Homicide 1x07-1x09

[oyceter]

Why so hard to find a good picture of Pembleton? Internet, how you have failed me. I had the manip the hell out of this one, ergo the monotone, which I almost never do.

Oh man, I am really loving this show. I still cannot get over watching Pembleton, who is so awesome. So much love for Andre Braugher. And watching Pembleton and Gee and Lewis (all black men!!) doing their thing, all separate characters, all with their own personalities and everything... so awesome. I do want a woman of color, but I also get the lack of women in general in the homicide department at the time. Also, I have to give the show props for continually bringing on women of color in secondary roles.

It was, unsurprisingly, sort of weird watching this after I'd seen the first few eps. of S2. The Kay/Danvers thing was particularly confusing: I kept thinking, "But aren't they already dating? Huh?" I love Howard's triumphant little smile as the opposing attorney gave her just the opening she needed to bring in the related murder, especially after she had been beating herself up so much about her first mess up.

I was a bit more iffy about the Chinese murder case; comments about how well Asian characters speak English always make me twitch, no matter how reasonable it is to ask of a person from China (as opposed to Asian-Americans). Because I have Issues about accents and class and race and how having an accent always makes people think you're less intelligent and being mocked for having an accent. Also, I wanted more resolution on that one. And I don't know the racial demographics of Baltimore, but it did bug me a bit that some of the first Asian cases on the show are about foreigners, a la the Perpetual Foreigner thing. I mean, I do remember another Asian-American couple (?) from before, so at least there is that.

On the other hand... Pembleton! I love that he got a chance to be promoted! Because that would have been him and Gee and Barnfather in positions of power, and of course, there's still Lewis as a detective as well. And because Gee and Barnfather are already in the show, Pembleton turning the opportunity down doesn't send any squicky messages. I loved all the conversations between Pembleton and Gee, particularly that last one, in which Gee lets out that he knew Pembleton was lying to him.

And I really like that the other section head's retirement is still affecting Gee, as well as Gee's outrage over the asbestos.

Alas, Bolander and Munch are still my least favorite team to watch, although I did have fun with the electrolyte-neutrino thing they rigged up.

Comments

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I can't comment on the Chinese murder case, because I don't remember it at all. Although one of the main forces behind the show was Asian-American (James Yoshimura, who wrote some of the best episodes), I recall very few Asian or Asian-American characters on the show ever. I'm not sure whether or not that reflected actual Baltimore demographics.

There will be some recurring and regular roles for women of color, but not for a while yet. If anyone else reads this comment and knows who I'm talking about, it would probably be spoilery to elaborate any more than that.

Bolander and Munch are not very thrilling to me either, though they have some good bits. Eventually.

[oyceter]

I saw Yoshimura's name in the writing credits and was excited!

I forgot to mention Bolander's encounter with the coroner's son, who is incredibly annoying. This may be because I tried to excise it from my memory ;).

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

I think the reason I thought it was interesting that you saw Bayliss as the main character when you started watching is that having watched the whole series, I saw Gee and Pembleton as the main characters. Kotto and Braugher are such powerful actors playing such powerful personalities, and Secor as Bayliss is so much more self-effacing that I never really saw him as the lead after the first season.

[oyceter]

Well, I think it's because the first season in particularly is pretty Bayliss-centric, esp. b/c of the Adena Watson case. I'm really glad Gee and Pembleton are more at the front now, because like you say, the actors are so great, and I love the characters so much.