Monsters of Television

“Why do you hate Jesus?“

Can you say breather episode?

I don’t mean that in a bad way per se, just that, well, I was pretty bored with “Silver Bullet.” I even kind of clocked out during the last ten minutes of the episode to do something else, with the episode just playing in the background (seriously, my notes stop after McVeigh suggests running off with Diane).

There were things to like in the episode, but these were things that I’ve liked in previous episodes (Eli talk to people outside the normal narrative, McVeigh and Diane’s very adult-ly written relationship, Grace being Grace) without much in the way of shiny newness. As a result, none of this feels all that interesting or engaging. Just a minute to take a breath before Will and Diane try and stop Bond, in what I hope will be the most exciting board meeting ever shot for TV.

I don’t have attachments to America Ferrera (I haven’t seen a single episode of Ugly Betty and I am not a member of The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants), so her guest appearance came with minimal baggage or expectations on my end. And I thought she did a nice job sketching out a real character in what could’ve been a very one-note role. (The delivery of the bit about her boyfriend who ran off to join the circus? Classic.)

Likewise, both Ferrera and Alan Cumming played off each other well (Eli trying to contort himself was charming), so there’s material and chemistry to be mined here between the actors and characters, but I’m not sure the plot justifies it. It feels a little half-baked: targeting an illegal alien nanny seems like something Peter would not only be involved in, but would be a pretty strong opinion about (I’m chalking up his absence to the show’s budget), and I’m not entirely sure where the story goes for both of these characters beyond Eli becoming a slightly less political machine (which is already had become since this season began).

Not much new hay is made with McVeigh and Diane, but it continues to be an impressively well-acted and well-written relationship. That this relationship works so well makes me wonder how and why the writers go with the petty childishness approach of the Blake and Kalinda story. I understand, of course, that both Kalinda and Blake are significantly younger than McVeigh and Diane are, but they’re still adults who act like children, and in the least interesting ways possible. So when Diane rejects McVeigh’s offer to run away because she has obligations, there’s no blow up or emotional overplay because McVeigh gets it, he understands even if he doesn’t like it. But Kalinda and Blake don’t get it, and talk in half-truths and ambiguities, resulting in car windows and ribs being smashed.

Alicia is kept to the minimum in this episode. (Was she even necessary to keep Diane’s “perspective”? Diane seemed perfectly fine the entire time in court.) And this isn’t unusual for the show, to settle Alicia in the background (and it gives Margulies a bit of a break!) so I’m really not put off by this. But the next paragraph is little outside the realm of my normal review turn, could be a bit of too much personal information, but it’s something that stood out to me as I watched, and since it’s my blog, I get to share.

I did enjoy her interactions with Grace, however. Even as someone who doesn’t want children and isn’t religious (atheist, in fact),  I’m still prone to imaging how I would act as a parent (mainly because significant others in m life have always wanted children), the topic of allowing  a child to figure out their religious beliefs does crop up from time to time. And, honestly, it plays out exactly like how it played out for Alicia and Grace (provided the child behaved liked Grace), except that I drink red wine and not white.

But these kinds of domestic interactions are little bits of scene work that I love from this show. Alicia is “the good mom” as Eli notes. She starts off bemused, slightly hostile, but comes around and is supportive this avenue that Grace wants to explore.  (I’d be shying away from the Christian anarchist hippies (which is how that video came off to me), and getting Grace to Pastor Isiah.) It does make it seem like Alicia can handle any situation with some degree of finesse and skill, but so what else is new?

FINAL THOUGHTS

• “Because I do not want some Palestinian version of you blowing you up.”
• Special mention to Dennis Boutsikaris, one of my favorite character actors. I wish he had more screentime, but I’ll take what I can get.
• “What if this was a different time, and they weren’t letting kids wear Martin Luther King shirts?”
• “It’s just so base.”
• “Have you signed it yet?” “Nope.” [Diane removes her giant coat as the door closes]
• “I am so going to Israel this summer.”