Monsters of Television

Lyrics: “Baby, Let’s Play House” (Elvis Presley version)

“Oh, that’s where we buried this show’s nuance. I knew it was around here somewhere.”

My mother is a huge Elvis fan, not in the worst psychotic “He’s Alive and He Sings to Me in My Dreams” way. He’s like a member of our family, some long-lost relative that passed before I was born that my mother loved dearly and can only remark, “If only you’d known him you would understand.” His name is often delivered in the dimunitive (the “l” is dropped to accomodate the cute tone she takes), his picture is on the wall next to her children, and her Facebook wall is a constant feed of black and white videos of the man in his prime.

The fandom, however, has only presented itself this heavily in the last few years (she was a superfan as a kid though, probably a big reason as to why my similar-looking father could tie her down) as her kids get older and she is able to follow her own pursuits. Unfortunately for her, she had three snarky boys and she’s made of mercilessly with such cleverness and dry wit she can only laugh.

So, what does this have to do with Memphis Beat? My brothers and I have so much fun at her expense that we never really care to much about the validity of Elvis’s music; it’s one of those foregone conclusions that his impact on music and celebrity was monumental but not our cup of tea. I’m not big into rhinestone jumpsuits or large-scale Vegas acts. But this show hints at caring very deeply about Elvis, possibly (and I’m just assuming here) basing episodes on song titles. With that perspective, this show gains some cool points because, with the songs coloring the plot of the show, the characters gain nuance and depth, something the pilot lacked for me. There are still hurdles to leap but here’s my case for this program.

Call me desperate to find value in this series but I can see some improvement since the pilot. But, sadly, it didn’t come together for me until I saw them force the episode title on me. “Baby, Let’s Play House,” which Dwight sings with less fanfare than his Elvis impersonator swing and show last week, features lyrics that shed some light on Dwight’s character (who is, thankfully, less hard-boiled this time around). The theme for this episode is the idea of “playing house,” of creating an idea of home despite off-setting realities. This can be applied to the family Dwight and Whitehead try to help, a family who seems well-adjusted at the beginning (but with a youngest son that likes to spin yarns and a mother played by a pleasant Juliette Lewis) but who are actually a collection of husks emptied by years of betrayal and abuse, literally killing their offender and calculating the lies necessary to get away with it. Though, with the husband absent for the entire episode, the application of the analogy is seems partial. You never see the conventional thought of playing house, that ’50s ideal of the husband coming home to a nice dinner and a warm family. This might be on purpose.

Memphis is not Mayberry. It’s a big(ger) city, in the top 20 in the nation for population, with real crime, at least enough to keep law enforcement busy. Why are detectives settling a schoolyard dispute?

The strong male figure is questionable in most cases of “playing house” in this episode. Dwight still fools around with his ex-wife, Alex, where he suggests helping her fix stuff around the house and gives her advice on how to get her life together. In essence, this is coming from a man, a man with daddy issues and who dresses up like The King on occasion, that wants to be that central figure in her life. He wants to play house despite already establishing that playing house does not work for their relationship. This is complicated by her helplessness at the end of the episode where she asks him about some paperwork that she needs help with and burning the pancakes while she asks him. Are these tell-tale signs of the classic helpless female that Hollywood loves to portray? Not necessarily. But Dwight’s perspective, as the singer of the title song, colors it that he is playing house with her despite the fact they couldn’t make “house” work.

The other important scenario is that with his mother dating Tony. The three have dinner together as Dwight tries to make peace with the fact his mama dating a guy that’s no good for her. But despite the two having fun together, Dwight can only talk about the strong central figure not present that evening: his papa. He caught Tony talking with another, much younger, woman last week so all Dwight can do is sing his father’s praises: accolades, anecdotes, reflections on his moral character. To Dwight, his mother and Tony would just be playing house since it would forever be in the shadow of a superior man.

So I felt like there was some nuance to this episode that the pilot failed to demonstrate, especially with Dwight’s character (even if the lens that defines this nuance is third-party). However, the improvements failed to support weakness from last weak and new chinks developed this week. For example:

• The hard-nosed lieutenant from last week, the one that busted Dwight balls so many times, is dramatically softer in this episode. Dwight has a hunch on something and Rice just lets him go for it. Dramatic change from last week. I get that they’re trying to build her motherly side (including becoming friends with Dwight’s mother and the scene where she negotiates an armed teenage murder suspect from hurting anyone) but it’s at the expense of her established persona.
• Memphis is not Mayberry. It’s a big(ger) city, in the top 20 in the nation for population, with real crime, at least enough to keep law enforcement busy. Why are detectives settling a schoolyard dispute? Seriously, Dwight and Whitehead are called in to settle a squabble between two boys (one of whom belongs to the aforementioned ill-fated family). It’s silly and kind of a ridiculous waste of taxpayer money.
• Whitehead’s jokes just don’t land. I see that they’re supposed to be funny (catching the criminal running from dogs, acting in a play based on the Godfather trilogy as Don Corleone) but his character just doesn’t do it for me. It’s no offense to the actor but the character just doesn’t have an opportunity to sell this part. How long before they cast him off and make DJ Qualls detective?
• Except for Dwight, everyone else in the show is still caricature.
• The promise of Memphis being important to Dwight, and that of Memphis being a character, is all but lost in this episode.

I appreciate the episodes being based on lyrics from Elvis songs but pulling in those lyrics is not going to support this show. They need to get a hook and quick because they don’t want the network to be the one to get it first. Until then, I know my mother will appreciate my parsing songs by “The Baby” in an attempt to better appreciate her fandom.