Law And More

"Desperate Housewives" - Legal Fireworks, as expected

Carlos aka Prince Hal has gone from screwup to Mr. BusinessMan.  So, we expected legal fireworks when he finally found out that Lynette was pregnant.  She had accepted a promotion and significant salary jump w/o informing Carlos that she was carrying twins.  He told her, but w/o witnesses in the room, that he was passing over the other candidate for the promotion because she was pregnant.

Carlos did not handle well the lack of disclosure.  First he tried to force Lynette to takie a position in Florida.  She balked.  She hired an attorney to serve Carlos with a lawsuit.  At the same time this was happening Gabby, Carlos's wife, came over to make amends, informing Lynette Carlos was forgiving her.

The lawsuit made Carlos even more angry at Lynette.  He had his own Legal Department help her get herself fired.  He presented her with an impossible task in terms of deadline.  When she didn't meet the 9:00 A.M. cut-off point, she was told she had one hour to pack up her belongings and leave the advertising firm.

Lynette vows legal vengeance.  But, given how long lawsuits take, it might have to be served cold. 

"Criminal Minds" - Healing Is Impossible

No member of the elite FBI will be whole again.  Some experiences are impossible to heal from.  Tonight's episode of "Criminal Minds" played out such an experience.  It was the 100th program in the series.

As the coming attractions promised, this evening before Thanksgiving, The Boston Reaper and Agent Aaron Hotchner would meet up.  On the one hand, we were relieved that the situation would be resolved.  Hotchner was losing his grip, and with good reason.  His family was in protective custody, their lives on hold, until The Boston Reaper could be apprehended.  Hotchner gave up his leadership position and Morgan took over.

First development was the murder by The Boston Reaper of the agent in charge of protecting the wife and son.  They had tracked down The Boston Reaper through medication he needed.  He sensed they were closing in.  Through the agent's cell phone, the serial killer tracked down where the wife and son were hiding. 

As Hotchner listened on his phone, The Boston Reaper murdered the wife.  The son was spared but wouldn't have been had Hotchner not taking on The Reaper.  It was touch and go.  We didn't know who was going to wind up dead.  Hotchner emerged alive. 

The episode was framed as an investigation of Hotchner's handling of the last lap of this hunt.  He was let off the hook by the group doing the investigation.  But he will never be off the hook from his guilt that it was his job which caused his wife's death.  The head of the group informs Hotchner that the wife didn't suffer much. As if that is consolation.

It will be over-the-top compelling drama to follow how the FBI team, including Hotchner, will move on from this.  For example, will Morgan retain leadership of the team?  Will any members resign?  Will Hotchner continue being an agent?  Will JJ, now that she is a mother, take a desk job?

The entire dynamic of the show has been reconfigured.

"The Good Wife" - Stern the brilliant lawyer, brilliant player

Real lawyers and fictional Alicia got a wonderful lesson tonight on how to be a player.  Or, more importantly, that the only way to survive is to be a player.  That teaching came on "The Good Wife" via partner Stern.  He understands the need to push back, how to do it, and how to teach others such as Alicia to do it. 

For example, when the two other partners Diane and Will start the action to push him out, he quits.  But he will take the two biggest accounts, that is, his clients, with him.  Then he tells Diane, he will come back for the rest.  He is starting up his own firm and offers a job to Alicia.  She says no.  Why, we don't know.  That could change.  Will is slippery, as Stern well warns her.

Stern then repays her shrewd representation of him on a DUI.  He informs her that her husband was set up, the sex was unimportant, and those who set him up will never allow him out of prison.  After months of her head spinning, Alicia now gets it, that is, her husband didn't betray her.  The episode ends with Alicia dropping in to see her husband and planting a passionate kiss on his lips.

The marriage is repaired.  We hope that Alicia will leave Will and Diane and join Stern.  Given her superior performance as an attorney, she might even figure out how to pop Peter out of prison.  The loose ends include, of course, Jackie the mother-in-law.  She pries into the children's private spaces and is thick as a brick when it comes to how to deal with anything or anyone.  Her headband a la Charlene seems to be getting more prominent.

This program is a winner.  It could become as much a part of pop culture for the discerning as "LA Law" and "Boston Legal."

Female Serial Killers: New TV Success Formula

A dying medium, TV needs all the gimmicks it can get.  The latest is female serial killers.  Last night "The Mentalist" featured one.  The night before "Criminal Minds" caught one.  And it's my hunch that Angie is the serial killer on Wisteria Lane in "Desperate Housewives."  Next?  Child killers.  They're already being featured on "Dr. Phil."

Performance Art Like Law: Long time to get good

It was overdue: Oprah'sexit from her declining talk show.  And it's not at the top of her game like Johnny Carson.  That's not the issue.

The question is if she has a second act in her.  Performance art, just like the profession of law, takes a long time to become good at.  Few can master a radical shift in focus. Moreover, the world tends to typecast them and it takes enormous strength to buck that. 

One exception, of course, is Clint Eastwood.  He did "Unforgiven" after age 60.  An insightful deconstruction of Eastwood's personality traits which made that transformation possible is "American Rebel" by Marc Eliot.

Oprah, as well as attorneys considering a fresh direction, might want to look into Eastwood's ability to be his own man - and artist. 

"Criminal Minds" - Neck-snapper of a trip to the prison for criminally insane

Hats off to attorneys who defend or prosecute the criminally insane.  The task is not fascinating.  It's scary and full of sound and fury.  Tonight's episode of "Criminal Minds" brought us the neck-snapping experience of being in a prison for sociopaths.  This is a lead-in back to the Boston Reaper who will encounter Aaron Hotchner next week.

The FBI visited the prison to attempt to gain insight and information from serial killer Fox about murders taking place on military bases.  The corridor is filled with screaming men.  Fox is not an interesting study.  Devoid of human affect, he has no way of viewing himself and his conduct in emotional terms, at least not any associated with the superego. 

Fox, as do most serial killers, has the wiring to anticipate what normal humans will do.  He and the Boston Reaper have been in communication. They know Hotchner will seek out Fox.  So the Boston Reaper prepares for this by sending material that he senses will drive Hotchner into an agitated state.  It does.  The episode ends with Hotchner again having the crazed look and being completely preoccupied with his opponent The Boston Reaper.

The plot line focused in on a female serial killer.  They are becoming more common, for whatever reason.  "Criminal Minds" was shrewd to feature one.   Next week, the 100th episode of "Criminal Minds," will be a blockbuster as Hotchner et al. have their high noon with The Boston Reaper.

The question we have: Is Hotchner too far gone to heal after his nemesis is caught?

TV Mirrors Life: White Guys as Lawyers

On "CSI: Miami" and "CSI: New York," yes there are some crimestoppers who aren't white guys.  But on lawyer programs per se, it's primarily white guys.  The one exception is on "The Good Wife."  Peter's defense attorney is African-American.  If TV GUIDE were still a big deal it would do a spread on him.

"The Good Wife" - Ugly Underbelly of Law + Politics

Dirty political tricks mix with the law tonight on "The Good Wife."  Peter isn't granted bail.  His political rivals contend to the judge at the hearing that Peter contended he has that judge in his pocket.  Meanwhile an anonymous person is dropping off photos about Peter at the apartment and is taking pictures of the family's front door.

Law in itself is portrayed as a game of extreme cunning, risk-taking, and every attempt available at intimidation.  Despite hours of coaching, witnesses can still be thrown.  One was tonight in an arson case.  A skillful prosecutor had her come across as unsure of what she even though she might have seen.  There was also a bit ham-handed of a Perry Mason moment.  Walter, the defense witness, turns out to be the arsonist.  The judge warns him of his fifth-amendment rights. 

It was actually going to the scene of the crime that turned up the the possibility that Walter might be the miscreant.  This program highlights the importance of being-there as well as alert in-depth PI work.  PI work about the historians, major prosecution witnesses, in the Rhode Island lead paint trial introduced the fact that they had been exposed to the "thousands of pages of documents" before they testified they had been.  The jurors didn't find them credible, at least that's what they told me when I interviewed them.  I was surprised the defense didn't file perjury charges against the historians.

The coming attractions for next week have Alicia confront The Other Woman.  The latter contends that Peter said that Alicia was "frigid."  This program keeps veering from a sort of "Boston Legal" to "Scenes from a Marriage."

"CSI: Miami" - Have we tired of crime scene investigation?

It was enough to send a negative signal about ratings:  Last week the three CSI programs - Miami, Nevada, New York - joined forces in a three-night trilogy. 

Tonight, the flat quality of "CSI: Miami" reinforced that signal.  That formula of leading audiences through investigations of crime scenes might have run its course.  The plot line threw in a bit of Natasha Richardson [talk and die], the Good Samaritan who wasn't so altruistic, the wife with the affair, the teenage son ensnared in drugs, and even mistakes by the team.  But nothing created the sense of a common pursuit and satisfied resolution which the CSI programs used to.

What kind of crime programming do we want and need now?  Fewer pure characters like H and Cali and more three-dimensional ones like Aaron Hotchner and Jack Malone.  We also crave a clawing back from a bottom like Alicia's in "The Good Wife."  In addition, there should be the pain of layoffs, as we bore witness to last week in "The Good Wife." 

I am not optimistic that David Caruso, who plays Horatio on "CSI: Miami," will find another role.  His character type is cast in concrete and the mold isn't marketable.

"Tis the season for serial killer, including on Wisteria Lane

One murder just isn't a compelling formula on crime shows.  It isn't either on general program such as "Desperate Housewives."  Not in these ratings-challenged times.

Well, even Wisteria Lane now has a serial killer.  Julie, who was strangled, managed to survive.  The waitress in the coffee shop wasn't so lucky.  Expect everyone to suspect everyone else.

Meanwhile viewers's eyes are on Bolen, who was dumped by Julie, and was overheard by the waitress as he spoke to a federal agent about turning himself in.  But that seems too obvious.  Could it be a creature of rectitude such as Carlos aka Prince Hal has become?  Or is Orson as nutty as Bree thinks he is with his stealing binges?  Let's not rule out females.  Katherine has gone off the deep end since Julie's stepfather Mike dumped her. 

Ironically, it requires serial killers in the dying medium of television whereas cute dominates the video medium on YouTube.  In the December edition of VANITY FAIR, Jim Windolf does some heavy-duty analysis of the cute phenomenon sweeping the globe.