Friday March 31, 2006
218
In an effort to find the murderer of an Iraqi woman who had been making a documentary that promoted the rights of Muslim women, Don enlists the help of the victim's cousin. Through her cousin, Don uncovers a connection to Saddam Hussein.
Back at home, Charlie rekindles a romantic relationship with a former girlfriend when she visits him while on a book signing tour.
Solid hours entertainment hide show
Not the most action packed episode bt still a good source and interesting subject matter. The plot highlights the issues of Iraqi(Muslim) women who try to break free from the bonds their countries places upon them.
From the start the connection to similiar stories of muslim non-conforming women will prepare you for a similiar sequence of events that have been the stuff of reallife. This association will enable you to suspend disbelief as we follow the team through average Numbers first and second acts. As usual the sequence of wrong clues are designed to frustrate the team - this is done well, with two main branches of investigation explain how the woman came to the US and leading to the reason why she was killed. The first and obvious track is the local muslim cleric who spoke against the victim before she died. The other is closer to home.
Charlies reacquaintence with an old flame is purely a distraction from the main storyline and really doesnt augment the main story at all. If anything the writers could have tried to create a little jealousy thing with Amita. I wish they actually developed that and a possible relationship between them.
The final act was a quite exciting and lifted an above avg. investigation (because of the subjectmatter) to a mid 8.
Enjoyable but not one of the best!
In an effort to find the murderer of an Iraqi woman who had been making a documentary that promoted the rights of Muslim women, Don enlists the help of the victim's cousin. Through her cousin, Don uncovers a connection to Saddam Hussein - The cases have started to take a small decline over the past three or four episodes. I wasnt really feeling the past couple of cases and this one was no different. The only part I really enjoyed was the action scene with Colby where he got into a brutal hand combat with the dead wifes husband.
Back at home, Charlie rekindles a romantic relationship with a former girlfriend when she visits him while on a book signing tour - Without a doubt the best part of the episode. We learned a lot about Charlies past and I enjoyed watching his character step outside the math world and step into the relationship one. Even though his "girlfriend" will likely not be back again, it was good to see Charlie in that role.
SACK THE WRITER!!! Never before have seen such reckless lack of research into character and slacking on basic rules of the series - Numb3rs doesn't have to sink so low as sex scenes and a punch-up apprehending someone who wasn't even a suspect!! AVOID!!!! hide show
From the very first shots of the statistics on screen, this writer promised something she never delivered and continued to wreck the high quality viewing that has been Numb3rs. The only real fact that APPLIED to the episode was the '65,000 IRAQIS IN CALIFORNIA' - the rest just seemed to be trivia. I'm not sure I even heard the word 'God' mentioned once in the religious sense! She then continued to recklessly abuse the characters we have grown to love so well - Charlie would NEVER have a one-night-stand without checking if she was involved with anyone else first, and he CERTAINLY wouldn't boast about it afterwards! (Plus I really didn't need to WATCH it - I appreciate Numb3rs for being entertaining WITHOUT such cheap theatrics) We have been shown his caring and considerate nature, and (congrats to David Krumholtz for at least maintaining high quality acting throughout this totally anti-characteristic behaviour)the writer just ignores this and paints Charlie her own way. Apart from anything else Numb3rs is all to do with classic structure, and all this romance did was drag him away from where he SHOULD have been - at the blackboard doing some decent maths when Larry was taking over his prime position. Which leads me to my next point - top hierachy characters Don and Charlie scarcely got a look-in on the main action this time!!! I do realise that episodes sometimes have been strongly Megan-based for instance, but in those cases the writers have shown it from the first few shots, and in this episode the writer promised that Charlie and Don would take lead roles as usual and then failed to carry it through! Colby took Don's leader-empathic role and Larry took over Charlie's place working out the key to the disguise! I am all for 2nd-level hierachy characters using their talents, but the whole fact is that the story revolves around THE EPPS! Larry AND Charlie are a team, and as much as I do see Colby as a free-agent quite a lot, not to the extent that he went this episode. OH and what was that pathetic punch-up scene having to catch the victim's husband??!! Again, cheap theatrics! Numb3rs doesn't need to sink to this weak level of viewing. On the whole it is a fairly clean production and a meaningless fight scene with someone who wasn't even a suspect just screams 'amateur!!' The amount of numeric explanation this episode was also extremely weak and the solution to the problem was never resolved - no victim caught which IS AGAINST Numb3rs style!!!
I am sick and tired of writers that neglect the true essence of a great series - the episodes are SUPPOSED to REFLECT one another - that is WHY it is called a SERIES!! Classic structure and characterisation should be MAINTAINED for the benefit of the fans that love it. If you want to be individual - mark your own style on the world - go write your own series. Don't ruin someone elses. This is a case where fit the mould applies I'm afraid. Leave Numb3rs alone or learn the unwritten rules of talented mimicking.
A correction to the song listed above as the one from the love scene. hide show
I have not been on TV.com long enough to be able to edit things, so I will just tell you about it through a review post. (I liked this episode by the way. Just because Charlie is a mathematical genius, does not mean he can't get some love!)
The song during the love scene was not "Vibrate" by Rufus Wainwright. It was "Oh So Beautiful" by Stephanie Dosen. Listen to it at http://www.myspace.com/stephaniedosen.
Unfortunately, the download option on MySpace is grayed out at the moment, and this song does not appear on her CD in iTunes. :-(
Maybe she will be releasing it on a soon-to-come CD. We can hope anyway! I think I will still send her a MySpace message and tell her I want to download it.
Very disappointed. I was expecting more but instead we got an unbalanced episode. There was so much negativity that I felt that I was being attracted to the other side.
We all know about the despot regime and crimes committed but the episode gave the impression that religious figures sanctioned the attrocities and parents didn't care. What a load of bull.
khaki_dojo
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phf3947
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layle1
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scc1fan
Retired
phf3947
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LaCholo
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