Post by krissie on Mar 10, 2007 4:26:19 GMT -5
Rdcasey, Bjobsessed and Ashatan asked, in the 'Can it be two years?' thread what I thought of Doggone. I thought my answer was more suited to this thread than that, so here it is.
The first thing I should say is, now, having had a scan through all the comments in this thread, I know I'm going to have to go back and watch the episode again (and again, and again, and again...) in order to check out all the points that you guys have raised before.
(Yeah. That's why I'll be watching again. Nothing whatsoever with it being one of my favourite episodes to date. Nope. Nothing to do with that at all...)
Oddly, not as highly as I expected. I've seen screen caps and I thought he looked better in those than in the episode. In the screen caps the leather jacket looked blacker, and I hadn't noticed the open-necked light-weight fleece thingy he was wearing underneath. Mind you, the jeans looked good. (Make that very good.)
Actually, for me, I don't think the appeal of Ted has as much to do with his appearance as it does with what Jim-as-Ted goes through.
Jim goes (briefly) undercover and, as a result has a lousy day in which he has to face up to some pretty major things.
He gets lost in Hoboken, which must have made him realise just how easily things can go wrong for him at work. Even if his squad mates 'have his back', he can still be vulnerable.
He also has to deal losing Hank, with being frustrated, shaken, desperate... and yet he still manages work out where he is and pretty much rescues himself. Okay, so the Jersey troopers come to collect him, but Jim is the one work out where they need to go. And then, he gets on with things and does his job. Very well.
On the Jim angst-o-meter, this episode is pretty hard to beat!
That hadn't crossed my mind until I scanned this thread. I'll have to go back and read that part of the discussion in more detail, to figure out why people have suggested this.
My impression is that Sonny, while obviously very able to gather information on the street -- and in order to do that, he must have a lot of contacts -- I don't think he really has the intelligence to know what to do with the information he gathers. I think that (besides being a nice little earner) the information Sonny has gives him a feeling of power, but that is more illusory than real.
Remember, in the interview room, how Jim says something along the lines about the drug deal being typical of what happens when Sonny thinks too much? (I thought the looks on both Jim's and Karen's -- but most especially Karen's -- faces in this seen were priceless. They can't believe what they are hearing, and it's so absurd, they want to laugh out loud.)
The idea of a blind drug dealer may be stupid... and yet it fits with the picture I have of Sonny. Sonny and Jim have a past, a working relationship, and that has to have been based on trust. That Sonny has said the dealer is blind is a measure of that trust. He trusts Dunbar. He'll only work with Dunbar.
Stupid. Yes. Misguided. Yes. But somehow oddly touching.
Stupid though it is, the squad, goes along with Sonny's plan. (Even Marty goes along with it. Maybe a little reluctantly, compared to the rest of them, but... My, how things have changed over just a couple of episodes.)
So, no, I don't think Sonny set up Jim. I think Sonny was stupid and misguided, and the lousy situation snowballed from there.
Mind you, after I go back and read all the other threads in more detail, I might just change my mind about this!
No. I knew there'd be a happy ending. But I took guilty pleasure in watching the process of Jim worrying about Hank's life.
Did I already mention the high reading I got from the Jim angst-o-meter this week?
Absolutely fabulous. I'm going to have to watch that over and over again. Perfect.
By the way, one thing that really bothered me... What happened to Hank's harness? Would nasty Puerto Rican drug dealers really have taken the time to remove the harness when shuffling Hank out of the car door? (I suppose some bum might have nicked the harness while Hank was wandering the streets, but I think that unlikely. How much demand would there be on the street for a guide-dog harness?)
Excellent.
You know, if I didn't have to go out this morning, I'd be making coffee and toast and watching the episode all over again.
A general comment: one thing I like about this episode is just how much we are allowed to see of Jim's emotions. Usually, we get that stoic face as he internalises everything. In Doggone, though, we are allowed to witness the full range of his feelings, from distress to frustration to that wonderful relief and happiness when he is reunited with Hank.
There is one more thing I will add -- which isn't so much to do with the episode as with channel Blind Justice is being broadcast on. What happens at the moment is that on a Friday night we get two episodes at a time: last week's episode followed by this week's 'UK premiere'. So, last night, we had an hour of In Your Face followed by Doggone.
Last week, for the first time that I was really aware, I saw an advert for the show. At the time, I thought this a little odd. Why not start advertising at the beginning of the series, rather than when it is over half way through.
Last night, though, we got these ads before In Your Face and in every commercial break during that episode. For whatever reason, the channel was really plugging Blind Justice and Doggone. Now, why didn't they do the same with the series as a whole? <sigh>
(The advert isn't about Doggone. Rather, it is a brief compilation of clips from various episodes. Short, snappy and, I thought, rather well done.)
Krissie.
The first thing I should say is, now, having had a scan through all the comments in this thread, I know I'm going to have to go back and watch the episode again (and again, and again, and again...) in order to check out all the points that you guys have raised before.
(Yeah. That's why I'll be watching again. Nothing whatsoever with it being one of my favourite episodes to date. Nope. Nothing to do with that at all...)
So? On the hot scale where would you put Ted?
Oddly, not as highly as I expected. I've seen screen caps and I thought he looked better in those than in the episode. In the screen caps the leather jacket looked blacker, and I hadn't noticed the open-necked light-weight fleece thingy he was wearing underneath. Mind you, the jeans looked good. (Make that very good.)
Actually, for me, I don't think the appeal of Ted has as much to do with his appearance as it does with what Jim-as-Ted goes through.
Jim goes (briefly) undercover and, as a result has a lousy day in which he has to face up to some pretty major things.
He gets lost in Hoboken, which must have made him realise just how easily things can go wrong for him at work. Even if his squad mates 'have his back', he can still be vulnerable.
He also has to deal losing Hank, with being frustrated, shaken, desperate... and yet he still manages work out where he is and pretty much rescues himself. Okay, so the Jersey troopers come to collect him, but Jim is the one work out where they need to go. And then, he gets on with things and does his job. Very well.
On the Jim angst-o-meter, this episode is pretty hard to beat!
Do you thing Sonny "set Jim up"?
That hadn't crossed my mind until I scanned this thread. I'll have to go back and read that part of the discussion in more detail, to figure out why people have suggested this.
My impression is that Sonny, while obviously very able to gather information on the street -- and in order to do that, he must have a lot of contacts -- I don't think he really has the intelligence to know what to do with the information he gathers. I think that (besides being a nice little earner) the information Sonny has gives him a feeling of power, but that is more illusory than real.
Remember, in the interview room, how Jim says something along the lines about the drug deal being typical of what happens when Sonny thinks too much? (I thought the looks on both Jim's and Karen's -- but most especially Karen's -- faces in this seen were priceless. They can't believe what they are hearing, and it's so absurd, they want to laugh out loud.)
The idea of a blind drug dealer may be stupid... and yet it fits with the picture I have of Sonny. Sonny and Jim have a past, a working relationship, and that has to have been based on trust. That Sonny has said the dealer is blind is a measure of that trust. He trusts Dunbar. He'll only work with Dunbar.
Stupid. Yes. Misguided. Yes. But somehow oddly touching.
Stupid though it is, the squad, goes along with Sonny's plan. (Even Marty goes along with it. Maybe a little reluctantly, compared to the rest of them, but... My, how things have changed over just a couple of episodes.)
So, no, I don't think Sonny set up Jim. I think Sonny was stupid and misguided, and the lousy situation snowballed from there.
Mind you, after I go back and read all the other threads in more detail, I might just change my mind about this!
Were you worried for Hank's life?
No. I knew there'd be a happy ending. But I took guilty pleasure in watching the process of Jim worrying about Hank's life.
Did I already mention the high reading I got from the Jim angst-o-meter this week?
How good was the wet dog shake and laugh?
Absolutely fabulous. I'm going to have to watch that over and over again. Perfect.
By the way, one thing that really bothered me... What happened to Hank's harness? Would nasty Puerto Rican drug dealers really have taken the time to remove the harness when shuffling Hank out of the car door? (I suppose some bum might have nicked the harness while Hank was wandering the streets, but I think that unlikely. How much demand would there be on the street for a guide-dog harness?)
And how about that dive across the table??? ( Anita wants to know)
Excellent.
You know, if I didn't have to go out this morning, I'd be making coffee and toast and watching the episode all over again.
A general comment: one thing I like about this episode is just how much we are allowed to see of Jim's emotions. Usually, we get that stoic face as he internalises everything. In Doggone, though, we are allowed to witness the full range of his feelings, from distress to frustration to that wonderful relief and happiness when he is reunited with Hank.
There is one more thing I will add -- which isn't so much to do with the episode as with channel Blind Justice is being broadcast on. What happens at the moment is that on a Friday night we get two episodes at a time: last week's episode followed by this week's 'UK premiere'. So, last night, we had an hour of In Your Face followed by Doggone.
Last week, for the first time that I was really aware, I saw an advert for the show. At the time, I thought this a little odd. Why not start advertising at the beginning of the series, rather than when it is over half way through.
Last night, though, we got these ads before In Your Face and in every commercial break during that episode. For whatever reason, the channel was really plugging Blind Justice and Doggone. Now, why didn't they do the same with the series as a whole? <sigh>
(The advert isn't about Doggone. Rather, it is a brief compilation of clips from various episodes. Short, snappy and, I thought, rather well done.)
Krissie.