hero walk, and I cried along with the grateful mother. This is proof positive that you don’t have to kill anybody off to create an emotional (and physical!) reaction in the audience. This scene was 10 minutes into the episode. It was just another day in the life of these firefighters and this show. Have some imagination, every other series.

The main call and plot, which continues into next week, is at a research lab studying deadly infectious diseases. One researcher, Moira (guest Bridget Regan), goes super rogue by altering a viral sample to speed up the incubation period so she can quickly test her antiviral. It works but she’s fired for blatant disregard to safety protocol. Now not only rogue but vengeful, Moira creates the situation for which the 118 is called in. The lab is on fire with a scientist trapped inside. They head in to rescue her and get the fire under control and end up trapped. Athena (Angela Bassett) and Buck (Oliver Stark) are on the outside, working with the army, who at first want to help get the team out but then switch to keeping the superbug in, and also Hen (Aisha Hinds) has a collapsed lung so Chimney (Kenneth Choi) has to talk Bobby through putting in a chest tube in the dark and partially exploded lab. He can’t do it himself because he was exposed to the ramped-up super-bad virus. The scientist tells them about Moira’s antiviral and Ravi (Anirudh Pisharody) goes to get it against army orders—but it’s gone. We end with Chimney dying, Hen in dire need of a hospital, Moira escaping with her cure, and Athena preparing to hunt her down. See you next week.

*I have to include a “for now” at the end of this sentence because rumors point to a cast member dying during this season. I have A LOT more to say about this topic but I think it should be its own post.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

This episode gets slotted into Good because it embodies my own relationship with SVU. It’s about progress that is too slow, an imperfect and often harmful system, and the dedicated detectives who keep fighting.

The initial victim is a mechanic who is strung up, sodomized, and has the date 6-15-01 carved into his back. He’s found by a kid, his former apprentice, Sam (guest Caleb Malis), who is later revealed to be the second victim. Sam discloses to Bruno (Kevin Kane) that he was groomed and abused by the mechanic. The squad digs into the mechanic’s past and discovers he was tried in 2004 for the sexual abuse of an eleven-year-old girl; the abuse began in 2001 when she was eight. The jury didn’t believe her testimony and found him not guilty. SVU tracks down the girl, Angela (guest Carolyn Fagerholm), whose life has been on a downward spiral since the abuse, and she confesses to the attack on her abuser. Olivia (Mariska Hargitay) and Carisi (Peter Scanavino) get her a lawyer and work with the DA on a plea deal that extends her parole and mandates therapy, rather than send her back to prison. Another conversation between Bruno and Sam suggests they are moving forward with his case against the mechanic as well.

The episode ends with Olivia telling Angela, “I hate what you did but I hate what happened to you even more.” That thesis makes for many of my favorite storylines in the series. Especially heinous crimes will always be messy and thorny and require nuance. But as Olivia says, if Angela’s case was tried today, the jury would be more likely to believe her. Society evolved in those intervening years thanks to trauma studies, victim advocacy, social movements, and yes, mainstream exposure through stories about “True Crime” and “Special Victims”. This is why I am so loyal to my Laws and Orders. I hate what you are (idealistic copaganda) but I hate what you expose (the systemic failures of modern American society with regard to sexually based offenses, domestic violence, and related crimes) even more.

The Pitt

This was hardly the best episode of the season but it’s a solid ending with much promise for season two. The Pitt is critically acclaimed and audience-approved and also really quite good. I can’t wait to spend a whole day watching it!

As with every episode, a lot happens. The extremely topical measles storyline wraps up with Robby (Noah Wyle) and Mel (Taylor Deardon) getting through to the kid’s father, who agrees to a spinal tap behind his anti-vaxxer and anti-medicine wife’s back. She freaks out but it’s too late. Cassie (Fiona Dourif) is released by the police captain who accompanied his downed officer to the ER because she helped said injured officer and promises to get a new ankle monitor first thing in the morning. Langdon (Patrick Ball) admits he was using at work but claims to have it under control. Robby does not believe him or give in to his pressure to let it go. He does offer a trip to rehab followed by extensive drug testing, which is exactly what happened to Carter in ER and I continue to see this storyline in conversation with that one due to the Noah Wyle and John Wells of it all. Santos (Isa Briones) gets her patient to admit he tried to hurt himself and accept psychiatric help with a nod to her own past sexual abuse (I called that in episode seven). Then she follows Whitaker (Gerran Howell) to discover he’s sleeping over in the hospital (how are there unused parts of the hospital when an ongoing plot line is them not having enough room for the ER patients to move out? I guess it’s due to staffing more than beds?). Santos decides to bring Whitaker home with her like a little stray puppy and I want 6000 fanfics, please. All this confirms that Santos is my absolute favorite. The episode ends with a small group sharing beer in the park, including Javadi (Shabana Azeez) and Mateo (Jalen Thomas Brooks) on an almost-first date, and Robby and Abbot (Shawn Hatosy), who we learn is an amputee.

Besides Santos, my favorite is Dana (Katherine LaNessa), the much beloved and much put-upon charge nurse. I am most excited to watch her story from start to finish because the end suggests this is her last day on the job, which would make her the secret protagonist.

The Bad

Bad equates to “I don’t have much to say about this.

FBI

This episode is ripped from the Kendrick Lamar v Drake headlines but it turns out that actually fake Drake’s manager is drug-running for a gang. The FBI works with the gang boss’s daughter to get her brother to give intel on their dad’s drug empire. The son starts to suspect her so she shoots him and then tells the FBI where to find her dad. The drug king/dad briefly captures Scola (John Boyd) and suggests that his daughter is playing with them and when they look into it they discover she used the FBI to clear out both her brother and her dad so she can take over.

We start with Isobel (Alana de la Garza) and her heretofore unknown husband (guest Tom Cavanagh) and the news that she’s reached the twenty-year mark and can now retire. I was briefly worried but the lack of closure on the case convinced her to stay.

FBI: Most Wanted

Our FBI chase a Home Restorer Influencer who they think killed his wife, and partner in Home Restoring Influence. The tldr; is they built a business around being a perfect couple but drifted apart, the wife started an affair with her pastor and got pregnant, and the pastor’s brother took it upon himself to fix it by killing her and framing her husband. Remy (Dylan McDermott) and the husband get to have a scene straight out of The Fugitive where he claims to be innocent and Remy starts to believe it. Later, Remy asks him to help out on his upcoming renovation project (the bar he’s totally leaving the FBI to run). Maybe Ray (Edwin Hodge) can also help since he was a huge fan of the Home Restorer Influencers (cute!). Finally, Barnes (Roxy Sternberg) is unhappy with her personal and professional lives and visits Isobel to request consideration for a desk job in DC. It would be a promotion, a pay raise, and bring her closer to her kids. Isobel agrees to support her for the potential transfer and promises to keep it between them for now. I want Barnes to run the task force but since we won’t get to SEE it due to cancellation I say: Yes Barnes, GET YOURS.

Elsbeth

A funeral home proprietor kills his nephew, a conspiracy theorist who believed an author was secretly alive and his family faked her funeral.

Law & Order

The victim is a New York WNBA player gunned down after a game. Racial bias is a theme from the beginning—the victim was a white star with a Black rival player who thinks it’s unfair she gets all the attention, a Black girlfriend who wanted her to be a better ally, a white ex-boyfriend who “isn’t racist or homophobic he just wants to understand”, and the use of AI software that science shows to be problematic with regards to race. The suspect the police land on, Darius (guest Isaiah), is a Black man imprisoned for marijuana possession who wanted to start a cannabis company with the basketball star. She chose not to move forward together when she found out he had violent charges, too—however, the defense says when Darius explained that those incidents were self-defense while he was in prison, she said she was going to fire her money manager and he was the one who had her killed. Darius admits to stealing a hard drive from the manager and throwing it into the lake when police chased him. Shaw (Mehcad Brooks) thinks he’s telling the truth but Riley (Reid Scott) thinks he saw Darius throw away a gun/the murder weapon. Nolan (Hugh Dancy) stands behind their case but Sam (Odelya Halevi) thinks the defendant might be innocent. All of it is wrapped up in implicit bias.

The case comes down to a comment Shaw made before they found/chased Darius, that he didn’t want him to be guilty because it was bad for the Black community. When Shaw is set to testify for the defense, Riley tells Nolan about the comment and it comes up in the cross, making him look like he’s the biased one. They fight about it afterward and Shaw points out that the jury is also biased towards Riley (a white cop) and his version of events. He’s right, the verdict comes in guilty. Darius is shocked and screams he’s innocent as he’s taken out of court. All four of our heroes are visibly distressed and Riley feels guilty.

NCIS: Sydney

Vampires! This episode is delightful though the pirates remain the peak. The victim is a young Navy officer found in a coffin exsanguinated with bite marks on his neck. Our heroes track the coffin and the crime to a family who owns ‘Kiss of Death Vodka’ and also drinks blood on the side. It turns out the Navy kid was sucked dry by a machine set up to harvest pure blood as a “cure” for the mother’s stage four breast cancer. Which is insane. But even more insane, her son invited the Navy kid, who was dating his sister, to the vampire party in order to get him in bed with his mom, drug them both, and murder the kid in a way that implicates his mom and sister so he can inherit the vodka empire.

Black Butler: Emerald Witch Arc

We learn more about the young Emerald Witch, Sieglinde, and her history. Her ancestor made a pact with a werewolf for protection, sealed with the gift of her leg (ew), and for generations since the heiress’s feet have been bound. She and her people are “safe” but unable to leave the woods. And now, one of the villagers has been attacked. Either she was out of bounds without her talisman, or it’s a reaction to Ciel and company being allowed to spend the night.

During the night, Sieglinde ties balloons to her arms so she can travel to Ciel’s bedroom without her butler/guard dog Wolfram (who HAS to be a werewolf right?) and propositions Ciel expecting it’s what he wants. Which is very Victorian era and earlier of her.

Later in the night, Ciel and Sebastian head into the woods to investigate, and Ciel tears up for no discernible reason. Seb brings him back to the castle to keep him safe and returns to the woods alone—where HE ALSO TEARS UP. The wood’s curse affects demons??

The Ugly

Don’t bother.

White Lotus

What was the point of any of this? Visually it’s pretty, especially the gruesome play on Sir John Everett Millais’s Ophelia painting featuring the bodies of Rick (Walton Goggins) and Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood). And they were the two people I cared about the most, I guess? But my main reaction is I don’t care.

It’s fine, it’s not for me and I should stop trying to like it. Shout out to Patrick Schwarzenegger because I ended up liking Saxon best and I hate that for me.

Alert: Missing Persons Unit

A graffiti artist whose brother needs a bone marrow transplant goes missing. Our team tracks him down just in time. The most salient part of this is that the kids couldn’t afford the insurance deductible required to get the surgery but zero time is spent on that horror.

There was an unspecified time skip of a few months post Nikki’s death. Jay (Scott Caan) is still mourning and Mike (Ryan Broussard) is avoiding his feelings. So far I am decidedly unimpressed with the “shaking things up”.

Doctor Odyssey

In this very special episode of Doctor Odyssey people sometimes briefly de-age for important scenes when they get into the ship’s hot tub. Also all the important scenes take pace in the hot tub. I haven’t seen Hot Tub Time Machine and know nothing about the plot but all I could think was is this an homage? I don’t know and I also found the gimmick weird. It works with the scene between Captain Massey (Don Johnson) and a vision of his late wife played by Dianna Agron but I suspect they built the rest of the episode around that scene and the rest doesn’t work as well. Or at all.

Anyway, big news! Avery (Philippa Soo) is not pregnant, she has an ovarian cyst. Max (Joshua Jackson), Tristan (Sean Teele), and Avery herself are all disappointed. She has surgery to check out the cyst, Max and Tristan are both on hand for it, and she’s okay (I think?). All the discussions of their disappointment and renewed commitment to each other take place in the hot tub and the ‘hot tub intervention’ staged by Max to force them to talk about their feelings includes a flashback to their teen years. Importantly Teen Max looks nothing like Pacey (Joshua Jackson’s character in the teen soap Dawson’s Creek) and I think it’s the main reason this whole episode doesn’t work for me.

There are also cheerleaders, I think as an Easter Egg for Dianna Agron (who played a cheerleader on Glee).

Also Watching

Top Chef, Leverage Redemption, Twin Peaks, and various Star Treks for my Trek Ranks podcast prep.

Mental Illness Sidebar

The Pitt ends David the may-have-been shooter’s storyline with some tough words from Cassie that convince him to talk to a therapist. It’s ambiguous but I don’t hate it.

Olivia gives an ode to trauma science in the middle of her rant about how Angela’s case played out and it is Very Clunky (Mariska does her best with bad writing once again) but I appreciate the attempt. We do know more about how trauma affects the brain and body now than we did 25 years ago and while it feels a bit like they are defensive about SVU’s earlier seasons, we should talk about it. Especially in these dark times when science is being attacked for changing—once more for the people in the back, science is supposed to change!!! So thanks for that, SVU.

Ship of the Week

In Thailand, I wish I got Saxon learning that Chelsea died. In the middle of the ocean, the trio is getting closer to being a throuple again. In Germany, I would like less discussion of tweens having sex. Feelings, sure, sex, no. In Los Angeles, Maddy (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Chimney are having a boy but now he’s dying of a horrible virus. In Pittsburgh, Javadi and Mateo remain the cutest but the siblings-esque relationship between Robby and Dana is what I’ll miss. In Philadelphia, Jay says he’s gonna take care of Mike and I kinda almost ship them very much against my will.

In NYC, I still ship Isobel with Jubal (Jeremy Sisto)—who doesn’t know rap but does know One Direction, lolz—but I don’t hate the husband. I ship Barnes with happiness. Sam has ended the episode mad at and disappointed in Nolan two weeks in a row now but that only makes me ship them more. But most importantly, Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) is part of the Laws and Orders crossover next week and I am SO EXCITED/SCARED/ALREADY SCARRED.

Show of the Week

You know what, SVU stepped up. It’s The Pitt but SVU put in the effort. (And we can all assume it will pay off for them next week.)

What are YOU watching?